You want to know what makes one company better than another company. They build relationships. Because of my shoe size, I have to go to Nordstroms for my shoes. It could be about a year between my shoe purchases, but every time I walk into the shoe department, the salesman would always greet me by my name. He would say, “How are you doing today, Dr. Wishnie?”
I always wondered how he remembered my name. Well, I observed that every time I came into the store, he would go to a back room first and then come out and greet me. The salesman had an index card that had a full description of me.
Also, I know a few insurance salesmen that would cut out articles or forward an email to me regarding something of interest. They would know I love baseball and if they found something they thought would interest me, they would mail it to me. Even in today’s times, snail mail is more effective for relationship building.
So, imagine a patient telling you they like golf. You then see an interesting golf story and you mail it to the patient with a little post-it note that says, “Thought you might be interested in this.” Wow, what an effect you will have on the patient. Do you think they will refer others? I am very confident they will.
There could be many ways you can do this. Certain practice management programs will have an area for social information. You can then run a report to access this information. You can assign a staff member, or your marketing person, to gather information on these individual topics and start mailing them out.
You can also have the medical assistant put this information in an excel spread sheet and access it that way. Just make different categories based on the patient’s hobbies.
This is a little time consuming for you and your staff, but what an inexpensive and fantastic way to market your practice.