Just Audiology Stuff

Questions You Need To Ask Yourself To Develop Your Business

2012-02-28T15:30:00.000Z

Think long and hard about the following questions in order to maximise the potential of your Practice.

What additional products or services can you offer to your existing Patients in order to increase your profitability? Ancillary revenue through add on sales is available for the taking.

Are you fully leveraging technology in your Practice? Are there processes that you could streamline or are there changes in workflow that you can make which would give you more time to deal personally with your Patients and prospective Patients?

How can you improve the time management within your Practice?

Can you improve the way you deliver your services in order to increase referrals and profitability?

Are there new markets where you could sell your products and services?

How can you improve the quality of your products and services, so that they are of even more value to existing and prospective Patients?

Have you set up the right type of referral channels to deliver what you want to achieve?

What three things could you do which would increase the profile of your Practice?

What’s the best way for you to encourage more patients to recommend you and your Practice?

Is your marketing focused enough on your demographic?

Do you place enough effort behind new ideas that you introduce to your Practice in order that they have a chance to make a real difference?

Should you be thinking about undertaking a partnership with an associated healthcare provider?

Do you need to invest in professional advice on areas within your business in order that you may develop your business?

How often do you ask your Patients for their feedback, regarding the service they receive from you and what additional services they would like you to offer?

When was the last time you sat down and studied your marketing plan? If you have not got any written, measurable, specific marketing plans, why the hell not?

Is it possible that your services and practices look too similar to your competitors? If you look exactly the same as your competitors, your prospective Patients are using pricing as a way to judge your value.

If your services and practices do look too similar to your competitors, how will you differentiate yourself?

Do you take time to thank Patients for their business?

Do you get leads and enquiries via your website? If not, what can you do in order that your site generates leads for your Practice?

When was the last time, a Patient sent you a “thank you” note? If that has not happened for a while, why not?

Are you getting word of mouth referrals? If not, why not?

Just how aware are you of your Patient’s problems and challenges? You need to know what’s happening in your Patient’s world, if you want to be able to really help them.

Are you working to a marketing strategy or are you simply doing tactical or reactive marketing?

Just how good is your customer service?

Do you exceed your Patient’s expectations?

Answer these questions honestly and you will have an excellent idea of where your business is at and what you need to do to move it on.

Regards

Geoff

7 Tips To Move Your Health Practice Forward, Commercial Strategies In Hearing Healthcare.

2012-02-25T15:11:00.001Z

Things That You Can Do Right Now To Make This A Better Year.

1. Don’t wait for ‘it’ to just get better – It won’t

Don’t wait for it to get better, it won’t, not without some smart thinking and some hard work. Do not keep doing the same thing day after day and expect different results. That is the definition of stupidity. Businesses across the world are closing every day because they carried on doing what they always did and just prayed it would get better.

If you want it to get better, you have to make it get better!

2. Look strongly at your time management

We are all prevaricators, unfortunately it is part of the human condition, in business it can be fatal. Start managing your time more effectively, so you don’t waste major time doing minor things. Delegate whenever possible. Make it a habit throughout the day to ask yourself; “is this the best use of my time right now?” If the answer is no, go and do whatever it is you were just avoiding. In order to manage your time effectively, you also need to be able to make good decisions on priorities.

Identify the priorities in your business, the ones that if not immediately addressed may cause harm to your business success.

3. Spend more time learning

Give yourself one hour every night where you research and learn new business practices, thought leadership on your industry. Learn the most modern thought on Practice Management, study the latest thought on marketing strategy. It does not matter what you learn or study exactly, once it is a subject that you can then bring to bear to make your Practice better.

4. Set strong business goals

A miraculous change in your business fortunes is not just going to happen because you have decided to make it so. You need to set clear goals and a step by step strategy to meet those goals. Deciding you are going to increase sales by 25% is not enough, now you have to sit down, set out the strategy to meet that goal and clearly communicate it to everybody within your Practice.

5. Take real care of your commercial image

What does your business look like? People do business with people and organizations that they trust. People only recommend people and organizations that they trust. If a business looks like it’s being run on a shoe string, people are less inclined to use it. This is particularly pertinent in our profession, people purchase from us on trust. Do you think your Practice is deployed to gain trust?

A lot of of people research a potential provider of services online, long before they decide to do business with them. If you as a business operate an outdated website consider the image that’s creating in the mind of potential Patients.

6. Develop your own unique voice

This is extremely important in our profession, you need to differentiate your practice. Whilst I accept that this is not necessarily an easy thing to do, it is possible. look at your competitors, decide the strategy you wish to follow and ensure the deployment of that strategy brings hard differentiators to your Practice.

7. Measure it so you can manage it

KPIs, KPIs, KPIs. You can not manage your practice effectively unless you have clear measurements of success. This does not just include average selling price, binaural rate, unit volume, test no sales, return sales. It should also include bringing metrics to your service delivery, to your marketing endeavors, in fact to every facet of your Practice.

You can not truly know if a strategy is working unless there are clear measurements, if you do not know it is not working, how can you change it?

Good Month, Bad Month! Why Every Month Can Be A Good Month

2012-02-18T18:47:00.001Z

Harmonizing Your Cash flow And Business Levels In 2012

It has struck me in recent conversations that Practice managers do not realize the power of the data that they are sitting on. The thing that really brought it home to me was the question of seasonality and cash flow. I do realize that there is an element of seasonality in our business. However I do not believe it is nearly as stark as many think.

There have been steeper peaks and lower troughs of late in many people’s business. They complain to me regularly that this is the case. One month is a whopper month, break out the champagne. Then the next month is a disaster. When I question people closely about their activities, it appears that there is actually little strategy applied other than traditional marketing.

The power for a long term business to harmonize cash flow is within their existing database. That is a truism, a fact, the sooner the better people realize it. Because when you realize it, you can then set out a strategy to harmonies your cash flow and business levels. Regular communication with your database will keep a Practice busy. Will give the opportunity to a Practice to boost ancillary revenue through the sales of tubes and tips, drying capsules and washing capsules, air blowers and all of the other consumables that you should be pushing.

It will also encourage your Patients to come back at year four or year five to replace their instruments with you. This constant flow of return visits enforces a Patient’s perception of your Practice and will help towards Patient referrals. It is entirely up to you, sit around waiting for them to come through your door enticed by your marketing. Or actively manage your existing database with a good CRM and drive your business.

Regards

Geoff

The Consultation Process, Why?

2012-02-10T20:33:00.001Z

Modernizing Workflow In Hearing Health Practices

I had a really interesting conversation recently with one of my customers pertaining to the consultation process and its evolution. He pointed out that the consultation had in fact evolved on the premise that it was going to take place in the home of the Patient. It also was based on the fact that the Patient did not want to purchase.

At least one of these things has changed radically, although not all of the Patients I met needed the optimal negotiation position. So, if the consultation flow and indeed premise was designed for a different situation in a different time, why do we still follow it? I know that the consultation has been updated and we have integrated a lot of modern thought on the psychology of sales. However, in most practices the hearing health professional undertakes the consultation in its entirety, from qualification of the Patient through to the sale.

Why?

Put simply, why? Do we need to undertake the whole consultation ourselves? If we do split the consultation into different parts, undertaken by different people, will that increase the perception of the Patient experience? Qualification of the Patient, the initial questioning and medical questioning can be done on a tick box format. Can this be undertaken by a trained receptionist? The audiometric testing needs to be undertaken by trained and qualified personnel, the fitting needs to be undertaken by trained and qualified personnel. But does the re-habilitation and fine tuning?

The recent advent of Hearing Care Assistants in the UK has changed the ongoing care of Patients in that country. It is becoming an accepted position within Ireland, does this change the whole game? What does this new position do to the economics of a Practice? The following is the description of duties allowed by Hearing Care Assistants:

The course will equip you with the skills necessary for working in a modern hearing aid audiology practice - you will study Professional Practice, and become proficient in Clinical procedures of Otoscopy, Audiometry, impression taking and hearing aid technology. Upon graduation and, you will be eligible to register with the The British Society of Hearing Aid audiologists (BSHAA) as an associate, which will enable you to practice without direct supervision and, if you wish, to continue your studies to become a Hearing Aid Audiologist

So as you can see, the Hearing Care Assistant can undertake many duties in a Practice. With this in mind, what does it mean for the workflows, economics and indeed design of a Practice. It means the workflow can be split out, with two HCAs attending the front desk, one can be qualifying Patients before handing those Patients over to the Hearing Health Professional for audiometric testing, instrument demonstration and recommendation and purchase. The other HCA can be undertaking service calls and ongoing re-habilitation visits.

