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Great Patient/Client Experience
In 2020, we are seeing an ever-growing impatience for poor customer service. This is shown in the way patients are demanding a seamless experience, from the first spark of interest to after they leave your practice. From personalized messaging, automated reminders, and even patient loyalty programs that reward them for making small purchases.
The growth of online content has given patients and clients more power. They are no longer a passive party when it comes to learning about their options. They’re not waiting for you to tell them how great your product or services are. Instead, they’re going out and doing their own research.
This focus on ‘Dr. Google’ can be frustrating for healthcare practitioners, and misleading for patients. The solution is to offer them something more than information. 73% of people say that customer experience is an important factor in their buying decisions. Focus on creating word-of-mouth by coordinating your internal promotional activities – such as smiling while answering the phones, greeting patients/clients by name, etc.
In other words, you need to consider the patient experience in every aspect of your marketing strategy. This is how you can provide a great experience in order to keep your customers and attract new ones.
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Train Your Staff
Recent research suggests that 46% of consumers will abandon a business if its employees are unknowledgeable on the product or services. Training your staff in how to answer common questions, explain concepts and demonstrate understanding of the problems and health issues patients suffer should be a key part of your marketing strategy.
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Use Video To Educate & Attract
According to Vengage.com, patients or clients are 85% more likely to buy your product after watching a video about it. How can you leverage this as a healthcare practice owner? Use video to educate your patients or clients about their options – either on your website or in emails leading up to their appointment. Also, play those videos in the waiting area or exam rooms – and use them to run digital advertising campaigns across social media platforms.
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Focus On What Problem You Can Solve For Your Target Audience
A target audience is the person at whom you direct your marketing efforts, in order to attract new patients. Sometimes the target audience is less obvious than we might think at first glance. Look at how many times your target market is not the patient. For example, an optometrist or family dentist whose chief target audience is moms – because according to the U.S. Department of Labor, US women make 80 percent of health care decisions in the home.
Or veterinary care, where the patient is never the decision-maker.
While diagnosis depends upon discovering the problem the patient is having, marketing requires a ‘diagnosis’ that is almost counter-intuitive: the problem you can solve for the decision-maker, not the patient.
Only when you have isolated what problem you solve for the target market, regardless of the patient, can you resolve the question of how to promote your services and products to them.
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SEO & Google Ads
Search results listed on the first page of Google get 95% of all web traffic. This means that ranking highly for keywords should be a top priority for local healthcare practices. But what many practice owners fail to understand is that SEO is a collaborative activity. Hiring a company to ‘work on your SEO’ is no guarantee of success.
Instead, comb through your practice data for keywords. What are the most common products you sell or services you get asked for by patients/clients? Ask your receptionist to write down common questions or catch phrases. Use AnswerthePublic.com to do keyword research. Giving such a list to your SEO company will increase the effectiveness of their work.
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