Collect and tabulate information such as age, occupation, gender, income and location from your current patient records to get a profile of your typical patients. Then tailor your promotion and public relation events to target this majority group
Conduct a Referral Survey to find out if your patients are referring. Discover why they do or do not feel comfortable referring others to your practice. The information you get will help you generate more referrals and give you more control over your internal marketing.
A Quality Control Survey of patients gives you feedback regarding whether or not you’re meeting their expectations and what, if anything, you can do to improve your service to them. Patients appreciate being asked if they are happy with the level of care and service they’re receiving and will be happy that you care enough to ask.
Design a series of questions you can ask of potential patients to find out what they need and want – find out such things as what services they are interested in receiving, what they value most in a health care provider and what has disappointed them in previous practices. Enclose this survey in your new resident letters and use the information you get back to help you write and design ads, brochures and other promotional items.
When surveying by mail, encourage response by enclosing a postage-paid return envelope or reply card. If needed, mailing lists can be purchased to target specific groups you want to attract.
Use phone surveys to get back in touch with inactive patients. Ask them questions designed to find out what you and your staff can do to reactivate them. They will appreciate the personal contact and you’ll have an opportunity to interest them in returning to your practice for services.
Set aside time to work with your staff on getting referrals from patients. The best way to get referrals is simply to ASK FOR THEM. Your staff will be more comfortable in making this a part of their daily routine if they get a chance to practice during staff training sessions.
Silkin Management Group has helped thousands of practices grow using marketing procedures that really work. How do we know they work? They get results! Our tailor made marketing programs include some of the basic techniques mentioned in these tips, but reach far beyond what we’ve been able to include here. Our consultants develop surveys and questionnaires that health care practitioners all over the country have used to drive more new patients into their practices – and keep them coming back. As the number of patients increase, Silkin continues to provide management and organizational consulting that supports stable growth. This is accomplished by offering specialized administrative training for doctors and their staffs, job descriptions, office policies, organizational charts and much, much more.
I invite you to share any thoughts through our Discussion Forum at the Silkin Facebook Page BY CLICKING HERE.
Larry Silver
President, Silkin
Silkin Management Group Home Page
Visit our Facebook Page
Silkin Management Group Press Room
Solutions Magazine
Showing posts with label surveys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surveys. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
A SIMPLE MEANS OF INTERNAL MARKETING
In my last Blog, I discussed some points on internal marketing and the importance of properly handling a new patient or client when they walk in the door for the first time. In this article I will further discuss marketing, but address a simple means of how you get patients in the door in the first place.
In today's economic climate a great deal can be said for the benefits of marketing effectively. There are many mediums for marketing a practice - referrals from existing patients/clients is normally the best and most cost effective means of getting new patients/clients. External marketing such as the Internet, business directories, new resident mailings, bus benches, Valpacks and even the local newspaper, radio and TV have worked for some. Some form of one or more of these has proven to be successful in various markets, but not all of them are effective in all markets. Given all this, it is vitally important to know how your new patients/clients are finding out about you and, based upon this, focusing your marketing dollars in the most effective areas.
Somewhere on your new patient/client form there should be a little line that says, "How did you find out about our practice?" (If you don't have this line on your new patient/client form, you should institute it right away.) Some offices have little check boxes that mention their various marketing activities and others just offer a blank line to be filled in. However you do it, the purpose of this line is for your new patients/clients to tell you which of your marketing tools have been most effective. This is vital information for your promotional and marketing activities, as long as you do something with it. Unfortunately many doctors don't use this information properly.
In fact, the last poll taken in our on-line journal "Solutions Magazine",showed that 54% of those responding said that they "did nothing" with the information that they got from this question on their forms. At the same time, our current poll shows 43% stating that they are increasing the amount of marketing they are doing to counteract the down turn in the economy. The poll data seems to support that "marketing for new patients/clients" is important to practice owners but the importance of tracking effectiveness of marketing seems to be missing.
So let's take up "effectiveness of marketing" as a running theme and discover how it might be used. A simple starting point would be to actually use the data you have already gathered by doing a quick break down of where your new patients/clients came from for the past 6 to 12 months. Assign your front desk person the task of reviewing the files of all your new patients/clients and tabulate their responses to the question concerning what brought them to your office. Once the tabulation is done, have this staff member provide you with a summary of this information - i.e. "45% came from referrals, 20% came from new resident mailings, 10% from Yellow Pages ad, etc." Using the results from this summary, locate the area/s that seems to be providing you with the most new patients/clients. Do not be surprised if "referred by a friend or relative" shows up as the number one item - in fact you should be surprised if it doesn't.
