Should offering assurance to existing patients be the goal of your web site ?

Have been thinking about comments patients have made to Barb. Particularly by new patients. I should note that every once in a while a new patient calls or wanders in because they liked what they read on her site. Huzzah! Isn’t that what we hope our web sites will do? Bring new patients through our door?

Maybe not. Here’s the question I’m grappling with after listening to Barb’s patients: Is it possible that in our field, new business should be the secondary goal of our on-line efforts?

I have come to believe our primary goal is to reassure patients who have already scheduled an appointment that they weren’t flat-out stupid for calling you. Before you dismiss the idea as bat-shit crazy, consider how behavioral studies have proved over and over that we make decisions emotionally, then search for rational reasons to justify our decision.

I have no empirical evidence to prove the studies correct, but there is abundant anecdotal evidence provided by Barb’s patients. The trickle of new patients who find Barb is overwhelmed by the sheer number who visit her site after scheduling their first appointment. Why would they do that, and so consistently? Sounds to me like they are searching for the justification. They worry their doctor or friend who referred them to you has missed something important about you that makes their suggestion worth dog poop. Or they worry about whether you can handle their problem. They worry if you are just minimally competent. Worry about finding your office, and what will happen when. Or, and this is a biggie, they worry about whether you are trustworthy. So many possibilities.

Looking at Barb’s site, I can see no obvious path for new patients to find the justification they seek. What they are finding is being discovered on their own. Maybe building a mini-site is in order, then sending each new patient a link to the site. What do you think? I don’t know of anybody who has tackled this area but listening to Barb’s patients, there seems to be a need and opportunity. Has anybody looked into this area, or built something for patients?

On a related note, do you ever wonder what visitors to your site actually do?

The site stats provided by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com where Barb’s site is hosted, are pretty useless for a hyper-local practice like Barb’s. There is no way to know how much traffic is coming from her geographic area. So those daily visitors and page views? Looks like something useful should be coming from it, but why would Barb care if somebody living in Switzerland really likes her? Here is 30 days worth of her most recent stats.

Barika Audiology site visits

Barika Audiology site visits (click to enlarge)

Sure there are also other stats telling you what pages are most popular and a bunch of other stuff **, but what I’ve always wondered about is where are visitors lingering and what do they skip? How do they move through the site? I would think knowing how visitors interact would be a lot more useful than the information that most stat packages provide (granted, Google Analytics is much better than Automattic’s but wordPress.com doesn’t allow embedding the necessary code).

If you wondered the same thing, check out Lucky Orange. I have no experience with the service beyond glancing through the site (because it likely couldn’t be installed on Barb’s site unless her blog was moved to a different host) but it looks like a neat tool if you want to get into the spooky art of heat maps and mouse tracking and stuff like that. Lucky Orange provides a way to see how visitors are interacting with your site. Cost is reasonable, too, for a small practice to get access to tools that have previously been out of our price range. $10 to $30 per month, depending on how white label you want to go. There is one question in the Common Questions (scroll to the bottom of the page) that gave me pause. “Will this hurt my search engine rankings?” Answer,”It shouldn’t. Our software doesn’t do anything illegal.” That’s one hell of a way to begin an answer before explaining more. Just a warning to be aware of should  you decide to look into this package. As long as you aren’t thrown into jail or patients start sending you death threats, this tool may help you build a better web site.

** One thing I can glean from Barb’s stats is if you simply want traffic to come to your site and you don’t care who it is or why they are visiting, write posts about the Lyric hearing aid and hearing tests that can be done from home. Month after month those are the two posts that consistently generate traffic. Of course, one shouldn’t stop there and call it good but rather, consider why ARE those two the most popular? Says something about our patient’s expectations that is only barely revealed and the real reason goes much deeper? 

Field report: Elite Hearing Network Convention 2013

Audiologists and dispensers flew to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for Elite Hearing Network’s annual convention February 7-9. Somehow Barb qualified to go. Lacking a better alternative, she asked me to go with her. Somebody has to save that gal so she doesn’t have to ask me to go the next time a meeting comes up.

