Your Practice Is Like A Record Store
Getting your name out there is the first step in successful word-of-mouth. And, in the absence of other information, when people are offered alternatives they’ll nearly always choose the more familiar.
Early Edition - Friday, May 9th, 2008.
Posted
Choosing the people you’d like as patients is the first step. What follows is a simple step-by-step marketing plan for physical therapy practices.
by: Erika Trimble
If your goal is to have more clients and more freedom, and to build a truly prosperous business, this simple 5-step guide will show you how. Follow these steps, and watch your client referrals and revenues double.
1. Identify a target audience to which you want to market.
You cannot market to the world, so choose an audience which you know has a need for, and could derive great benefit from, your services. Consider who you truly enjoy working with, and what your special service strengths are. Then, identify your ideal clients: those who need your services, are easy to find, have the means to make the decision to use physical therapy services, and whose problem your services will solve.
2. Research your target audience to understand what they want and need.
In your research, find answers to these questions:
—what keeps your target audience from enjoying life fully
—what is your target audience afraid of
—what are their top three frustrations
—what trends are occurring in their businesses and lives
—what do they desire most
—where do they typically go for help?
When you have answers to these questions, you’ll know how to market to your target audience, what to say to them, where to reach them, and how you can help them. More on page 148
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Posted
The key to great word-of-mouth is out-of-the-ordinary treatment. Here are five ways to insure a better patient experience.
By Steven L. Brown, MD., PhD.
Patients today have learned that doctors are just like any other group of people. Some of us are good, some are bad, and some are mediocre. The most discerning patients (and those are the ones we all want) evaluate us the same way we have evaluated each other since our training. How would your patients rate you in these five areas?
1. Thoroughness
When I was an intern, one of my residents told me that there were only two reasons not to do a rectal exam: 1) no finger and 2) no rectum. Do you still demonstrate the same thoroughness you did as an intern? Do you ask about the patient’s entire medical background, or pretend you can get away with only focusing on the presenting problem while ignoring the rest? Patients know that the best doctors want to get the whole story.
More on page 145