At this point, inspect your marketing budget. By this is meant, what do you spend to make sure people know how to find your practice? How much are you spending on your half-page ad in the phone book and how many new patients/clients came from that? What kind of materials do you have to stimulate referrals? Examine each area that you are spending your marketing dollars on and what your return is on those dollars. You'll then want to invest more heavily in the area/s that are giving you the most return, taking into account the cost effectiveness of each activity. For example, if "referrals" is your number one draw, and the Yellow Page ad is not producing much, how can you shift your Yellow Page dollars into more support activities for referrals? As an example, creating a "Refer a friend or family member" card might be one way to start.
To summarize:
1. Have a means to know where your new patients/clients are coming from;
2. Don't ignore this data - tabulate and evaluate the information;
3. Invest your marketing budget in the most effective areas based upon the data you gather;
4. Regularly re-assess this information and adjust your marketing plans and investments accordingly.
If you do the above regularly and religiously, you'll find a steady increase of new patients/clients coming in your door.
Participate in our Discussion Forum! Check out the Silkin Facebook Page BY CLICKING HERE.
Larry Silver
President Silkin Management Group
Silkin Management Group Home Page
Visit our Facebook Page
Silkin Management Group Press Room
Solutions Magazine
In today's economic climate a great deal can be said for the benefits of marketing effectively. There are many mediums for marketing a practice - referrals from existing patients/clients is normally the best and most cost effective means of getting new patients/clients. External marketing such as the Internet, business directories, new resident mailings, bus benches, Valpacks and even the local newspaper, radio and TV have worked for some. Some form of one or more of these has proven to be successful in various markets, but not all of them are effective in all markets. Given all this, it is vitally important to know how your new patients/clients are finding out about you and, based upon this, focusing your marketing dollars in the most effective areas.
Somewhere on your new patient/client form there should be a little line that says, "How did you find out about our practice?" (If you don't have this line on your new patient/client form, you should institute it right away.) Some offices have little check boxes that mention their various marketing activities and others just offer a blank line to be filled in. However you do it, the purpose of this line is for your new patients/clients to tell you which of your marketing tools have been most effective. This is vital information for your promotional and marketing activities, as long as you do something with it. Unfortunately many doctors don't use this information properly.
In fact, the last poll taken in our on-line journal "Solutions Magazine",showed that 54% of those responding said that they "did nothing" with the information that they got from this question on their forms. At the same time, our current poll shows 43% stating that they are increasing the amount of marketing they are doing to counteract the down turn in the economy. The poll data seems to support that "marketing for new patients/clients" is important to practice owners but the importance of tracking effectiveness of marketing seems to be missing.
So let's take up "effectiveness of marketing" as a running theme and discover how it might be used. A simple starting point would be to actually use the data you have already gathered by doing a quick break down of where your new patients/clients came from for the past 6 to 12 months. Assign your front desk person the task of reviewing the files of all your new patients/clients and tabulate their responses to the question concerning what brought them to your office. Once the tabulation is done, have this staff member provide you with a summary of this information - i.e. "45% came from referrals, 20% came from new resident mailings, 10% from Yellow Pages ad, etc." Using the results from this summary, locate the area/s that seems to be providing you with the most new patients/clients. Do not be surprised if "referred by a friend or relative" shows up as the number one item - in fact you should be surprised if it doesn't.
At this point, inspect your marketing budget. By this is meant, what do you spend to make sure people know how to find your practice? How much are you spending on your half-page ad in the phone book and how many new patients/clients came from that? What kind of materials do you have to stimulate referrals? Examine each area that you are spending your marketing dollars on and what your return is on those dollars. You'll then want to invest more heavily in the area/s that are giving you the most return, taking into account the cost effectiveness of each activity. For example, if "referrals" is your number one draw, and the Yellow Page ad is not producing much, how can you shift your Yellow Page dollars into more support activities for referrals? As an example, creating a "Refer a friend or family member" card might be one way to start.
To summarize:
1. Have a means to know where your new patients/clients are coming from;
2. Don't ignore this data - tabulate and evaluate the information;
3. Invest your marketing budget in the most effective areas based upon the data you gather;
4. Regularly re-assess this information and adjust your marketing plans and investments accordingly.
If you do the above regularly and religiously, you'll find a steady increase of new patients/clients coming in your door.
Participate in our Discussion Forum! Check out the Silkin Facebook Page BY CLICKING HERE.
Larry Silver
President Silkin Management Group
Silkin Management Group Home Page
Visit our Facebook Page
Silkin Management Group Press Room
Solutions Magazine
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Three out of four small businesses disapprove of the stimulus package.
We've been discussing over the last week that the stimulus package, including the Tarp bill from last year, does not seem to be very beneficial to our small business clients and all small businesses. Today we ran across this blog from the Dallas Morning News Survey: Many small business owners favor tax cuts over asset plan that revealed a survey done by a payroll service that confirms again what we've been discussing.
