Make your waiting room profitable by implementing marketing techniques such as patient education materials

Are your waiting and treatment rooms an interior decorator’s dream? Are your walls adorned with framed artwork and the tables laden with vases and potpourri? If so, you are underutilizing extremely valuable marketing space. Putting your office to work is one of the easiest ways to increase revenue without tying up more of your time. More importantly, you do not have to become a salesperson. In fact, with effective marketing tools, you can distance yourself from the selling of any products and retain your focus on patient care.

Marketing Savvy
The most successful practices are those that view marketing as a way to be helpful to others. Effective marketing tools will contribute to your patients’ educational process. After all, the better informed a patient is, the higher the rate of compliance. This process establishes your reputation as a health care professional.

Marketing materials come in all shapes and sizes. A marketing tool can be as simple as a stack of brochures or as elaborate as an interactive display—above all, be selective and informative. The following guidelines will help in selecting the tools that are right for you.

Promote only quality products. Do not let big commissions and promises of high sales volume tempt you into offering a product by an unfamiliar company. Offer items by reputable companies that have been in business long enough to have a proven (and verifiable) track record. By placing products and information in your office, you are essentially endorsing the product. If you would not use it yourself or recommend it to a friend or family member, then do not suggest it for your patients. Be sure that all items offered correspond with your professional philosophies. Carefully read brochures before displaying them to make sure they reflect your personal viewpoints.

Proper placement for maximum effect. Do not overload your office with marketing devices—patients should not feel as if they are stepping into a flea market. Choose three or four attractive, high-quality displays or posters. Provide a mix of educational and promotional materials. Interactive displays should be easily accessible so it is clear they are meant to be touched. Place products you do not want handled in a locked glass display case, preferably with a supply of brochures in easy reach.

Rotate displays—even posters—on a monthly basis. We all pay attention to different things at different times, and the attention-getting power begins to fade over time. You can remedy this by finding different ways of conveying the same message. Your posters and displays should rotate between three or four basic themes. For example, if you want to emphasize long-term chiropractic care, spinal/pelvic stabilization, and rehabilitation, for 1 month, place a long-term care poster, a table-top orthotics display, and rehabilitation exercise brochures. The next month, you can have a rehabilitation poster, orthotics-related brochures, and a long-term care table-top display. Keeping your displays new will add to the effectiveness of your message.

Improve the chances that your marketing tools get noticed. A waiting room filled with a variety of popular magazines compromises the success of your marketing tools. If your patients are reading the latest issue of a fashion or sports magazine, they are not reading brochures or looking at displays. Remove all books and magazines unrelated to chiropractic. Start a library of books that support chiropractic and the products offered in your practice. For example, have books on nutrition if you carry nutritional supplements. Invite patients to take the books home to read at their leisure. In addition, send informational material home with your patients. Your library can also be stocked with patient-targeted video and audio tapes. You might want to consider adding a multimedia area with a television and VCR or cassette player with headphones.

Focus on specialty items that can only be ordered through licensed health care practitioners. If you are going to promote the benefits of product X, make sure it is not available in retail stores. When your patients see products in your office and find they can purchase it at a discount chain store, they may avoid other in-office offerings. Often the generic over-the-counter products will not be specific to your patients’ needs. When you recommend a product that is sold to health care practitioners only, you are in a better position to vouch for the quality of the product. The customer service department of the vendor is in a better position to understand specific issues that face your patients and practice. In addition, because the product is offered through your office, you are assured that it will be used properly and is beneficial to patient care.

Do not become discouraged if your patients do not immediately follow your advice. For example, since the weather is warming up, my patients who are increasing their outdoor activity will want a little cushion in their shoes. Although I endorse custom orthotics for spinal/pelvic stabilization, I know some of my patients will go the local drugstore and purchase generic shoe inserts. But I have been witnessed these same patients return in a couple weeks after those inserts wear out. That is when they ask me about the orthotics I carry.

Choose the right product and get reimbursed for your time. If third party payors cover the product, you can not only earn a profit, but also get paid for your time. For example, custom orthotics are covered by many insurance companies as is the doctor’s time spent assessing the patient’s condition and casting the feet. Mailing costs (actual handling and conveyance fees, as well as time associated with sending the casting kit to the laboratory), initial fitting of the orthotic, training for the patient, and a follow-up visit 2 to 4 weeks later are also covered expenses.

Exercise and rehabilitation equipment are other examples of products that generate considerable revenue from related services—even when patients do all of the exercises in their home. Workers’ compensation insurance and other third party payors are more willing to approve charges for exercise equipment because they want the patient to recover and resume work or normal activities quickly. Books, educational brochures, and instructional videos for the patient are usually covered, plus the doctor can bill for time spent showing the patient how to use the equipment. Make sure to inform patients that the items are covered by a third party payor. Often, this assurance makes all the difference in patient compliance.

Use the valuable marketing space in your treatment rooms. These rooms can serve as a useful complement to the marketing tools you have in your waiting room. Keep a wall-mounted rack of your favorite informative brochures right at your fingertips so you can easily slip information into patients’ hands while speaking with them about their care. Posters and demonstration tools can be great visual aids when educating patients about the value of your services and products.

Jeffrey D. Olsen, DC, is in private practice with his two brothers/partners since 1997 in Roanoke, Va, and lectures and writes. He has taught as an adjunct faculty member at the College of Health Sciences, Roanoke, teaching anatomy and physiology in the physician assistant department. Olsen can be reached at olsen_jeffrey@hotmail.com.