Marketing and Word of Mouth – 5 Easy Improvements
When meeting with physicians for the first time, we often hear physicians say they get new patients through ‘Word of Mouth’. You might even be nodding your head right now as this applies to you or your practice.
We believe in word of mouth and know why it’s so important. But we also know the importance of taking it a step further. We explored the realm of word of mouth and its pro’s and con’s, and how to strengthen its effectiveness with 5 easy improvements.
1. Problem: Word of mouth is great, but it’s uncontrollable. We hear from many physicians how word of mouth is working for them, but by at least understanding that word of mouth is uncontrollable, you can have a heads up in the market. Solution: How to fix it? Help systemize your processes so that your patients receive great experiences. (We have even created referral cards for one of our clients that empowers their patients to refer to their friends and receive a special for doing so. What this does is helps ensure a more controlled word of mouth experience.)
2. Problem: Limitations. We all know word of mouth can only occur with people who know your current patients; therefore, it is a very limiting form of marketing. Solution: By doing community outreach at medical and community events, participating in public relations through media stories and even exploring online at message boards, you will be sure to cure the limitations of word of mouth.
3. Problem: Negative vibes. Unfortunately, practices can receive a negative word of mouth referral about their experience which can be a destructive endeavor. Solution: How to help this from happening is ensure that you have a marketing plan in place that consistently disseminates your message to the public on a regular basis. That way, if patient X told her neighbor about a long wait time, at least her neighbor has heard about your expertise, care and professionalism several times through a formal marketing campaign.
4. Problem: ‘New’ News within your practice. Word of mouth is great for others to tell their experience to their friends and family today, but unfortunately it misses the boat in terms of being able to communicate a new procedure, technology, staff member or other important news for your practice 5 months from now. Therefore, again word of mouth is quite limiting in being able to tell current news or updates that you may really want your patients and community to know about. Solution: Communicate with your patients regularly via internal and external marketing and ensure that through a strategic marketing plan that you’re able to communicate news to the general public too.
5. Problem: Replication. Telling others of your experience is a great way to inform, but unfortunately it is not very replicable. Once it’s done…it’s done. It is difficult to track or measure what the word of mouth message is about your practice, and it is also difficult to reach the vast audience you may desire for your practice (more than just one time). Solution: Public relations achieves exposure to a large audience through media stories about your practice. You might have a great human feature story or how you helped transform someone’s life. This will reach the large audience of potential new patients that word of mouth currently cannot reach and helps send a consistent message about your practice.
Overall, we hear it a lot how word of mouth is the main source of marketing or obtaining new patients for many of the physicians we see. However, due to its limitations and uncontrollable nature, word of mouth is not truly the best form of marketing to rely on when growing your practice and building your future.
Putting a solid plan into place to ensure quality, a consistent and regular message about your practice and evaluation of your efforts will be more effective in reaching your target demographic, ensuring a successful public image throughout your community, and achieving an increased revenue source.