“you can’t sell a secret” have you heard that saying before? I have been surprised before when a regular patient has mentioned that they went elsewhere an extra service that our clinic offers. This is no fault of the patient but ours – we were not clear to the patient what services we offered.
If you offer extended skills and special interest care in your clinic, patients much prefer to stay with you, you just have to tell them about the service!
At our practice we have had two new doctors join who would like to expand their skin cancer care work. I have been working on this, using some of the ideas from promoting my vasectomy work. We have been updating Google My Business, we are creating a stand alone website and have been active in the montly newsletters about skin checks.
I have been surprised, although maybe I should not have been that patients I have seen for years have mentioned they are going to book for the new skin check clinic, never having asked me. I obviously had not offered this, not made it clear it was something we could easily do and so the patient did not see it as part of the menu of services they could get from me.
How to help the patient know your offers? There has to be multiple reminders – on your website, on your booking system, posters, newsletters and push notifications like SMS or in-app, depending on your booking system. If other doctors refer to you for your niche there needs to be clear information for them about what you offer and the reminder you will send them back to the original doctor when the task is completed. Lots of letters back help here.
The patient is not you – just because you think email marketing, social media does not work or is annoying, the patient does not need to think this. The patient has a problem and wants to be provided with the solution.
How will you make it crystal clear what you offer?