Client Profile: North American Spine on Fox News

Dr. Rothstein of North American Spine & patient Lyle R. being interviewed on the nationally televised Fox & Friends morning show this week.

This is a spine practice that is doing all the right things when it comes to medical marketing. To learn more about medical marketing strategies that work, get my FREE REPORT HERE.

Through a comprehensive medical and patient marketing strategy, North American Spine, based in Dallas, Texas has helped bring their proprietary AccuraScope procedure to thousands of patients across the United States, Canada, and patients of many other countries.

Do Your Patients Get What You Promise?

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post entitled: What Are You Selling Your Patients…talking about providing the best”patient experience” possible.  After talking to a friend of mine this past week, it reminded me that I need to add another important comment about that.

My friend Matt, has some back injuries and had called me knowing one of my clients, NorthAmericanSpine.com has pioneered an incredible procedure that might be able to help him.  When we talked, I gave him some information, and also suggested he call some other surgeons to find out about other procedures  to ultimately determine the best possible solution for him. 

He took my advice and called on another well known group of surgeons in Texas that supposedly have a great procedure for people with back pain.  This is a group that advertises everywhere, has a fancy website, billboards all over the highways, tv commercials, radio ads, and on & on…that portray this group being a high-end, top-notch practice providing great results.  They have a fancy clinic & perform surgery at a state of the art facility.  Sounds like a place I’d want to go if I needed back surgery.

But…here’s the problem.  Matt had seen all of this great information, and all the hundreds of thousands of dollars of advertising hoopla to make him feel good about the group.  Until he picked up the phone to call them.

The first person that answered the phone was rude to him, acting like she didn’t have the time to talk to a new patient.  By the way, Matt would be paying cash for a $20,000 surgery. She asked him to fax over his MRI for the FREE MRI review they advertise on their website.  They proceeded to lose the MRI, yet didn’t follow up with him.  After a few days Matt called back, the girl in the office let him know they misplaced it, and acting bothered again, asked him to fax it again.  He did, and guess what?  They lost it again!

At that point, he decided if that’s how they were going to treat a patient before he decided to go there, how bad was it going to be after he had surgery?!  They were history after that.

My first point here is this: Just putting your marketing out there is not enough!  You must make sure all of your processes and systems are congruent with your marketing messages.  If through your marketing you present yourself as a highly professional, well-run organization, everyone within your practice better present themselves as such, starting with the person who answers the phone, through the checkout person at the clinic, and continuing with all of the follow up you’re doing (or should be doing) with your patients.  All of your marketing dollars spent are dollars wasted if your practice is not consistent from top to bottom.

My second point is this: I guarantee you the owners of this practice have NO IDEA this is happening!  I see it all the time in practices of all specialties as well as business in general.  The doctors are busy, and think that everything seems to be getting done, but boy are they wrong.

Something I’m a big advocate of is “mystery shopping”.  Which is having someone call your practice acting like they’re a patient, going through the entire phone process & reporting back to the doctors and practice administrator.  I’ve always done this in my businesses and its an easy way to make sure your processes are followed day in and day out.  By the way, you’d be shocked at some of the things you here people say to your patients…and I don’t mean that in a good way.

It’s imperative your practice is consistent in the message you’re sending you patients, and to make sure your entire organization, whether big or small, properly conveys this message.

If you’ve not read my Free Report that talk more about this, click HERE TO GET IT NOW.

Until next time,

Adam

Dr. Jon Paley talks about his success with High Performance Medical Marketing

“My name is Jonathan Paley.  I’m an orthopedic surgeon who practices in Dayton, Ohio.  For the last 17 years I’ve been in private, solo practice here in the Dayton area.  Sometimes it’s difficult when competing against the larger groups to get new patient consults.  Adam Arnette has done a fantastic job with marketing my practice through his High Performance Medical Marketing program.

I encourage anyone who is seriously wanting to compete in the difficult medical markets to contemplate Mr. Arnette’s program.  He has a special personal touch that he utilizes and has done an outstanding job not only with my staff, but also with my practice volume.

We’ve watched our patient volume increase considerably in just the last 6 months.  I encourage you to visit our website at www.DrPaley.com to witness firsthand some of Adam’s work.  He’s done a great job and I wholly and fully endorse him.  Adam has done a wonderful job.  He is excellent, and I guarantee you will see results”.

-Dr. Jon Paley, M.D.     Dayton Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, Dayton, Ohio

A Strategy Guaranteed To Drive So Many Patients Through Your Door, It’s…SCARY!

