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For some reason this is an apparently little understood concept in medical marketing. And I’m the kind of big mouth that loves to expose secrets like this.

It’s called “word of mouth“. You may have heard the term, but do you know how to use it? I see few examples of doctors making effective use of this critical concept. It’s one of the most imporotant things you can track in your medical marketing. But how can you measure what you can’t understand or influence?

I take the position that it can be managed and measured. Let me give you an example. I recently participated at a free school physical event put on by a local hospital. Throngs of students put through an assembly line of coughing and head-turning. The 2.5 hour event resulted in one new patient within the same week.

First of all, I deserve massive credit for keeping numbers on these things. Do you track sources of new patients? You should if you don’t. But here’s the more interesting part. Total visits increased as well compared to the same period a year earlier – by 15%.

Why? Random variation? Or did the event start a conversation about our practice. Did it remind existing pateints why they like us and to come in for a problem they have been neglecting? Did it trigger existing patients to recommend a friend to see us?

This is how to think about the new marketing and advertising, although it is not new at all. Don’t think impressions, think conversations that happen after they meet you or encounter your message. And find ways to track the resulting lift.

Come on, you’re all scientists anyway. You’d get all excited if this were a virus that you were tracking epidemiologically. This is the same thing but instead of a virus, it’s a conversation . Show the appropriate interest in the things that attract patients to your business.  

The old dental joke is “Ignore your teeth and they will just go away”. The same thing could be said about the patients in your practice.

If you need help engineering word of mouth into your practice we just happen to have proprietary, proven, kick-butt, make-you-stand-out-in-the-crowd-of-doctor-sameness methodologies that will do wonders for your practice. 

David Zahaluk, MD is a practice optimization expert and the author of The Ultimate Practice Building Book.  His firm, Ultimate Practice Builder, takes physicians to the top 10% of their specialty – in income, time off and quality indicators - within 3 years… guaranteed.  Learn more at www.UltimatePracticeBuilder.com.

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