Almost everyone wants more new patients or clients in order to arrive at and maintain a full capacity practice, or to be able to add new providers and keep them fully booked too. Right?
This can be achieved through a myriad of marketing strategies and methods which encompass both internal marketing and external marketing.
Let’s examine an often overlooked aspect of internal marketing which is probably the least expensive way to grow your practice. Hint: It involves your own team.
Whether you have one staff member or 50, there are certain qualities that your staff as a team must embody in order to improve your internal marketing and inspire more referrals from your existing clientele.
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Employee attitude towards the practice and its mission:
Your staff should all be loyal fans of your practice and the quality of the care being delivered. You should meet with each staff member privately to solicit their thoughts about the practice, and if there are any negatives, ask for their ideas on what could be done to improve the situation(s). Then work out how to implement and get them done.
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Pride in work:
Each staff member should be striving to deliver or perform the highest level of service to your clientele according to their position in the practice. There is no room for sloppy or careless work or attitudes when dealing with patients or clients. When merited, the staff should also be praised by you (the practice owner) for work well done. Unparalleled quality of service and care reflects well on your practice and may improve the number of new patients through referrals.
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Continuing education:
All staff should take advantage of courses and opportunities to improve their skill levels in the practice. When seminars and courses have been completed, a nice photo of the staff member proudly holding their certificate should be posted on the practice website or Facebook page to let people know that you are proud of your team member and it will inspire confidence in potential patients or clients who are “shopping” your website that your practice will be delivering the highest standards.
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Needs and wants of staff:
It is good from time to time to ask your staff privately about their job satisfaction and also what they need and want to make them look forward to coming into the practice and working each day. This can be very enlightening and should be followed up on to make it so.
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Banish negative emotions:
Armed truces are not conducive to ideal care to the patients. For instance, if you have staff who do not like each other or do not get along, this can be a toxic environment that can generate sour faces and frowns. And don’t think you’re your clientele can’t observe these looks and conclude that your staff are, at best, tolerating each other. However, you also can’t force people to “like” one another completely. But you CAN require that the team members either find things they CAN like about each other and develop some respect for each other and start getting along in a positive fashion, or you may have to take some more drastic action.
While it takes two sticks rubbed together to make a fire, you may have to decide who is more productive or valuable to the practice and who should be replaced. It is up to them to decide if they want to work it out and do so.
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Morning huddles:
Many practices have the team do a “morning huddle” at the beginning of the day to go over who’s coming in today and any special details that would make those people’s visit more memorable. For instance, maybe one of the team knows the person and that it’s their wedding anniversary – so a little Happy Anniversary song could be sung or even played from a cell phone. This could make the person’s day much better!
“Internal” internal marketing plays a huge factor in patient referrals and you should be all over this one if you want to grow; and it is one of the least expensive ways of successfully marketing your practice.
For full blown marketing strategies that are proven to work,
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