Marketing Your Practice
Marketing a physician practice, regardless of the specialty, is simply providing excellent and compassionate care to your patients. However, your first step is to share a little information about you and your practice with peers – and the community. You will need to identify the audience, in the community and/or medical community, you want to reach. Then try these simple steps:
- PYP – “Pamper your patients!” Again, excellent customer service is important and sometimes little things mean a lot. Think about sending birthday greetings or keeping other personal information in the patient's chart (a special section of the chart for personal information, such as Mrs. Smith lives alone with her two cats, Sandy and Mandy).
- Patient surveys: keep in touch. Patients are often happy to complete short surveys to let you know how satisfied they were with their visit and your practice. Share the results of your patient surveys with all of your staff. You may even have your staff help in creating the questions for your survey.
- Is your practice customer and patient-friendly? Free, easy access parking, complete and clear signage, clean restrooms, coffee and water available for your patients, new magazines in the waiting area (for men, women and children), a coat rack, comfortable and adequate seating and so on.
- Provide your front desk staff with a customer service program and then work on developing a “script” together. That will help your employees know exactly what you expect of them in communicating with the patients, families, and referring physicians.
- What are your practices strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats? Play up your strengths through your promotional vehicles, such as your practice's Web site, print ads, or radio and TV spots. Not all of these methods are successful for all types of practices. Utilize patient/customer testimonials through your promotional efforts. Let your patients/customers tell your story!
- Your practice should have a recognizable practice name and logo or image that is used consistently on all marketing and promotional material, correspondence and advertising. Your name and logo should reflect the type of care and image you want to share with your patients and the community.
- Sponsor activities throughout your community, such as special events, chamber breakfasts, fire department screenings, etc. Speak at a senior community center, a high school or set up a booth at a health fair.
- If you're a primary-care physician, send a direct mail postcard to your target audience, within select ZIP codes, letting the community know when you're accepting new patients. Offer a free get-acquainted visit. List your phone number, address, directional map, office hours, website, services, information on your and your staff and your philosophy of patient care.
- If you are a specialist or sub-specialist, you need to send prompt, complete, and legible follow-ups to referring physicians, and don't forget to thank them. Consider "lunch-and-learn" meetings to help other physicians get to know you. Share and use your e-mail for easier access and communication. Consistent, on-going, friendly, honest, personal face-to-face and timely communications is the key to a strong relationships with the physicians who refer patients to your practice.
- Send small gifts that give a reminder about your practice and services. For example, if you're a podiatrist, send a foot pedicure kit imprinted with the practice's name and phone number to a referring physician or new patient.
- Obtain a listing through your local Yellow Pages advertising. Look to your YP representative to offer you on-line advertising banner.
- Develop a practice Web site that reflects your philosophy of care and your image. Your Web site should be easy to navigate and have a simple url address. access to email communications for patients (for appointments, prescriptions). Remember, all correspondence with patients needs to be secure and follow HIPAA guidelines.
If you have any questions regarding this information please contact Sue Yeskie, director of marketing and communications at Westview Medical Campus,
(317) 920-7283, or email Sue at sue.yeskie@westviewhospital.org.