1. Public relations serves a crucial role in the development of any healthcare business. Ultimately, moreso
than the quality of the service you provide, the perception of the quality of your service determines your
success as a business—and it is PR which determines perception. Consider these seven ways public
relations can grow your healthcare business:
1. Healthcare businesses live and die on customer satisfaction. In healthcare, customers don’t
necessarily go to the best care provider, or the cheapest—they go to the one which they perceive as
offering the best experience. Managing your public relations is crucial to controlling public perception of
your healthcare business, ensuring that your potential, current, and past customers all perceive the
experience you provide in the best possible light.
2. Bad PR needs to be contained and managed. Bad news is an inevitability in most industries, but
healthcare goes above in beyond. Every healthcare company needs the ability to control ‘bad news’ as it
arises, because it will arise. How well you can control negative publicity and prevent a dip in public
perception is wholly dependent on how well your PR team has prepared for different eventualities.
3. Name recognition drives market share. Having your name in front of the public is the simplest
building block of any marketing strategy, and proper PR works wonders for achieving that level of name
recognition. Unlike many businesses in other industries, healthcare businesses have enormous
opportunities to place themselves in the public eye and receive media attention.
4. A strong reputation works as a basis for partnerships. It’s not just consumers you impress with a
strong presence in the public eye; a skilled PR effort also positions you well for profitable partnerships
with other businesses. Which do you think will receive more attention: an entreaty from an unknown
healthcare business, or one from a business that appears on the news regularly?
5. PR serves marketing well. It’s crucial to remember that all interactions with the public serve as
marketing, at the most basic level. By putting public relations to work for you, you ensure that every
interaction with the public is serving a proper purpose; you eliminate the missteps, flubs, and ignorance­
induced failures which arise without a coherent PR strategy, in favor of a focused control over your
company's perception.
6. Attention begets opportunities. With good enough PR, new opportunities arise. Businesses will reach
out to you, conventions will invite your personnel to speak as guests or offer you floor space. There are
doors which only open for public darlings.
7. Industry leadership starts with skilled PR. If you want to position yourself as an industry leader, it’s
not enough to be the best in the industry, to have the most skilled staff, to use the latest technology, or to
adopt new measures ahead of the competition. Such a position demands name recognition and public
acceptance of your leadership, and that in turn demands active PR efforts. To see your business reach its
fullest potential, PR is 100% mandatory.