At our house every Halloween, it never fails.  We literally have a line of kids from the front door all the way out to the sidewalk waiting for their “Trick or Treat”.  It’s an absolute blast and a fun holiday when you have twin 7 year old girls.

If you see it , it really is amazing, however it’s not very different at several other houses in our neighborhood.  We happen to live in a neighborhood with a lot of kids and also get bombarded with the kids from the surrounding neighborhoods, so there’s no special reason the kids line up at our house instead of some of the others.  Yet,  there are many other houses that hardly get any trick or treaters.

As I said, there’s no special reason, but there is a reason nonetheless.  The reason is this:

We let it be known, that we are open for business!  We have the house lights on, inside and out, we have decorations in the yard, and we sit on the front porch with big buckets of candy.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “This sounds fun and all, but what does this have to do with getting patients to my practice”???  The answer:  EVERYTHING.

As a practice owner / business owner, you get tunnel vision.  You get complacent after time, even if you’re not satisfied with your practice.  In fact just today, I met with the executive of a group that manages over 450 physicians in all specialties, but mostly primary care.

I asked him, what are you doing right now to drive patients through the door.  His answer was interesting.  He said, “We don’t have to do anything right now.  It’s the peak of the flu season and our practices are overloaded with patients.  However, the Summer months were pretty slow”.  He continued to talk about the seasonal fluctuation of patients, which also means what to the doctor?

Fluctuating patient volume equals fluctuating income.

So here’s a simple strategy that, when done properly, will keep your patient flow steady week in and week out, having the same result on your income.

Targeted Direct Mail.

When done properly, a strategic and ongoing direct mail campaign will consistently drive new patients into your practice week in and week out.  It is one of the cheapest, and easiest forms of media to use that can generate fantastic results.  It’s an extremely effective way to let targeted patients know that you’re open for business – that your lights are on.  Most practices overlook this strategy, or execute it without proper planning.  Your practice is just like any other business.  If your “customers” don’t know you’re there, they won’t be coming to your practice.

Now on the contrary, if a direct mail campaign is done improperly, with no plan or strategy in place, the incorrect message, improper systems to handle and track the calls, you’ll get zilcho.

If you’ve not yet received my report on how to use this strategy and many others to propel your practice, click here to get the FREE REPORT: How To Avoid The Practice Death Sentence.

Until next time,

Adam

How Can You Control The Uncontrollable In Your Practice?

The video below is an interview of an OB-GYN in New York who’s practice is being eaten alive by the cost of malpractice insurance.  There’s no doubt this is a sensitive subject for doctors across the country, but this post isn’t really to talk about how to lower malpractice costs.

It’s to bring up the point that in your practice, it’s more important than ever to master the things you can control to make up for rising insurance costs, and decreasing reimbursement.

Practicing “good” medicine, or being a “good” doctor is no longer enough to make a living. You must be an expert at constantly generating new patients, building an automatic referral machine, and knowing how to keep the patients you already have. If you don’t have these 3 key pieces in place in your practice, there’s no telling how many patients your missing out on, or losing every month.

To get my FREE REPORT that tells you 6 Things You Can Do Now To Have Massive Success In Your Practice, CLICK HERE.

Until next time,

Adam

Are You Overcomplicating Your Practice Marketing Efforts?

Most of the practices I work with were doing very little marketing before they met me.  However, every now and then I come across a practice that’s spending a lot of time attempting overly complicated marketing tasks, or trying to be clever.

Every now & then this works, but most of the time it backfires, especially if not part of a well-conceived overall strategy.

Here’s a prime example of when trying to be clever or overcomplicating things just doesn’t work:

Most people enjoy not only watching the super bowl each year, but also can’t wait to see all of the entertaining commericals during the game. Big companies spend millions with the advertising agencies, and they put together all sorts of funny, clever & entertaining commercials.

What’s interesting is most people the next day may remember what was funny about the commercial, however rarely can they remember what the product was that was being sold on the commercial!

Here’s a test for you.  The day after the next super bowl, you’ll probably be able to remember some of the funnier commercials, but the test is this: See if you can remember the company the commercial was supposed to be promoting.  Most people can only remember what was funny or clever, but can’t remember what the commercial was for.  Now that you’ve been made aware, you’ll probably be more apt to remember, however the masses can’t.

So first start with the basics in your marketing efforts.  First focus on matching your message to your market, and make sure you marketing piece includes all of the key elements to maximize response, which I’ll talk about next time.

