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by Tom Bowen, Vice President of Williams
Group
Without a doubt, value is the single most important element
of the marketing process. Simply defined, value is the extent
to which people perceive what you do as good.
The key word
in this simple definition is perceive. Value is not a literal
thing, but rather a perception; and thus,
the reason people react to the same product, service, or
fee differently. And ultimately, when it comes to patient
perceptions of value, we must take a pro-active position.
To
that end, patient care is what we do in the practice, and
patient management is controlling patient perceptions
of that patient care. Patient Management is patient care
plus teaching. Throughout the production cycle, we need pre-determined
objectives and defined processes for that teaching to occur
at necessary levels.
The key to this value teaching is to
be pro-active. To make it as much a part of the patient care
process as the patient
care procedures themselves. In other words, teaching is just
like eyecare – prevention is better than cure. Why “cure” a
situation in which Mrs. Jones is upset about a fee, when
we could have prevented her from becoming upset with the
right education along the way?
As we now endeavor to get
more specific about patient management, we must first define
the desired final outcome of our patient
management (patient care plus teaching) process. To this
you can give your own specific definition, but generally,
the desired final outcome is a patient whose needs are met
and expectations exceeded, and is totally satisfied, happy,
fully educated, loyal and ready to refer. Sounds simple enough,
right?
The next step is to understand that achieving the desired
final outcome is a result-specific focus on the parts of
the process. At Williams Group™, we call this process the
Production Cycle, which one might illustrate as a ladder
comprised of the following ten rungs as the patient advances
through the process:
- Marketing systems (potential patient generation)
- Gate-keeping
(telephone reception)
- Physical reception
- Data collection
- Pre-examination
- Evaluation and diagnosis
- Treatment and prescribing
- Product selection/dispensing
- Dismissal
- Follow-up
Think then of yourself advancing along these rungs
in a ladder. Let’s say the third rung is weak and you’ve
put on a few pounds. What happens? Or what if the first rung
is weak? The other rungs may be as strong as Hercules, but
if one is weak, the others combine to be one moot point.
The result: a ladder that is mostly strong, but weak just
the same.
To understand and then improve your ladder (practice),
therefore, we must focus on specific value-building education
of each
rung, or stage in the production cycle, and set standards
by which success in this incremental education is measured.
To do so, we must set pain-stakingly specific objectives
for every step along the way.
Let’s take rung two – Gate-keeping.
Understand that marketing does not create patients, it creates
interest.
This interest results in a phone call -- often in the form
of a shopper call. This is a person standing at the gate;
now the question -- do we open the gate, or slam it shut?
If
our gatekeeper is not strategically trained for shopper conversation,
forget the rest of the production cycle. The
caller will never experience consequent levels. (Think about
that -- all marketing effort comes down to that phone call!)
If, however, our gatekeeper is trained...really trained...to
turn shoppers into patients, then it’s on to the next
level.
To achieve our desired final outcome at the gate-keeping
rung, we must have clearly defined gate-keeping objectives.
For a Williams Group client, these would include:
- Isolate exact needs of caller.
- Teach caller the differences
in care and results.
- Teach caller the differences in product
programs.
- Teach caller the difference between vision care
and vision health care.
- Establish competence and specialty
of doctor(s).
- Teach caller the Unique Selling Points of
our practice
- Appoint caller X% of the time
- Keep no-shows to under X%
of total appointments.
A strategic presentation (which
may vary dramatically from one staff person to the next, which is perfectly
O.K. as
long as we’re fulfilling our objectives for teaching)
is then developed to accomplish these objectives for each
type of caller (exam, CLs, frames, lenses, VT, etc.). When
completed, you have the ability to produce the desired
final outcome for this stage of the production cycle. The
issue
then becomes what you do with that ability.
Each level in
the production cycle builds on previous and consequent
levels. For example, the information necessary
at product selection came from effective data collection.
Exactly what are the patient’s needs, and what products/services
(notice that is plural) will best fulfill them. We must
have a desired final outcome for the data collection stage
and
written objectives for its accomplishment.
The same is
true for each and every stage. Without concentrating on
stages separately, with written desired final product
and objectives for each stage, we’re walking in the
dark.
As mentioned previously, each stage in the production
cycle, must have a standard by which it is measured. This
standard
must be set by the organization -- you and the staff – relative
to the specific objectives for that level. To continue
in our example of the gate-keeping rung, our clients often
set
an objective of booking 70% of phone shoppers into appointments,
and keeping the no-show rate under 5% over X time period.
This will be measured weekly, and if we fall below that
for a sustained period, we go back to the educational drawing
board and determine what portion or portions of our educational
effort need to be altered.
And so, let’s review what
our conclusions from this two-part discussion:
- The key
to patient acceptance, and all that comes with it (patient
quality of life, growth, profits, etc.) is
value.
- The key to value is an integrated program for pro-active
education – the more patients know, the more they
value.
- The key to integrated pro-active education is dividing
your practice whole into its parts and setting pain-stakingly
specific objectives for each part.
- They key to evolving
your integrated program for patient educating is having
standards by which you can measure
your results and make on-going improvements.
Oh, and one
more thing. You are 5,000% more likely to accomplish something
as a team if it’s written down. That’s
right, 5,000%. Now that you know that, can you believe
we don’t have written objectives, known by the whole
team, for precisely what you want your patients to know at
every
rung in your production cycle? Hmm… does that mean
you need to get busy?
That's right, we're heading to Toronto! Mark your calendars
because this is your opportunity to make 2006 the year you
break all your practice's records while having more time
for the good life.
It's very rare for Williams Group™ to take their executive
training outside the U.S., so if you're located in the northeast,
or have always wanted to visit the beautiful city of Toronto,
now's your chance.
Take advantage of this great opportunity
and call us today at 800.676.9076.
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