In fact, the totality of patient experience and satisfaction is a top-tier issue for individual providers, hospitals, group medical practices and executive decision-makers. With these folks in mind–just about everyone–the following are 10 Top Patient Experience articles, including best practices, social media, patient-provider interaction, waiting times, case examples and how to use video:

Johns Hopkins and Five Other Patient Experience Videos You’ll Want to Watch

Specialized video messages can shape expectations, reduce apprehension and improve patient satisfaction…even before the patient arrives at the facility. More…

The Number One Factor for Choosing a Doctor or Hospital

Agile [healthcare] companies are changing the way they get to know their customers, according to a PwC study, embracing their patients as consumers and customers. It turns out that personal experience is the number one reason for choosing a doctor or hospital. More…

15 Best Practice Reasons Professionals Care About Patient Satisfaction

It’s not only good business, it is a reflection of professional success that benefits the patient, the community, the organization and the entire provider team of professionals. Here’s what doctors, hospital executives, facility managers and academic studies tell us. More…

Enhancing Engagement: The Basic Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media

There are four primary platforms to establish an online presence (in addition to your website). An effective social media program doesn’t have to be complicated, time-consuming or expensive. It can straightforward, and even fun. More…

Coach Lou Holtz, the Importance of a Timely Note, and Patient Satisfaction

Receiving a personalized note is usually a little surprising, uplifting and impactful. It’s also a valuable tool for individuals, executives and healthcare providers. Six tips from one of the most successful coaches of all time. More…

Hospital or Hotel? How Amenities Influence Facility Selection

There’s almost no limit to the number and kind of amenities a hospital can offer to make it appear more attractive to the consumers it wants to attract. Patients will be looking for the best possible environment for their convalescence, but they will not overlook quality care to get it. More…

9 Ways to Improve Doctor-to-Patient Social Interactions

A stronger patient-centric approach benefits the provider, the hospital or healthcare facility, and especially the patient….and it improves compliance, adherence, quality of care, and ultimately better outcomes. Here’s how to improve interpersonal communication. More…

Don’t Let Technology Get in the Way of Patient Satisfaction

Technology makes a strong contribution to positive experiences and medical outcomes. When used in better, smarter ways, it can only serve to enhance the doctor-patient bond and improve patient satisfaction. More…

Tales of the TELL: Those Little Red Flags are Patient Experience Symptoms

Patients can detect subtle signals about a medical office or hospital facility. And that may not be a good reflection of the office, the staff, and ultimately, the patient experience to follow. Be alert for telling signs like these. More…

Leadership: The Multi-Faceted Challenges and Rewards of Patient Experience

Informed healthcare consumers and medical providers share a concern for reducing costs, finding greater value, and improving service standards and outcomes. The benefits and beneficiaries of quality in patient experience are across the board. More…

Let us know what you think. And if you would like to share an article or post about patient experience or patient satisfaction please send it along.

Stewart Gandolf, MBA

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Stewart Gandolf

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Healthcare Success Strategies

Stewart Gandolf is CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, a medical marketing and health care advertising agency. He is also a frequent writer and speaker. Most importantly, he is happily married and "rock-n-roll daddy" to two wonderful girls.

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Five quick search engine optimization techniques to recognize if your healthcare website needs help with search ranking—to attract more visitors and win new patients.

By Lonnie Hirsch and Stewart Gandolf MBA

Here’s a quick assessment tool for your healthcare website. Internet Search Engines, like Google, decide how high your site will be listed on a mountain of search results. Sophisticated computer programs-spiders, crawlers, bots-do the work, and we know how to make friends with these critters to improve your page rank and bring more traffic to your website.

As a test, we just did a Google search for dentist in Cincinnati.

Results: about 676,000 results for dentist in Cincinnati. (0.21 seconds.)

Google sports some incredibly impressive technology…but 1. We’re pretty confident there aren’t 676,000 dentists in Cincinnati, and 2. Wouldn’t you hate to be listing number 432,123? The rude reality is that a prospective patient will not get past the first page or two—less than 30 listings.

Google is constantly indexing millions of websites using SPIDERS–complicated computer programs that methodically “crawl” the web to evaluate every page they can find.

Before human eyes ever find your website, it’s best to make friends with these spiders, crawlers, or bots, and give them what they like. There’s an art and science to pushing your website toward the top—and winning a higher page rank than the next guy.

Google will not tell anyone exactly how they determine page rank; it’s an intricate and secret algorithm, and they change it all the time. But there are some quick checks you can do to know when to call for professional help.

It doesn’t matter if your website is for a hospital, solo practice, healthcare organization, or physician group, you can use the following checklist. But keep in mind that this is not a substitute for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But look for these five areas to quickly spot an underperformer.

• KEYWORDS ARE KING: These are the significant words or phrases that are noticed and indexed by Search Engines. CHECK: ARE keywords (that patients search for) used – but not overused – in your code, navigation and text?
• WHAT’S IN A DOMAIN NAME: What you do is more important to Search Engines than who you are. For example: The URL www.doctorjones.com is general, but www.DentistForKids.com is specific. CHECK: What does your domain name have to say?
• SPIDERS NOTICE CHANGE: Search Engines are constantly searching, but they don’t waste time looking at what they’ve already seen (and indexed). Regular changes in a website have value for both visitors and spiders. CHECK:When was the last time you updated your website?
• TEXT WITH IMAGES: Spiders are blind to images, artwork, or videos. So you’ve got to use text to reveal content to spiders. CHECK: Are you using tags and captions with pictures and visuals?
• USE VIDEOS ON YOUR SITE: We are in the beginning of an entire series of special video reports about how to harness the benefits of video in healthcare marketing for hospitals, group practices and medical advertising. Suffice to say that videos on your website help boost page rank. CHECK: Look for our video series about online videos. We’ll tell you some of the best ways to harness this tool.

