The thriving patient relationship

© The Brytemoore Group, Inc. 2014
David Garrison
The Thriving Patient Relationship
A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO BUILDING A LASTING PATIENT RELATIONSHIP THROUGH YOUR DISPENSARY
AANP 2014 Annual Conference and Exposition
Friday, August 8, 2014
MANAGING PARTNER
THE BRYTEMOORE GROUP

(outside of the visit)
WHAT’S THE SINGLE MOST VALUABLE PATIENT EXPERIENCE?
FREQUENT
MEANINGFUL
IMPACTFUL
PERSONAL
PROFITABLE
DISTINCT
TRUST-BUILDING
VALUABLE

MOST ORGANIZATIONS SEE
MARKETING
& BRANDING
ACTIVITIES AS DRIVERS OF
PROFITABILITY.
“Good experiences mean
patients come back more
frequently.
Bad experiences mean they
leave faster.”
THIS IS TRUE.

THERE’S MORE.
spoiler

BRAND
HEALTH
is a leading
indicator of
FUTURE
PERFORMANCE

BRAND HEALTH
IS EVIDENCED BY AN
ACCELERATION
IN METRICS.
What are the critical inflection points in
someone’s experience?
What drives decisions at those points?
What can we do to influence those decisions?
How can we create a sense of acceleration?

LANDSCAPE
Why dispensaries are
important in the emerging
healthcare environment
DISPENSARY
MANAGEMENT
101
Clinical v. strategic v.
operational v. financial v.
ethical v. brand decisions
INTRO TO
DISPENSARY
RELATIONSHIPS
Outlining the value of the
dispensary in the context
of the patient
DEFINING
OBJECTIVES
Identifying practice-specific
outcomes
MAPPING
OPPORTUNITIES
Interactions that
strengthening patient
relationships, improve
outcomes, and grow
earnings
A MEASUREMENT
FRAMEWORK
Measuring performance
and continuous
improvement

Branding.
Why People Care
A brand is a mental and emotional construct, or shorthand, that people hold in
their head and hearts when thinking about an organization.
A brand is something one earns, rather than something that one owns. Defined by
the market, it is a direct result of the sum of experiences and communications and
references people run across in relation to your organization, so although you
can’t own a brand, you can work to influence it.
Marketing.
What One Does
Marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services.
It involves is some set of activities you implement in order to give someone
incentive to make decisions or behave in a way that benefits your business.
Dispensary.
How One Does It
(a) Medicinal products available to patients as part of their engagement in/of
your practice.
(b) The experiences that go along with the ordering, organizing, and consumption
of those products.

BIG.
(afew,choice)
hairy.
EMERGING.
TRENDS.
Even smaller practices are
impacted by market patterns,
so make sure you keep a
finger on trends and
expectations – and what
they’ll mean for you.

Medical Disintermediation.
50% of patients use dietary supplements.
40% take a multivitamin.
Vitamin use rises with education and income levels.
Retail Brands & Fragmentation.
Increased volume of and access to information on products and treatments.
Increased purchase of DTC and generic brands.
Increasing availability of premium brands.
Wellness.
Interest in general wellness has been rising for a while now, but the evolution of this trend signals a new, broader, more popular approach to
wellness. The important nuances here are increased expectations of what service and wellness entail, greater focus on wellness ingredients
and factors, and more aware and more involved prospective patient populations.
3 TRENDS WORTHY OF NOTE
Sources: “NCHS Data Brief: Dietary Supplement Use Among U.S. Adults Has Increased Since NHANES III (1988–1994).” CDC, Number 61, April 2011.
“Half of Americans Take Vitamins Regularly.” Gallup Well-Being. December 19, 2013.
Jegtvig, S., “One third of Americans mixing supplements with meds: study.” April 29, 2014.

Q:
What % of your
revenue does your
dispensary comprise?

Q:
What are the top 3
ways you impact a
patient’s outcomes?

Q:
What are the primary
loves / complaints
about your practice?