According to the survey by Surepayroll, "Nearly three-quarters of the survey respondents disapproved of TARP" - in fact only 3 percent thought it was effective at all. And, per the survey, almost 75% percent of the small business owners surveyed felt that the stimulus bill was not going to be useful to them. There were several comments on this blog that were interesting as well.
This information just further validates what we've been saying all along - that no business, especially small businesses, should expect much help from the government to stimulate their business in the short term through this recession, and that we all should attempt to be as self sufficient as possible in handling our own affairs. Business knowledge and acumen is the key. Don't get me wrong - we are not trying to hide our head in the sand and pretend that it is not rough out there. It is. Many people are out of work and those who are not are spending less money. But people are out there spending money and it is up to each of us, as small business owners, to be smart enough and self sufficient enough to not buckle under.
I mentioned in our last blog that I had interviewed one of our consultants regarding the economy and how it was effecting his clients and how he was helping them to get pro-active about it. He told me that "when 'the economy' became an issue, my clients commonly mentioned that it was noticeably tougher. But together we looked at the existing statistics and trends, spotted where the situations were, applied the appropriate actions, and got on with it. This has been a continual process, and for the most part 'the economy' is now rarely mentioned; it’s now simply a matter of doing what we know how to do. The fact is I rarely discuss 'the economy' when talking with my clients now. We know there is a situation in the environment, and it’s something we have to deal with and be better than, but we know that 'the economy' is not cause over their businesses. We just talk about ways to be more causative in developing the respective business."
This approach is working well with our clients who are growing at an average of around 10% or more while many of their colleagues are contracting at a similar or greater rate. Knowledge is the key. If you know the technology of how to do something, whether that is a medical procedure or a business procedure, you can be at cause over it. I'm a businessman and have not been trained to fill a cavity. Nobody would expect me to do so. But how about the dentist or the vet or optometrist or the M.D. or lawyer or builder who have never been trained to run a business but have a business to run? Without training in business management they will have a tough time in these tough times. That's why we train our clients in the basics of management and that's why they are generally succeeding in this environment.
Again, continuing our recent blogs and discussion forums, we'd love your thoughts on this continuing discussion. Please visit our discussion forum which can be found at: Silkin Group Facebook Page.
Larry Silver
President, Silkin
Silkin Management Group Home Page
Visit our Facebook Page
Silkin Management Group Press Room
Solutions Magazine
According to the survey by Surepayroll, "Nearly three-quarters of the survey respondents disapproved of TARP" - in fact only 3 percent thought it was effective at all. And, per the survey, almost 75% percent of the small business owners surveyed felt that the stimulus bill was not going to be useful to them. There were several comments on this blog that were interesting as well.
This information just further validates what we've been saying all along - that no business, especially small businesses, should expect much help from the government to stimulate their business in the short term through this recession, and that we all should attempt to be as self sufficient as possible in handling our own affairs. Business knowledge and acumen is the key. Don't get me wrong - we are not trying to hide our head in the sand and pretend that it is not rough out there. It is. Many people are out of work and those who are not are spending less money. But people are out there spending money and it is up to each of us, as small business owners, to be smart enough and self sufficient enough to not buckle under.
I mentioned in our last blog that I had interviewed one of our consultants regarding the economy and how it was effecting his clients and how he was helping them to get pro-active about it. He told me that "when 'the economy' became an issue, my clients commonly mentioned that it was noticeably tougher. But together we looked at the existing statistics and trends, spotted where the situations were, applied the appropriate actions, and got on with it. This has been a continual process, and for the most part 'the economy' is now rarely mentioned; it’s now simply a matter of doing what we know how to do. The fact is I rarely discuss 'the economy' when talking with my clients now. We know there is a situation in the environment, and it’s something we have to deal with and be better than, but we know that 'the economy' is not cause over their businesses. We just talk about ways to be more causative in developing the respective business."
This approach is working well with our clients who are growing at an average of around 10% or more while many of their colleagues are contracting at a similar or greater rate. Knowledge is the key. If you know the technology of how to do something, whether that is a medical procedure or a business procedure, you can be at cause over it. I'm a businessman and have not been trained to fill a cavity. Nobody would expect me to do so. But how about the dentist or the vet or optometrist or the M.D. or lawyer or builder who have never been trained to run a business but have a business to run? Without training in business management they will have a tough time in these tough times. That's why we train our clients in the basics of management and that's why they are generally succeeding in this environment.
Again, continuing our recent blogs and discussion forums, we'd love your thoughts on this continuing discussion. Please visit our discussion forum which can be found at: Silkin Group Facebook Page.
Larry Silver
President, Silkin
Silkin Management Group Home Page
Visit our Facebook Page
Silkin Management Group Press Room
Solutions Magazine
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