(e)Merging Practice Growth Trends:
April Update
Branding your Practice: it’s more than just a logo!
A successful brand is a major
asset to any practice and can build a loyal patient base. However, branding is more than designing a logo,
advertisements, colors, and matching letterheads. The most
important aspect of branding is fulfilling an experience.
Here are some topics to consider when branding your
practice:
Differentiation- you should be considering
what sets you apart from your competition. What unique
selling points can you provide? To determine what sets you
apart, take the time to sit down and evaluate your practices
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. These
differentiating factors can attract new patients and retain
existing patients, because you’re offering something that
other practices cannot. After you have determined what sets
you apart, develop growth strategies to help you get to
where you want to be.
Expectation- While branding your practice
you should also take the time to constantly monitor your
mission statement and evaluate whether or not you are
walking the walk and talking the talk. Many practices use
their marketing materials to describe the lavish services
and procedures offered by their practice, but never follow
through with the quality expectations they have established.
Are you being true to the mission you have set forth? Do
the values, beliefs, and behaviors reflect your mission
statement?
Image- The image of your practice consists
of a number of things including customer satisfaction,
patient experience, staff performance, quality waiting
rooms, and developing relationships with other practices.
It may be difficult to make the connection between brand
building and patient experience, but by providing superior
patient experience you are branding that experience into
their brain to be shared with all of their loved ones.
Staff performance is also a key to successful branding
because your staff is often times the first encounter your
patients experience, starting with the receptionist and
ending with the billing department. If your staff is not
courteous and friendly it can taint your quality brand. If
you are going to market a specific attitude (friendly staff)
or service you must uphold that promise to every patient
that walks in the door. Waiting rooms are a great way to
display the quality your practice can provide.
We’ve all
heard, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but it is
inevitable. Developing relationships with referring
practices is also a great step towards quality branding
because you can create win-win situations for all parties
involved. However, when building these relationships it is
very important to only affiliate yourselves with practices
that share similar missions, visions, and standards of
care. If the referring physician does not provide a quality
experience, the patient might feel like they’re being
referred to a mediocre practice.
To better communicate your brand and the experience you are trying to
provide, take the time to engage in specific patient target
groups. For example, you can develop charity events like a
Relay for Life team and encourage your patients to get
involved. This will create a strong emotional attraction
and attachment to the patients’ experiences. You can also
get engaged by using social media tools. Utilize Twitter,
Facebook, and YouTube to create relevant discussion topics,
promote activities, and connect with your patients. If you
want to successfully brand your practice just remember, we
are judged everyday and like it or not branding is
important. As we all know, you only get one chance to make
a first impression and Jonathan Whistman, Director of
Business Strategy at (e)Merge says it perfectly when he
states, “Perception is a reality, whether that perception is
right or wrong. How you present yourself affects your
bottom line.”
Put it into Practice!
 Make
sure your actions speak louder than your words.
A recent client promotes the
importance of the patient experience, but frequently leaves
patients on hold for more than fifteen minutes.
Do you truly care about your patients?
How does your practice
measure up?
With our exhaustive 130 point mystery
shopping review, you’ll know the answer. Give us a call or
email Jamie today to discuss how our mystery shopping
services can ensure practice growth in 2010!
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