OPTIMIZATION
Focus on improvement of process
from a practice perspective.
Planning begins and a clinic
approach or operational patterns
emerge.
INTEGRATION
Dispensary understood as driver
of clinic profitability.
Activities largely driven by
marketing objectives, such as
patient profitability or dispensary
turnover.
View of dispensary as a required
but distracting component of a
practice. Decisions driven by
perceived impact on treatment
effectiveness.
MARKETING
CRAWL
WALK
RUN
Marketing as service mindset.
Dispensary seen as integral part
patient relationship with practice.
Activities reflect distinct practice
brand and increased value is
placed on capacity to deliver on
brand experience.
EXPERIENCE
FLY
• Profitability • Inventory turnover
• Repeat purchases (compliance)
• Lifetime Value of the Customer
(LVC)
• Revenue
• Volume
• Vendor costs
• NPS
• Cost per satisfied customer
• Brand tracking
• WOM referral rates
• Loyalty measures
MINDSET&
DESCRIPTION
• Supplier decisions (e.g.,
outsourced v. owned; vendor
selection criteria)
• Price-setting
• Shipment & logistics set-up
• P&L performance and tracking
• Product performance
measurement
• Per-patient outreach
• Process optimization
• Investment in outreach tools
• Qualitative product reviews
• Early inventory management
(e.g., reorder points, bulk
ordering)
• Pricing and bundling
• Cost reductions and vendor
relationship review
• Advanced content and thought
leadership strategy
• Investment in brand experience
SAMPLE
ACTIVITIES
SAMPLE
METRICS

STEP 1
SET-UP & MAINTENANCE
PRODUCT
What’s the composition of the product?
What’s the most effective version of the
product?
What research backs up the product?
How can I ensure I have the best
product for patients?
Who’s the best vendor?
PATIENT
Do patients have clear expectations
around dispensary products?
Can the practice deliver on those
expectations?
Is there value in white-labeling
products?
Do patients value the practice’s
dispensary or do they buy from
somewhere else?
What are the things that make patients
purchase from the practice and is there
variance by product?
What are the things that patients
perceive they spend the most money
on?
What products or services do patients
think give them value (e.g., visit, labs,
supplements, shipping, research
insights)?
PROCESS
Is it important for me to have
dispensary products on hand?
Which products do I need to stock v.
have on-delivery?
How much time do I want to spend on
inventory management?
Can others do a better job than me at
managing my dispensary?
How do I balance the incentives
involved in operational moves like brand
consolidation and choosing entirely
based on treatment effectiveness?
What products should I stock first?
How often do I need to review my
dispensary and where do I go for
insights?

DISPENSARY HYGIENE: CREATE A PRODUCT REVIEW PROCESS
• Regular timeframe (recommended: annual)
• Dispensary performance
• Research review
CREATE A CUSTOMER INSIGHTS PROCESS
ANALYZE THE LIFETIME VALUE OF A CUSTOMER (LVC).
• How much do you actually make off your average customer?
• Gives you insight into how much you should invest in acquiring/retaining customers
• Are there different types of customer?
STEP 1
SET-UP & MAINTENANCE (cont’d)

CLASSIC
VIEW
PROFIT
TREATMENT
EFFECTIVENESS
EXPANDED
VIEW
BRAND
ALIGNMENT
LOYALTY &
ADVOCACY
PRACTICE
GROWTH

Profitability
Sustainable growth
Operational ease
Risk mitigation
MEDICAL
BUSINESS
Treatment outcomes
General wellness
Protocol advancement / evolution
Continuous learning
MEDICAL
EFFECTIVENESS
PATIENT RELATIONSHIPS
For many practices, the dispensary is the ONLY
point of interaction with patients after the visit

CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION
PERFORMANCE
basic
requirements
threshold
features
surprise &
delight
THE KANO MODEL
KEY POINTS
There is no “best place” to be on the map.
Expect the value of a specific feature to devolve (shift
down and to the left) over time.
IMPLICATIONS
Identify what elements of your dispensary service fall into
each category.
Ensure you have “surprise & delight” elements at key
points (don’t waste your breath on unimportant ones).
Make sure you revisit your dispensary activities on a
regular (although not necessarily frequent) basis to
institute new “surprise & delight” elements.

