Geisinger Health System (GHS) made the news a year ago with a ground breaking commitment to patient experience. GHS was the first hospital group to offer money-back refunds on their care...and with no questions asked. The retail world provides patient experience lessons. The program is for “patients whose experiences and expectations were not met with kindness and compassion.” […]
Podcasts enjoy a heritage of online content that can be compelling and engaging. Podcasting is relatively inexpensive, easy to produce and often underutilized in healthcare digital marketing. And when they are done properly, creating online audio podcasts is an effective content connection between you and your audience. Related: 5 Best Healthcare Podcasts 2018 Podcasts begin […]
The adoption curve for virtual healthcare and telehealth has been mighty steep. In the real world, a large slice of the American public expects everyday living to be “digitally-enabled”...faster, quicker and easier. But healthcare delivery has been a sluggish exception. This picture is changing, and with it, your healthcare marketing and advertising plans may be […]
We’ve long been a fan of LinkedIn for physicians, healthcare professionals and hospital executives. Facebook features friends and family. Twitter is fast and furious. But LinkedIn is the business-serious social media. Until now, that is. LinkedIn is unveiling a major facelift. The redesign aims to make LinkedIn users more social, informed, connected and engaged. (While […]
[Series Installment] As the US healthcare delivery system becomes increasingly consumer-driven, patient satisfaction is more important than ever. Forward thinking medical practices routinely put the patient/consumer at the center of their progressive planning. Hospitals and medical systems have the standardized HCAHPS instruments. Increasingly providers and marketing professionals want to hear the voice of the customer through […]
[Series Installment] There’s an important lesson here for healthcare marketing. It seems the retail world is increasingly hungry for consumer feedback. Here’s why doctors, hospitals and medical marketing professionals need, more than ever, to take a page from service industries, brand names and merchandisers. A reliable measure of customer satisfaction—how products or services meet or exceed […]
Hospitals, as well as some medical practices, can use public service announcements (PSAs) to communicate “messages in the public interest.” The good new and the bad news about creating a public service announcement is that it’s free. Well…that is to say, it’s nearly free. There’s no charge for any broadcast time or print ad space, which can […]
The business of physician referrals—that stream of new cases and revenue—depends on maintaining a solid relationship with colleagues. Doctor-to-doctor patient referrals rely on a trust and confidence that goes beyond your CV, clinical skills and professional experience. Your reputation is on the line. I have the good fortune to travel throughout the country working with […]
Change can be hard to embrace. The nation’s healthcare delivery system—which has traditionally been slow to adjust—is experiencing unprecedented reform. And with it, one significant consequence is the need for healthcare branding, rebranding or a completely new approach. The Affordable Care Act and other social dynamics have changed the fundamentals of doing business. Maybe you are […]
[Series Installment] There’s a line of thinking quietly at work among a few healthcare practices that says: “Simply being a good doctor will guarantee success.” A few satisfied patients will fuel “word-of- mouth,” and that’s all you need in business. There’s a lot of appeal to the idea of attracting new patients with near-no-cost marketing […]
A close friend of mine shared a personal story that’s worth re-telling. It illustrates a real-world patient experience that moved the measure of satisfaction from “simply satisfied” to “raving fan” status. Although this story comes from the dental profession, the core concept will easily transfer to other healthcare specialties. Consider how you can apply this […]
Real-world marketing stories come to my attention with increasing regularity. And, frequently, they reinforce the strategic importance and positive benefits of online reviews by patients. Prospective patients are doing their homework. As many as 85 percent of patients are choosing doctors based on, or assisted by, online reviews, according to the frequently cited study by […]
This question is a tantalizing, but kinda-easy, riddle. How can the largest retail operation in the US have no stores? The answer, of course, is that the Internet (and online shopping) has given us Amazon.com. And, by market value, it’s bigger than Walmart. But Amazon and other online shopping centers have a high-priority need to […]
More than a few doctors, dentists and other providers suffer from “case presentation phobia.” This seems especially common with elective care discussions. Skilled and experienced providers may have buried the ill-at-ease feeling, and they probably have “avoidance systems” in place that point to someone else in the office. But, in fact, they hate making a case […]
Just up the street there’s a popular restaurant that greets customers as they’re arriving. Often a staff person will open the door, and, with a bright smile, offer a warm greeting of “Welcome Back!” The thing is, EVERYONE gets the “welcome back” greeting, even first-time guests, and even if the greeter and guest have never […]
Face-to-face with patients, doctors are expected to do more and communicate better within the same or less time with the patient. It’s the “catch-22” of healthcare’s patient-centered, world. In addition to excellence in clinical care, and a positive outcome, effective and empathetic communications is the essential ingredient. The typical “10-minute-and-10-second” doctor-patient encounter is an agenda […]
[Series Installment] Not long ago, we were talking with the lead physician of a multispecialty medical practice. She was losing sleep because the once-dependable physician referral pipeline had become a leaking bucket. We discovered that part of the problem was the competitive environment of roll-ups, consolidations, mergers and acquisitions in the marketplace. Longstanding referral bridges […]
Many doctors and medical practice executives have their marketing brains on overdrive. They’re looking for new, better, improved and/or more efficient ways to attract new patients and cases. The marketing and advertising plan (a left-over from last year) isn’t delivering results. The entire competitive landscape has changed, and not for the better. New patients seem […]
Many of us at Healthcare Success have visited many hospitals and health care campuses around the country; usually on business, and occasionally as a visitor or patient. More often than not, navigating a large and unfamiliar building is a confusing and unsettling experience. If simply finding their way around is a challenge for a patient […]
It seems like the “popular buzz” attaches to the big names in social media, with Facebook, Twitter and a couple others at the top of the list. But it turns out that email marketing continues to outdistance social media for customer acquisition by a mile. [Custora E-Commerce report] Of course both social media and email […]
A highly successful internist we know frequently enhances his doctor-patient encounters with low-key, casual (but purposeful) chitchat. It turns out that the friendly anecdotes always have a useful healthcare punch line. He skillfully brings home a vital clinical lesson or advice wrapped in an interesting, disarming and personable story. “Doctor Bill,” our internist friend, polished […]
Keeping up with what’s-new-and-creative among thousands of hospital and healthcare videos is daunting. YouTube alone has about a billion (with a B) active users each month. And every marketing-smart hospital in the US has embraced the engaging, educational and entertaining power of online video. The relatively low cost of video production, and the high user […]
A core consideration in social media is that people interact and do business with people that they feel they know, like and trust. And for hospital executives, medical practitioners and marketing professionals there’s no better online forum than LinkedIn to connect with peers, organizations and ideas as a means to showcase your reputation. LinkedIn is the […]
Among the trending buzzwords in healthcare marketing are labels related to the “consumer decision journey,” patient journey,” or even “purchasing funnel.” The orderly process steps in selecting a healthcare provider begins online with research, awareness and other steps that lead to a provider selection and a new patient appointment. But don’t kid yourself; patients don’t […]
The non-verbal side of communications is so easily overlooked that…well, it’s often seen but ignored. It doesn’t communicate or it miscommunicates. In the simple routine of a doctor-patient encounter, the physician’s ability to diagnose and treat a medical condition is a major communications exchange. And body language—the gestures, postures, expressions that communicate physical, mental or emotional […]
