Medical Practice Marketing and Customer Service
Learning Objectives
1. Define, spell, and pronounce the terms listed in the vocabulary.
2. List the four steps to follow when preparing to implement a medical marketing strategy.
3. Explain the term target market.
4. Discuss how suggestion boxes might help the medical facility make improvements.
5. List and discuss the four Ps of marketing.
6. Explain the five steps for developing a plan in marketing.
7. Discuss how community involvement can make a difference in marketing efforts.
8. State the difference between advertising and public relations.
9. Determine ways to promote a new practice.
10. Prepare a presentation using PowerPoint.
11. Discuss applications of electronic technology in effective communication.
12. Organize technical information and summaries.
13. Discuss responses that help the medical assistant identify with the patient.
14. Explain the concept of the internal customer.
15. Design a presentation for a marketing event.
16. Locate resources and information for patients and employers.
Vocabulary
marketing The process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.
objective Something toward which effort is directed; aim, goal, or purpose of action.
target market A specific group of individuals toward whom the marketing plan is focused.
Scenario
Monica Ray is a medical assistant who is also pursuing a bachelor’s degree in marketing. She has worked for Dr. Julie Todd and Dr. Robert Todd for 2 years. Based on her career interests, the physicians have agreed to allow her to develop some new marketing strategies for their obstetrics and gynecology office. Because medical facilities are now so competitive, Monica knows that any physician who wants growth in the practice must market his or her services to the public. Also, physicians cannot depend only on insurance reimbursements to provide them a strong income through the life of the practice. Today, physicians must market themselves and their services to the public to ensure practice growth.
Monica is highly computer literate and can design Web pages. She plans to incorporate several ideas she found on other physicians’ Web sites, including a method of online scheduling. She is also aware of the importance of social networking and wants to create a brand for the clinic using resources such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. She is quite creative and is excited about the challenge of providing such a service to the patients of the clinic and about growing the patient base using social networking. Monica knows that planning is involved in any project, including creating the facility’s Internet presence. She plans to speak to every employee of the office to get input regarding the design and content of the site. Patients will be able to provide her with additional suggestions on features they would like to see.
This new development for the office is just one way Monica hopes to incorporate more formal customer service techniques. She plans to share the information she is learning in the classroom with the physicians and staff at the clinic. Monica and the physicians are fortunate that the staff is enthusiastic and eager to try new methods of customer service; often employees are highly resistant to new techniques. The physicians will set specific goals with the help of the employees and devise a reward system for reaching them. An exciting few months are ahead for this innovative group of medical professionals!
While studying this chapter, think about the following questions:
Each medical office needs a mission statement that defines the reason for its existence. The physician’s philosophy of medicine and reasons for pursing medicine as a career greatly influence the mission statement. With this statement in place, the staff can develop goals that will assist them in meeting the mission. The goals can be met through a marketing and outreach plan for the practice and by providing excellent customer service to patients and visitors to the facility.
Developing Marketing Strategies
If a business is to grow, marketing strategies are critical. A marketing strategy is designed to promote the services offered by the organization and encourage new business. Four steps are generally followed when preparing to implement or change medical marketing strategies:
1. Assess what has been done in the past.
2. Evaluate what is being done now to increase patient flow.
3. Decide what objectives are important and how meeting these objectives will be measured.
26-1
Critical Thinking Application
Monica knows that the office has never attempted any formal marketing in the past. Because no one at her office is familiar with this task, who might she contact for advice and assistance?
Branding
The concept of branding is fairly new to the medical profession. Branding, applied to the physician’s office, is the process involved in creating a unique concept or image that customers think of in association with the practice. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers. This can be accomplished using a name, logo, tagline, catch-phrase, symbol, or design that makes your organization distinct and unique among others. A brand is a valuable element in a marketing campaign. The art of creating and maintaining a brand in the marketplace is called brand management. Global brands include Facebook, Apple, FedEx, and MasterCard; people all over the world recognize those brands. A local brand is one that is marketed in a small geographic area; for example, the Baylor Health Care System in Texas uses a distinct blue color on its Web sites, and its logo includes a flame symbol, easily identifying any Baylor facility throughout the area.
Branding helps the medical practice to stand out, ideally as a trusted authority in healthcare. Additionally, the physician can attract the types of cases that he or she is most interested in through branding; if the physician is interested in fibromyalgia, diabetes, or any other specific disease or condition, it may be incorporated into the practice through branding. The practice might use a tag line after the clinic name, such as:
The market climate has shifted to a highly competitive environment, and many physicians are forced to market their practice to gain any part of the local market share. Without a reasonably full schedule of patients, the physician cannot cover the costs of running the practice, and the business may not survive. The medical assistant can play a role in practice branding by following office procedures, treating patients with excellent customer service skills, and keeping a positive, enthusiastic attitude during every workday and with every patient.
