Advertising and marketing your services is expensive, however it’s done – Facebook, Google Search etc – and takes up a lot of time. That gets the patient through your door – by which point you’ve spent all that money & time – you need to make sure they know what you’re all about, all you offer and all you can do. Our research shows that more than 70% of patients do not have a good understanding of the treatments available in their clinic. This makes your conversions of consultations to treatments very tough, leading to weak returns on your marketing investment.
Focus their Attention while they Wait
Those five or so minutes that a patient is in your waiting room are some of the most valuable that you have. Rather than having the patient flick through a random magazine, grab this precious time to further engage and focus their attention on the services you offer.
Patient Mode is one of the simplest, yet most effective marketing tools that you can use to engage and educate your patients about all the great treatments and products you offer. Patient Mode displays videos and brochures on the benefits of products like Obagi and treatments such as laser hair removal, which a patient can choose to watch based on their interests. You can use this to cross promote your services and products to a captive audience and dramatically increase the chances of a sale during the time your patient is with you.
Consumers are unlikely to purchase a high value item without becoming comfortable that they are making the correct choice, and this takes time. The aim is to reduce the time from the moment they first become aware of the product to when they purchase the right product for them.
Purchase Decision
In marketing terms, the Purchase Decision flow is often shown as a funnel – it narrows as a purchaser sheds alternatives and focuses on one product. There are three steps in the decision making process before the decision to purchase.
By using the Patient Mode the patient achieves the first stage, “Awareness”, while waiting for the appointment. This means they are already into the “Familiarity” stage by the time they begin discussing options with you in the consultation. Bringing forward their first point of contact with a new treatment or product also allows them to drive the conversation – “Do you think this would help?”, “Can you tell me about this” – allowing you to play to your strength as a conveyor of knowledge rather than a salesperson. You can guide them through the “Consideration” phase in person through informed conversation, where not only are you demonstrating your knowledge, but building trust and helping them feel comfortable that they will choose the right product. This combination of actions dramatically increases the chances of reaching the “Purchase” stage during the appointment, or if there is insufficient time, including the treatment in the patient’s Treatment Plan.
In comparison, without Patient Mode, “Awareness” of other treatments begins during the consultation, which will likely defer the “Familiarity” phase until a subsequent visit, as there is no time for the knowledge to set in.
All videos and other media are also available via the Patient Application, so should a successful sale not occur during an appointment, the patient can still access the information at their leisure. This allows them to feel more comfortable with the services on offer – reinforcing the “Familiarity” and “Consideration” stages of the Purchase Decision flow. Take the opportunity to ask the patient to download the application to their smartphone and send them a registration link.
Consentz will manage and update the available content, which can then be selected to be displayed in Patient Mode. This content will be updated on a regular basis – however if there is content you wish to have displayed, please get in touch with the Team and we’ll happily investigate the possibility of adding it to the available selection.
Metrics to Track
You can monitor the success of using Patient Mode through the Dashboard. Look out for an uptick in Retention Rates, increase in Customer Spend, and an increase in Conversions of consultations to treatments. Reap the rewards from adopting a simple to use, yet effective tool.
For more information read about setting up Patient Mode here.
Learn about how to track results through the Dashboard here.
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