You’ve been practicing for years and everyone in town knows who you are, but you’re not increasing the number of patients you help each year. If this describes your practice, you’re not alone! In fact, this is a common concern we hear from our Associates—they’re working hard, feel busy, and yet, the number of patients helped, and revenue generated is not increasing.
So, what can you do to reach more quality people? If you’re thinking the answer is “marketing,” you’re correct. However, it’s important not to get so focused on marketing to new patients that you forget – you’re already sitting on a patient gold mine: your database!
Whether it’s through a sophisticated practice management system or less sophisticated paper folders in a metal cabinet, you’re already keeping great records of your patients and tracking everything. Obviously, organization is key. But what you do with the data makes all the difference, especially with patient touchpoints.
We call this data mining and here are three reasons you should mine your data regularly:
#1. Stay Connected with Your Patients
If you’ve been on an airplane lately, then you’ve probably heard the flight attendant say something along the lines of: “We know you have many options for your air travel needs.” This is a very true statement and it’s not limited to the airline business—it applies to every business, even yours. Touching base with your patients regularly (at least twice a year) gives you a chance to show you’re thinking about their well-being and thank them for choosing you as their trusted hearing healthcare provider. This will also remind patients of the wonderful experience they had with you, making them less likely to go to one of your competitors.
#2. Help More Patients
Based on CQ’s studies, 60 percent of patients with hearing loss will not purchase hearing aids during their first visit. That means, if you’re seeing 300 patients a year, 180 are leaving your office without accepting help. When you reach out to those patients, you can restate the impact hearing loss has on their overall health and remind them how you can help (yearly check-ups and cleanings, hearing aid troubleshooting, upgraded technology, etc.). This will fill your schedule with quality opportunities.
For example: If you’re a five-year-old practice seeing 25 patients per month, then you are helping 10 patients while 15 patients leave untreated. At this point, you could have about 900 patients that were tested but didn’t accept help as well as a database of about 600 patients whose technology is out of warranty. Over the next 3-4 years, you want to stay connected with those patients so that when new and improved technology is released, you can fit them with an even better device.
Our tracked data shows that for every 38 letters sent to patients for either new or upgraded technology, one appointment is scheduled. For every appointment scheduled, we see one hearing aid sold. From a business standpoint, think about what that can do for your revenue: if you reach out to 300 patients a year, you could possibly sell eight hearing aids for an additional $16,000 in revenue (assuming an Average Selling Price of $2,100 per device). The Consult Upgrade program is by far one of the most effective ways to reach your patients, with the average event yielding more than $51,000 in revenue.
#3. Minimal Effort and Costs
You’re already spending the right amount on your annual marketing, so what’s the cost associated with sending letters to patients? Minimal at best, especially compared to the average cost of a new patient: $760.
You can find several customizable database letters on Consult’s MarketSource that are proven to drive appointments. All you need to do is export well-constructed lists from your database and perform a simple mail merge to personalize the letters for each patient. Or, you can let CQ’s marketing professionals handle all of this for you. From designing to mailing to reporting, we can execute a 12-month strategy for you so that you and your staff can focus on other important responsibilities, like follow-up calls, scheduling appointments, and more.
Starting mining for gold today! Reach out to your Account Manager to learn how CQ Partners can help you implement a database mailer strategy that drives results.
