Relationship Marketing Techniques in Healthcare
Relationship marketing is a broad term that involves strategically building relationships with individual customers through marketing activities. Since healthcare organizations provide highly personal service to people in need, they have ample opportunities to go the extra mile with customers, providing excellent customer service and developing long-term relationships. Building long-term relationships through relationship marketing can solidify your organization's standing in its community or among its target consumer groups.
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Callbacks
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A simple post-visit or post-procedure telephone call can go a long way to strengthen your relationship with a patient. Have a nurse call patients a week after their operation, for example, to ask how they are doing and if there is anything the organization can provide to help them during recovery. Call regular clients who haven't come in for awhile to make sure everything is okay with them and to offer any assistance you can.
Take every opportunity to contact patients and clients. Send them birthday cards, for example, or give elderly outpatients an in-person birthday visit.
Long-Term Care Marketing
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Residential long-term care, or LTC, facilities provide in-house care for elderly and disabled individuals, whether in their homes or at a care facility. Excellent care and customer service is the most effective way to build relationships with residents and care recipients, but marketing to families can go the extra mile in strengthening relationships.
It is most often the families of LTC residents who make placement and care decisions. Build relationships with residents' families by sending them newsletters, invitations to events and regular updates on their loved ones. Work to ensure that families of residents trust your organization, and they will recommend you to other families making difficult long-term care decisions.
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Promotions
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Healthcare organizations are not known for offering promotions of any kind, since insurance companies generally handle the majority of healthcare costs. Consider offering some type of promotion to your most loyal patients and customers to truly go the extra mile and make their day. If a patient comes in regularly for the same treatment, for example, consider offering the patient a week of free treatments just to show how much you value him. He may only be saving his copay, but the gesture can go far to strengthen the relationship.
Public Relations
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Get involved with the community as much as possible to encourage locals to identify with your company and spread word-of-mouth advertising. Find ways to get involved with local schools, for example, or invite elected officials and local reporters to attend ribbon-cutting ceremonies at new facilities.
Offer free services to the public in high-traffic areas from time to time, and invite reporters to come and see your programs for themselves. Provide a free vaccine clinic in a low-income area, for example, or free Body Mass Index (BMI) readings and nutrition guides at a local shopping mall.
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References
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