This allows a Practice to maximize through flow of Patients, it also has an effect on the perception of the Patient. I think that effect would be a good one, in essence their care and ongoing hearing health is being looked after by a team. Not just one person, but a team effort to ensure that they hear well. This type of model also changes the economics of delivery of ongoing care. HCAs do not get paid as much as qualified people, therefore any ongoing care provided by them is cheaper to the Practice. In theory this model will allow a Practice to reduce hearing instruments to a really cheap price, but allow the Practice to retain a strong margin.

This type of model with associated pricing will increase volume sales through a Practice. We have seen this in the UK and Ireland with one national player already. They have low price high volume sales, but because of ongoing cost of care, continual profitability of the model was difficult. Year one is fantastic, year two and three get better but by year four the Practice is sprinting in order to stand still and something gives. Either profitability or ongoing care and service. If ongoing care and service drops, it sounds the death knell for the Practice in the long term.

But, if you can offer the model with ongoing care and service, the model is a winner. Also, because of the reduced cost base of the Practice, decent instruments at reasonable prices can be offered. I also have some ideas about how this type of business model would change the physical deployment of a Practice, but that is for another post. What do you think?

Regards

Geoff

Surviving The Storm

2012-02-06T22:22:00.001Z

Survival Strategy For Independent Hearing Healthcare Providers

I read an excellent article on the Hearing Journal website called “Consolidation Boom Changes Face of Hearing Health Care”. It was an fantastic article written by Karen Pallarito outlining the changing face of the Hearing Healthcare Profession in the states. It outlined the vertical consolidation of the supply chain that is taking place not just in the US but also across the world. If taken at face value this phenomenon appears to sound the death knell for Independent Hearing Health Professionals.

I do not agree with that assumption, I think that large chains have been around for some time without the doomsday scenario playing out. The further consolidation of the supply chain will not necessarily put much more pressure on Independents and in fact could be an opportunity for them to differentiate themselves from the herd. I am not saying it will be easy, but I do not think it will be any harder than running your business is right now. The key will be to work smarter as opposed to harder.

Do You Need A Survival Strategy?

I am not sure about a “Survival Strategy”, but you certainly will need to be very smart about how you run your Practice. You will need to use all the tools at your disposal and use them well in order to remain relevant. I say relevant rather than competitive for a reason. Going back to one of my posts recently “Differentiation of Your Health Practice, Porter’s Generic Strategies” which dealt with differentiation strategies. I think that it is imperative that Independent Practices differentiate themselves.

Modern chain Hearing Health Practices are pretty good at what they do, they are also getting better every day. They have quite a large amount of money to throw at marketing themselves, something which no Independent can match, so why try? Why should you try to either emulate or compete head on with a monster chain? If you let them set the terms of engagement, they will win every time, simply because they are bigger and have infinitely more resources. So do not let what others are doing set your agenda.

Design and implement your own strategies and agenda, differentiate yourself from the herd. So how do you differentiate? Through service offering, through Practice deployment, through brand realisation, through customer service beyond the norm. These are things that you can affect in your business, in fact your business as an Independent may be better placed in order to provide these things because you buy in. A worker bee in any of the chains does not truly buy in, they do so as much as is possible when they do not have a stake other than their monthly check and some pride in their work.

You however fully buy in, if you don’t win, you don’t eat! So remember that, set out a strategy of differentiation for your business, in your service offerings, in your product offerings and in your practice placement. Think about it carefully, carve out your niche and then defend it passionately. I have one customer who realised this two years ago when he set up his new practice. He wanted to differentiate himself from the competition in his city, of which there is quite a bit. So he set up a boutique practice attached to a boutique Opticians’. The practice is deployed in an excellent manner, the décor, the furnishing, the colour scheme all speaks to a sense of privilege, professionalism, success.

I sometimes think when I am there that the words “Harley Street”(a street in London famed for top medical consultants) where coined to elicit visions of this gentleman’s practice. Sometimes I can hear my wallet screaming for mercy when I visit. However this high concept boutique positioning is in fact balanced by realistic prices akin to or even in some cases lower than his competitors. This in fact drives the practice even further because the perception of value versus money spent is radically changed in the minds of his Patients. They feel that his service in the confines of his practice is worth every single penny that they spend. He is also a good man, this shines through to me at every meeting, I am sure this is also obvious to his prospective patients.

He has created a niche for himself in the few short years since he founded his practice, within three years that niche will be almost un-assailable in his city. There are ways you can differentiate yourself, in fact because you are your own brand, it is even easier for you to do. No shareholders to satisfy, no board of Directors to convince.

Carve Out Your Niche, Widen It, Make It Yours, Defend It!

Regards

Geoff

The Evolution Of A Modern Paradigm Shift

2012-02-04T13:29:00.001Z

Our Profession is undergoing a paradigm shift, that shift has not been fully completed and there are several elements occurring at different pace that will probably change our profession for ever. I would like to address one element of that paradigm shift which is the change in online marketing. I came across Markus Hilbert and his company Earworks some time ago in the online world that we both inhabit. I watched with great interest his recent venture HearingPages burst onto the scene some time ago. I believe HearingPages represents the paradigm shift in marketing like no other online element.

It was particularly interesting for me because the HearingPages embodied a lot of my own conceptual thinking in reference to the future of marketing activities. It can also be leveraged as a tool to encourage Patient Retention and Engagement, two things I am sure you are sick of hearing me speak about. I have since been in correspondence with Markus and his partner in crime Florin on several occasions. They were even kind enough to invite me to write a foreword for a new e-book they released on online marketing. I was really interested in the evolution of the conceptual thinking behind Hearing Pages and I asked Markus to tell us all about it in a guest post. The following is what he wrote:

The Hearing Pages story began about ten years ago when we thought about how hearing aids are recommended. Unfortunately, it is not always done because of product features and benefits. So we created a selection tool - a way to identify the type of hearing aid you want by type of directionality, style, feedback management system, and more, and the database would query the suitable hearing aids. The goal was to objectivize the selection process with the technical and clinical expertise of a clinician to guide that process. This selection tool became the hearing aid engine of first the Ear Works practice management software and now in a much more detailed manner, the aid-finder in Hearing Pages.

As this was all being developed, the industry landscape changed. More clinics were Bing acquired by corporate bodies, fewer clinicians were autonomous. Competition became more fierce. Marketing took to new levels of desperation. More target clients were tuning us out. The recession hit and boomers lost a lot of money. Hearing aids were not a priority for many. The cost of doing business soared. Higher rents coupled with lower reimbursements and higher salaries resulted in the need for more sales, not less. In general, our marketing was bullet-spray, non-targeted, fragmented and sometimes not very clinically appropriate.

Any sales tactic seemed to be worth trying. The days of sanity seemed over. While we tried to encourage medical referrals and positive word of mouth, the price wars and accessibility seemed to render long-term relationships, standard of practice and credentials moot for patients seeking a care provider. In the midst of this, we realized that to be able to offer the best deals, clinics had to have a tight relationship with suppliers to support them. Hence hearing aid selection became increasingly economically based not just for the lowest consumer price but also for the best clinician arrangement.
In my opinion, this ethical gray area is dangerous. The image of our profession suffers, patients may get sub-optimal service, and consumers are essentially kept in the dark.

So we considered the research. Online advertising reaches more people and costs less than conventional advertising. It is on-demand, non-interruptive, and targeted. It is, however, terrible at converting consumers from online browsers to in-person clinic visits. This is despite manufacturers listing clinics, many sites listing clinics, in fact finding a clinic is easy. The problem is conversion. Then we consider that in any given clinic listing, how is the consumer to know who’s better? Anything can be claimed in marketing by clinics, but what about standards? The other problem is the online bias - if this manufacturer lists that clinic, isn’t there an inherent bias? The manufacturer sites try to sell their product. The clinic website tries to sell you on their offering. And information sites are not necessarily connected to the individual needs of the consumer.

We thought that if we replicate the traditional clinic rapport-building process online, with differentiation of clinics not necessarily by price but by credentials and their standard of practice, we may be on to something. And so, Hearing Pages was conceived. It was to be a site that converts the non-user better than other info sites because the information is interactive with ratings and reviews of clinics and hearing aids, with detailed hearing aid information in a proprietary one-of-a-kind hearing aid database that links visitors who like a certain product to those who sell it. Clinics are identified by location, service, their clinicians’ credentials and the standard of practice they adhere to. Information is provided by real clinicians. They can have articles, blogs, and more. When consumers have questions, they can ask and real clinicians in their area answer, because they are alerted to all questions asked in their vicinity. Hearing Pages helps build rapport with patients before they come in the office. Hearing Pages replaces fragmented online efforts and make them coherent.

