You are seeing your patient volumes staying flat or even declining. Maybe a competitor is moving in or some referring physicians are steering their patients elsewhere. Either way, you somehow lost connection with your customers and they are going somewhere else for treatment. So, now what do you do?
Most healthcare providers, including cancer programs, continue to make a number of mistakes that prevent them from effectively attracting new patients. The first mistake is that they pursue a simple marketing strategy that is based on two assumptions:
1. “Build it and they will come”; and
2. “One size fits all”
This strategy may have worked well in the past but not any more. Unless your center is located in a remote and rural center, and safe from distant competitors, you now have to actually work hard at attracting new patients. Just because your center treats cancer patients does not automatically mean that they will continue to come. There are plenty of competitors out there ready to take your business from you if you don’t pay attention. The “build it and they will come” strategy does not work any longer because it ignores the fact that new patients and their referring physicians need to be made aware and constantly reminded of your wonderful cancer program.
The “one size fits all” strategy, usually consisting of a few billboard and magazine advertisements, combined with an occasional visit to some of your referring physicians, no longer works either because of it assumes that you have only one customer: the patient. And it falsely assumes that all patients are pretty much the same and equally important to your cancer program.
Banks, retailers, manufacturers and other companies have long ago figured out that they provide services to multiple groups or segments of customers and that each customer segment has different needs. They also figured out that each customer segment needs to be approached differently. Some customer groups are best reached through advertising, direct mailings, social media, etc. Others may need a much more personal touch and require regular face-to-face interactions. Most customer segments will need a tailored blend of both strategies.
As the leader of a cancer program, you are already familiar with the sales reps of pharmaceutical or medical equipment companies stopping by regularly with doughnuts and bagels to keep in touch and to be ready to help you with purchasing decisions. You will need to do the same thing with your customers. In addition, patients and their relatives increasingly realize that they now have the tools to determine where to get the best treatment for their cancer. The internet, the social media, US News & World Report’s annual hospital ratings, the US government’s Hospitals Compare, etc. are providing patients and their relatives with enough information to be dangerous. Did you know that according to a recent AMA study, which also cites a study by the Pew Internet Research Group, in 2011, nearly 80% of Internet users, or 60% of all adults, have searched online for health information? In addition, 41% of patients look for medical content from social media sites.
So, the fundamental questions you need to answer are:
1. Who are my customers anyway?
2. Where are they coming from geographically?
3. What are they looking for?
4. How do I best reach them?
5. Are they all equally important?
Market or customer segmentation is, therefore, the first critical step in determining and understanding who your customers are.
Keep in mind that your customers are not only your patients but also many others who are involved, in some fashion, in the patient’s decision to come to your center for treatment, e.g., family members, primary care physicians, surgeons and other specialists, payers and employers. These are different groups of individuals or organizations, each with their own unique goals and needs.
Also, not all customers are equally important to your top line and bottom line. Some groups of patients may be more attractive than others because of your cancer center’s capabilities and expertise, or less attractive because the cost of caring for these patients in an appropriate and effective manner exceeds the reimbursement you collect from their payers.
Similarly, it is important to cultivate strong and long-term relationships with referring physicians in general and to take especially good care of those referring physicians who consistently send many patients to your cancer program for treatment. And that requires you to understand who these key referring physicians are.
Getting to know and understand your customers’ goals and needs is your first important step toward an effective marketing strategy. It will help you define how to reach out and connect with your customer segments and to build long-term relationships with them, just like they do in other industries. Your competitors aren’t sitting still either and are probably already going after the same customer segments you depend on for growth.
If you are experiencing a decline in patient volumes or plan to grow your cancer program and are not sure how to best proceed, please call me for a free consultation. I’ll be happy to help you avoid the 10 lethal mistakes in marketing your cancer program and help grow your cancer program profitably.
Yours in Oncology Excellence.
Paul Schilstra,
President
If you have any questions, contact primeASCENT by calling 410-444-6024 or click here today!
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