Practice Management, Commercial Strategy And Brand Marketing In Healthcare

By Geoffrey Cooling

Customer Service And Healthcare Marketing

I am back to say it again, every part of your Practice, every facet of your Practice, every customer facing touch point is your brand. Therefore you should approach it in the same manner and with the solid belief that it is part of your healthcare marketing strategy. Because simply put it is, how your Practice looks, how your staff deal with your Patients and prospective Patients, all of the communications that you undertake speak to your brand.

What spurred me to write this post was a recent article I read on customer service. It pertained to customer service and social media, but it got me thinking. Customer service is a function within every business organisation. It is a function a term even that is often taken for granted. It is easy for us as we are caught up in the hurly burly of the management of a business to lose focus on the concept or even pass over what it means to your business.

Your Customer service is an integral part of your brand, how you and your staff deal with all comers speaks to who you are as a Healthcare Provider. I firmly believe that your Patient’s perception of your Practice is your brand. I also believe that your brand is a huge part of your healthcare marketing strategy. Your Patient is or can be your single most effective healthcare marketing channel. With these concepts in mind it is then an imperative that you carefully control and set policy for all of the possible customer facing touch points within your business.

The Patient Experience

Which brings me to the second article I read that framed the terms of this post. Your Patient’s experience of you as a healthcare provider. You think you know what it is, in fact you may even be correct. But have you asked? If you haven’t asked you are leaving something of massive import to supposition. If you are going to ask, you should do it properly. Set out a well thought out survey that covers questions pertaining to your Practice and your Patient’s perception of it as a healthcare provider.

Perhaps to get meaningful feedback you may make it anonymous. Then you may be able to get true feedback from your Patients and prospective Patients on your customer service, on your efficacy, on your brand feel. Only then can you continuously assess your customer service activities, your Patient’s experience of you as a healthcare provider. This information will then give you the power to constantly fine tune your Practice, to assess your performance and the performance of your staff, to furnish the best Patient experience. Patient experience sets Patient perception, Patient perception sets your brand. All of these things are major components of your healthcare marketing.

Regards

Geoff