This is just a quick assessment. If your website is deficient in any of these areas, please give us a call pronto. The business of keywords and Search Engine Optimization are vital to page rank, but they are definitely challenging.

Reach out to us at (800) 656-0907. We’d be glad to get your website on the road to peak performance (or create one if you need). We know how to make friends with spiders, crawlers and bots.

Author information

Lonnie Hirsch

Lonnie has consulted for over 2,000 health care clients during his 20-year career. After rising to become President of the world's largest healthcare practice marketing company, Lonnie co-founded Healthcare Success Strategies with Stewart Gandolf. Lonnie writes for many healthcare publications, and also has spoken at hundreds of venues nationally. Lonnie has also dedicated himself to finding the highest-caliber professionals to fill our team of innovative "All Stars" ready to help your business thrive, and to create the organizational systems critical to our continual growth. His talented wife and 2 gifted children make all of Lonnie's hard work worthwhile.

But the lesson for healthcare and hospital marketing folks is that sometimes LIKE isn’t a strong enough description. When a Facebook post hits you squarely in the heart, there ought to be higher-level buttons marked WOW, COOL, WONDERFUL, BEAUTIFUL or AWESOME.

In fact, when St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital posted this photo on Facebook, “AWESOME” was one of the most frequently used descriptions among the 2,600-plus comments. Take a moment to check it out for yourself [HERE] and tell them what you think. What’s not to LIKE?

As few days ago, our friend Nicola Ziady, Director of Marketing & Communications for St Jude Children’s Hospital let us know that the Facebook Timeline Photo resulted in a new post record with 115,000 Likes (now over 118,000), 2,500 comments (now 2,600+), and 10,600 Shares (ahh…we’ve lost count).  When you do the math, that’s reaching more than 2.1 million people.

The Teen Formal photo was posted on Facebook on a Saturday morning in coordination with a news release that was distributed on Friday evening. It’s evidence that Facebook entries with an emotional appeal are instantly engaging.

You might say some are Awesome.

Related reading: Rules of Engagement: Motivations That Make Your Content Contagious

Lonnie Hirsch

Author information

Lonnie Hirsch

Lonnie has consulted for over 2,000 health care clients during his 20-year career. After rising to become President of the world's largest healthcare practice marketing company, Lonnie co-founded Healthcare Success Strategies with Stewart Gandolf. Lonnie writes for many healthcare publications, and also has spoken at hundreds of venues nationally. Lonnie has also dedicated himself to finding the highest-caliber professionals to fill our team of innovative "All Stars" ready to help your business thrive, and to create the organizational systems critical to our continual growth. His talented wife and 2 gifted children make all of Lonnie's hard work worthwhile.

How do you move forward in spite of the competitive headwinds? How do you maximize your advertising Return-on-Investment? How do you shift from “get along” to “get ahead?” Where’s the path to increasing personal and professional satisfaction? How can we grow revenue to expand services, locations or associates?

For doctors who are not yet willing to hang up the white coat…the answer (which we saw again today) is worth sharing for everyone’s benefit.

Providers, practices and medical programs that achieve the greatest success are the ones that planned it that way.

The constant change in healthcare delivery makes that seem easier said than done. But nationwide, it’s the same story. The winners all have a comprehensive marketing plan which they use daily.

It’s rarely simple or easy. Plans are often sophisticated, with many moving parts. Reaching, convincing and attracting an audience requires cost-effective strategies and tactics that increase revenue and profitability.

Where to begin: The first seven marketing audit questions to get to the next level.

Regardless of how well you think you’re doing, a marketing reality check is a useful starting point.

If you don’t know, if you’re a student of continuous improvement, or if you’re serious about breakthrough growth, here’s how to start a penetrating conversation with your marketing plan.

There are a couple hundred probing questions to ask yourself and others, but here are the first seven:

1. Are you using an evidence-based marketing approach? Does your marketing system include Proven Strategies, a well-designed Marketing Plan, Effective Implementation and a means to Evaluate Results? All four of these components drive the process. If you’re missing one or more you are not operating at full strength.

2. What’s the date on your marketing plan? 
Even well-considered plans become dated if they are not challenged at least quarterly. If it’s been six months or more since you took a fresh look at your roadmap, carve out some quiet time to evaluate. Do you need “refreshment” or a completely new course of action?

3. Do you have clear and specific goals? 
Not everyone is clear about this marching order: goals are at the top; strategies support goals; and tactics implement the strategies. How have your goals changed? What are the new goals and how did you set the goals? What strategies and tactics are needed to achieve the goals, new or otherwise? Did you realign your budget for what’s changed?

4. Is your marketing budget right for the job? There are at least six different methods for setting a marketing budget. How did you set your budget and does it support the goals? Do you have enough resources in the right places to make it a winning plan? Above all, marketing is a revenue center, not a cost center. You should expect performance to be 3 or 4:1 overall. (See #7.)

5. Does your branding message clearly differentiate your practice? 
As long as you are the “only game in town,” branding and positioning for your practice might go unchallenged. But increased competition means there’s no sliding-by-patients and community need to clearly hear and understand how you are different and better.

6. Are your internal, external and referral programs working together or independently? Some parts of a well-tuned plan run all the time, while others may be seasonal, and still others are keyed to a target audience segment. Does your plan carefully coordinate these elements, providing desired overlap or avoiding conflicts?

7. How do you measure response and Return-on-Investment? Sadly, many practices don’t have a reliable tracking system to identify the source of new patients and to measure the effectiveness of their marketing, advertising, promotion or referral efforts. Regardless of the size of the practice, the program or any of the strategic or tactical parts-if you don’t track you just don’t know what’s working. Do you have a tracking system? Is it working? Is it reliable and accurate? It’s impossible to manage the plan or calculate your ROI without this part of the equation.

Just one more thing…

Don’t allow the Treatment Plan get ahead of the Diagnosis. At least weekly someone will call and announce that they “need a brochure” (or something) for their practice. Imagine if a patient presented with a request for a specific medication before you did any exam, tests or procedures.

The same principle applies to creating successful marketing programs. Don’t jump ahead. Invest the time to probe into these questions and answers. Get a clear and unbiased perspective on where you are and what you need to do to achieve your practice development goals.

Related reading: See our previous post, Lewis Carroll, Yogi Berra and the “Any Road” Healthcare Marketing Fantasy.

Stewart Gandolf, MBA

Author information

Stewart Gandolf

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Healthcare Success Strategies

Stewart Gandolf is CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, a medical marketing and health care advertising agency. He is also a frequent writer and speaker. Most importantly, he is happily married and "rock-n-roll daddy" to two wonderful girls.

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Medical marketing efforts that attempt to reach anyone, anywhere-are doomed to produce only a squandered budget. Carefully and precisely identifying the target audience is a critical success factor in brand strategy development. You know whom you want to reach, where they are located, what makes them tick…and how to speak directly to them.

The process of branding in healthcare marketing involves many moving parts. And for your brand to both sound and be effective, a fundamental step is to know who you want to talk to—who is it that you want to attract to your doorstep.

A clear and well-defined target audience is also fundamental to your advertising; what media to use and how to shape a compelling message that brings response.

Defining the target audience is a critical success factor in branding

Vividly picture your target audience as a person, someone who is or could be real to you. For any healthcare organization and practices of all types—hospitals, manufacturers, physicians and surgeons, dentists, pharmaceuticals or groups—the more specifically you define the target audience, the greater your ability to inspire a positive response.

The power of your brand relies on the ability to focus, and there are four primary criteria in defining your target audience so you know them inside and out.

Four ways to define your target audience

There are many ways to describe target markets. But it is likely that you’ll want to use all four of the following primary categories.

• GEOGRAPHY — In short, where are they? What is the actual territory that you want to own? Most commonly, this is defined by ZIP codes, within a realistic distance between them and your location or locations. Keep psychological and physical barriers in mind as you define your geography.
• DEMOGRAPHICS — What is the target audience’s age, gender, family composition/size, occupation, education and household income?
• PSYCHOGRAPHICS — What is the general personality, behavior and lifestyle? What is their repetition of need? What loyalty characteristics are likely? Are they receptive to new ideas and innovative technology?
• BEHAVIOR — What are the needs and wants of the patient? What is their level of knowledge, information sources, consumer patterns or response to the product or service?

Given these factors, your target audience might be initially defined as:

Male and Female married adults residing within (specific) ZIP codes; between the ages of 21 and 35; at least one child; owning a condo or home; education above high school; and earning a household (combined) income of $65,000 or higher. Psychographically, these are busy young couples who consider their time to be a valuable and limited resource. They are active physically and positive in their outlooks. Behaviorally, they are often leaders in making purchase decisions, and they will likely look first to the Internet to acquire information.

The more specific you can see your target customer, the more effectively you can build your brand…and you’ll reach them more efficiently.

Reality check: where to find audience information

There’s a wealth of information about the local population within easy reach…and a lot of it is free of charge. After all, it is unlikely that you will successfully build a brand for “young married couples” if the population base is dominated by people 50-plus. Similarly it would be extremely insightful to know that there have been significant shifts in residential patterns.

Census Bureau data is online and free at: www.census.gov. Also from the Census Bureau, AMERICAN FACTFINDER helps with easy to find population, housing, economic, and geographic data at: http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en, and QUICK FACTS with maps at: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html. Statistics about people, households, personal income, labor force, and housing — organized by ZIP code — is available at: http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/zipstats.html.

Beyond these resources, we often guide clients using cluster-marketing models that group consumers into defined clusters based upon where they live. These models typically break down consumers into 50 to 70 cluster groups with descriptive names like “Executive Suites” or “God’s Country.” One of our favorite resources is http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp?ID=20.

Of course, we can work with you to incorporate all this data into actionable marketing strategies and tactics.

And remember, these articles are made possible thanks to the support of paying clients.