We started getting really excited. Now all we needed was a non-consumer professional side only where manufacturers can launch new product, have forums on subjects important to their consumers: clinicians. Here the manufacturers can interface directly with clinicians and using social tools such as groups and forums, grow their market share. All contributions made by clinicians here can be rated and these kudos are reflected on the consumer side, making them look better to the public. Everyone wins.

But then we started considering who the players are - they aren’t just manufacturers, clinicians and consumers, they also include the non-profit sector. Special interest groups, professional associations, universities, and advocacy groups can all be a part of the conversation. By having a channel on Hearing Pages, linked back to their own site, all players optimize not only HearingPages but also their own site. The more contribution and activity there is, the better for everyone involved. This is an ecosystem, a community, not just another information website. And it works.

We are excited that within 6 months Hearing Pages shot to the top of the Google pages for key search terms. With all the online tools at our disposal, Hearing Pages addresses the needs of the industry to have a good image, provide useful non-platitude based marketing material on hearing aids, find clinics based on higher standards and a better criteria, and equip clinics with online marketing tools that integrate with their other online initiatives.

Markus Hilbert

E-Book Pertaining To Online Marketing For Hearing Healthcare Practices

“Hearing Pages” If you are not leveraging this site already, you really should be. The tale of the “No Brainer”

The Hearing Pages, Leveraging a channel for all its worth

I would just like to point out that I have no financial relationship or vested interest with Markus, Earworks or HearingPages. However if he feels like donating to the Lets Get Geoff A Windows 8 Tablet, charity fund, of which I have been foisting on my Facebook friends!

Regards

Geoff

Blog Recap

2012-02-03T13:18:00.000Z

It surprised me today to find out that the blog had passed 5000 pageviews since its inception last October. So I thought it was time to say thank you for going along with my ramblings, it has been real fun. Here is to another 5000, thanks again.

Maximizing Your Business In 2012

2012-01-31T00:24:00.001Z

Harnessing Your Workflows To Increase Business in 2012

Initially you should set down strict ground rules for the recording of information in your CRM. It is imperative that you consider this in order that you can fully utilize the power of the software. The status of all recorded contacts should be updated and clear. In other words the exact status of every contact should be recorded clearly in a searchable field. All and any points of contacts with anybody on your database needs to be recorded. That means any phone calls either in or out, any letters either in or out, any appointments whether attended or not.

These ground rules will allow you to maximize your defined searches for marketing purposes, defined searches will allow your marketing to become more targeted and sophisticated. This will assist you to meet your budget forecast for both volume and revenue, maximizing Patient returns, retention and indeed referral. The secondary step you need to undertake is the introduction of a proper Patient journey strategy. You need to lay out a strategy that gives value to your Patients but which is also balanced to bring tangible benefits to you. Again once the strategy is formulated your CRM will assist you in the deployment of the strategy moving forward.

You should also consider and assess your ongoing consultation pattern, product knowledge and upsell strategy. I think that you should consistently audit your Practice this year to ensure that the changes you have made and the benefits they bring continue. I also think that it would be of real value to you to sit down and formulate a strategy to increase your ancillary revenue flow. I think that this can also feed into your Patient Retention strategy. You should consider a deployment of a loyalty club and how you may utilize this in a possible marketing campaign.These are the outlines of the things you need to consider:

Strategic use of your CRM
Tactical use of your CRM
Data entry rules for your CRM
The Patient Journey
Tactical deployment of the Patient Journey
Maximizing Patient Retention & Referral
Ongoing Consultation Auditing
Ongoing product training
Upselling strategy
Increased ancillary revenue
Loyalty Club deployment

Strategic use of your CRM

With reference to your ongoing strategic goals, you need to design a policy for data entry on your CRM to ensure maximum efficiency of filter searches and automated processes.

Tactical use of your CRM

Again pertaining to your strategic goals, you need to design a policy for the tactical use of your CRM utilizing the full power of the programme to realize your goals. This policy would include Patient Journey, three month letters to test no sales, one year letters to test no sales, letters to prospect contacts, follow up letters to prospect contacts. Integration of your loyalty programme, communications for the loyalty programme.

Data entry rules for your CRM

As discussed these rules are inherent to your success and need much thought, without them your entire strategy is at risk.

The Patient Journey

This needs to be assessed and set in stone; I have been considering this a lot lately and have changed my conceptual thinking slightly. Up until now as you may be aware I have considered six monthly call backs as optimum. However, I think that the right balance may actually be eight monthly call backs. This period of time may be a better balance to maximize benefits for both you and the Patient.

Tactical deployment of the Patient Journey

This pertains to the automation of communication processes in reference to the Patient. Again this relates to your CRM policies.

Maximizing Patient Retention & Referral

You need to consider a way to pull all the strands together to maximize your Patient retention; this would include many elements of your practice.

Ongoing Consultation Auditing

Audit your consultation continuously, keep what works and discard what does not. Assess if you need to further engage with a Patient and where you need to do this.

Ongoing product training

Continually brush up on your product training, truly understanding your product portfolio leads to better ability to give advice. It also gives you the information needed to discuss product and price differentiation. Do not just understand the feature sets, de-cipher them and offer advice on them in language that your Patient understands.

Upselling strategy

Do you have one? If you do not consider it carefully, the segmentation of your pricing can help you here.

Increased Ancillary Revenue

I think you should look at formalizing a strategy to increase your ancillary revenue, I also think that once this is done you should set out a policy that will allow you to deploy the strategy.

Loyalty Club Deployment

You need to consider further strategic goals of a loyalty club and how it can be deployed to maximize ancillary revenue, Patient retention and referral.

Regards

Geoff

Ten, Eh Fifteen, No, Twenty Tips To Make Next Year A Success

10 Best Practices For Patient Retention In A Modern Hearing Aid Practice

New E-Book For Download

2012-01-26T17:25:00.001Z

E-Book Pertaining To Online Marketing For Hearing Healthcare Practices

I was recently asked to undertake a foreword for a new e-book from Earworks. I was honored to be asked and excited to be even peripherally involved in the project. The e-book outlines the elements of a modern online marketing strategy and the tools and platforms that can be utilized to deploy it. It is a good read with plenty of pointers, it also is written with the hearing healthcare profession in mind. You can find it at

Amplify Your Network

Enjoy

Geoff

Related Posts:
Disruptive Technologies And The Age Of The Customer
Making Your Website Work For Your Hearing Health Practice
Round Out Your Practice’s Web Presence, Leveraging Google Places.

Google + Profile

High Street Retail Hearing Health Practices?

2012-01-24T23:08:00.001Z

What Does The Term Mean To You?

I was speaking recently to one of my colleagues within the profession here recently in reference to an ongoing argument about retail versus destination businesses. I have said for at least three years that our profession is becoming more retail and we should begin to site our practices with this in mind. My thoughts are that we are moving towards a High Street business model.

He disagrees and feels we are still a destination business and should sit our practices in accordance with that concept. I feel that at this moment we are both correct, the tipping point from destination to high street has not occurred just yet. However I feel that any practice that does locate on the high street and use some of the high street retail strategies in design and deployment will still do well.

I think that this type of location can and will shave a large sum of money of your marketing budget because of the effect of passing trade and awareness because of location. Two of my customers are undertaking this strategy at present, one of them who has undertaken the move is already seeing an increase in business. The second is yet to open the new practice so we will see what happens there.

But I digress, something became clear during our latest debate, my term of reference for high street retail and his where completely different. My thoughts are a sophisticated Practice which deploys retail displays and signage at the front of house with a comfortable modern waiting room utilizing the most modern digital display techniques and a state of the art backroom clinic area.

He thought I was talking about a relatively modern practice, with deployed retail concepts, selling cheap and cheerful instruments with a view to maximizing volume. It was only then that I understood his reluctance to consider the concept. When I explained my conceptual thinking behind the deployment and the end results I thought could be achieved, he warmed to the idea.

I thought about the conversation today again and it made me wonder what you the readers of this blog think. Firstly when you hear high street retail hearing health practice, what jumps to mind? Secondly what do you think about the same concept when it is framed in the terms of reference I use. Thirdly and most importantly, where do you stand on the debate? Do you think we are still a destination model or indeed are we ready to move to a high street retail model?

Lastly do you think there is another model altogether we should follow?

Regards

Geoff

Bringing Patient Engagement To A Whole New Level

2012-01-18T23:20:00.001Z

An Interview With Stephen Claridge, Founder of Earmeter

I wrote a post last year about Earmeter, I was absolutely enthralled by the premise of the software and particularly excited about the opportunity for engagement that it provided. I thought the software had immediate promise as a tool for deeper Patient engagement with the possible added benefit of reducing cancellations. I decided to re-visit the topic this year and I invited Stephen Claridge the Founder and Developer for interview to discuss the background to development and his motivation. He graciously accepted and the following is what we discussed.

