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How many hours a day do you spend with your patients? If you’re like too many founders and practice owners right now, the answer is “not enough.”
Most founders know that those patient care hours are what generates income for the practice, but they’re still spending too much of their day on non-revenue-generating tasks. The good news is that there’s no need to wait for tomorrow's next big innovation to help you. It's all here right now.
We live in an age where you can basically hand the following tasks to automation or AI technology:
Steven Schwartz has made it his business to stay at the forefront of these tools and trends. His company is called Concierge Medical Marketing and it was created with the sole intent to serve the unique digital marketing needs of concierge medical and DPC practices across the United States. He’s also the author of ‘The Definitive Guide to Winning With Digital Marketing for Concierge Medical Practices’ and you can grab a free copy of that book by using the link at the bottom of this blog.
We recently had a chance to sit down with Schwartz and discuss emerging tech in this industry. During our talk, he identified six current trends that practice owners need to be aware of right now, as well as the tools that founders will definitely want to start using before their competitors.
Do you still book all of your appointments over the phone? That is the preferred method for older and less-tech-minded patients. However, the younger generation wants to be able to book their doctor’s appointments online, because this is how they book most of their non-medical appointments.
In fact, according to a recent survey:
Whether it’s for a quick meet and greet over Zoom or an in-office visit, you need to add online booking options to your website, and/or your social media account.
Schwartz said that many of these options are simple to implement and make life easier for everyone involved.
“These tools add the event to both your calendar and the patient's calendar. The systems can even send reminders to the patient. We'll see you tomorrow at noon. We'll see you today at noon. We’ll see you in 10 minutes.”
He added, “If you're not doing this, you need to.”
85% of millennials like receiving appointment reminders via text and over 50% are already receiving them from various providers.
“Let's face it, everybody texts. People are comfortable texting. They hate sitting on the phone and they hate waiting for someone to pick up. And they don't want to be transferred,” said Schwartz.
However, he also said that this technology can do so much more than just send appointment reminders.
“You can send out a group text to inform all patients of time-sensitive news. You can offer specials or promotions to patient leads who haven't signed up yet. There are so many use cases, just use your imagination.”
When these chatbots are trained the right way, many people think they’re IMing a real person. It's perfect for simple tasks like booking appointments or getting more information about a service you provide. The main benefit is you’re able to answer questions outside of normal office hours.
“It works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” said Schwartz.
“It never takes a vacation. It never has a sick day and it never has a sick kid. It just works. And it's trained on your business based on your website and other materials that we feed it. That information helps it interact with visitors while matching your business’ voice.”
At the same time, he added that AI voice receptionist services are getting better and he expects we may even be able to confidently use them in the next year or so.
By now, you’ve no doubt seen medical education videos earning thousands (or even millions) of views on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. You have probably wondered how much exposure they could bring your practice, but you’ve also likely assumed that they would be too time-consuming to be worth your while.
However, Schwartz wants you to know that it’s easier than you think.
“Just mount your phone and shoot a video, a minute or 30 seconds or less is fine. You have one topic, what's the problem? What's the solution? Then you can edit it and add captions in a program like Riverside and OpusClip.”
“Then simply use a syndication program like Hootsuite or Publer to distribute those videos to all of your social platforms, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, wherever it might be.”
Many of the founders who don’t feel they have the time for social media videos will often have the same attitude toward marketing in general. However, Schwartz wants practice owners to know generative AI has come further than you think.
“You have to be living under a rock to not know that AI is revolutionizing business and marketing. You can either utilize it and embrace it, or get passed by people who do.”
“AI tools can be used to create content for your emails, your blogs, your social media, your images, and so much more. You can also take the words from your blog and use AI or video editing tools to actually turn the blog post into a video. Then you can take the video and publish it to YouTube, Vimeo, and hundreds of different places.”
If you have a form on your website, you may not be aware of how many leads you’re losing because you don’t have the time, staff, or resources to follow up in a timely manner.
“50% - 60% of inbound website visitors leave your website unconverted. And 90% of these web form submissions fail to convert… Why is that? Because leads that are not followed up on within 15 minutes, they go cold. Not kidding, 15 minutes. People will move on.”
You can plug this hole in your sales funnel by leveraging any of today’s many marketing automation or customer relationship management (CRM) tools. They can quickly respond to form fill-ins or any other messages to help nurture the lead until they become a new customer/patient.
“Also, the average patient must be followed up with 5 to 7 times typically before they schedule their meet and greet appointment. You need to gently remind them who you are until they book.”
If you find all of this overwhelming, you’re not alone. Schwartz and his team have created over 2,400 websites and provided digital marketing services for countless overwhelmed business owners like you.
If you want help with anything from marketing to lead management, we highly recommend you reach out to their team today! You can also download a free copy of ‘The Definitive Guide to Winning With Digital Marketing for Concierge Medical Practices’ by visiting https://conciergemd.marketing, scrolling down a bit, and filling out the form in the middle of the page. We think it’s a must-read!
We provide a do-it-all EHR, practice management, and patient portal solution that helps you slash the time spent on administrative tasks, freeing up your time to work ON your business instead of being trapped by tasks IN your business. At the same time, Cerbo offers online scheduling, text message reminders, and supports integrations with your CRM.
“While it takes a while to customize Cerbo to fit your practice, it is well worth the investment and ultimately saves time and money. The best part is that this translates into successful patient outcomes while minimizing the burden of charting, educating, and day-to-day administrative tasks on the practice team.”
— Dr. Kristann Heinz, MD, RD, Red Hill Medical + Wellness, Pennsylvania.
