Success stories notwithstanding, the vast majority of doctors I talk to are seeing significantly less new patients then they did 12-36 months ago. The average dollar spent per patient is also down. With less money to spend on marketing, increasing referrals is a topic of profound interest to private practice owners everywhere. Google statistics for searches including the terms, “new patient referrals, physician referrals, dental referrals, increasing new patient referrals, how do I get more referrals,” are skyrocketing. How do you do increase your referrals?
Bring the following thoughts to the forefront of your mind, back from the cobwebs and stray thoughts that you need to start eating better and exercising.
The State of Being Referable
During a recession, the tendency of private practice owners is to cut back on staff. Considering it’s the largest expense, the argument is compelling at first. It’s an easy and instant stop-gap to your shrinking profitability. It involves no number crunching or vendor and supply shopping. It’s an instant and quantifiable improvement in the bottom line. And that’s tempting, to take the quick fix.
The problem arises when cutting back on staff comes to mean remaining staff have to pick up slack and start to become overwhelmed. When this happens one inevitable event will be triggered. The quality of your service will begin to decline. Period.
Since exceptional service is the number one cause of referrals, the consequences of letting staff go are not acceptable. In fact, you should do the opposite of cutting back on staffing dollars. You should start investing in your staff, if you haven’t already.
Now is not the time to make people start waiting longer in your office. It’s not the time to start billing insurance incorrectly. Patients, more so every day, are hyper aware of the power of their consuming dollars. That means you need to ensure your staff are providing the best service in your area. The rise of Starbucks was, in large part, credited to the quality of service they consistently provided. If your staff are not pleasant to be around, there’s a 10% unemployment rate that can find someone who is.
If you want a referral marketing system that will increase the number of referrals in your office, strive for nothing less than the Starbucks effect. You should even tell your staff you are striving for the Starbucks effect. They will have a better idea of what you want from them. Above all, don’t pass this example aside and think that Starbucks got lucky in their staffing choices. Don’t think the success of Starbucks was an accident. It’s Starbucks policy that employees remember customer names and their regular drink orders. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
To get private practice owners started, here are a eight small examples of how you can increase referrals through the Starbucks effect
(1.) To your receptionist’s job description, add that they remember the names of your patients and that they greet them by name when they first walk in the door. Not two minutes later.
(2.) Make it policy that the phone is picked up within two rings and that
(3.) they smile when they talk on the phone because people really can hear smiles on the other end.
(4.) Pick up the phone and call patients who refer to you. Thank them personally.
(5.) Call patients after a large procedure and check how they are doing. Your patients love to hear from you. This will increase referrals.
Consider the announcement by flight attendants at Alaska/Horizon Air. At the end of every flight, just before the seat belt light goes off, a friendly man or woman lets us know that the airline understands passengers have a choice when it comes to purchasing plane tickets. They hope we choose them again.
That’s a great way of communicating to customers. It also makes me feel appreciated and makes me more likely to speak about them in a positive regard. They appreciate my choosing them. In fact, they appreciate it to the degree that they are willing to tell me every time we land.
It is significant the thank you comes just when you’ve arrived at your destination. It’s the happiest time during the entire flight. You’re in a more agreeable state of mind, more willing to accept it as a gesture of sincerity and not a promotional opportunity (both of which can be true by the way).
It’s almost exactly the same as:
(6.) asking for referrals when someone has just completed a large procedure or treatment plan, elective or not. Patients are feeling the best they’ve felt in a long time. A long process is complete, a smile is restored, vision is enhanced, health is regained, and that’s a powerful time, one to express your appreciation that they chose you to restore them to optimum health. That will result in the Starbucks effect.
How does internet marketing play into this? Simply.
(7.) To get more referrals, be easier to find. Being easy to find is part of having good service. Don’t make people hunt for your location and phone number. In another age, internet marketing would work in conjunction with well written and humorous radio and TV spots, well designed print ads, clever and full page phone book ads. But since marketing cuts come immediately before staffing cuts, I’m guessing few people are buying TV, radio or print space. Suddenly, the relevance and benefit of a low cost/no cost internet marketing plan becomes significant.
I want to stretch your idea of what a referral is by giving you an example of how one new way patient is finding doctors online and how you could end up with an appointment.
Let’s say, I need a dentist. I go to Google and type in, “dentist in Dayton.” On the first page, at the very top, are eight dentists whose location appear plotted on a local map. I can see in just a matter of seconds who is near my home or office. The first listing is relatively close to my office, but I don’t like the practitioners name so I keep looking (this is how it works!). The second dentist doesn’t have a website listed so I move on. The third dentist has a website that I visit. I don’t like the picture of the dentist. He looks like someone who would tell me I need a root canal when I just need a filling.
The fourth dentist has a nice website. On the side of the home page are testimonials from his existing patients. I read some of them. One of the testimonials sounds like someone very similar to me. I can relate to them. In fact, it sounds like something I would say. Bingo. That’s a referral. Not in the sense you’re used to but, in the digital age, these new and expanded types of referrals are keeping companies growing when everyone else is in plateau or contracting.
If your on page 1 of Google, you’re going to get more referrals. Not everyone goes to Google to find information, but the new patients who find you through Google are, statistically, more educated, have higher incomes and possess more discretionary income.
You can get those patients because:
(8.) you are a part of the online conversation, an extension of the conversation in our communities. This is different than being easy to find through a Google search. This means that through your internet marketing platform, you are participating in the online conversation related to your services. You are providing value to people and people are speaking well of you as a result.
What you’ll find when you have an online presence is that it’s the easiest way to present and control the information that people can access about you. Not the words of a disgruntled patient who trashed you in an online review site. Not the anonymous data presented by insurance companies. The information that you want to present can and should be available to patients searching your services.
The great advantage of internet referrals is that, depending on the type of case, you may need less than one new patient per year to pay for the cost of setting up and maintaining an internet marketing campaign. If you consider the lifetime value each patient brings to your office, the cost is probably less than a 1/3 of a new patient. As those patients begin to refer, the value grows exponentially.
Your internet marketing campaign will get you new patients. At the very least, it will make your phone ring more. When new patients call in, it’s up to your office to deliver the Starbucks effect. When they do, those calls will convert to appointments at a higher rate. There are tips for converting a higher percentage of those new patient calls into appointments, but there is nothing more fundamental and irreplaceable than delivering the “wow” experience.
In fact, good service is so rare in business that when people really find a company that delivers it beyond expectation, they will refer that company to inevitable success. I even suggest that no company that really wow’s its client base will be in want of business, recession or not. Thrill your patients. Be easy to find. Provide valuable information and services to your patients. That is the state of being referable.
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