GC: Firstly Stephen, thank you sincerely for agreeing to speak with me. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you became involved with the Hearing Health Profession?

SC: I started to lose my hearing when I was five, my parents noticed something was wrong just after I'd had a short illness. I went through a few pairs of bulky BTEs from the NHS, and they were bulky back then, until I hit my teens and due to the need to look cool and impress the girls my parents bought me some ITCs privately. About five or six years ago I started working for Siemens Molecular Imaging in Oxford and met a guy there who wrote a blog about his experiences of living on a boat, he showed me how to set a blog up and I started writing about my hearing loss. Much to my amazement, people started leaving comments about the stuff I was writing, not only other people with hearing loss but professionals in the industry too. Fast-forward six years and I'm still thoroughly enjoying blogging.

GC: I actually first became aware of you through your blog, I was impressed with it and your honest posts in relation to your hearing difficulties. Stephen, you came to market late last year with Earmeter, my thoughts when I first saw it and discussed with you the concept were that it was a fantastic programme. I thought that it would be of benefit to many Practices to utilize this type of software programme during a Patient's trial period. How did you formulate the idea?

SC: The idea for Earmeter came to me mid-2011. I was visiting an audiologist for some re-programming and we were discussing common problems people have and how often newly purchased hearing aids end up abandoned in a drawer - that's frustrating for the practice and the patient. That got me thinking about my own experiences in the past and ways to make it easier for patients with new hearing aids.

GC:I think that was an innovative piece of thinking, I also think that your experiences bring a completely different outlook from the norm. In essence, I feel that this tool will be of real benefit not just to the Practice, but also to the Patient. Was that your own thought processes during the design and deployment stage?

SC: It's absolutely about the patients too. If a patient is happy with their hearing at the end of a trial then everyone benefits: the patient can hear better and the practice gets some word-of-mouth advertising.

GC: In designing the software, did you rely on your own past experience as a Hearing Instrument User.

SC: Yes, I thought back to the times when I wasn't happy with a new hearing aid and why that was. I got asked a lot when trialing new hearing aids to do two things: keep a diary of my experiences and to describe, when in the aud's office, what the problem is or why something sounds bad. I wanted to keep a diary but I just didn't really know where to start, wasn't sure what was relevant information and because I didn't keep a diary I often turned up for re-programming not being able to accurately describe my hearing problems that I had two weeks ago. Another problem I always had was forgetting questions and problems I wanted to talk about when the re-programming appointment finally came around.

GC: So in essence, Earmeter is a real time living diary, that allows both the Patient and Dispenser to assess ongoing benefit. Could you synopsize exactly what benefits that you feel the software will bring to a Hearing Health Practice?

SC: It can help a practice to improve patient engagement during and after a HA trial, and just as importantly, it simplifies and automates much of the engagement so that patients are getting timely information about their news HAs and the practice is getting day-to-day feedback on how the patient is doing. Hopefully there'll be less surprises and forgotten questions at the in-office consultations. It allows a practice to give their patient the best chance of a positive outcome.

GC: Again as a Hearing Instrument User, could you synopsize exactly what benefits the software will bring to new Users or existing users with new Hearing Instruments?

SC: Wearing a new hearing aid can be an exhausting, frustrating and confusing experience; particularly for first-time users. My hope is that practices will use Earmeter to make it a little easier for people. Often patients will go away for two weeks with their new aids to try them out and have such a bad time of it that they are already feeling negative by the time they can back for a consultation - people wait until the consultation and aren't asking the questions they need to be day-to-day or getting the information they need day-to-day; Earmeter helps with that.

Stephen, I personally think that you have a killer application here, I also think that the software can be used to engage with a Patient on a deeper and ongoing level. I also think that the more enlightened Practices will quickly adopt your software as a tool for engagement and increasing Patient satisfaction. I wish you well with the software but I firmly believe that it will become a staple within the Hearing Instrument Profession over the next few years.

You can see Earmeter at earmeter.com, where you can also contact Stephen. Again, my belief that the key to your ongoing business health is Patient engagement is well known. I think that Earmeter is a tool that will facilitate that strategy, it will also I bet have the added benefit of reducing cancellations in your Practice. So take a hard look at it, decide whether it fits your Practice and its communication strategy and then move on.

The Original Post Can Be Found Here
Related Posts:
The Hearing Pages, Leveraging a channel for all its worth
Tools That Will Assist In Social Media Management.

Your Patients Are Changing, Are You?

2012-01-16T23:02:00.001Z

Your Patients Are Ever More Sophisticated, Is Your Ability To engage Them?

I think it has become obvious to us all that our Patients and prospective Patients are changed, they are not the people that we have dealt with in the past. In as little as four to five years, this change has taken place. Our Patients are more sophisticated, they are more cosmopolitan, they are certainly more educated and demanding. We are most definitely seeing the start of the Baby Boomer generation in attendance.

This is quite common across every business sector, in fact there is a growing belief that the basis of trade has changed. The power for the first time has irrevocably switched to the consumer. This state of being has been encouraged by the proliferation of the internet internationally. It has also been encouraged and indeed spurred by the advent of social media.

Our Profession is probably one of the last Professions to feel the force of this change. In fact I would be so bold to say that we are only experiencing the leading edge of the wave. We can already see some of the effects within our business sector. For the first time last year a serious attempt at offering online Hearing Instruments was made, it would be my belief that it is the first of many. The Genie as it were, is out of the bottle, as I have said previously the power has most definitely moved to the consumer.

Groups within our Profession are fighting a rear guard action against the Online Vendors, but again I think that the power of the consumer will tell in this particular struggle. It would bode us all well to consider a changed business landscape, a landscape where supply of Hearing Instruments and associated services are separated. Every Practitioner should consider this possible future in order that they begin to plan for any eventuality. But this is merely an aside, the thrust of this post pertains to your communications.

Our Patients are more sophisticated, they use several mediums to communicate, exchange ideas, undertake research, make buying decisions and indeed undertake purchases. Simply put, does your marketing strategy take this into account? Do you understand this heightened sophistication and how to deal with it? Because if the answer to either of these questions is a no, you need to change that and do it rapidly.

Our Patients are no longer swayed so much by traditional advertising, setting out your stall and hoping they come will no longer work. They will no longer judge your business purely on the quality of your logo and the advert copy that you use. They will form a picture or perception of you and your business from many different channels. Perception has always been the key in our Profession, but before now we had the opportunity to sway or form perception in our clinics.

That is no longer the case, the perception of us and our business is now formed often before the Patient has even met us. It is formed during an internet search, or in a conversation with a friend. It is then validated or enforced through their physical dealings with us and our business. The engagement of a Patient may happen long before you even know they are considering you as a Healthcare Provider. It may just start with that web search and what it throws up. So again I say, are your communications, all of your communications, as sophisticated as your Patients?

Regards

Geoff

This is in fact the first post of the New Year for me, the other posts that have appeared in January where in fact scheduled posts that I undertook last year. My family suffered a terrible tragedy on New Years morning that we are still striving to come to terms with. I was considering closing the blog and deleting it, however, I realized that writing inane rubbish is somewhat comforting for me.

Because of the events that have occurred, my posts may be spotty at times. Please forgive me this, I had planned to undertake three posts every week this year but I do not think that will be the case. I would welcome the opportunity to publish guest posts on the blog. So if you have something of value to say, please send it to me and I will post it.

Managing Your Patients, Commercial Management tools For The Modern Health Practice

2012-01-06T13:12:00.000Z

Its All About The Data

I have said it before and I will say it again, it is all about the information. Your business can thrive from its existing Patient base. But in order for this to happen you need the information, the skinny, the Intel. Not only do you need it, more importantly it has to be easy to use and deploy across your organization. So what is the answer? A CRM or Customer Relationship Manager software programme.

The release of Noah 4 has gone a long way towards handling the clinical needs of a Hearing Health Practice. It truly is a fantastic piece of kit for clear and easy use and the deployment of all the needed clinical data and notes to manage a Patient on an ongoing basis. However as a commercial management system it is I am afraid pants. For sound commercial management of your Patient database you need to look elsewhere. Preferably you would like to get a programme that is indeed designed with our Profession in mind. There are many out there at present, the beauty of those is that the connect in one way or other to Noah. This means better reporting facilities including test results and very little if any double entry.

Why do you need this facility, simply because it will give you power, power to run your practice in the most efficient way. Power to deploy commercial strategies with the minimum of fuss. Power to run your Patient journey programme in an automated way. Your existing Patients are your best form of marketing, I think that this is a universally accepted truism. You can not effectively leverage them without a CRM, you can not effectively run mail merge campaigns without a CRM. You can not with ease effectively run your Practice without a CRM.

