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