Do you realize your most profitable trail leads
to your
current and former patients? Most medical professionals
don’t. They are too busy trying to seek
after new patients, that they neglect what they
already have. According to a survey conducted
by Fortune magazine it is FIVE times as expensive
to get a new patient as it is to sell to an existing
patient.
Find Your Fastest Source of New Profits
You are literally sitting on a treasure chest
this very
moment. Really, you are! The fastest, straightest
path
to developing increasing practice growth is consistently
going after your past and current patients. Your
patients
depend on you, they have faith in your abilities,
and they like you. So wouldn't it make sense to
become
more active --in marketing to your existing
patients list?
You'll quickly find your fastest source of new
profits
may be sitting in your not so new patient files.
The cost
of reaching your existing patients is almost nothing
while it can be expensive getting new patients.
That is
why the first thing I do when consulting with
a client is
to have them go after their current and past patients.
Make An Incredible Offer
Go after your old patients with an incredible
offer.
Remember all those old patient names sitting in
your
files -- well we’re going to bring them
back into your
practice. You’ve spent perhaps tons of effort,
money,
and time to get them into your office the first
time,
so let’s recover your investment.
First, you’ll need to put together a list
of everyone
who has not been in for whatever you think is
a reasonable amount of time. I suggest 1 year
because they will remember you and your list will
be up-to-date. Additionally, you don’t want
to reward patients too early. But on the other
hand, you don’t want to wait too long before
they establish a relationship with another doctor.
After you establish the guidelines you will compose
and send a personal letter to entice the ‘hidden’
patient back. Your letter needs to show concern
for their well being and also an irresistible
offer to come back. The best hook is a free service
or product. Everybody loves to get something for
free.
Make it Free!
Free is the best offer you can make. Use something
with a high perceived value but very little hard
cost to you. A free follow-up visit or some kind
of sample product works very nicely. Then once
they come back, you will get these patients back
into the habit of using your services. Also at
the same time you should have special offers available
for other services they may be interested in.
A very smart thing to do is set an expiration
date and limit the time they can come in for these
free services. That way you have a very structured
offer. You should not send too many of these letters
at once because I guarantee you’ll be swamped
with business. So try out 100 or 200 at a time
and see how it goes.
Mine Your Best Prospects for New Service
Your best prospects for new services are right
under your nose. To illustrate this point, let
me give you an example from the remodeling industry.
Once a homeowner gets their kitchen remodeled
after a short period of time they begin to notice
the bathroom or some other part of the house really
needs work. The new section only serves to highlight
and contrast how much worse the other sections
are.
This same thing applies with almost all customers
or patients. So if a patient has undergone a tummy
tuck it shouldn’t be a surprise they’ll
start looking more critically at the wrinkles
on their face. This presents a perfect opportunity
for you -- if you keep in contact with your patients.
That means you should continually be in contact
with your patient. By using a combination of newsletters,
postcards, letters, etc. you can keep them informed
of new procedures and services you offer. For
the cost of a stamp you can produce a windfall
in profits for your practice.
For some people this will seem like a lot of
extra work. I
disagree. Here’s why: A statistic from the
mail order industry says that a customer will
lose 10% of their value every month they are not
contacted. So after 10 months, you might as well
be mailing to the white pages. Keep in mind, the
transaction value of a cosmetic procedure is so
high that you can afford
to keep contacting your existing patients over
and over again.
Make it Easy to Refer With WOW Service
Make it easy for patients to give you loads of
new referrals. I’d bet referrals and word-of-mouth
are a substantial, dare I say very important,
part of your practice. Most offices rely on referrals
for somewhere between 20%-75% of their business.
Yet, these same offices give no thought whatsoever
to engineering a system to cultivate and extract
referrals.
Simply providing outstanding service is not enough
to generate tons of referrals rolling into your
door. You’ll never get anywhere close to
what you should get, unless you ethically ask
for them.
The first thing you need to do is position yourself
to become the recipient of referrals. That means
you must deliver incredible service, what I call
the "WOW" experience. This makes patients
compelled to give you referrals. One easy way
to start is to make a quick list of everything
patients expect when they come to your office
and then you brainstorm for ways to exceed those
expectations. By delivering "WOW" experiences
you’re sure to get more people to talk about
you.
You also need to provide an added ‘crutch’
for your patients to make it easy to refer new
patients. Send out a letter along with a free
certificate good for a free consultation or free
service to your patients. The letter explains
how you enjoy more patients like them and wanted
to do something special for their friends or colleagues.
That’s why you are allowing them to give
away this valuable gift. This way you are proactively
stimulating referrals instead of hoping and waiting
for them to happen.
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(c) Earma Brown, 10 yr. Web Developer, Author,
Speaker Everyone loves to find hidden treasure.
You and your staff deserve to find some too! Earma,
principal developer at Arrow Productions helps
medical professionals and entrepreneurs realize
their web dreams. Sign up for her free ezine "Web
Wit"
at webwit@medicdesigns.com
or visit her on the web at
http://www.medicdesigns.com
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