So give us a call today at (800) 656-0907 and we’d be happy to help you

Author information

Stewart Gandolf

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Healthcare Success Strategies

Stewart Gandolf is CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, a medical marketing and health care advertising agency. He is also a frequent writer and speaker. Most importantly, he is happily married and "rock-n-roll daddy" to two wonderful girls.

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By Steve Smith, Healthcare Success Senior Consultant

What does a typical visit to your medical practice have to say about your practice reputation? Here are five ways to exceed expectations and create a memorable service experience – a cornerstone of superior healthcare branding.

One of the great myths of customer service is that providing great – or even good – service requires a “program” or a “policy.” The program or policy can be so grand that in larger enterprises there may even be a person whose sole function is the maintenance of a customer service program.

That’s the myth. The reality is that creating a memorable patient experience requires only a few basic principles explained in a meaningful way to your staff.

That memorable patient experience most often depends not only on what is said to a patient but how it is said. Delivering that to your patients takes less than ten seconds per visit.

To understand how easy it is to provide great service, you must understand the typical medical office visit experience from the patient’s point of view. Here is a summary of their current expectations:

“I expect to arrive on time for my appointment, only to be greeted by an anonymous multi-tasker sitting behind a desk. This person is answering the phone, entering data, shuffling patient files and answering questions from peers and supervisors so, naturally, she does not have time to welcome me. Instead, I am asked my name, asked if my insurance is still the same, then told, “Have a seat in the waiting room and we’ll call you.”

“So, I wait in the waiting room, and wait, leafing through old magazines and sitting in an uncomfortable chair with a room full of people who would all rather be somewhere else.

“When my name is called, I get more indifference. No one tells me who they are, what they do or are going to do with me, or how long it will take. Instead, I am dumped at the next station, waiting for someone else to treat me the way the last person treated me.

“When I do finally see the doctor, I feel as though I’m on a timer. Just once, I’d like someone to say something nice to me. Ask me about my plans for the weekend or if I have seen any good movies lately – anything to show me that I am a human being and not just file number 46233.”

That reality means that the bar—your patient’s expectations—is set so low. But it is easy to raise that bar. Using the preceding patient experience as a guide, here are the basic steps toward creating a memorable patient experience.

• Start with your telephones. Most phones are answered in a rush, which sends the wrong initial signal to your patient. Slow down, the difference between speaking your phone greeting rapidly and speaking it calmly is about 1.5 seconds. The difference in patient perception is timeless.
• Acknowledge your patient. At check-in, look the patient in the eye and welcome her to your facility. Ask about the weather, whether the office was easy to find, or about any plans for the weekend.
• Describe the visit step-by-step. Everyone who comes in contact with your patient should tell her who they are, what they do and how long it will take.
• Respect their time. If you are running more than 15 minutes late, tell your patients at check-in. If the backup starts while they are waiting, go into the waiting room and tell each patient personally what happened. Even better, phone the patients who have not yet arrived and tell them of the delay.
• Finish strong. At discharge, tell your patient what happens next, whether it is the need for another appointment or how long it will be before test results are back. Don’t wait for her to ask you. Make sure that the last person seeing the patient says, “Thank you for coming in today.”

A few seconds – ten seconds or less – is a low-cost investment with a priceless return.

# # #

Healthcare Success Strategies’ customer service coach Steve Smith has been teaching the Ten Seconds program across the country successfully for over ten years, to both single location private practices and large institutions. Each session is customized to fit the staff and patient challenges you face each day.

For more information on how Ten Seconds can make a difference in your patient satisfaction – and your revenue – call Healthcare Success at (800) 656-0907, or connect with Steve through our website.

Author information

Stewart Gandolf

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Healthcare Success Strategies

Stewart Gandolf is CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, a medical marketing and health care advertising agency. He is also a frequent writer and speaker. Most importantly, he is happily married and "rock-n-roll daddy" to two wonderful girls.

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By Stewart Gandolf, MBA & Lonnie Hirsch

Owners and leaders of the most accomplished and admired healthcare practices rarely achieve their success accidentally. This is just as true in the broader scope…including healthcare organizations, hospitals and related businesses such as pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

While true in most industries, the winners in private practice and healthcare service providers (and there are strong organizational and individual winners – and losers – whether or not you want to believe it) manage to get ahead and stay ahead for specific reasons.

Over several decades of observing and working with many of these high-achieving individuals, we have noticed a number of common characteristics or “traits.”

If you already fall into the category of successful healthcare leaders, you will undoubtedly recognize many of these traits. If you aspire to join this elite group, consider this to be your checklist for achieving greater success in your future.

Business orientation – The most successful healthcare leaders know that the private practice of healthcare is more than simply a calling – it is a business – serious business.

Since most healthcare providers get little or no business education in their professional curriculum, they seek out the knowledge and information they need. They are usually voracious readers and not just of clinical journals. They read books, articles and magazines on business strategy. They take courses. They find business mentors. They learn and then they apply what they have learned, to create a more successful business.

Some of the most successful healthcare practices are led by healthcare providers, and other non-clinical professionals, who came to the healthcare field from a previous career or experience – often in other industries. One of the most savvy physician owners we know was a real estate entrepreneur prior to going back to school to earn his medical degree. Not surprisingly, his attitude and perspective toward the business of healthcare practice is far more progressive and proactive than 99% of his colleagues.