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is a sprawling, all-inclusive resort on the east coast of an island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. With luxurious rooms, friendly staff everywhere, a large number of restaurants and bars scattered across the massive resort offering free pre-paid food and drink, and a half dozen pools flanked by a wide, sandy beach, I imagined there would be quite the temptation to skip classes. I witnessed bathing suits peeking from beneath clothing of a few who checked into a class then bolted ten minutes later. Gauging by the stains on their clothing they sprinted from a pool bar to repeat the process, but by-and-large the sessions were well attended despite the attractions outside and sunny, 80 degree weather. Kudos for being a mostly dedicated group of professionals. Hopefully the normal people who attended the Elite event will post their own thoughts about the convention on their blogs. From all appearances, the event went well.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino

Beach at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Dominican Republic. (click to enlarge)

I have just a few observations about subjects covered during the conference. Keep in mind Barb went to all the classes offered. I didn’t. I was a fly on the wall during presentations, usually sauntering in late or escaping early, standing or sitting on the floor at the back of the room to observe both attendees and presenters. With that caveat, here’s what crossed my mind while simply listening and watching.

Ethics: This subject never came up, for obvious reasons, but couldn’t help but wonder whether it is appropriate to accept an “earned” trip from a buying group. Hearing aid manufacturers and a distributor helped sponsor this convention, with a few ancillary suppliers chipping in too. From scuttlebutt I’ve heard at previous events from employees of buying groups, manufacturers pay the lions share of the expense though I don’t know if that is the case in this instance.

Here’s the dilemma. There are studies that show accepting a gift alters ones opinion favorably towards the giver, no matter how inconsequential the gift is. The mound of overwhelming evidence stands in stark contrast to the belief you can control your urge to reciprocate. You can’t. Reciprocity is coded into our DNA. Should we insist on paying full fare if we want to attend events offered by Starkey, Oticon, Elite and Audigy (to name but a few)?

Marketing: Presenters extolled their wares, and attendees talked about their experiences. It became obvious the single common factor that lead to success of a campaign was longevity. Not whether it was good (or bad). Those who talked about their success seemed oblivious to this fact. They described their marketing in detail. Others chimed in that they had tried the same and it didn’t work, always being careful to add “in our area” to not offend someone.

The simple fact is their campaigns worked because they stuck with it for years. When shopping for a marketing plan the question should not be what is the campaigns message and how well it has worked. The first questions should be, how long has this campaign been running and how many iterations have been produced? Not talking about how long a marketing firm has been selling a product. Rather, how long has a practice been running a campaign with favorable results? Any campaign running for less than a year is suspect.

Marketing to Physicians: Overheard a comment, with no lack of sarcasm, made by a presenter talking with a buying group member after the session ended: “Audiologists will spend $5000 on a newspaper ad but won’t spend $250 on a hand-held screener for a doctors office.” Draw you own conclusion what that says about us on the front lines.

MarkeTrak 8: Sergie Kochkin, former Executive Director at Better Hearing Institute, presented results from his eighth and perhaps last survey for the industry. For part of Mr. Kochkin’s presentation couldn’t help but think about Swiffer, the cleaning product made by marketing behemoth Proctor and Gamble. The product was researched to within an inch of its life by pro’s who really know their stuff. Market analysis, surveys and focus groups, the whole nine yards. All looked good. The product bombed when introduced. Was almost killed until a young exec decided to follow a few people home who bought Swiffer. Turned out the research was myopic. P&G thought Swiffer was a cleaning product, and asked people to evaluate it as a cleaning product. However, real customers bought it to disinfect their homes. A small shift in how Swiffer was being advertised turned Stiffer into a very profitable line.

Mr. Kochkin presented results from a series of “What if?” questions asked of hearing aid purchasers. If they haven’t experienced what the question is getting at (the testers of Swiffer held and used the product, yet still lied), how will users answer honestly? This problem has dogged every attempt to understand future behavior of consumers and results are wrong more often than right – by a wide margin. Responses are usually what a person perceives as will be pleasing to the person administering the test, survey, etc. I suggest ignoring every prediction-based response while reading MarkeTrak VIII.**

Ask The CEO: Man, this was the session I really looked forward to. Eight CEO’s, seven from manufacturers and one a distributor. Lined up on stage in front of roughly five hundred audiologists and dispensers. Answering questions the members asked. Unfortunately, the hour didn’t turn into a free-for-all. The execs went out of their way to not offend a counterpart.

