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One of your greatest assets is your relationship with your
patients. Regardless of whether you are just starting your
career as an optometrist or have been in business for years,
relationship marketing is a great way to manage your patients.
By taking a fresh look at your patient base, you are able
to target their needs based on lifestyle, occupation, medical
diagnosis, age and other factors.
Relationship marketing not
only helps you better meet your patients’ needs, it
can also help you secure your standing under managed care.
The same dynamics that make relationship
marketing a practice growth tool also strengthen your provider
profile in negotiating for managed care contracts.
The Shift from Data to Relationships
Whenever marketers talk about databases, we talk about technology.
The incredible power of computers and the array of available
database programs is fascinating. However, technology is
only a tool. Instead of simply using it to help you work
faster, you should use it to develop deeper relationships
with your customers. Your focus, as an optometric practice,
should be on each patient; understanding and satisfying
her or his individual needs.
Never before has there been
greater marketing costs in acquiring new patients. And,
because of these formidable costs, it’s
even more important to retain patients you already have.
Thus, relationship marketing.
Relationship marketing can
be broken down into four key areas: the Marketing Database,
Marketing and Communications, Patient
Management and Patient Satisfaction. These four components
work together to provide positive patient outcomes, increased
patient retention and loyalty to your practice.
Marketing Database
Learn how your current practice software can work for you.
At minimum, your database should be able to generate a mailing
list or store codes to be identified with patients’ medical
conditions, lifestyles and hobbies.
Then begin the process
of gathering information about your patients. Not only should
you be recording a patient’s
name, address, email address, phone number and insurance,
you should be gathering the name of the patient’s employer,
participation in flexible spending accounts, hobbies, family
information, lifestyle habits, medical conditions and specific
interests to use in market planning.
Here are some questions
you can ask to better know your patients:
- Do you work at
a computer for long periods?
- Do you have more than one
pair of current prescription eyewear?
- If you wear glasses,
would you like to have thinner/lighter lenses?
- Are there
times you would rather not wear glasses?
- Are you interested
in a free contact lens test drive?
- Do you have sunglasses
that filter 100% of UV rays?
Not only
is it important to enter this information into your database,
but you should use it immediately in the
exam room.
Armed with this data, you can better
develop and offer programs that will meet the needs and interests of your
patients.
Marketing and Communications
Once you’ve established a marketing database,
you need a project leader to coordinate the marketing activities
and communications for your practice. Your entire team will
participate in the activities, but this project leader is
essential to initiate and carry out the marketing plan. This
person is responsible for segmenting your market and then
spearheading the task of determining how much to invest and
what activities are appropriate for each segment.
Here are
categories in which most of your patients will fall:
Star
Patients
These are your top revenue producing or best referring patients
and families.
Good Patients
These patients bring in a fair amount of revenue and referrals.
Lost
Patients
Where have they gone? These are patients you haven’t
seen more than three years.
Potential Patients
These are people who have access to your referral system,
but currently are not patients. They may have family members
or friends who are your patients, but they have not made
the choice to become a patient of the practice.
Non-Referred
Consumers
These customers are not in your database. They include
the rest of the population who knows little or nothing
about
your practice.
Your Star Patients and Lost Patients offer
the greatest potential for your practice. Here are some examples
of how you can
enhance your relationship with patients in these segments.
Star Patients
Develop a program to help keep your Star Patients referring
others to the practice. Keep a list of patients who you think
will enjoy attending a frame style show or contact lens open
house. Plan these events and invite them! Consider sending
Star Patients a specialized newsletter. Be creative — email
is a great way to stay in touch with Star Patients, and helps
keep your postage costs down. By planning activities that
educate your Star Patients, you keep them loyal to the practice
and arm them with information to tell others about you.
Lost
Patients
Send them reactivation letters and have your staff follow
up with a phone call. Offer them incentives for coming back
your practice. Create a direct mail piece updating them on
what is new with your practice. You can even try an outbound
marketing survey to find out if they just haven’t been
in or are visiting another practice (and if they are, make
sure to ask them why!).
It’s also important to plan
external marketing and advertising strategies to reach Non-Referred
Consumers who
know nothing about your practice. Analyze the demographics
in your area to identify the community groups for which you
would like to see more market penetration. With many businesses
and organizations, such as teachers and preschools, try screenings,
letters, special-subject brochures and speaking engagements.
Advertising is always an option, but first explore ways to
build one-on-one relationships with individuals.
These are
just some of the marketing strategies you can explore
to communicate with your market segments. Once you have determined
your target markets and how to reach them, make a calendar
outlining these strategies. Break it down monthly and
be
proactive in your planning. Patient
Management
Patient Management literally means blending patient care
with marketing. The goal of patient management is simple:
make sure patients understand the value of every experience
they encounter when visiting your office.
Analyze how you
manage the relationship between you and your patients once
they enter your office. What is their experience
like? Do you do a good job of reviewing findings from data
collection? Do you continually provide diagnostic feedback
during pretesting and the exam? Are you making recommendations
based on their lifestyle, hobbies, and other data gathered
earlier? Do you encourage patients to refer others? And finally,
do you tell patients exactly when you will see them next
and why it is important?
Never forget this simple truth: People
don’t know what
they don’t know. For patients to truly understand the
value of services and products you provide, you must teach
them. That is how you manage their perception of value. Patient
Satisfaction
So far, we’ve discussed the Marketing Database, Marketing
and Communications, and Patient Management. The final component
in relationship marketing is Patient Satisfaction. How do
you know when your patients are satisfied?
One way is to use
patient satisfaction surveys to evaluate your services. You
can also place follow-up calls to all
new and former patients who made new purchases to discuss
their level of satisfaction.
Keeping and monitoring practice
statistics will also give you feedback on how you are measuring
up. For example, are
you meeting your production goals and per-patient-revenue?
What’s your recall success rate? What are your new
and former patient percentages? If you’re falling short,
use your data to determine if is it due to lack of patient
satisfaction and/or education. If you can’t measure
it, you can’t manage it. Take time to set performance
goals. More importantly, take the time to manage them once
they are set.
Being able to identify who your patients are,
having strategies in place to communicate with them, managing
their perceptions
and monitoring patient satisfaction are the keys to practice
growth in today’s market environment. Concentrate on
relationships and you will strengthen loyalty and position
yourself favorably in any market — including a managed
care environment.
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