Is your practice ready for speed dating?
Some human hospitals have come up with a new way for doctors to meet prospective clients. Could it work for your veterinary practice?
You're probably familiar with the idea of using Facebook and Twitter to reach clients. But maybe it's time to take your marketing efforts further. A Fort Worth, Texas, human hospital has implemented an idea that takes its cues from speed dating. And this strategy could help your practice find love—in the form of new clients and a boost to your revenue stream.
Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital has launched Doc Shop, a program that invites prospective patients to spend five minutes each with more than a dozen physicians. During these sessions, patients chat with the doctors and then assess whether there's any "chemistry" between the pair.
Doc Shops take place during two 30-minute sessions over lunch. Participating physicians sit at tables spaced far enough apart to ensure privacy, and potential patients rotate from one doctor to the next every five minutes. Advance registration is required but there's no cost to patients. Doctors are not paid for participating.
The hospital has held three Doc Shops so far and has seven more scheduled. The program has been successful enough that the hospital is expanding it to include pediatricians and, eventually, primary care specialists. Can veterinarians be far behind?
Dr. Rebecca Guinn, an ob-gyn who began practice last August, has attended three of these events and gotten at least 10 new patients as a result. Some doctors get a new patient from a Doc Shop and then, through word-of-mouth, gain three or four of that person's friends or relatives. "It's good marketing for physicians," says Mandy Forbus, the hospital's senior marketing specialist.
Dr. Melanie Green agrees. "It's becoming more difficult for physicians to meet new patients," says Dr. Green, an internist with the Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center in Greenville, S.C., which has hosted a similar program called Finding Dr. Right. "These events allow us to meet people and let them know how our practice operates and what type of expertise we bring to the community."
Speed dating for veterinarians may seem like an odd idea, but then Facebook and Twitter weren't always viewed as marketing opportunities. Perhaps it's time for practice owners and associates to do a little mingling.
Veterinary Economics Editorial Advisory Board member Bob Levoy is the author of 222 Secrets of Hiring, Managing, and Retaining Great Employees in Healthcare Practices (Jones and Bartlett, 2007).