Have a dream and a goal – Leaders have vision. They see beyond their current situation. They tend to have big goals and big dreams and are focused on achieving both. To quote the wisdom of Yogi Berra, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

Successful healthcare practice leaders know where they want to go. They know how to measure their progress and success by setting and achieving specific, measurable goals. And they are not afraid to dream big dreams.

Positive attitude – People orient toward one of two groups in terms of how they view life and all of its opportunities and challenges. You are either in the “glass-half-full” camp or the “glass-half-empty” camp. It’s hardly coincidental that life’s opportunities seem to be attracted – almost as if by an electromagnetic force – to the “glass-half-full” folks and life’s challenges seem to constantly create insurmountable obstacles for the “glass-half-empty” crowd.

Positive attitude isn’t something you can fake to convince others. It’s a way of looking at the world that orients your brain to focus on what’s possible rather than what you have convinced yourself isn’t. People with a negative attitude frequently see themselves as victims who are not in control of what happens to them. People with positive attitudes seize control of their situations.

Some people are born with a positive orientation; others have to retrain their brains. The good news is that a positive attitude is something you can learn to cultivate.

Energy – Have you ever noticed that highly successful individuals seem to have an endless supply of energy? They seem to be always on the go, moving and thinking faster than everyone around them. This characteristic of successful leaders is not coincidental.

Energy is fueled by exciting goals and desires, by passion, by positive attitude and by good physical and mental health. Lethargy and exhaustion are usually the result of disappointment, depression, frustration, anxiety, anger, low self-esteem and the absence of meaningful, achievable goals. Energy is required by successful leaders but it is also usually inherent in their makeup.

Personality – Our advice: have one. Seriously, not everyone is blessed with a charismatic personality but relationships are key to success in business, so even if you are more introverted or shy compared to some of your colleagues, you still need to push yourself to “get out there” so you can cultivate and nurture important relationships that will benefit your success. Let’s face it – people refer to people they like, they trust, they believe are competent and they see as successful.

Willingness to market – Private practice in the healthcare field can be an easy competitive playing field for ambitious entrepreneurs because, unlike most industries, the “competition” tends to sit on the sidelines, due to biases, fears, apprehensions and ignorance regarding proactive, effective marketing.

Practice leaders who understand the enormous power and influence of effective marketing and aren’t afraid to tap into that power are the ones who generally reap most of the rewards. This is yet another example of the Pareto Principle (more commonly known as the “80-20 Rule”).

In this case, 80% of the business is controlled by 20% of the competitors in almost every market and specialty. One of the characteristics that almost all of the dominating 20% share is their willingness to get in the game and let people know how good they are and how they can help people to live healthier, longer, happier lives.

Sales skills – Most healthcare practitioners fear this “s” word. But the reality is that you are selling every day. Even if no money is changing hands, whenever you make a diagnosis and a treatment recommendation to a patient, you are selling. You need to convince the patient that he or she needs to take your treatment recommendation seriously.

Sales is the art of influencing people to buy into what you are selling. Ethical selling is first about having something of value that can help someone and then being able to honestly help them appreciate that value and use you to provide the solution they seek.

If the product or service you have to offer requires the patient to actually pay cash out-of-pocket beyond a co-pay (particularly for elective services), effective, ethical selling becomes even more critical to your success. All of the most successful healthcare practice leaders are great salespeople and aren’t conflicted about using those skills to persuade others.

(By the way, your own employees are one of your most important customer groups, because if they aren’t buying into what you are selling, then it’s very unlikely that patients or referring physicians will buy into what you are selling, either.)

Leadership by example – Leaders who earn the respect of the people they lead always walk their talk. Yes, some leaders lead through intimidation and you can even get people to follow you for a time based on fear. But that style rarely works for the long term.

Leaders earn respect by example. People respect others whose actions are consistent with their words. We don’t tend to respect (or follow) people who say one thing and do another. Yet in healthcare practices, we often see one set of “rules” for the leaders and another for the rank-and-file employees. That contradiction often underlies many of the personnel problems that seem to continually confront struggling practices. If you’re not prepared to walk the walk, then save your breath and don’t bother talking the talk.

Great staff – Speaking of your employees, your staff can make or break your practice and a great staff doesn’t just happen. The most successful practice leaders know how to recruit great people, mold them into a great staff and nurture them to create an environment where great people want to stay.

Healthcare practice is part of the service industry and the people in service organizations either reinforce or contradict the brand image and message, but either way, they are unquestionably influential to the perception of your customers.

“Doers” – To quote a line from the great Neil Simon play, Barefoot in the Park, “There are watchers in this world and there are doers. And the watchers sit around watching the doers do.”

In healthcare, practitioners gain knowledge and skill through extensive study and careful analysis. Then they study more and analyze more. Also, healthcare providers learn to be extremely careful in their clinical practice because a mistake can sometimes literally be a life-or-death miscalculation.

This careful, thorough, analytical and cautious approach works well for developing an outstanding clinical practice but can often be a detriment in business. You can actually feel like you are doing something by studying, analyzing and carefully considering all aspects and implications of a business situation. And while you are engaged in that process, the real winners in business are constantly on the lookout for opportunities and when they find a good one, they jump on it before someone else beats them to it.

Are you a doer or are you a watcher who is watching the doers achieve and succeed?

