Differentiate your services to create value
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
NEW ORLEANS – Service is the least expensive way to provide perceived value, according to Pete Hanlin, LDO, ABOM.
Hanlin spoke as part of the MedPro360 program here at SECO 2022.
Value perception is driven by quality, service, level of need, convenience and price, he said.
Ask yourself: “How will I brand my name and my recommendations? How will visiting my practice be special? How will I gain trial? How will I make being my patient easy? How often will price come up?”
Hanlin said more than 66% of eye exams in the U.S. are provided by private practitioners.
“If you did perception of value correctly, you could charge whatever you want,” he said.
He used Disney World as an example. Most people have an amusement park closer to them that is cheaper, but we still go to Disney World.
“Why do you go to an independent doctor?” he said. “I get a better eye exam. Why do you think I get a better eye exam?”
Less than 46% of eyeglasses are purchased from private practitioners, and 24% of private care prescriptions are filled at a retailer, largely due to lack of branding, Hanlin said.
Patients think they can get glasses cheaper at a retailer, a perception typically created by the doctor.
“I would never tell my patient they’re getting the same thing at a retailer,” he said.
Patients also misunderstand the various types of progressive lenses available, Hanlin said.
“Tell patients why you are giving them a specific product,” he said. “Then they’ll come back to you next time, wanting that same brand.”
Hanlin said, “Service is all about the experience. Walt Disney said if you do something really well, people will come back and see you again and they will bring their neighbors. Could you run an optometric practice that was so fun to be in that people would bring in their friends?”
Hanlin said you can attract your share of the 100 million private pay patients in America by providing great service.
“Let your patients know who you are,” he said. “You have something in common with everyone who walks through the door. Make it your business to find out what that thing is. We love to do business with people that we perceive are like us. If you make mistakes, they’ll forgive you.”
Include personal information on your website about not only the doctors in your practice, but also the staff.
He suggested hiring a high school senior at minimum wage whose only job is to walk around the practice, look for people who are waiting and offer them coffee, tea, soda or water.
In a practice Hanlin once managed, he said they gave out lollipops to everyone after having the air puff tonometer test.
“You just survived the worst part of your day; here’s a lollipop,” he said. “We got so many referrals because of this.”
When comparing service to convenience, “service will win every time,” Hanlin said. He noted how many women will keep going to the same hair stylist even after moving away.
“Service is important,” he said. “Let your patients know all about you, something will click, and they will listen to what you recommend better.”
Hanlin also advised attendees to figure out how to let people try things.
A doctor he knows in Wisconsin empowers his staff to offer polarized sunglasses to patients to wear for free for 30 days.
“If you don’t love them, bring them back in 30 days, and we won’t charge you,” he said. “If you love them, we have your credit card on file, and we’ll charge you $150 at 30, 60 and 90 days. He hasn’t had any returned. That’s how you create value perception.”
Collapse
Hanlin P. Creating perceived value for patients. Presented at: SECO; New Orleans; March 9-13, 2022.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts