Though it may sound oversimplified, when you make the decision to increase new patient visits by physician referrals, you will find that opportunities present themselves readily.  Many doctors assume that their peers are thriving and do not need referrals, so you need to relieve them of this misperception. Once you adopt the right mindset, you will notice numerous opportunities in your conversations with other physicians to mention your desire for new patients. 

How you go about spreading the word to your fellow physicians depends on how active you are in participating in social and professional gatherings with your peers.  If you frequently attend social functions with other physicians, you probably won’t need to do much else other than take advantage of the opportunities that are already available to you. 

If you are not as actively involved with your peers, you may have to stretch your comfort zone a bit.  The best way to do this is to simply begin by interacting more with other physicians in your building or facility whom you do not know very well.  Making conversations in the elevator is a basic example of how to do this. Just start, and opportunities will present themselves.

The best way to broach the topic is to approach referrals from the other direction.  A great method is to seek first to provide referrals to other physicians.  Ask questions of your peers to understand their specialty and what constitutes an ideal patient for them, and make it clear that you are ready, willing, and able to send referrals their way, and let them know that you will do so when the opportunity arises. 

Your peers will often then turn around and ask you the same questions so they are best prepared to send you referrals.  Don’t be shy about letting them know you are trying to build your practice and use the word “appreciate” when you mention the idea of referrals.

There are two other things you should keep in mind.  First, do not take your physician referrals for granted. If someone has been consistently sending you referrals, schedule some time to send them a thank you note, or take them to lunch or treat to a round of golf, or something similar.  Let them know you appreciate the referrals and let them know how helpful it has been to you.  And of course, return the favor whenever you can. The more generous you are with referrals, the more you will receive. 

Conversely, if you are consistently sending someone referrals, and they are not returning the favor, don’t be afraid to start sending those referrals to another physician who will return the favor.  Your referrals are valuable, like cash gifts, and you are under no obligation to give out referrals to someone who doesn’t understand their value or appreciate them.

To review, getting new patients in the health care world is the equivalent of “lead generation” in other industries. The same basic dynamics come into play.  While it is true that physicians cannot make the same outrageous claims that many marketers in other industries can, this is not really a serious restriction or obstacle, just something to be aware of. 

Websites are excellent lead generation tools. The mistake most business owners make (including physicians) is trying to make a single website serve too many functions.  A really good website, chock full of valuable, relevant information for existing patients will never be effective as a new patient (lead) generation tool.  And a streamlined, highly focused lead generation website will not meet the needs of existing patients. 

But the costs of creating websites are so low, that there is no reason to try to make a single website “serve two masters”.  Instead, the idea is to first create a marketing plan to generate new patient leads, and then convert those leads into actual new patients for your practice.  Once this plan is outlined, then (and only then) is it time to start thinking about how websites can be employed to help meet the goals of that plan.

But most people do this backwards.  They create websites, and then try to make the website(s) conform to marketing strategies that are written long after the website is created, but this is not effective.  Remember, websites are just marketing and revenue enhancement tools, and should be thought of as such.  They can be highly specialized marketing tools, performing specific functions.

So how does a website generate new patient leads for physicians?  The least expensive yet most effective method is to start advertising on search engines using pay per click marketing, targeted to your practice’s local geographic area.  Google allows you to set this up very easily and affordably, within minutes.  These localized ads are used to encourage people to visit your “lead generation” website. 

On this website, you offer the visitor something of value for free in exchange for their contact information and their “standing” permission to send them information.  The most common “freebie” is a Special Report which contains specific helpful information from a trusted source (you).  Example report topics could be “Five Common Myths About Vasectomies” or “Three Things You Should Know Before Getting ____ Surgery”. 

Ryan Harris
Marketing Professional
Clear Path Marketing
San Diego, CA

However, you need to be aware that people are even more eager to warn people off if they ever receive sub-par service from anyone in your practice. So practicing excellent “customer service” is always important. This may seem oversimplified, but assuming that your patients are happy and satisfied, the only thing you really need to do to get more referrals is to ask for them. Most of us do this on occasion, but rarely on a regular basis. However, if referral requests are done consistently, you can experience easy and continuous growth in your patient base and corresponding revenue.