Focus on what is really important – The higher up you are in the organizational chart, the more important it becomes to be effective at prioritizing competing demands for your time and attention. Here, the 80-20 Rule comes up again.

Focusing on what is really important means understanding that 20% of your daily activities will have 80% of the impact on your business. Effective leaders know how to identify and recognize the 20% of their efforts that will yield 80% of their desired results and they focus their time and attention relentlessly on the 20%.

Do you even know which 20% of your activities influence 80% of your desired results? If you don’t know, then you may be spending 80% of your time on activities that don’t move you closer to your goals. In fact, that is the way most people live their lives and why so many are frustrated and disappointed.

Take smart risks – Successful healthcare practice leaders understand that risk is an inherent aspect of business and they are not afraid to take risks when the payoff seems worth it. Successful leaders don’t desire failure but they don’t fear it either. Sometimes it is the preceding failures that create the stepping stones on our path to success.

Constant quest for improvement - Thomas Edison said, “Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.” The most successful healthcare practice leaders, like leaders in other industries and endeavors, are never satisfied and never done learning. They have insatiable curiosity. They continue to read, study, take continuing education courses and learn more about the world and about themselves. They share an understanding that there is always room for improvement and so they always seek to improve.

We’re here if you need us. Call at (800) 656-0907.

Author information

Stewart Gandolf

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Healthcare Success Strategies

Stewart Gandolf is CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, a medical marketing and health care advertising agency. He is also a frequent writer and speaker. Most importantly, he is happily married and "rock-n-roll daddy" to two wonderful girls.

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Strategic marketing planning and analysis is an ongoing process. As part of almost every “Marketing 101″ course, students are taught a basic marketing analysis principle, most often called the “marketing mix.”

The marketing mix was originally defined as the “4 Ps” – Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. For service businesses, a fifth “P” – People was more recently added.

Still more recently, two additional important categories of strategic marketing analysis were added to the marketing mix: Packaging and Positioning.

While many articles on the marketing mix are easily accessible, we feel that the best article on this subject was authored by Brian Tracy. The article is reprinted below in its entirety.

The 7 Ps of Marketing

By Brian Tracy

Once you’ve developed your marketing strategy, there is a “Seven P Formula” you should use to continually evaluate and reevaluate your business activities. These seven are: product, price, promotion, place, packaging, positioning and people. As products, markets, customers and needs change rapidly, you must continually revisit these seven Ps to make sure you’re on track and achieving the maximum results possible for you in today’s marketplace.

Product

To begin with, develop the habit of looking at your product as though you were an outside marketing consultant brought in to help your company decide whether or not it’s in the right business at this time. Ask critical questions such as, “Is your current product or service, or mix of products and services, appropriate and suitable for the market and the customers of today?”

Whenever you’re having difficulty selling as much of your products or services as you’d like, you need to develop the habit of assessing your business honestly and asking, “Are these the right products or services for our customers today?”

Is there any product or service you’re offering today that, knowing what you now know, you would not bring out again today? Compared to your competitors, is your product or service superior in some significant way to anything else available? If so, what is it? If not, could you develop an area of superiority? Should you be offering this product or service at all in the current marketplace?

Prices

The second P in the formula is price. Develop the habit of continually examining and reexamining the prices of the products and services you sell to make sure they’re still appropriate to the realities of the current market. Sometimes you need to lower your prices. At other times, it may be appropriate to raise your prices. Many companies have found that the profitability of certain products or services doesn’t justify the amount of effort and resources that go into producing them. By raising their prices, they may lose a percentage of their customers, but the remaining percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could this be appropriate for you?

Sometimes you need to change your terms and conditions of sale. Sometimes, by spreading your price over a series of months or years, you can sell far more than you are today, and the interest you can charge will more than make up for the delay in cash receipts. Sometimes you can combine products and services together with special offers and special promotions. Sometimes you can include free additional items that cost you very little to produce but make your prices appear far more attractive to your customers.

In business, as in nature, whenever you experience resistance or frustration in any part of your sales or marketing activities, be open to revisiting that area. Be open to the possibility that your current pricing structure is not ideal for the current market. Be open to the need to revise your prices, if necessary, to remain competitive, to survive and thrive in a fast-changing marketplace.

Promotion

The third habit in marketing and sales is to think in terms of promotion all the time. Promotion includes all the ways you tell your customers about your products or services and how you then market and sell to them.

Small changes in the way you promote and sell your products can lead to dramatic changes in your results. Even small changes in your advertising can lead immediately to higher sales. Experienced copywriters can often increase the response rate from advertising by 500 percent by simply changing the headline on an advertisement.

Large and small companies in every industry continually experiment with different ways of advertising, promoting, and selling their products and services. And here is the rule: Whatever method of marketing and sales you’re using today will, sooner or later, stop working. Sometimes it will stop working for reasons you know, and sometimes it will be for reasons you don’t know. In either case, your methods of marketing and sales will eventually stop working, and you’ll have to develop new sales, marketing and advertising approaches, offerings, and strategies.

Place

The fourth P in the marketing mix is the place where your product or service is actually sold. Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting upon the exact location where the customer meets the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid increase in sales.