The benefits of running a fully functional CRM include

Targeted Mail Merge Campaigns
Automated mailings
Integrated reminder
Automated Patient Journey
The easy and visible storage of all the data needed to effectively engage your Patients
Easy reporting
Easier financial transparency

These are just some of the valuable benefits that are provided by a fully functional CRM. The joy of running a database search for Patients not seen in the last six months. Getting a list and being able to instantly mail merge with a pre typed template call back letter can not be over stated. I would like to see you try that with an excel sheet. Another great use is for Test No Sales, they did not buy from you for some reason. But that does not mean they were not interested. So call them back for a yearly check up again with a simple search and mail merge. Maybe they will bite this time.

A CRM will also allow you to easier figure out the KPIs you set for yourself, the records just need to be queried in the right manner to spit out the data. With most CRMs you will just need to set up the search terms once, save them and they will be there to run in the background day after day. So first week of the new month, you get a list for six monthly call backs. Your receptionist undertakes the mail merge and over that week your diary is booked. Second week of the month, Test No Sales 12 months list and so on.

Reporting to a GP in Ireland and the UK and an MD in the USA is made easier. Organize a really good template report and run a mail merge at the end of every day on the Patients that were tested that day. Attach the audiogram printout and voila. Instant report to be sent to the Doctor. I truly believe that this in particular is imperative. I call it marketing by osmosis, it is non threatening soft marketing, the Doctor gets to see your reports semi regularly. The quality of the report is excellent and it is obvious that you are indeed a fellow Medical Professional.

You can go the other route and send him a Practice pack, but I guarantee you are wasting your time and killing trees for nothing. It will promptly end up in the bin. Its simple, a CRM gives you instant access to the information, information is power, the power to organize and run your clinical and commercial strategies in an easy and efficient way. It just does not get any better!

Regards

Geoff

Differentiation of Your Health Practice, Porter’s Generic Strategies

2012-01-02T15:28:00.000Z

Image via Wikipedia

Deciding On Differentiation In Your Hearing Health Practice

Moving into the New Year is always a time to take stock of what has gone before and deciding how to move forward. This Year is no different, however the imperative on strategy for moving forward for our profession in some countries is great.

In the USA divergent pressures have arisen in the last twelve months that may or may not lead to an even more competitive market place and a possible decision on change in service offerings. Here in Ireland, we have probably one of the worst recessions in modern memory aligned with the reduction in our grant. We also face the external pressures of possible regulation and the commercial pressure of large Nationals upping their game.

These market conditions, whilst not necessarily new in some cases are pressing because of their alignment. However, it is not yet the time to take your hat and coat and leave by any means. We will need to look at the coming year intelligently, look at our businesses honestly and decide how we mean to move forward in order that our businesses survive and thrive.

It is my opinion that small Independents can and will survive into the future. I think that they may well have to change their thinking about the services they offer and indeed how they offer them. I also think that they may have to look at collaboration with other Independents to increase their buying power and Strategic power. I have been advising my customers to carve out a niche for themselves and then defend that niche moving forward.

When I discuss this concept the principles I am discussing are based on Porter’s Generic Strategies. The strategies were first set out in 1985 by Michael Porter in 1985 in his book, “Competitive Advantage, Creating And Sustaining Superior Performance”. Porter called the generic strategies

Cost Leadership Strategy

Differentiation Strategy

Focus Strategy

The Cost Leadership Strategy

Porter's generic strategies are ways of gaining competitive advantage. There are two main ways of achieving this within a Cost Leadership strategy:

Increasing profits by reducing costs, while charging industry-average prices.
Increasing market share through charging lower prices, while still making a reasonable profit on each sale because you've reduced costs.

We see this strategy at work in our profession already, most notably with one of the large Nationals that trades within the UK and Ireland. Elements of this strategy are also at play in the USA with some of the players that have entered the market in the last few years. Remember that Cost Leadership is about minimizing the cost to the organization of delivering the products and services. The cost of goods or services to the customer is in fact a separate issue!

The Cost Leadership strategy is exactly that – it involves being the leader in terms of cost in your industry or market. This strategy is quite dangerous to an organization unless there is also real differentiation. Simply being amongst the lowest-cost producers is not good enough, as you leave yourself wide open to attack by other low cost producers who may undercut your prices and therefore block your attempts to increase market share.

You therefore need to be confident that you can achieve and maintain the number one position before choosing the Cost Leadership route. Companies that are successful in achieving Cost Leadership usually have:

Access to the capital needed to invest in technology that will bring costs down.
Very efficient logistics.
A low cost base (labor, materials, facilities), and a way of sustainably cutting costs below those of other competitors.

The greatest risk in pursuing a Cost Leadership strategy is that these sources of cost reduction are not unique to you, and that other competitors copy your cost reduction strategies. This is why it's important to continuously find ways of reducing every cost.

The Differentiation Strategy

Differentiation involves making your products or services different from and more attractive those of your competitors. How you do this depends on the exact nature of your industry and of the products and services themselves, but will typically involve features, functionality, durability, support and also brand image that your customers value.

To make a success of a Differentiation strategy, organizations need:

Good research, development and innovation.
The ability to deliver high-quality products or services.
Effective sales and marketing, so that the market understands the benefits offered by the differentiated offerings.

Large organizations pursuing a differentiation strategy need to stay agile with their new product development processes. Otherwise, they risk attack on several fronts by competitors pursuing Focus Differentiation strategies in different market segments.

The Focus Strategy

Companies that use Focus strategies concentrate on particular niche markets and, by understanding the dynamics of that market and the unique needs of customers within it, develop uniquely low cost or well-specified products for the market. Because they serve customers in their market uniquely well, they tend to build strong brand loyalty amongst their customers. This makes their particular market segment less attractive to competitors.

As with broad market strategies, it is still essential to decide whether you will pursue Cost Leadership or Differentiation once you have selected a Focus strategy as your main approach: Focus is not normally enough on its own.

But whether you use Cost Focus or Differentiation Focus, the key to making a success of a generic Focus strategy is to ensure that you are adding something extra as a result of serving only that market niche. It's simply not enough to focus on only one market segment because your organization is too small to serve a broader market (if you do, you risk competing against better-resourced broad market companies' offerings.)

Your choice of which generic strategy to pursue underpins every other strategic decision you make, so it's worth spending time to get it right. But you do need to make a decision, Porter specifically warns against trying to hedge your bets by following more than one strategy. One of the most important reasons for this advice is that the things you need to do to make each type of strategy work appeal to different types of people. Cost Leadership requires a very detailed internal focus on processes. Differentiation, on the other hand, demands an outward-facing, highly creative approach.

So, when you come to choose which of the three generic strategies is for you, it's vital that you take your organization's competencies and strengths into account. It is advised that you use some steps that will allow you choose the strategy that is right for you.

Step 1: For each generic strategy, carry out a SWOT Analysis of your business strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats you would face, if you in fact adopted that strategy.

Having done this, it may be clear that your organization is unlikely to be able to make a success of some of the generic strategies.

Step 2: You can use one of Porter’s other tools, “A Five Forces Analysis” to understand the nature of the industry you are in.

Step 3: Compare the SWOT Analyses of the viable strategic options with the results of your Five Forces analysis. For each strategic option, ask yourself how you could use that strategy to:

Reduce or manage supplier power.
Reduce or manage buyer/customer power.
Come out on top of the competitive rivalry.
Reduce or eliminate the threat of substitution.
Reduce or eliminate the threat of new entry.

These business tools are deeply conceptual, but they give structure to your business analysis and good data that you can use as a foundation for business planning. These exercises have true value for you as a business person, they will allow you to make informed and intelligent decisions based on hard data that will allow you to hopefully thrive.

It would be my feeling that a differentiation or focus strategy would be the right strategies to follow for most Independents. Going back to that carving out a niche statement earlier, you need to find your niche, carve it out and defend it. What your niche is, is something that you would know better than I. However, I feel that an important element is the down home, local, friendly and willing to go the extra mile attitude that smaller Independents bring to table. That is a hard differentiator of you as a business, now all you need to do is find your other hard differentiators and then drive them forward.

Regards

Geoff

Articles on Porter’s concepts can be found at

Porter Five Force Analysis

Porter Generic Strategies

New Year Wishes

2011-12-31T21:57:00.002Z

The Best For 2012

We face into a New Year that will bring us all new challenges, some of those challenges we personally or our Profession have never faced before. I don't think this is a reason for trepidation, challenges should be seen as something that need to be accommodated and overcome. I truly believe that our Profession can face those challenges, the local challenges here that my customers face and also the challenges that are faced by our International colleagues.