Adam

P.S.  If you haven’t received my FREE REPORT yet, CLICK HERE TO GET IT NOW.

How Many Days Until Your Patients Can See You?

Recently I woke up with a miserable sinus infection and knew I needed to get to my doctor immediately.  I called right when his office opened, let them know the problem, and the polite scheduler let me know the first available appointment was in about a week!  Not good when you’re sick, and can be even worse when you’re in pain.

There was a survey done this year on physician wait times across the country (Merrit Hawkins & Assoc 2009 Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times).  I was frankly amazed (even shocked) at how long the wait times were for the different regions.  I’ll give you a few examples:  Dallas 45  Days for Orthopedics, Boston 54 Days for Dermatology, Minneapolis 47 Days for Cardiology, Los Angeles 63 Days for Family Practice.

I don’t know about you, but that seems outrageous to me!  If you’re in pain due to an orthopedic problem, or have a horrible sinus infection, 10 days could seem like a lifetime, let alone 63!

One of my orthopedic clients sees 1,000 patients per month.

His average wait time:  5 Days!

Not only that, but if a patient has a bad injury or fracture, his staff will almost always get them in the same day.  They strive in every way to offer the best patient experience, and this includes making their practice convenient for their patients.  Whether you want to believe it or not, a medical practice is a business, and your customers (patients) not only expect, but will demand excellent customer service.  Oh, and guess what.  He’s in the top 1% of compensation in the nation in his specialty.  This is not a coincidence.

Oh, and back to my doctor that couldn’t get me in…I went somewhere else.  You might be surprised how many patients you’re losing.

To find out more about how to maximize your patients and profits, CLICK HERE.

Until next time,

Adam

Is Your Practice Marketing Budget A Cost Center?

Talking with an orthopedic client today, he told me about a crazy, but all too common conversation he had recently with another orthopedic surgeon.

His colleague was telling him how their group practice was just getting killed in this “recession”. He went on to say that they were cutting back on marketing expenses and other “costs” in their practice so they could deal with their business dropping off.

That may seem like the intuitive thing to do when things get tough, bit in fact it’s the absolute worst thing you can do.

The first and biggest mistake this doctor is making is looking at marketing as a cost.

On the contrary, it’s actually the biggest and most important INVESTMENT you MUST make in your practice now and in the future of your practice.

It’s even more important in a down economy.

My client & I went on to talk about how this was a good thing for him. See, he clearly understands the immense value that the right marketing strategy that is properly engineered brimgs to his practice.

To keep it simple, he doesn’t look at spending $3,000 this month on a targeted marketing campaign as an expense.

He knows that $3,000 investment will bring him between $10,000 & $30,000 in revenue.

Try getting that return anywhere else.

To get my FREE REPORT that tells you how you can do this in your practice, now, go to www.DoctorMarketingSuccess.com

Until next time,

Adam

What are you “selling” your patients? HINT: It’s not good quality medical care.

All too often we as business owners have tunnel vision, and just assume we know what our customers or patients “want”.  It may come as a big surprise, but your patients aren’t really coming to you for good quality medical care.  In fact, most consumers really aren’t “buying” the physical product or the defined service at all.

I know what you’re thinking…”Of course my patients come to me for the best care!”  Well, Yes.  But, really, No.

One of the most important things to remember about your customer is this:  You Are Not Your Customer.

Your patients do want good quality medical care, but that’s mostly secondary.  What they really want is a great experience when they visit your practice.  An experience that provides them assurances that they’re being taken care of as a priority patient, and most importantly, that they have peace of mind regarding the hands their medical care is in, yours.  This is done by creating a great “Patient Experience”.

When your patient walks out the door, they should feel that they were the only patient that was being seen in your practice today.  If you’ve ever stayed at a Four Seasons Resort Hotel, then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.  When you check in, everyone addresses you by name, they don’t miss a beat getting your bags to the room & making sure all of your needs are anticipated.  They even memorize the guests names and address you by name the entire duration of your stay.

So the lesson here is this:  As a customer at the Four Seasons, I’m not really just looking for a very nice, clean hotel, though that is part of what I want.  What really keeps me coming back, is their ability to cater to what I really want, which is the customer experience.  I know I’m always going to be treated, and taken care of much better than most other places I would stay.