You can sell your product in many different places. Some companies use direct selling, sending their salespeople out to personally meet and talk with the prospect. Some sell by telemarketing. Some sell through catalogs or mail order. Some sell at trade shows or in retail establishments. Some sell in joint ventures with other similar products or services. Some companies use manufacturers’ representatives or distributors. Many companies use a combination of one or more of these methods.

In each case, the entrepreneur must make the right choice about the very best location or place for the customer to receive essential buying information on the product or service needed to make a buying decision. What is yours? In what way should you change it? Where else could you offer your products or services?

Packaging

The fifth element in the marketing mix is the packaging. Develop the habit of standing back and looking at every visual element in the packaging of your product or service through the eyes of a critical prospect. Remember, people form their first impression about you within the first 30 seconds of seeing you or some element of your company. Small improvements in the packaging or external appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely different reactions from your customers.

With regard to the packaging of your company, your product or service, you should think in terms of everything that the customer sees from the first moment of contact with your company all the way through the purchasing process.

Packaging refers to the way your product or service appears from the outside. Packaging also refers to your people and how they dress and groom. It refers to your offices, your waiting rooms, your brochures, your correspondence and every single visual element about your company. Everything counts. Everything helps or hurts. Everything affects your customer’s confidence about dealing with you.

When IBM started under the guidance of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., he very early concluded that fully 99 percent of the visual contact a customer would have with his company, at least initially, would be represented by IBM salespeople. Because IBM was selling relatively sophisticated high-tech equipment, Watson knew customers would have to have a high level of confidence in the credibility of the salesperson. He therefore instituted a dress and grooming code that became an inflexible set of rules and regulations within IBM.

As a result, every salesperson was required to look like a professional in every respect. Every element of their clothing-including dark suits, dark ties, white shirts, conservative hairstyles, shined shoes, clean fingernails�and every other feature gave off the message of professionalism and competence. One of the highest compliments a person could receive was, “You look like someone from IBM.”

Positioning

The next P is positioning. You should develop the habit of thinking continually about how you are positioned in the hearts and minds of your customers. How do people think and talk about you when you’re not present? How do people think and talk about your company? What positioning do you have in your market, in terms of the specific words people use when they describe you and your offerings to others?

In the famous book by Al Reis and Jack Trout, Positioning, the authors point out that how you are seen and thought about by your customers is the critical determinant of your success in a competitive marketplace. Attribution theory says that most customers think of you in terms of a single attribute, either positive or negative. Sometimes it’s “service.” Sometimes it’s “excellence.” Sometimes it’s “quality engineering,” as with Mercedes Benz. Sometimes it’s “the ultimate driving machine,” as with BMW. In every case, how deeply entrenched that attribute is in the minds of your customers and prospective customers determines how readily they’ll buy your product or service and how much they’ll pay.

Develop the habit of thinking about how you could improve your positioning. Begin by determining the position you’d like to have. If you could create the ideal impression in the hearts and minds of your customers, what would it be? What would you have to do in every customer interaction to get your customers to think and talk about in that specific way? What changes do you need to make in the way interact with customers today in order to be seen as the very best choice for your customers of tomorrow?

People

The final P of the marketing mix is people. Develop the habit of thinking in terms of the people inside and outside of your business who are responsible for every element of your sales and marketing strategy and activities.

It’s amazing how many entrepreneurs and businesspeople will work extremely hard to think through every element of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, and then pay little attention to the fact that every single decision and policy has to be carried out by a specific person, in a specific way. Your ability to select, recruit, hire and retain the proper people, with the skills and abilities to do the job you need to have done, is more important than everything else put together.

In his best-selling book, Good to Great, Jim Collins discovered the most important factor applied by the best companies was that they first of all “got the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus.” Once these companies had hired the right people, the second step was to “get the right people in the right seats on the bus.”

To be successful in business, you must develop the habit of thinking in terms of exactly who is going to carry out each task and responsibility. In many cases, it’s not possible to move forward until you can attract and put the right person into the right position. Many of the best business plans ever developed sit on shelves today because the people who created them could not find the key people who could execute those plans.

About Brian Tracy

Brian Tracy is a leading authority on personal and business success. As Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, he is the best-selling author of 17 books and over 300 audio and video learning programs. Join Brian’s Free Email Newsletters.

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Stewart Gandolf

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Healthcare Success Strategies

Stewart Gandolf is CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, a medical marketing and health care advertising agency. He is also a frequent writer and speaker. Most importantly, he is happily married and "rock-n-roll daddy" to two wonderful girls.

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The New Normal for Medical and Hospital Marketing in Tough Economic Times

By Lonnie Hirsch and Stewart Gandolf, MBA

Healthcare marketing and advertising can appear to be complex, confusing and daunting. But the first steps on the road to success are grounded in only six fundamental building blocks.

We think of it as an “ah-ha moment.” It’s that highly gratifying instant in our consulting work with practitioners when the veil drops, the mystery disappears, the light bulb ignites—and a big idea is understood in a flash.

It’s rewarding for the client, seminar attendee or the audience we’re addressing, as well as for ourselves as healthcare marketing instructors.

Here, in 14 words, is a sentence that frequently leads to an ah-ha moment:

“There are only six ways to market any healthcare organization. Six and only six.”

Admittedly the broad topic of successful healthcare marketing is complex and sometimes confusing. There are hundreds of strategies and thousands of tactics, but understanding this six-point outline provides a manageable starting point for bringing it all together.