Elite CEO panel

Elite CEO panel in Dominican Republic.(click to enlarge)

The first thing I noticed while arriving fashionably late was, the CEO panel looked wrong. Eight middle-aged upper income white folk. Seven men, one woman. Tom Peters (author of “In Search of Excellence, and general thorn in the side of business traditionalists) has proof that a diverse team at the top results in better corporate performance. Financially and product-wise. I guess the board of directors for the companies represented on stage that day haven’t seen the memo. It is only a decade-plus old.

Questions were screened and selected beforehand… by somebody. Read to CEO’s by a moderator who then sat idle until each exec had their say. No challenges, no jogging for more information was done. Not too surprising, though. The moderator’s future is tied directly to not ruffling the feathers of his CEO guests. A third party as moderator, knowledgable of the industry, would have been nice to see. As it was, questions were dutifully and efficiently read, while audience members were by-standers. They could just as easily have watched the proceedings on a screen in another room, for participation was not expected or invited.

The only applause (or reaction of any kind) came after a couple CEO’s talked about making sure independent professionals are protected from interlopers. Wow. Is that the manufacturers role as far as audiologists and dispensers are concerned? We are but a cog in their profit machine. Manufacturers and distributors walk a tight-rope, balancing expanding their sales against pressure from audiologists and dispensers to help protect them and grow their practice. Ours is a misplaced hope. We need to learn to fend for ourselves.

A sole dust-up, if one could call it that, arose while Kim Herman, the new CEO of ReSound and seen on the TV screen flanking the panel in the photo above, stated they don’t purchase private practices and turn them into corporate stores. A member of the Starkey contingent (who, I’ll leave unnamed because it looks like the tweet may have been deleted), not on the panel, tweeted ”Not so!”, referencing Beltone. Kind of accurate and kind of not. A lot has changed since ReSound bought Beltone so hanging a noose around innocent necks is uncalled for. The five people  in the audience monitoring Twitter noticed because a few of us chortled at the same time, but that was as far as it went. Either nobody from Elite was monitoring Twitter, or there wasn’t a mechanism in place to alert the moderator of tweeted comments/questions. Here I think you will find tweets made during the conference.

The CEO of Siemens deserves a moment of applause. He described in no uncertain terms why Siemens is buying practices. They were watching as long-time customers were retiring and, given a paucity of buyers, were selling to groups that compete with Siemens. He stated Siemen’s purchases of offices is an effort to retain the market share they could lose if the practice owner sells to somebody else. While it didn’t look like the audience was happy with his explanation, you have to give him credit for laying out his case for all to see and it is hard to argue with his logic.

Kudos also to the exec whose name I don’t know (he’s on the right side of the shitty-quality picture above) and Jerry Ruzicka of Starkey for making comments that were uncomfortable for the audience to listen to, but needed to hear.  They addressed the pressures manufacturers face, and related those pressures to how it could effect their dispenser base – both positively and negatively.These two spoke in a forthright, unedited manner that we need to hear from our industry titans more often.

Getting there: A surprisingly large contingent from the Northwest showed up. All shared similar stories of flying to an island peeking out of an ocean just a few miles from Cuba. Usually there isn’t a problem an airline won’t solve as long as you are willing to empty your wallet onto their desk.  Not so this time. Fleeing the damp cold of the northwest proved to be a lengthy ordeal. Airport to airport, it took an average of 18 to 22 hours sitting in concourses and planes to get to Punta Cana.

Rather than reimbursing for transportation, Elite could look into chartering a couple planes for next years convention in Hawaii. I have no idea now much chartering planes would cost but given this years allocation of $750 travel expense per person, chartering may be feasible. One plane leaving from an east coast location, another from the west coast. Getting to either jump-off location would be the members responsibility. Or pay for the entire package if ethics is considered, but wonder if the number of members attending would then shrink to near zero.

That is all.

/gst

** A high level exec standing next to me must have read skepticism on my face during Mr. Kochkin’s “I guess this is what patients want.” section, for he leaned over and whispered into my ear “Sergei says what he’s told to say.” Not sure I would believe his statement at face value but given the corporate position of a guy I have known for years, there is likely an undetermined degree of truth to his words.

You’ll have to make a tough choice.

Jon Speolstra’s friend had a problem they discussed over lunch. Sales of his metal detectors, the kind you see used by guys wearing headphones while wandering through beaches and parks, were lagging. His dealers no longer featured his product in high traffic areas, usually putting the few metal detectors they had in out of the way places near the back of their stores. Jon’s friend had designed a new model that was much better. A big improvement, sure to spark new sales.