The same goes for your patients.  They don’t just want good quality medical care.  They want to have a fantastic patient experience in addition to the end product of the medical care.  If you engineer your practice to provide this, you can effectively put a virtual corral around your patients and they will never go anywhere else.  They’ll also tell tons of people about their experience, bringing you new patients by the droves.

If you can effectively do this in your practice by providing the ultimate patient experience, you can kiss your competition goodbye, no matter what they economy is doing, and no matter how long they’ve been in practice.

To learn more about how to engineer your practice, providing the best patient experience,  CLICK HERE FOR MY FREE REPORT.

Until next time,

Adam

3 Top Rules For Marketing Accountability In Your Practice

One of the biggest sins in practice marketing is not being able to answer yes to the following question:

Is There Financial Accountability For ALL Of The Marketing In Your Practice?

Following are 3 of my top rules to make sure your answer to this question is a resounding, “Yes!”:

Rule #1: Don’t Ever Spend Without A Plan

The majority of practices and businesses I’ve worked with have virtually NO marketing plan or strategy in place before implementing my systems.  For the most part, everything they’re doing is scatter shot – some of the strategies getting results, some getting none.  What’s interesting about this is that most of the time, practices without a sound strategy in place spend MUCH MORE on marketing and advertising, primarily because what they’re doing is not generating results.  You must have a purposeful plan in place.

Rule #2:  Don’t Do It If You Can’t Track It

If you’re considering spending money on something you really can’t track, then you don’t do it.  Period.  If you can’t track it, you’ll never know if it works so there is no point in spending any marketing dollars on it whatsoever.  In reality, there really aren’t many things that can’t be tracked, it’s that most practices just don’t do it.

I recently worked with a plastic surgeon who had paid a lot of money to an advertising firm to have a commercial created for his practice which played on a big screen at a busy health club.  Other than the fact that the commercial did not have a specific marketing message, any potential calls from this ad were not being tracked. He had no tracking identifier for the ad, and his front office staff didn’t know how to gather this information from potential new patient calls generated from the ad.  The Result?  NONE (except money down the drains).  Which leads me to…

Rule #3:  Track It!

Once you’ve spent hours and hours and a bunch of money on a marketing strategy, if you don’t religiously track it, you’ve wasted TONS of time, and TONS of money for nothing.  Once you’ve created a message to your target patient, this is the most critical aspect of anything else you do.  You absolutely must know where every call comes from, have a system in place to compile the information, so you can ultimately determine the return (or not) on your invested marketing dollars.

Tip:  All of your tracking mechanisms must be in place BEFORE you initiate the marketing campaign.

Purposefully tracking all of your marketing efforts will allow you to follow your plan, focus on what’s working, and eliminating the waste.

To find out how to implement useful, proven strategies that get results, CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR MY DOCTORMARKETINGSUCCESS.COM NEWSLETTER.

Until next time,

Adam

Client Testimonial: NorthAmericanSpine.com

Vance Wells, Executive Vice President of Marketing for NorthAmericanSpine.com, a national healthcare company providing the most innovative surgery for relief of back pain. Vance talks about his experience with Adam’s High Performance Medical Marketing Strategies.

What Part of Your Practice Is Broken?

As a practitioner you are most likely deeply immersed in your day to day activities of seeing patients, performing surgery & making rounds. You’ve endured years of training to provide your patients with the best care possible as well as a great patient experience, however the patient’s experience with your practice starts LONG before they ever set foot in your door.  The patient has to go through several steps just to get to the exam room, and if just one of those steps is broken, you may lose a patient.  Dan Kennedy calls it “broken bridges” within a business, in your case, your practice.

So the questions you need to ask yourself are:

What part (or parts) of my practice that affect my patient may be broken?

How do I even figure that out?

And furthermore, how do I solve the problem?

To answer all of these questions, you have to look at all of the steps individually that your patient is currently going through in order to have a good understanding of what may be broken.  This can take some time, and you’ll have to get with your staff as well, as they spend more time connecting with the patient than you.

Once you’ve walked through all those steps, a great way to correct them is to reverse engineer the process.  Start hypothetically with an extremely happy patient at the end of the visit who has just had the greatest experience, and walk them backward through the entire process, all the way to the time she first came in contact with your office.

If you take the time to go through this process, you’ll be amazed at the cracks you uncover in your processes that can easily be changed, and which will consequently bring more patients to your office.

To get my “Reverse Engineering Process Checklist”, click HERE to sign up for my newsletter & I’ll send it to you!

Until next time,

Adam

How To Avoid The Practice Death Sentence