THE GOALS
Clinical effectiveness
Trusted relationships
Profitability
Sustained growth
Brand alignment
The dispensary is a point of
service that creates unique
patient interactions and
promotes specific treatments
and broader preventive
relationships.

CREDIBLE
Is the experience something
that audiences will believe you
might be an authority on?
Does it feel true to who you
are as a brand/practice?
Is the experience someone
has consistent and reflective of
your practice’s brand?
DIFFERENTIATED
Does the interaction help the
company stand out from the
market?
Is the entire experience distinct
from other players or are there
key pieces that are more
important than others?
Is the experience “defensible”
over the longer-term or is it a
short-term move?
MEANINGFUL
Will the overall experience
resonate with patients?
Have you established a reason
to interact with people at points
that are the primary drivers of
behaviors or perception?
Does the interaction have
strong impact on desired
behaviors and perceptions?
SO WHAT’S A GOOD INTERACTION?

DEFINE YOUR BRAND
• What are the cornerstones of a patient’s experience?
• Can you break those down into measurable things?
• What do you want people to walk away saying/doing?
INVENTORY YOUR INTERACTIONS
• Outline all the points a patient interacts with your brand, from awareness and consideration through the experience and loyalty
• Identify key points in a patient relationship by asking them
• Surface areas where you mess up and where you excel
BUILD THE DISPENSARY EXPERIENCE
• Where does the dispensary currently appear in your map of interactions?
• Where could it appear and support a better brand experience?
• What are the key interaction points for your dispensary?
• Does the experience of the patient at each of those key points drive one of your objectives?
• How could you strengthen or focus the relationship at that point?
STEP 2
MARKETING & BRANDING

VISITVISITMARKETING
POST-
VISIT
New Patient Interaction
• Phone calls
• Forms
Early Interaction
• Website
• Social media
• Search
• Lectures
• White papers
• Brochures
• PR/media coverage
Pre-Brand Interaction
• Peer conversations
• Practitioner
recommendations
• Market dialogue
VISIT VISIT
POST-
VISIT
POST-
VISIT
In-Person
Interactions
• Visits
• Phone calls
• Follow-ups
• Emails
• Symptom updates
• Invoices
Long-Term Interactions
• Dispensary orders
• Newsletter
• Emails
ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER
These long-term experiences are heavy drivers of patients’ initial likelihood to consider repurchase.
This is by far the longest of the lifecycle stages and the most influential among patient interactions on
the sustained success of your practice (patient referrals, LVC impact, etc.).
It’s also generally the stage with the fewest experience-focused activities. Most practices see this as
logistics, fulfillment, and treatment.

VISITMARKETING
PRE-
BRAND
BRAND
POST-
BRAND
Emotion v. function.
Many companies see the
transaction and subsequent
steps as simply giving the
person what they paid for.
Don’t forget the immense
emotional reality of
transactions.
THE GOAL: Extend the
volume, depth, frequency, and
timeframe of the patient’s
brand experience by using
existing dispensary
interactions.
Remind them to love you.
Dispensaries are an enormous
loyalty driver.
Give patients stuff to do/use,
not just as a referral
mechanism, but as a reminder
of the things that made them
decide to come see you in the
first place.
THE GOAL: Have them want
to either repeat an experience
or include others in their
experience.
Marketing as service. Don’t
think of it as driving toward a
sale.
Figure out the overlap between
what interests people and what
drives their decisions and
simply offer advice. It will turn
into something.
THE GOAL: Become the
person people call.
Most people go through a
significant portion of their
decision-making process
before even speaking with you.
Invoices, follow-up calls…
Yuck!
Your dispensary is a calling
card. Get more creative with
when you interact with them
and what you give them when
you do.
POST-
VISIT
Be present. Be findable.
Research shows that 7x
message impressions are
required to drive decisions.
Your practice managers (and
you) will never control all
conversations. Don’t try.
THE GOAL Instead, focus on
influencing discussions more
broadly and being present at
key times or places.
I’ll bet you’re spending most of
your time and money on this
part, right?
What would happen if you
increased the number of
patients ordering multi-vitamins
monthly to 25%?
OK. So you did such an
awesome job that their lives
are changed forever and they
sang your praises to your
receptionist.
What happens next?