The key is to not only ask for referrals, but implement a system so that the asking is built-in to your processes, so it happens every time, without fail. Otherwise, if referrals requests are sporadic, they won’t have the overall positive impact that they could if you asked on a regular basis, via a system. Very few medical practices have system in place for referrals, because they are unaware of the idea, or if aware, are not sure how to carry it out in practice. Most physician’s offices have excellent systems for almost every other aspect of patient management, but not for marketing, and patient referrals is an important component of an overall physician marketing strategy. Consistency cannot be overemphasized.

There are two things to consider when it comes to increasing revenue via patient referrals. The first is the timing of the referral request. You need to identify a point in your new patient “indoctrination” at which your patients have received excellent care, and they are in a general upbeat mood and receptive to your request. You don’t want to ask prior to a second or third visit because in most cases the patient will not have had enough significant interaction with your practice to come to a strong conclusion about the overall quality of your care. If you interact with your patients on a consistent schedule this is much easier. Patients who only come in for treatment on an unpredictable schedule are more difficult to approach for this, but it can be done.

The second consideration is the method of format of the request. This is best done by expressing the desire for a referral face to face, but the patient will not want to provide information on the spot because, well, it puts them “on the spot”. It is best to verbally mention how much referrals are appreciated, and then follow up on the request with a physical mailing to their home address. It is best to offer the patient a reward for their referral to show your appreciation. Everyone likes rewards, and your patients are no exception. This will require a small marketing investment on your part, but it will be money well spent.

If you perform elective or cosmetic services, your single best tool will to offer gift certificates or some other form of discount for future services in exchange for the referrals. They key is to provide the gift certificate to the patient as a “thank you”, and provide a second and possibly a third gift certificate to the people they will be referring. The key here is to make sure the gift certificates have an expiration date, usually within 60 days, so that all parties are encouraged to act quickly on the offer. Otherwise they may set it aside and lose track or forget, but a deadline will help them take action. You should follow up with a postcard or not by mail if the gift certificates haven’t been redeemed within thirty days. These mailings should be systematized using CRM software or outsourced using done for you services such as Send Out Cards.

If you provide services that are not elective in nature and which are normally billed to insurance, then you will have to get a little more creative. Instead of gift certificates, it is best to send either hand written thank you notes that contain a referral request, and enclose a token gift.

So few physicians take the time to follow up with thank you notes that the recipient will be pleasantly surprised, and if they have had a positive experience with you, they will be inclined to send new patients to your door.

I have heard cases of a single happy patient referring up to 14 new patients, but they usually won’t do it unless you ask! It may take some time to fine-tune your request process, but once you request referrals on a regular, systematic basis, you will start to see a steady stream of new patients referred by existing patients, and you’ll enjoy an increase in income from it, so begin today!

Keep Your Practice Website Vital

When it comes to getting new patients and increasing revenues, most doctors don’t think of their website as an important tool. In fact, many doctors don’t bother with a website at all, and the ones that do commonly put up a “generic site” that doesn’t contribute at all to the bottom line health of the medical practice as a business. I have found that this is based on some misconceptions about the role and function of the Internet when it comes to providing medical services. Once the role and purpose of websites is clarified, then the websites can be created or modified to suit the business goal.

The most widespread misconception is that the website should be just a digital version of a brochure with basic information such as hours, phone number, directions, a short bio of the doctor and some of the key staff, etc. While it’s true that many websites are just like I described, this is not the purpose or best use of a website for a physician. The truth is that your website can be a “revenue” booster, if you understand how to do so. While doctors may have gotten into medicine to help people, and not necessarily for financial gain, the fact of the matter is that you now are in the business of marketing medical services, and websites can play a major role in the marketing of your services. The better you market your practice, the more help you are providing to people, and the more fulfilled you will feel.