I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging here over the last few months and engaging with Hearing Instrument Professionals far and wide. Hopefully the New Year will bring new readers and new opinions that can be discussed. Whatever may come, please all of you enjoy your celebrations and may the best of 2011 be the very worst of 2012, Happy New Year.

Regards

Geoff

Ten, Eh Fifteen, No, Twenty Tips To Make Next Year A Success

2011-12-30T13:33:00.000Z

Things You Need To Do To Ensure Your Health Practice Thrives In The New Year

Here we are, the end of another year again, for me it is a time to thank my favorite deity that I have managed to get a year older. There was a time when that in itself was a big achievement, although now the most dangerous thing I have to deal with is an un-happy customer. This can be daunting in and of itself, but usually they are not actively trying to kill you! Well ….. mostly

This started at ten things but then just kept growing, some of these tips may not apply to everybody. In fact you may already have instituted most of the things, but I hope that everybody will at least find one tip that is helpful to them. So what twenty things do you need to do in order that your Practice sees growth next year?

Look at your KPIs from this year and decide what areas you need to focus on for next year.
If you do not have a Practice Management software system, not talking Noah here, get one.
Ensure all your Patient data is entered into your Practice Management software.
Put in place a clear and in-depth Patient Retention & Referral Strategy.
Put in place a clear Patient Journey.
Put in place a corresponding clear and rigid Patient Communication Strategy.
Ensure the buy in of all your stakeholders, Staff primarily and Patients also.
In your new, or old Practice Management software, automate service callbacks as per your Patient Journey.
Write some clear, medico legal grade, precise and human letters to be used in your new automatic mail-merges for Call Back letters, Hearing Test Reports, Test No Sales one month contact letter, Test No Sales Annual Test Call Back Letter etc.. etc..
Re-paint your Practice, unless you have done it in the last ten months.
Replace your waiting room chairs unless you have done within the last four years.
Make a New Years Resolution that between every appointment you will take five minutes to clean your consultation room, tidying away cables, tubing boxes, cleaning equipment etc. from view.
Replace your Posters and point of sales displays if they are any more than three months old.
Actually leverage your shop window if you have one, with well thought out and deployed POS.
Review your practice environs critically with the concept of brand presentation in mind, be honest and ruthless.
Ensure your web presence does not let you down.
Leverage your website for campaign offers, educational uses and introduce a regularly updated news section.
Remember your web presence is not static, it needs to be dynamic.
Think clearly and carefully about a social media presence and how it can affect you web presence.
This list is not exhaustive, think up ten more things you need to do!

That should at least be a start for your New Year planning, best wishes for success in the New Year.

Regards

Geoff

Client Orientated Scale of Improvement, The COSI and its uses In Your Hearing Health Consultation

2011-12-28T14:37:00.000Z

Increasing Patient Engagement In Your Consultation

I wrote some time ago about the COSI and its possible uses in your Hearing Health Practice. I would like to ponder it again and flesh out why I think it can really help you in your consultation. The COSI is an integral part of best practice in the Hearing Profession. The COSI is simply a very well designed piece of A4 paper or a form in one of the many Audiological Software systems. The COSI is a place to record a Patient’s problem situations or lifestyle needs and then trace their ongoing success with a prescribed hearing system. This simple record can be used to bolster and increase Patient engagement in any Practice. Many Dispensers shy away from the COSI because they are not sure where it will fit either in their consultation or follow up nor do they understand how it may be the most powerful tool that they have ever used on several differing and important levels.

At it’s most simple level the COSI is used to record the difficulties that a Patient has in their day to day life. The crux is how you as a professional achieve this and if you use the golden opportunity that this record gives you to emotionally connect and engage deeply with the Patient. The COSI can allow you to connect with a Patient, gain their acknowledgement of lifestyle impact, manage a Patients expectations and gain agreement on a set strategy for dealing with the core issues.

So, how is this simple form going to achieve all this? Simply put, you use it to ask pertinent questions and record the answers. I hear you say I ask the problem areas already, you may, but do you ask in the right way, do you ask enough of the right questions and most importantly do you listen? All questions you ask need to be open questions, questions that generate information instead of yes/no responses.

Ask, “where are the areas that you have problems, the areas I would like to talk to you about are the areas that you feel cause you most problems in your daily lives and relationships. We can record five areas, but really we will concentrate mostly on three of them”. When they give you the areas, dig deeper, “so you say at the family table, who are you seated with and what type of conversation are we talking about, animated, quiet? What exactly are the problems you suffer?!

Dig deep, keep asking those questions When you have found out all of the information and led the Patient on a journey through that situation, ask them, How does that make you feel, how does that impact on you? If you have done your job properly they will tell you. It might be emotional, it might even be hard to listen to, but it generally will be the truth, unvarnished and direct. There may be tears, if so it may be awkward for you, I generally put my hand on their arm for a moment in order to show acknowledgement of the pain.

Go through each situation they have recorded and do the same thing, generally you will not have to ask the loaded question again, they will tell you without prompting. At the end ask them which three problems would they most like to try to fix. When you have identified these areas, grade their current ability, ask them their expected ability and then most importantly agree a realistic final ability. Tell them directly what you feel you can do well and more importantly what you may not be able to do so well.

Why should you do this, there are several reasons, Practice efficacy, human capacity, commercial sense, but most importantly, it is the right thing to do for the Patient. You will make a strong emotional connection to your Patient, they will believe that you are interested in their problems and more importantly that you are interested in dealing with their problems. They will believe that you are an honest, compassionate and caring practitioner, if for some reason they can not do business with you, they will ensure that they will tell their friends to do business with you.

You will help them to truly recognize their difficulties and acknowledge the impact on their lifestyle. You will also manage their expectations openly and usually without Patient rancor. You will gain agreement for a course of action and in fact plan that action out. The Patient begins to talk about when’s instead of ifs. You help your Patient acknowledge trauma and then lead them through it to solution, you allow them to openly express their feelings perhaps for the very first time. All of this from a well designed piece of paper.

So for every type of dispenser, from the most hardened of commercial to the most Patient centered, there is a pay off from the COSI. More importantly, there is a real and valid pay off for their Patients.

Regards

Geoff

End Of Year Joy!

2011-12-27T13:44:00.000Z

Figures, Figures, Figures, KPIs & How To Use Them In Your Health Practice

It is that time of year again, the time where you look back at what has passed and plan for what you would like to be ahead. In order to understand where you are going you really, really have to know where you have been. This is a true in business as it is in life, so what does that mean to you.

Now is the time that you need to take stock of what has happened in your practice in the last year. That means the figures, the figures, the figures. So, what figures are important to review, understand and concentrate on?

Revenue
Profit
Unit Volume
Average Selling Price
Conversion Rate
Return or Cancellation Rate

Revenue: This is basically your topline, exactly the turnover in your favourite currency. How well did you do in relation to last year, how well did you do in relation to the last five years?

Profit: After you paid every single bill, how much was left, how does it compare to last year and again the last five years?

Unit Volume: How many hearing instruments have you sold, again the comparison is one and five years.

Average Selling Price: ASP is the average selling price per unit, yep one and five.

Conversion Rate: This is the ratio of sales to initial consultations, you guessed it one and five.

Return or Cancellation Rate: How many people gave the units back as a percentage of how many people bought, don't need to tell you one and five any more do I?

All of these figures or KPIs will give you a real idea of exactly where you are, how you are doing and also what you may need to look at as you plan for next year. There are also other figures such as Binaural Rate, Return Business Rate, Service Care Fulfilment etc. Generate these figures and then assess yours against industry norms.

These figures have real value for your business, they can tell you where you are, identify any problem areas and give you a head start on planning for business and personal development for next year. This will allow you and your business to grow where you need to and to consolidate where you do not. The reasoning in comparing over a five year period is in order to identify any changing trends over that period.

If trends have changed, ask yourself why? Are you doing something differently, are you doing something now that you did not before? Are you not doing something now, that you did do before? These can be enlightening questions to ask yourself.

I have earlier mentioned norms, however, they do vary quite a bit across our profession. The figures that would be norms for large Nationals with a large marketing machine would be very different from the norms for Independent Practices. For instance, Conversion Rate for Nationals would be much smaller as a percentage because of the quality of leads that are passed to them from their marketing efforts.

Independents in my experience appear to have much better quality leads and therefore convert at a higher rate. Unit Volumes would also be different, even though Nationals have poorer lead quality, their unit volume tends to be slightly higher than Independents. These are just some of the differences across the industry, but no matter which sector you are in I have no doubt you have a good handle on what are accepted norms.

