How
to Use Statistics, Case Studies
and Testimonials to Gain Referrals
"Marketing"
is often considered a dirty word in many professions like medicine, physical
therapy and accounting. It shouldn't be. Just about any successful business
gets a substantial portion of its business from referrals. That requires
getting the word out about your practice -- in other words, marketing.
This week we'll discuss
how you can use SpectraSoft's AppointmentsPRO™ and DocuPRO™ to market your business
by encouraging referrals in a professional, dignified manner. The examples
below focus on physical therapy, but you will find you can easily apply
these concepts and techniques to virtually any type of business.
Step
1 -- Identify Your Audience
Create a list
of physicians, attorneys and other sources from whom you want to receive
referrals. Have you ever created a comprehensive list of all
the professionals in your community who should be sending referrals your
way? If you haven't, you have no way of systematically contacting potential
referrers and measuring your marketing progress. By creating a complete
list, you will be taking the first step toward establishing marketing
goals and and measuring your progress.
Enter your
referral list in your office software. AppointmentsPRO offers detailed referral tracking functions that make it easy to evaluate the status of your referral marketing. (See instructions for AppointmentsPRO referral tracking functions here.) If you don't have AppointmentsPRO, you can try other office software or spreadsheet programs.
Enter your 'prospects' as well as existing referrers. Most users
only add a referral source into their system after they actually get a referral
from that source. By entering all possible referral sources in advance,
you can track your market penetration as well as your overall marketing progress and the potential growth
that awaits you.
Update your referrer list to include all neighboring and nearby zip codes. By mapping your referrers by zip code, you can quickly identify the areas
in your community where you need to add a referrer. You can find a local
zip code map in many yellow page books, or you can get a list of zip codes
within a given radius of your practice at http://zip.langenberg.com.
Step 2 -- Crafting Your Marketing Message
Create a
reason for people to send you referrals. Why should a doctor
send a patient to you instead of someone else? Maybe you specialize in
a certain type of therapy...or you have an excellent track record with
a category of cases...or you consistently get positive comments and testimonials
from patients. Once you descide what your key selling point is...
Use AppointmentsPRO
to compile outcomes statistics, case studies and testimonials that prove your key
selling point. Instead of simply making unsubstantiated claims
about your practice, provide solid evidence that allows potential referrers
to send you their valued clients with confidence. You can start by putting
together basic statistics about your practice. For example, telling a
potential referrer, "Yeah, we do a lot of hip replacement cases,"
is not nearly as impressive as stating, "Yes, 27% of the cases we
handle involve hip replacement, and we’ve discharged 80% of these patients
in five visits or less." Read more on how to use AppointmentsPRO to compile this data...
Compile a sampleing of successful cases you can review with interested referring physicians. You can use AppointmentsPRO
to generate a list of all your cases that fall within a certain category. Or you might be able to do this from memory. After you locate the most impressive cases in your recent past, use the reporting features in SpectraSoft's DocuPRO to generate professionally designed summary reports that a physician can easily review and appreciate.
Collect patient testimonials. Most patients
who have had a positive experience will be happy to give you a testimonial
if you simply ask. Testimonials are one of the most effecftive ways you can market your practice.
Step
3 -- Contact Potential Referrers
There
are many ways to contact your potential referrers and spread your marketing
message. Your goal should be to contact every referrer and potential referer
on a regular basis, using a combination of these methods...
Networking
Events -- Make a habit of attending local association meetings
of physicians, attorneys or other professions so that you can meet your
referrers face-to-face. Before you go, practice sharing a few basic statistics
about your practice that you gleaned from Appointments.™ When you
strike up a conversation with a potential referrer, keep your information
brief and offer to email practice statistics, case studies and testimonials
when you get back to the office.
Letters -- Create a short letter to send to your list of potential referrers.
Briefly state your chief selling point and a few supporting facts about
your practice. Then offer to send detailed practice statistics, case studies
and testimonials on request. You can also point your potential referrers
to a place on your website where you keep this information. Don't just
send this letter once -- keep sending it every 2-3 months to everyone
on your list.
Postcards -- companies like AmazingMail make it easy and affordable to send creative postcards to your referral
list. Again, include some piece of impressive information about your practice
on each card, and offer to provide additional information on the web or
through the mail.
"Work"
Your Existing Referrers -- If you have a referring physician
who is happy with your work, ask that physician about other names on your
list. When they know someone, ask if you can use that physician's name
when contacting other potential referrers. When you are able to say, "Dr.
Smith suggested I give you a call," you will gain instant credibility
that will allow you to explain more about your practice and send some
relevant case studies and testimonials to the physician.
Step
4 -- Blocking Time For Your Referral Program
One key to any successful
marketing program is consistency -- continue to attend events, send out
letters and make phone calls on a regular basis. Block out time in your
column of Appointments™ that you will spend solely on your referral
program. That way your staff will respect this time and not interrupt
you.
As you contact your
potential referrers on a regular basis and provide them with quality of
information that few if any of your competitors can match, your referral
business should grow exponentially over time.Let us know how you’re
doing and if this article was helpful by emailing PMN at editor@practicemanagementnews.com.
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