From a business perspective, your website (or websites) can perform two very specific functions. The first function is to help you generate new patients through what marketers have traditionally called “lead generation”. This can be accomplished with the primary website, or through a more specialized website called a “squeeze page” – the purpose of which is to get prospective patients to provide you their contact information, usually in exchange for helpful information.

Once this initial contact has been established, the marketing focus should then shift to the other major business function of a website, which is to provide the information that people need to move them from being just a prospect (potential patient), to being an actual patient. There is no one “right way” of converting prospects to paying patients, but as long as the doctor understands the fundamental purpose of the website, which is to bring in new business, then the specifics of how to accomplish this will be much clearer and easier.

Prospective patients really only need to know two things: The first is what services you provide. More specifically, they need to understand the BENEFITS of the services you provide. Secondly, they need to know why YOU or YOUR PRACTICE is the best provider for these services given that patients have many healthcare options to choose from. It is important for physicians to ask themselves “why choose me?” over any other physician.

Once you have an answer that would be compelling for a prospective patient, then you need to convey this to prospective patients in a way that encourages them take action to become your patient. Your website can be a primary tool to convey the answer to the “WHY ME” question, and provide the prospective patient the information they actually need to move forward with scheduling an appointment. The more specialized your practice, the easier this is to do, but GP’s can do it as well once they identify what makes their practice unique or notable among other GP’s in the area.

If you take this perspective that your website can play a key role in the marketing of your medical services, then you will look at your website in a whole new light. The next article in this series will go into greater detail about reaching more new patients through your website, and how to do this quickly and affordably.

Ryan Harris
Marketing Professional
Clear Path Marketing
San Diego, CA

Here’s why:Websites play several very important roles in your practice. At the most mundane end of the spectrum, a website provides patients or potential patients with your critical contact information, hours, directions, maps, etc. This is convenient for the patient, and helps reduce the number of repetitive calls that come in to your front desk or receptionist.

More importantly, a website can help offload many of the common tasks that your staff performs as it pertains to answering patient questions, providing routine instructions, etc. Any repetitive task that involves conveying information from you or your staff, to your patient, is an appropriate task that can be “offloaded” to your website. In addition, any literature that you have in your offices that is helpful and informative to your patients should be uploaded to the website, which provides greater convenience for the patient. Respect for your patient’s time is the unspoken message, and patients do respond to that. A very full-featured website can even help you eliminate staff, reducing expenses considerably.

But the single most important role of a website (and the primary reason that you need a website NOW) is for marketing purposes. As you have probably noticed, when the economy tightens, people reduce their visits to doctors at all ends of the spectrum, from basic preventative care to high end cosmetic procedures. Years ago, having a medical license and an office space was sufficient to build a thriving practice.

With constantly decreasing reimbursements and increased focus on efficiency and results, doctors must act much more like other types of business owners. They have to do what they can to earn “market share”. You can no longer take your revenue for granted, and you should look for ways to reduce costs as well as bring in larger streams of revenue. Therefore, bringing in new customers (patients) is one of the primary roles of physicians who want thriving medical practices.

A website can be the single most effective tool to bring in new patients, and done properly, it can also be the single most cost-effective method as well. If you had the opportunity to have a face to face consultation with every prospective new patient, you would probably “close” a high percentage of those and convert them into new patients. But your time is limited and very valuable, so this obviously is not possible.

But you can accomplish the next best thing by using your website as a communications tool.
As a communications and marketing tool, a website can help your prospective patients learn everything about you and your services that you would normally convey during a face to face consultation. But with video on your website, you can do this with greater and greater numbers of prospective patients without cutting into your time available for actual patients.

The use of video in particular is an excellent way to reach out to your current and prospective patients, to bring them news, information, and advice. Anything that you could say to a group of people, you can say using video on your website.

These are all excellent reasons for you to create a website for your practice. And fortunately you don’t have to know a thing about internet technology to get a high quality website and an internet presence. You just need to be able to identify the features you want in a website, and outsource the creation of the site to a qualified professional. Your patients will thank you for making your practice and information more convenient, and you will love to see your practice grow as a result!

Ryan Harris
Marketing Professional
Clear Path Marketing
San Diego, CA