So, why should you generate these figures and then query them? Because you want your business to not only survive but thrive and these figures will assist you in that goal. You can not effectively have the information you need to survive and excel unless you have the data upon which to base important decisions.

You should generate the data and then honestly query those KPIs, identify your weaknesses if any and then plan how you are going to deal with them. This process can be undertaken as part of the wider RATER process that I discussed earlier this year. In this way, your business will have the foundation to not only survive but thrive.

These are interesting times, there are many external and internal pressures on our profession internationally. I think that Independent Dispensaries in every country are facing challenging conditions even if those conditions are different from country to country. However, I think the answer to those differing problems are practically the same across the world, change up your business and keep your existing Patient ecstatic with your service.

Regards

Geoff

Similar Posts: The Rater Model

Signing off

2011-12-23T15:17:00.001Z

I am writing today with Christmas and New Year wishes to you all. It has been a tumultuous year for me personally and professionally, a bit of a roller-coaster really. Many of you contacted me personally with support prayers and best wishes during our recent time of stress. I would like to thank you all for those kind thoughts.

It has been an interesting year for the world of audiology internationally, we all face differing pressures next year that will lead us all to re-address our businesses or practices, which ever way you look at it, in order to ensure our continual survival.

I hope that during the last year I have brought forward some concepts, strategies, processes and procedures that may contribute to your continued success. I know that I have learned a lot in the last year about the differing outlook and belief structures in place internationally.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversations and debates that I have spurred and been involved in during this time. It has shown me the diversity of thought that exists in our profession, we should respect that diversity, it is what makes us who we are. I don't think that differing opinions are a problem, in fact I think they should be celebrated.

It is these differing opinions that allow us to open up our thought processes and indeed learn something new, or view something old from a new perspective. I look forward to continuing in the New Year with more ideas and conversations. To you and your Families from me and mine, this festive season, I wish that you receive exactly what you need.

With the greatest regard

Geoff

The Power Of Words, Sales Or Healthcare

2011-12-17T14:40:00.001Z

Do You Sell, Or Do You Provide Healthcare?

I am afraid my last post caused a bit of a storm, but hey, that is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of conversation and differing points of view were aired, which was really refreshing. What struck me though was the emotion that could be affected by simple words, or differing phraseology. I have known for many years that words are powerful, the great orators of history are a true demonstration of this concept.

I would like to ask all of the stakeholders in that conversation to assess the following,

We are all different, that diversity of opinion is what gives us strength

Opinions are like certain body orifices, we all have them

What we choose to call ourselves, does not reflect on either our ability or our commitment

What we choose to call our customers, apart from the choice words after your fifty second fine tune! does not reflect on our commitment to them

Strategy is not a bad word

In our lives, we are consistently involved in a sales process, right now, I am selling my opinion to you. You are not paying for it, but I still wish you to find it attractive, worship me, worship me god damn it. Miller, stop laughing at the back. You also are involved in a sales process when you wish to put your point across. Think about it clearly, even when we deal with our children, we are selling them concepts. Making it attractive for them to do this or that.

Sales, Sales Concepts, Sales Strategies are not bad or evil, they are simply tools that allow us to put our point of view across. I agree, that there is some issues with some sales concepts, particularly the boiler room high pressure concepts. But they are just tools that are used in an immoral way. Because you think about sales process or strategy does not make you immoral.

In your consultation, no matter what you refer to yourself as, you sell, just because you do, does not make you a bad man or woman. My opinion is clear and has been stated many times, when I was practising my self talk or image was that I was pretty close to the best there was when it came to making Hearing Instruments dance. I also was empathetic and cared deeply about my Patients and their outcomes.

So with this in mind, I used every strategy possible in order that my Patients bought from me and stayed with me. In order that they did not go to some other gobshite that would not look after them. I am not embarrased that I did that, nor do I feel immoral.

I understand people's discomfort, their self image or talk is that they are a Health Professional, you are that, just by your terminology it shows your commitment.

But That Does Not Mean You Do Not Need To, Or Cannot Sell!

If you want to reach the most Patients possible, you need to ensure that you have a strategy that allows you do this, you need a sales strategy. Couch it in what ever terms you wish, whatever terms you are comfortable with. Because, put simply, your commitment is admirable and your prospective Patients need you, Make sure that they pick you.

Regards

Geoff

Your Consultation, Is It As Powerful As It Could Be?

2011-12-13T20:01:00.001Z

Are You Using The Power Of Engagement?

Have you thought about your consultation process lately, really sat down and analyzed what you are doing and more importantly what you are saying. There are important things that you need to consider when you are analyzing your consultation process.

How exactly does your consultation flow
Do you have a set consultation flow designed to maximize returns
What questions are you asking
Are they the right questions
Do you listen

How does your consultation flow? does it run smoothly with a logical flow? You need to be practiced in your consultation, so practiced that you are flexible in your approach. Allowing yourself to be diverted but always returning to the planned process.

Look carefully at your consultation process, are you identifying objections and ensuring you overcome them at the right time? Discussions around type of instrument and pricing will be seen as advice before the test but sales talk after. You need to carefully consider the psychology of the interaction when planning out your consultation strategy.

Are you asking the right questions in your consultation? You need to consider the questions that you ask and also the manner in which you ask them. Are you asking open questions and are you then listening to the answers? Open questions will give you meaningful answers, if you do not think they are giving you a credible answer or indeed the entire story, ask the question again in a different manner.

Often in this way you can dig down to the crux of the issues and then deal with them in a logical and structured manner. This type of questioning also encourages deeper engagement with your Patient, it is this engagement that will drive your reputation as a professional. When asking about difficulties in situations, dig deep, ask questions and don’t be afraid to ask “How does that make you feel?”

A lot of people shy away from that question, but in my experience Patients want to tell you about their difficulties and will tell you the emotional impact. In fact, you may be the first person they have ever told, be prepared for tears. Counsel them with kind words, explain to them that hearing loss will affect them in this manner and make sure that they know that you are committed to dealing with their issues. This type of emotional engagement is what will mark you out from your contemporaries, this type of emotional engagement is what builds a community of Patient advocates.

This type of emotional engagement is the least a Patient should expect from you.

So if you have not already, sit down, assess your consultation practice and make the changes that you need to make it better, because not only will your Patients win, you will also.

Regards

Geoff

The Return of the little man

2011-12-05T20:40:00.001Z

After 6 days, my grandson is home and well, to say we are ecstatic is probably understating the depth of feeling. My grandson is fourteen months old, he was born with craniosynistosis, a condition where the sutures between the plates of the skull seal before birth. His problem was with his forehead, it was triangular in shape with a ridge down the center and the temple areas were pinched in further than they should have been.

Unfortunately the condition was not just cosmetic, it affected his brain development and threatened his very life in the long term. So last Tuesday, Leon underwent a six hour operation which involved some pretty astonishing if knee weakening procedures. It was perhaps the longest six hours of our life, he came through the surgery with a small tear to the brain lining and needed a transfusion.

He was in intensive care overnight with the plan being to be transferred to a surgical care ward the next day. Over night he had a small wobble which resulted in my wife and I nearly losing our minds, but he quickly rallied and astonished us by sitting up in his cot the next day, giving out and eating corn snacks. Since then it has been one milestone after the other.

By Thursday the swelling of his eyes had receded enough to allow him to see. By Saturday there was no sign of post op infection, another tick on the list. Today, we got the word that we could bring him home, he is now sitting on the floor quite close by playing with his obviously missed toys.

We can breathe again and I can write again with some regularity, thank you for keeping with me in the recent past and thank you everybody for their well wishes, prayers and words of support. You helped a great deal to keep me sane, although, Miller reckons I am long past that! :)

Regards

Geoff

Building Your Offline Community

2011-11-28T20:21:00.001Z

Community, A Sound Commercial Strategy?

I have had a consistent thought process percolating for some time and I would appreciate some thoughts on it. I have a long held belief that the rise of Social media networks is intimately linked with the ongoing sense of loss of community that appears to be endemic in our society.

Moving forward with that as the foundation for my thoughts I considered community and thought about the forms or types of communities that exist. I postulated that a community as an entity, if integrated into your commercial strategy could definitely consolidate and grow your market position. It would also feed into your Patient Retention and Referral strategy.

Initially I would like to put forward the possible benefits that I believe would accrue from the strategy, then I will explain the strategy and its deployment.

Target Benefits:

Increased Patient Retention & Patient Referral
A strong Hard Differentiation for your business
A clear strategy for Customer Advocacy
Reduced Marketing costs
Market position consolidation and growth

So how do we achieve this with a simple strategy? My thoughts are based on the simple but powerful concept of community, that warm and fuzzy feeling, the happiness when we belong. We know that we as a humans have an almost overwhelming urge to belong and we are usually unhappy if we do not. In practice every day I saw Patients who were disconnected, from society and often from their families. This was the beginning of the thought process for me, it has by no means reached its conclusion yet. So enough blah de blah.