REPUTATIONAL
OPERATIONAL
PERCEPTUAL FUNCTIONAL
Operational business
outcomes that rely on
consistent delivery of a
well-defined brand.
Measures that relate
to desired perceived
associations. These
measures capture the
imagery, feelings, and
expressive benefits of
the brand.
Measures associated
with the actual
performance elements.
These measures
generally capture
tangible features of the
brand.
Measures that relate to
the overall health and
reputation of the brand.
SAMPLE MEASURES
• Revenue
• Profit margin
• Market share
• Employee turnover
• Sales cycle duration
• Triple bottom line
SAMPLE
MEASURES
• Trust-
worthiness
• Durability
• Speed
• Accuracy
• Timeliness
SAMPLE
MEASURES
• Trust-
worthiness
• Durability
• Speed
• Accuracy
• Timeliness
SAMPLE MEASURES
• Net promoter score
• Employee satisfaction
• Customer satisfaction
• Conversation sentiment
UNDERSTANDING
BRAND EXPERIENCE
REQUIRES FOUR TYPES OF
MEASUREMENT

THE GRAVY

GIVE PATIENTS INSIGHTS
Inserts into shipments. One clinic always hand-writes “thank you” on the receipt in the bag. Another prints up handy “tips cards” that are inserted into any
shipment deliveries.
New research updates. Patients come to you for your knowledge. Play that up. Supplements orders are an easy way to share new research with patients.
Clinic newsletters. We often think of newsletters as a digital thing, but dispensaries are physical things. Why not stick a hard copy in their bag? They’ll read it -
especially if it’s their first visit,
Reinforce perceptions. Match and strengthen the associations that patients have. If patients come to you about nutrition, find something to bolster that – e.g.,
insert a free relevant health magazine into their order. If you’re all about organization and ease, include a pill box.
IMPROVE PATIENT OUTCOMES.
Reminders. One of the biggest places you’ll lose patients is when you’re out of stock, so not running out of things is important. Teaching patients to reorder so
there’s never a gap in supplements is critical. Have a method in place for quickly selecting alternatives and communicating changes when something’s out of
stock. Some clinics call patients a week before their supplements run out to ask whether they’d like a refill. Others set up automatic refill programs.
Product updates. “Based on new research coming out of [INSERT CREDIBLE SOURCE], we’d love to speak with you about an update to your program.” Most
clinics do this informally and ad hoc (read: inconsistently). As part of your inventory review, why not proactively reach out to patients impacted by the product
improvements you make?
Annual treatment check-ups. Financial institutions have long suggested an annual portfolio check-up to adjust based on performance. Could you create another
valued interaction point?
The transaction experience. Does someone walk through each of the products at check-out when they have them in front of them? Some clinics create an
experience by putting all the supplements in a basket that establishes purchase behaviors. Do you offer to ship it for them? Is there a special bag for
supplements? Do they get a list of the supplements?
Include families. Find ways to incentivize the whole family in. Some clinics proactively reach out and recommend family best practices to increase visit volume.
MAKE PATIENTS’ LIVES BETTER.
Product bundling. Custom package deals on supplements.
Pricing and bundling. Discounts for auto-refills, advance payment, or over a certain volume.
Loyalty programs. What are you doing to reward your “best” patients?
Fun stuff. Don’t forget that people like surprises and “happy to yous”.
Reordering process ease. Make sure there are clear instructions for reordering. What you think is clear likely isn’t.
SOME THOUGHT-STARTERS

THANKS.

The thriving patient relationship

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Ähnlich wie The thriving patient relationship

Ähnlich wie The thriving patient relationship (20)

The thriving patient relationship

Hinweis der Redaktion