One problem. He didn’t have enough cash to build and advertise the new model and because sales had slowed, banks wouldn’t give him a loan.

National Geographic metal detector

“Do you have the names and addresses of the people who have purchased your products?”, Jon asked.

“No”, he said. “People purchase it at retail stores. I doubt the stores have their names.” He took a sip of beer, thinking. “Wait a minute. I have boxes of warranty cards sent in by customers. About 5,000. I never look at them because my product never breaks. But each card has their name, address and phone number.”

“Eureka!”, said Jon.

(An example metal detector, not the product mentioned.)

Recently Matthew Mattis, lacrosse coach, former VP of Sales for GN Resound, and current owner of The Hearing Stores of Minnesota (not to be confused, I think, with The Hearing Shoppes of Minnesota, check out the search results), posted a comment made in response to a query about the soon to be released iPhone-compatible hearing aids:

“For those of you using the Phonak hearing aids, I hope that Phonak doesn’t take your money when you buy their hearing aids to buy your competitors, add them to the connect hearing network and then compete directly with you. They now have over 1100 locations to compete against you using your money.”

Tough question to answer from the dispensers point of view…… Or, maybe not?

Can you, an audiologist or hearing aid dispenser,  begrudge a manufacturer for trying to increase their sales?

Jon’s cash-strapped friend had parts in stock to make a hundred of the improved model, and enough cash to send out a mailing. If he made just a hundred sales, easy to imagine since he was mailing his offer to already satisfied customers, there would be enough profit to easily make 500 more. Dealers would be thrilled. He could show how well received the new model is and get sales flowing again.

But Jon’s friend thought of another problem. “If I go direct to my customers, I could lose my distributors and retailers. I’d be undercutting their sales by going direct.”

The solution Jon came up with was to give a cut to the dealer and distributor who was nearest the purchaser. For doing nothing. Pennies from heaven. The credits were redeemed when retailers and distributors ordered the hot new metal detector. Everybody wins.*

Your monster decision.

Manufacturers will explore many paths to increase their sales. As an audiologist or hearing aid dispenser, not all of their decisions will make you happy. They will invest in helping you, and also invest in sales channels that compete with you. That much we have already seen. Manufacturers and you walk a thin line. All looking for ways to make sales.

What will you do when a manufacturer of products you sell is also your competitor, on occasion? Do you quit ordering from them? Will they be smart enough to do offer a deal like Jon’s friend did? Would you take it? Happily? Begrudgingly?

How will you influence manufacturers to work with you, in ways that make both parties happy? What suggestions do you have?

____________________________________________

* The story of Jon’s friend came from a book Jon wrote. More on that in a moment. If you asked me, “If you could suggest only two marketing books to read, written over the last twenty years, what two would you recommend?”, they would be Seth Godin’s “Permission Marketing” and Jon Spoelstra’s “Ice To The Eskimo’s, How To Market A Product Nobody Wants“, where the metal detector story came from. (not affiliate links)

There are arguably better marketing books during that time, but none are as relevant to marketing in our field of hearing.

Holiday fun: 38 minute tour of the Alaska Panhandle

If you have never visited Alaska, here is your chance to get a glimpse of what part of the Alaska panhandle looks like: Ketchican, Juneau, Skagway…. plus Vancouver Island and Victoria, B.C. in Canada, and a glimpse of my hometown, Seattle.

Download the movie here, stored on my public Dropbox account: AlaskaPanhandle2012.mov

Note: Damned glitches. Just tried playing the linked file on my computer and noticed two nasties exposed themselves: The resolution of the streamed version is lousy. This is why I hate doing video on-line, too many freaking variables to account for. Also, when I tried playing the video the streaming version cut off part-way through the show – roughly half way through. Downloading the file (6.01 GB), then playing it should solve both problems. /gst

Photographing the panhandle was a challenge. To begin with, all shots were taken with either an iPhone 4 or Nikon S8000 point and shoot camera. I’m still trying to adapt, and not doing very well, to using viewer-less, compact, automatic cameras. Plus, the scenes in Alaska are enormous. It’s hard to to do justice to both the infinite variety of detail and big-picture grandeur that is everywhere one looks.

Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier

Even more challenging, we were mostly on either a cruise ship or shore excursions so I didn’t have time to to stalk scenes as I normally would. One has to make instant decisions and live with them. Toss in the constantly changing weather, which meant lighting conditions changed rapidly and… well, it was one big challenge to capture and do right. Some photos are slightly out of focus. Others aren’t but look like they are, because they were shot through a downpour of rain while holding the tail of my coat over the camera.

I also didn’t record as much audio as I typically do on trips. So instead I added recordings made of friends who are talented musicians (the last two songs are obviously commercially produced). A good set of speakers or headphones would be a bonus.**

Enough with the caveats, already. Enjoy the tour

P.S. Barb is the 60 year-old dark haired gal in the photos, her younger sister has the lighter brown hair. The clean shaven guy is Barb’s sisters husband, and I’m the scruffy, balding mess wearing glasses and hearing aids who is mercifully rarely seen.

** The piano songs are composed and performed by Kim Levy, the youngest daughter of our friend Kathy. Kim is a self-taught pianist whose skills were honed when she was accepted to a school in Los Angeles. Must be a pretty good school, as one of her classmates was the son of Stevie Wonder. Kim only recently learned to read music. She’s one of those musicians who can nail a song, playing by ear, after listening to a song performed only a couple times.

Our friend, Steve Fain and his string bass, plays on the jazz tracks with the Charlie Pagani Trio, a local group of musicians who play at bars around the area. Steve also plays with other groups and at his church. He’s not only a joy to listen to, but also to watch. Steve plays with enthusiasm that is obvious to the eye.

Skagway Port

Skagway Port

Why setting realistic expectations is the worst advice you could give.

Every spectacular act, which Aimee Mullins certainly qualifies as (though she’s anything but an “act”) deserves a warm-up group to get the audience charged up. So here’s a message from The Onion, taking a spot-on poke at social media goons who want practice owners to swoon over the unremarkable results companies all over the globe are experiencing with social media. Enjoy the laugh. We’ll be getting down to business in three minutes.

Short-changing patients. Intentionally.

I came from a field where encouraging customers to dream big was expected. The American Dream. Why buy that small car if you can have this bigger one, with all the nice features? Nobody disagreed. “Why settle for less? I deserve better.”

A prosthetic limb doesn’t represent the need to replace loss anymore. It can stand as a symbol that the wearer has the power to create whatever it is that they want to create in that space, so people in society that once were considered disabled can now become the architects of their own identities, and can indeed change those identities by designing their bodies from a place of empowerment  -Aimee Mullins

When I first started working with Barb, I was puzzled hearing it was deemed important to set realistic (low) expectations if a patient was going to adapt to their new hearing aids. The advice came from professionals, so I took their advice as gospel. They knew best, right? Yet with every patient, I had to wonder if the professionals leading our industry had their heads up their arse. Ten years on the car lot helping people set high expectations had become ingrained. Now, the path I was supposed to take for patients to have great results seemed like taking the easy way out. If patient expectations are low, I won’t need to do my best for them. They’ll accept the small car, even though their heart was set on buying the more comfortable, larger car. I could still say I was providing great service while being honest. To their detriment?

Twelve pairs of legs are better than two.

Aimee Mullins was born without fibulas. Her legs were amputated below the knee when she was a year old. She developed unrealistic expectations, like wanting to be coached by what turned out to be a world famous track coach though she had no clue he was famous.  Aimee has become a record setting Olympic athlete. Actress. Model. Advocate for women, sports, and next generations of prosthetics. She doesn’t see herself as disabled, pointing out that “Pamela Anderson has more prosthetics in her body than I do and nobody calls her disabled.”

What does it mean to have a disability?  - Aimee Mullins

I’ve met inspirational people. Listened to others on a stage. Watched many speaking at Ted Talks. Aimee Mullins ranks near the top of my all-time best list. Absorb ten minutes of pure inspiration. Then we’ll apply her message to the work hearing professionals are doing.

Whimsey matters. Poetry matters.

Pretty inspiring, huh?  By the end of her talk I had two pages filled with ideas for Barb’s practice, inspired by Aimee. But let’s focus on only two comments for now. First, about having invited designers from many different fields to design legs for her: “Poetry matters. Poetry elevates a benign and neglected object (sic) to the realm of art. It can transform the thing that might have made people fearful, into something that invites them to look, and look a little longer, and maybe even understand.”