I have touched on this before in one of my posts, the concept in its deployment is simple enough. Initially the strategy would be to encourage group rehabilitation sessions for new users, which could be led or mentored with your input by experienced hearing instrument users. This concept can then be grown to regular coffee mornings or social outings based around your Practices community.

The strategy does not necessarily need to cost you much and if you get buy in from two or three Patients to the strategy, they may well run it for you. The idea is almost akin to a social club or set of social events that assist your Patients to become part of a wider community centred on your Practice. The deployment of the concept is something I need to think about more, such as what events, how they would look, what form they would take? Please give me your thoughts on this.

Regards

Geoff

Disruptive Technologies And The Age Of The Customer

2011-11-26T17:15:00.001Z

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Why The Power Is Now In The Hands Off The Patient/Consumer

Recent changes online and indeed the global uptake of the disruptive technologies that have arisen have changed our world dramatically. The introduction of the varied forms and platforms for social networking has changed immeasurably the power of the consumer. This has been seen across every industry including medical related services. We have Patients grading their Doctors at present. People are openly discussing the services and products they have purchased and their satisfaction levels.

They are currently doing so about hearing instruments on internet forums internationally. Other services and products are consistently discussed for good and bad on Facebook, Twitter etc. Whilst I have not seen a Hearing Practice rated, I have not really searched for it, if one does not exist now, it will soon enough. It is with these ongoing changes in mind that I believe a properly thought out Patient Retention strategy is formed. The power of the consumer has changed, that old saying that an unhappy customer tell up to sixteen people does not hold sway any longer.

They May Tell The Whole Online World!

So we are faced with a whole new set of challenges in our business life, but I think there is a great deal of opportunities as well. These new technologies present new ways to advertise, cheaper ways to advertise. They also fit with the idea of your Patient being a marketing channel. This has never been truer than it is right now, you need to think about these elements clearly and adapt your practice. Because if you do not, you will not have a Practice in the years to come.

Most of all, you need to turn your Patient into an advocate for your business.

Regards
Geoff

Patient Journey, A Clinical Nescessity & A Commercial Strategy

2011-11-22T21:27:00.001Z

Using the Patient Journey as a Patient Retention & Referral Strategy

As I have previously vouchsafed, our Patients/Customers have become ever more sophisticated and most Practices really need to adapt their planned Patient engagement and service scheduling to reflect that. You should look at your ongoing Patient engagement strategy as part of your long term Patient Retention and indeed Patient referral strategy. Your existing Patients are your cheapest lead generation tools, the maths is indeed simple. If one of your Patients returns and makes a second purchase, any money that you have invested in them is returned. If they in fact feel strongly enough to return to you for a second set of instruments, they damn sure feel strong enough to recommend you to their friends or associates. Word of mouth leads are qualified leads, these people have not turned up for the merriment as indeed some of your leads from traditional advertising have, they realise that they have an issue and someone has informed them that you are the answer to their problems.

With this in mind, any money or services that you invest in your Patients, is indeed money better spent than probably on any other market channel you may use. I was reading recently that the cost of acquiring a new Patient had risen to $900 in the states. So lets look at what a decent Patient engagement and retention strategy would cost to you in real terms. The general model for Patient engagement I suggest to increase Patient engagement would be:

Test and sale
Fitting
Rehab visit/Fine tuning Visit at one month
Possible further Rehab/Fine tuning Visit
Service Call at six months to continue at six month intervals.

This journey is designed to maximize Patient engagement with you and indeed your practice which gives you maximum opportunity to shape and enforce a Patient’s perception of both you and your practice. This journey also allows for several communications a year with your Patient, structured mailings that certainly will not appear to be junk mail. I believe that less is better with mail marketing, I have watched for years some elements of our industry bombard their Patient database with mailings about new products etc. with real dismay. How exactly do you feel about consistent mailing from one of your service providers if indeed the mailings do not have any value to you? If you feel this way, how do you think your Patients feel about your mailings?

The introduction of the Patient Journey to your practice allows you to mail your Patient on a regular basis with communications that are perceived to have real value for them. It also allows you to consistently maintain your Patient engagement and keeps you consistently in their minds. The structure of the Patient Journey also allows you to introduce the subject of new technology at a seemingly apt time.

You will mail your Patients every six months to return to your office for service, you can also mail them perhaps twice yearly campaign offers on ancillary products such as buy two packs of batteries get one free, or buy re-fill drying capsules get cleaning tablets free. It is important that the mailings are structured and well thought out; they must also be pertinent to the Patient. Don’t forget a Christmas card, get them printed, take the time to personalize them, have yourself and your staff sign them and send them out.

If your Patient is returning to you every six months, you do not need to send them offers on new technology, you can tell them about it, show it to them in person. If done properly and at the right time it will not appear to be a sales push, it will merely be more of your famed education and good advice. It will also more importantly be received as such.

What briefly follows is the structure of the service calls that I adopted while in practice, the following structure is scheduled after the sales, fit and rehab visits.

Service Call 1: Review Patient’s experience, clean aid, clean mould if necessary, change wax cap if necessary, change tubing if necessary or change thin tubes and tips, fine tune aid if necessary, ask about need for ancillary products and supply a free pack of batteries. Time scheduled 15 to 30 minutes.

Service Call 2: Review Patient’s experience, hearing scan test, clean aid, clean mould if necessary, change wax cap if necessary, change tubing or thin tube and tips if necessary, fine tune aid if necessary, ask about need for ancillary products and supply a free pack of batteries. Time scheduled 30 to 40 minutes.

Service Call 3: Review Patient’s experience, clean aid, clean mould if necessary, change wax cap if necessary, change tubing or thin tube and tips if necessary, fine tune aid if necessary, ask about need for ancillary products. Time scheduled 15 to 30 minutes.

Service Call 4: Review Patient’s experience, hearing scan test, clean aid, clean mould if necessary, change wax cap if necessary, change tubing or thin tube and tips if necessary, fine tune aid if necessary, ask about need for ancillary products and provide free pack of batteries. Time scheduled 30 to 40 minutes.

Service Call 5: Review Patient’s experience, Clean aid, clean mould if necessary, change wax cap if necessary, change tubing or thin tubes and tips if necessary, fine tune aid if necessary, ask about need for ancillary products provide free batteries, talk briefly about new technology & current offers. Time scheduled 15 to 30 minutes.

Service Call 6: Review Patient’s experience, hearing scan test, clean aid, clean mould if necessary, change wax cap if necessary, change tubing or thin tube and tips if necessary, fine tune aid if necessary, ask about need for ancillary products provide free pack of batteries. Openly discuss changing to a new product and assess readiness. Time scheduled 30 to 40 minutes.

Service Call 7: Review Patient’s experience, Clean aid, clean mould if necessary, change wax cap if necessary, change tubing or thin tube and tips if necessary, fine tune aid if necessary, ask about need for ancillary products, provide free pack of batteries, talk briefly about new technology & current offers. Time scheduled 15 to 30 minutes.

Service Call 8: Review Patient’s experience, hearing scan test, clean aid, clean mould if necessary, change wax cap if necessary, change tubing if necessary, fine tune aid if necessary, ask about need for ancillary products, provide free pack of batteries. Advise changing to a new product and assess readiness. Time scheduled 30 to 40 minutes.

This schedule allowed me to meet my patients on occasions where I was calling them for an appointment, not them chasing me. It increased my engagement with them and allowed me to build a real and strong relationship with them. Whilst this patient journey is a major element of the strategy for engagement, it only facilitates the other strategies and procedures that you put in place.

In all, this strategy will cost you in real terms for products supplied approximately 50 to 60 euros a year. In terms of time spent it will cost you approximately 100 euros more or less a year if you think your time is worth 100 euros an hour. I would sup posit that in fact that investment would be radically reduced or balance by the margin made on ancillary products that your Patient will purchase during this time if in fact you make it easy and sensible to do so. Such as drying tablets, batteries, washing tablets, a new drying case, a new washing case etc etc. If indeed for some reason your Patient does not indeed buy any ancillaries, you have invested approximately 700 euro on your Patient over a four and a half to five year period.

If indeed they provide one new Patient to you only, you are already ahead on traditional marketing costs. In my experience they will in fact provide you two or more, who will in turn become retained Patients and provide you their own referrals. In any mans language, that is a win win situation, your Patients are provided with real service and support and you are rewarded with continuing new business.

Regards

Geoff
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