Knowing the Target Market
During the strategic phase of developing a marketing plan, the physician and office manager must identify the target market for the services provided by the clinic. The target market is the group or groups of individuals the office wants to reach. Reaching the target market means that the specific groups are made aware of the clinic and what it has to offer. With managed care restrictions and regulations, competition for patients has become keen among physicians, and a facility that does not pursue growth runs a great risk of not surviving.
Answer the following questions when considering the target market:
• What specific outcomes do we hope to accomplish?
• What are the needs and desires of our target market?
• What are the characteristics of a typical member of the target market?
• How can the target market be reached in the most cost-effective ways?
Staff meetings are excellent times to brainstorm about reaching target markets. The staff can explain the needs of the patients who are active at the medical office. If patients have made suggestions, they should be discussed and weighed with regard to which would benefit the patient population of the facility (Figure 26-1).
Suggestion boxes are a great way to solicit patient input. Ask patients for ideas about how the clinic could operate more smoothly and what additional services they would like to see introduced. Check the suggestion box frequently. If the patient leaves his or her name on the suggestion form, a good customer service tactic is to reward the patient for the suggestion. Mail the individual a coupon for a free lunch at a local restaurant or a free car wash at a local detailing shop. Involving other businesses in marketing efforts helps both attract new customers. Businesses in a central location, such as a strip mall, can work together to refer customers to each other.
Ethics, Marketing, and Public Relations
Not many years ago, advertising about the physician and his services was considered completely unethical. However, today’s healthcare industry is highly competitive, and advertising is no longer considered unethical. Because competition for patients is so great, medical assistants who work in physicians’ offices must use some marketing techniques to get new patients and keep the ones already coming to the clinic. This practice may not seem “right” to some employees, but the healthcare industry has changed over the past few decades, and physicians must invite change to be competitive. After all, the medical office is still a business. The goal of any business is to make money so that the owners can pay business costs and make a reasonable profit and employees can earn a healthy wage with which to support their own families.
The Four Ps
The four Ps of marketing are product, placement, price, and promotion. A physician’s office offers medical services as a product. Some offices have tangible retail products that they also offer, such as vitamins, skin-sensitive cosmetics, or prosthetic devices. Placement involves the actual location of the medical office. The office may be located in an urban area close to large neighborhoods of young professionals or in a rural area with a few people living several miles apart. Placement can greatly influence the traffic to the facility. Placement also can refer to the setup of the office, the specific suite in a shopping strip where the office is located, or even the placement of retail objects on a shelf. Price is simply the amount of money charged for goods and services provided. Promotion refers to the methods used to get the product or services to the consumers (or, in the case of the medical office, to patients).
Deciding What Services to Offer
Once the physician and office manager have identified the target market, decisions can be made about the services that should be offered to patients. For instance, suppose the office is situated in a neighborhood of young families. Both parents are very likely to work outside the home, so evening hours would be beneficial to these patients. The physician may decide to extend office hours to 8 PM twice a week and to open from 9 AM to noon on Saturdays. If several schools are in the area, particularly junior high and high schools, the physician may want to offer a special price on sports physicals during the fall. Because these physicals are required, if the physician offers them at a reasonable price, the entire family may decide to seek medical care from the physician.
If the office is located in a college town, the physician may want to offer a special student rate for short office visits (Figure 26-2). If a number of older adults live in the area, a senior citizen discount might be appropriate. Input from patients and staff members is valuable in determining what services to offer in the medical facility.
Developing a Plan for Marketing
The facility may use several specific planning steps for events, marketing strategies, and any number of other ideas the physician would like to implement. These steps are:
Assessment is the phase of planning in which the problem or goals are reviewed. This is another excellent time for brainstorming. Research allows the physician or office manager to investigate the needs of the target market and then decide what the medical office can do to meet those needs. Planning of the concept follows, and once a firm plan is in place, it is executed, or carried out. Afterward, the participants evaluate what went well and what problems occurred so that future efforts will be even more successful.
Try this simple assessment tool, which will help clarify the patient population: Keep a log of all patients for a specific period; include the reason for the visit; the patient’s age, ZIP code, gender, and marital status; and the number and ages of children. These simple demographics can provide a great base picture of the types of individuals using the physician’s services.
Promoting the Practice
The physician and office manager should constantly watch for ways to promote the medical practice and keep its name in the public eye. Some of these methods are free, whereas others require detailed budgeting and planning.
The physician can allot a large portion of the practice budget to advertising and promotional costs. Some clinics publish a health-related magazine and mail it or send it electronically to their patient base. Magazine and newspaper ads can be effective tools, but finding free sources to promote the practice eases the budget and will allow expansion in other areas.
Tapping into Free Community Resources
By becoming a member of various civic organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce, the practice will receive notice of upcoming events and should plan to participate in them regularly. The more the public sees the physician in the community, the more likely this will affect the growth of the practice. Many good promotional activities are relatively free to the physician. Some newspapers offer an advice column in which different types of professionals give general medical advice to those who write in with questions. Physicians volunteer to answer these questions in print, and in return the office address, the office telephone number, and often the physicians’ pictures are featured. This is an excellent way to generate patient calls and inform the public about the specialties and types of cases the physician handles.