Then, a few minutes later about perceptions of prosthetics: “The conversation with society has changed profoundly this last decade. It is no longer a conversation about overcoming deficiencies. It’s a conversation about augmentation. It’s a conversation about potential.” “[Disabled have] the power to create whatever it is they want to create.” “People that society once considered disabled can be the architects of their own identity… and can continue to change.”

Are we stuck in the cycle of talking about overcoming deficiencies, when we should be talking about augmenting potential? I know we think in terms of augmenting, but is our intent made crystal clear? Or are we pandering to our old ways of marketing and education without seeing what we are doing?

Finish the damned race.

Couldn’t help but wonder, what would Aimee’s life be like if her coach, on the day she set world records at the Paralympic Games but was worried her then-new Cheetah legs would fall off during the race, had not scowled at Aimee with his Noo Yawk accent, “If it falls off you pick it up, put it back on, and finish the damned race!” Would she have won? Would she have become a model, actress, and done all the inspiring things she does?

Bo Jackson, a superb athlete who started for professional baseball and football teams simultaneously, was injured during a game and needed a total hip replacement. He would require at least two years of rehab and if all went well, would maybe, maybe play baseball again – sparingly. A few months later Bo resumed playing both sports, and his “radical” rehab method quickly became the standard for all patients who had hip replacement surgery.

I have to hand it to Aimee’s coach and Bo’s doctor. Both had reservations about what “their” athletes wanted to accomplish – which was far beyond realistic expectations. Both were willing to learn, though, if they were wrong.

Realistic expectations? What we need to create with patients are hand carved works of art, made of solid ash.

When I started working in the hearing profession I was willing to believe what the experts said about setting realistic expectations. After all, I  came from a field that traded dollars for metal, rubber and plastic. Nothing important.

My new profession was about the most cherished aspirations people have. The core of what makes a life good.

That we can stop compartmentalizing form, function and esthetics… and assign them different values.  -Aimee Mullins

Which makes me wonder, why are we settling for “Here’s what you can expect.”? That seems to be the lowest possible standard, yet is still considered best practice? Amazing we have fallen into such a trap.

Combine cutting edge technology with art. Just like that.

Shouldn’t we follow Aimee’s lead and encourage our patients to expect more? For themselves, and from us? As Aimee points out, when it comes to prosthetics the conversation has changed. It’s about augmentation to achieve potential. Augmentation will continue racing ahead, opening new doors for patients. The question is, are you and I up to the task of helping patients through those doors, and learning from them?

Bonus:

Build the best product, do no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
– Patagonia’s Mission Statement

Patagonia and Black Diamond are companies I admire not just for their marketing and products, but also for how owner Yvon Chouinard has worked hard to make sure his companies walk the talk. For all the noise seen and heard about Apple, Nike, etc., Patagonia doesn’t get nearly enough mention.

More from Yvon Chouinard, about their effort to clean up their supply chain and make it environmentally friendly: “Find out what we’re doing wrong and fix it, and then prove to the rest of the world that it’s good business.”

Also: “Whenever I am confronted with a business problem, the answer is to improve quality.”

When I grow up I want to be Patagonia. And Aimee Mullin’s legs.

We are moving closer to understanding our collective humanity. I think that if we want to discover the full potential in our humanity, we need to celebrate those heartbreaking strengths and those glorious disabilities that we all have….. It is our humanity and all the potential within it, that makes us beautiful.  -Aimee Mullins

Extending chart notes app to include patients

A recent post by Tom Peters about how to improve results of care by medical professionals included a blurb about a project by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation called Open Notes. By the way, Tom’s article is well worth reading. Mr. Peters has long been critical of how medical care is delivered in this country, and with good reason. He has experienced its failings first hand (as have I, alas, with lasting detriment).

While building Barb’s chart notes app I toyed with the idea of making the chart notes available for her patient to read and comment on. I also thought about adding a section where they could add post-visit observations in near-real time (all using a secured connection, of course). Barb would receive notice when a patient commented on an existing note or created a new entry, for future consideration and to determine if immediate action should be taken.