We organize our seminar presentations and our client marketing plans around these fundamental elements. If this is a back-to-basics list for you, perhaps it’s a useful refresher and something you can share with others. If this is an eye-opener, we’re pleased. For many people, grasping these six elementary building blocks demystifies healthcare marketing in an ah-ha moment.

The Six Fundamental Elements

(With each of the following brief descriptions, we’ve included a READ MORE link to a related, in-depth article that we’ve authored for our publications, subscribers or for other professional publications.)

Professional Referral Marketing: A reliable and continuing stream of inbound patient referrals from other medical, dental or other professional sources is the lifeblood of many specialty providers. And whether it’s a primary or secondary channel, professional referral sources can’t be taken for granted. Doctor referrals do not happen by magic or simply because you are a good provider. Success requires a written plan and an unfailing system to preserve and grow the flow of professional referrals. [READ MORE]

Internet Marketing: From websites and social media tools, to patient portals and mobile apps, online marketing is a mainstream channel for marketing, advertising and public relations. Exactly how you use the muscle of the digital freeway can be highly effective and profitable, or a huge waste of time and money. [READ MORE]

Branding: This is all about standing out from the crowd in a positive way, and it includes virtually everything you do. A powerful, differentiating brand for your healthcare business is part of your reputation. Meaningful and effective branding does not occur without a deliberate effort to shape and express the right message at the right time. [READ MORE]

Internal Marketing: This heading includes all the ways and means that you communicate with people who already know you, primarily present and previous patients. Depending on the nature of your practice or situation, this influential audience can be a rich resource for referrals, additional services, testimonials and/or word-of-mouth advertising. [READ MORE]

External Marketing: These are the media that reach prospective patients that don’t know you. Advertising in newspapers, radio, television, billboards and the like target an audience that needs to know that you provide an answer for their healthcare need. There’s little margin for error in an external media budget that is expected to produce a measurable return-on-investment. [READ MORE]

Public Relations: This heading includes, among other things, planning and generating healthcare publicity and free press exposure, such as newspaper articles or broadcast interviews. The end results look easy, and it can be a positive and powerful influence. But “free press” typically results from careful planning, good timing, a clear message and a deliberate effort. [READ MORE]

Whether this is familiar territory or an “ah-ha moment”—and whether you work with us or not—there are only six ways to market any healthcare organization. Use this list to guide your healthcare marketing plan for achieving your goals. And if you’d like more information about crafting a successful marketing plan, click through here to contact us, or give us a call today at (800) 656-0907.

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Stewart Gandolf

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Healthcare Success Strategies

Stewart Gandolf is CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, a medical marketing and health care advertising agency. He is also a frequent writer and speaker. Most importantly, he is happily married and "rock-n-roll daddy" to two wonderful girls.

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The second in a two-part series about intelligent individuals that allow their personality or attitudes to block their potential for success. Read part one:

We continue with the second of our true tales from the field about doctors who step on their own marketing toes.

Previously, we wrote about the (now recovering) “Iron Man” personality. In many respects, here is the other side of the coin among some doctor marketing decision-makers.

The Deer-in-Headlights: Physicians can be risk-adverse to a fault with business decisions. Although they are clear about the goals they want to achieve, for one reason or another, they resist taking action or getting into game at all.

In some circumstances, we find the doctor is unfamiliar (or uncomfortable) with the concept of marketing and advertising and is afraid to begin. Analysis Paralysis takes over and/or they want “everything to be ideal,” or they fear prospective solutions that are new to them Or they want total reassurance that whatever they do could not possibly fail. Or, perhaps in a group practice situation, marketing is a “committee” decision where everyone and no one is in command.

The Red Flag Warnings: The goals and the strategies to achieve the goals are vague. Deadlines and due dates (if any) slip easily. Wait-and-see feels so much more comfortable. There is no empowered leader willing to take action or group consensus never arrives. The plan is set but the resources are not. Responsibilities and accountability is “shared.”

The Down Side: The usual product of inaction is, at the least, lost opportunity…or worse. Your competition is grateful when there are fewer players. They love it. You’re not just lingering at the starting line…they’re pushing you off the field. And you can’t win the game sitting in the locker room.

The Solution: Accept the fact that there are no guarantees in marketing and advertising, but sound advice is based on tested and proven experience. Strategies and tactics that have worked for others lower the risk. If you’re waiting for all things to be perfect, or if one person is the barrier, perhaps a dose of assertiveness training is what’s need.

Some words of wisdom that seem appropriate for both the Iron Man and the Deer-in-Headlights: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Doing nothing is not a strategy, and it’s often necessary to step beyond what’s familiar and trust in the knowledge and experience of others for success.

Our recommendation here is a well-considered and well-executed plan of action is needed to achieve clear and specific goals. Get qualified outside help if necessary. Have confidence in your staff and expert help, and empower them to produce results

For more on this subject, see the first of this two-part series: Staff Secretly Takes Assertiveness Training. This Doctor Has a Problem.

Lonnie Hirsch

Author information

Stewart Gandolf

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Healthcare Success Strategies

Stewart Gandolf is CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, a medical marketing and health care advertising agency. He is also a frequent writer and speaker. Most importantly, he is happily married and "rock-n-roll daddy" to two wonderful girls.

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