Getting involved in the local community is another way to promote a medical practice. Some physicians sponsor Little League football teams, baseball teams, or bowling leagues. Sometimes entire staffs participate in charity events and marathons, wearing T-shirts with the clinic name printed on the back.
The physician or staff may have specific charities they support annually, or they may participate in United Way activities, which distribute funds to many different types of worthy organizations through payroll deductions. Some medical facilities have volunteer programs in which employees receive recognition for participation in various activities. A good example is blood donations. Many blood centers offer pins and recognition certificates for the number of pints of blood volunteers donate. The office staff may set a goal to reach a certain number of donated pints in a year, and as recognition certificates are collected, the staff may want to display them in a prominent place in the office. This is an indication to patients that the staff is concerned about the community and is volunteer minded. From a public relations standpoint, this is valuable to the medical office, because patients tend to expect medical professionals to be volunteer oriented.
Health fairs are a great way to promote the services offered by the clinic, resulting in name recognition and increasing public visibility. Some health fairs are huge, highly publicized events, whereas others are small, often held at a local shopping mall or grocery store. All these events could be worthy projects for the physician and the medical office.
Advertising Plans and Agencies
Most physicians’ offices do not use advertising agencies to promote their practices, but occasionally an agency might be useful. If the practice schedules or sponsors a very special event that needs extensive planning, a public relations firm or advertising agency might be consulted. Unfortunately, the cost of these groups usually is high and beyond the reach of sole practitioners or small group practices. However, the money may be well spent if the event is critical and attendance is important to its success.
There is a difference between advertising and public relations. Advertising involves creating or changing attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions by influencing people with purchased broadcast time, print space, or other forms of written and visual media. Broadcast time could take the form of television commercials, radio broadcasts, or audiovisual aids. Print could be in a newspaper, magazine, or trade journal, and written and visual media may be a flier, brochure, or billboard. Public relations is a similar field but relies more on news broadcasts or reports, magazine or newspaper articles, and radio reports to reach the audience. Most public relations efforts are free, but often it is difficult to get others interested enough in the activities the medical office is planning to warrant coverage.
Communication as a Marketing Tool
Many medical offices use communications tools to market the practice and improve customer service. Sending out a monthly newsletter by mail or electronically provides health information and news about upcoming events. The newsletter can be personalized for the office and might even include news about patients and the medical staff, as long as permission is obtained.
Sending birthday cards is an excellent public relations tool. Some offices sign the greetings at staff meetings, and they are placed in a tickler file for the proper mailing date. Consider sending holiday greetings to wish patients well.
Automated call distribution is becoming a popular means of communicating with large numbers of people. A computer dials multiple numbers at the same time and plays a recorded message, which can be the actual physician with news about a new procedure or new associate joining the practice. Although many people block such calls to their homes and an equal number hang up, the success rate for automatic call distribution is actually quite good. Many individuals listen and respond to the calls, especially if they come from someone they know and the information is important. For instance, if a medical clinic were planning to move to another part of the city, a program could be initiated to notify all patients with telephone numbers that the office will be moving after a certain date. The message could include the address of the new location and even prompt patients to “press 1” if they need to schedule an appointment. The same principle could be applied to news about an upcoming health fair, a special seminar about a certain illness, or even an article that will be in the Sunday paper about the clinic.
Promoting a New Practice
Most physicians who open a new practice place an ad in local newspapers to announce the event. Usually a picture of the physician is included, and a map to the exact location may be available on the ad. Some physicians purchase clinics from others who are moving or retiring, but many open a freestanding clinic in a new building, and the word about the new facility must be spread for the business to be a success.
Providing business cards for all employees is a good way to increase public knowledge about the facility. Some offices offer incentives for patient referrals from the staff or other patients, but the physician must ensure that no state statutes or ethical standards prohibit this practice. The incentive could be a simple coffee cup with the clinic’s logo on it or a book about a healthcare issue. Recognition is the important factor where referrals are concerned. A thank you card is the minimal acceptable “thanks” for patient referrals.
Some physicians hold an open house when the new facility opens. Often, those individuals who assisted with the business from its inception attend the open house to lend support to the owners. Bankers, attorneys, accountants, and other physicians often show their support by attending the open house. Place pictures from this event on the facility’s Web site, in the local newspaper, or in the monthly newsletter. Choose an employee who is a proficient writer and assign him or her the task of writing and sending press releases to media outlets when the physician or practice is involved with a newsworthy event.
Developing and Giving Presentations
Today’s medical assistant should be comfortable when speaking in front of individuals and groups. By developing additional skills, the medical assistant increases his or her value to the physician. Developing and giving presentations is not difficult, although one of the most prevalent fears in the United States is the fear of speaking in public (Procedures 26-1 and 26-2).
Procedure 26-1
Design a Presentation
GOAL: To gain skill in designing presentations that can be used for a variety of projects in the medical facility.
EQUIPMENT and SUPPLIES
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