Optical Practice Management: What's Keeping You From Marketing to Your Current Patient Base?

You have worked hard to provide the best service and care to your patients. Your method of optical practice management has a solid reputation in your community, and yet you're not experiencing as much growth as you would like.

Marketing is an obvious way to bring in more patients to your practice, but your office has already spent a lot of advertising dollars on traditional forms of marketing like ads in the Yellow Pages, newspaper, and on the radio. Your success with these venues has been limited, but maybe you are hesitant about the thought of spending more money in this area.

As you look over your optical practice management plan, you know the time has come to inject some fresh ideas that bring results. As you think about this, consider what keeps you from marketing to a list of people who already know you. Your current list of patients is a pot of gold just waiting to be tapped.

Are the objections already forming in your mind? It is understandable that the last thing you want to do is drive happy patients away by overselling them. Here is the good news--you can use your current client list for marketing purposes without offending them. Here's how:

• Write a periodic newsletter. E-mail newsletters are one of the most underused resources available to any business. They are a great way to disseminate useful information into the minds of your patients without sounding like a used car salesman. In each issue, highlight any current promotions you may be offering. Best of all, your contact information gets seen on a regular basis by people who know you. One last benefit to your business about using the e-mail to send your newsletters is that there is no postage expense.

• Build a better website. It's not enough to have a website with basic information about your office hours. You need a website that tells people about your services and educates them at the same time. Put your website address on your business cards, brochures, letterhead, and on your voicemail greetings. Make sure there is a viable way to contact your office and get a response through your website. Offer special goodies like free reports and useful articles to keep people there. Of course this is also a great way to invite patients to sign up for your newsletter.

• Ask people to come back. Your optical practice management plan probably includes a section about customer service. Here is one simple idea that will help build customer service and bring patients back. It is amazing what a simple “thank you come again” does to someone's psyche. These four simple words show your patients that you care, and cements in their minds that they would like to repeat this process again. Make sure that all of your office employees are saying this to patients. You will be amazed at the response you get.

• Ask for a referral. Happy patients are more likely to refer people they know to your practice. Make it a habit for everyone in the office to ask for referrals from happy patients. Obviously, you want to preface this question to follow comments from your patients about good service. If you feel brave, ask them directly if they had a good experience. Once you verify they are happy, give them a few extra business cards to make referring easy.

You need to remember one thing before you set up your e-mail newsletter. Federal spam legislation requires that people give you permission before you send an e-mail. Creating an opt-in e-mail for people who sign-up is a good practice to keep you from breaking the rules on spam.

These strategies are simple yet effective in marketing to your current patient base. Modern optical practice management techniques must constantly evolve to keep you ahead of the competition.

Most doctors use less than 20% of the potential of their website for gaining new patients. A great looking website is only one part of getting patients from the internet. Are you getting as many patients as you can from yours? You may find the free expert guide, '7 Mistakes Doctors Make When Getting Their Website Done', a valuable resource.