I just though it may be a good idea. No high-falutin’ ideals drove it, other than a desire to foster closer contact with how patients are actually feeling. The Open Notes project team also explained what their goal is, which sounds like my reason but uses more words:

“The OpenNotes project tests the radical yet simple idea that physicians’ notes should be for the patient, not just about the patient. This 12-month study has primary care physicians sharing with their patients the notes they record from office visits through a secure electronic medical record…. The OpenNotes team will assess whether the intervention effectively breaks down communication barriers among physicians and patients and promotes shared decision-making, making the relationship more open and democratic.”

What do you think? Something you would want to use in your office?

Bonus link: Just for fun. Also, Tom Peters. 99 cents.

Should you promote your practice, or create a virtuous circle?

Just checked Barb’s site stats and the most visited page/post remains the Lyric hearing aid review. It’s been #1 on Barb’s site since the day it was posted a year and a half ago. That one post continues to draw a fair number of email inquiries from people all over the world, asking Barb for advice.  Rarely about the Lyric.

I remain amazed how easily people can reach out. To ask. To respond. To help.

Her Concierge Audiology and About pages consistently rank #2 and 3, respectively. None have a call to action. Keep that in mind. It’s important, if only to understand this thread of thought I will lay out.

Because the reasons why patients decide to come to Barb after visiting her site parallel her site stats to a ‘t’. The #1 post is most often mentioned by those who come to see Barb as why they decided to choose her, rather than a competitor.

Then comes popular page #2, then #3. None of the pages have a call to action. But none is needed, if you provide something people desire. Which is a big, if.

Here’s what is really goofy. Barb doesn’t dispense the Lyric. The post makes that fact clear, along with why she doesn’t offer it. Yet the Lyric review consistently draws more new patients through the door than any of our efforts – except for those coming to Barb by referral, her #1 source of new patients. No call to action is needed. Just honesty, and making intent clear.

You are here to serve. It’s not what you do. It’s who you are.

Perhaps the article works because Lyric arouses a lot of curiosity. Perhaps it is because the post has a brutally honest tone. We don’t diss the Lyric out of hand. Instead, it gives reasons why Lyric is not right for Barb’s style of practice.

Oddly, people come to her because they read about a product that she doesn’t carry. That is the benefit of content marketing, a term that is often used but is rarely defined.

Inform. Help. Respond.

Don’t promote.

Perhaps it all works for Barb because people are getting exhausted to the bone with constantly being barraged with promotions and hype? Call now! Don’t just sit there.

The fact that sticks out like a sore thumb is posts that are purely informative and have no call to action consistently out-perform our blatant promotional efforts at drawing new patients through the door.

Wow.

Realizing that made me sit up and take notice. You, too?

It has jogged me to reconsider how we promote Barb’s practice.

We have been tending towards the “serve, don’t promote” path for quite some time. For instance, we have had an informal policy that if we perform a service in-house, we charge a fee the first time around. From that point on, everything then becomes “No charge.”

Of course, we don’t tell patients about the policy. We just do it. Make it happen. With a smile.

An odd thing then happens. Patients slip 20 and 50 dollar bills into our hands as they walk out the door. Usually more than we would have charged, if asked. All without a mention of fees. No billing necessary.

We write off a hearing test balance due, after insurance pays. No questions asked.

We send lot’s of cards out, stuffed with small gifts, for all kinds of reasons. But rarely mention hearing and hearing aids.

We have done a lot of little things like that. Little steps. Inconsequential in themselves, but when taken as a whole……

We learned the common thread throughout, is people like to come to those who give more than take. People like those who truly help, rather than focus on making money.

Funny thing is, by taking that path people will pay you more than you expect. Often, more than you would ask.

So we have decided to try to build a virtuous circle that is more complete. Everything we create will be informative. Nothing will have a hint of self promotion. A constant give.

Next up is every hearing test and hearing aid purchase will trigger a donation to either Dog’s For The Deaf (located only a few miles down the road from us), or will buy a mosquito net for a family in Africa (where nasty-for-ears quinine is still commonly used because it is more affordable than the less toxic alternatives).

We’re kicking the new campaign off with two events. One to inform current patients about what is being done, and another for the general public. A donation will be made in the name of each who attends. A friend and sales rep from Starkey will also make a presentation at the events, talking about the Starkey Foundation that is donating millions of hearing aids to people across the globe. Nothing will be mentioned about hearing aids unless asked.

Feels good just thinking about it all.