How to Create a Patient Profile for Your Practice
The purpose of your business or practice is to provide goods and services to consumers. Your business goals might differentiate from your competitor’s, but the success of all endeavours is dependant on one important factor: customers, or in your case, patients. Your patients will help you rise to the top — giving you a one-way ticket to success.
But wait a second, starting a business and providing a service does not guarantee you patients. Patients won’t walk through your door on the off-chance of coincidence and ask for your best packaged deal. It might happen, but it’s not likely. It’s going to take some work on your part to get loyal, happy and satisfied patients.
Regardless of your practice, services and offers, if you don’t have your ideal patient in mind, you might as well be fishing in the middle of the big blue sea. But you want to be fishing in a pool swarming with eager eyes and hungry bellies. So how do we get you there?
First, identify your ideal patient. Start with creating one patient profile (it’ll be beneficial to create a couple more afterwards). Consider who your services would appeal to as well as your established consumer base. Here are categories to consider:
- Sex
- Age
- Occupation
- Family Size
- Financial Situation
- Location
- Mental and Emotional State
- Means of Communication
- Other Interests and Values
Sex
Although health and wellness is applicable to everyone, some treatments might be more common amongst women as oppose to men, or vice versa. Recognizing which treatments are more common amongst each sex will give you a greater advantage in bundling services and creating packages, or simply marketing in appropriate environments. What types of services do women respond better to? What about men?
Age
Are you a chiropractor? Do you treat knee pain? Are a majority of your patients 30 or 50 ? Not all of your patients will fall into these age ranges (and will come to you because of varying circumstances) but determining a typical age will help you target your ideal patient. You don’t want to be marketing your practice towards a community of young adults if you specialize in arthritis treatment. Pick a specific age for your patient profile to target a more relevant audience.
Occupation
Do you find that most of your patients are daily desk-sitters, or are they doing heavy manual labour jobs? This is immensely important to doctors and physicians like yourself who may be dealing with patients with heavy work loads. What kind of physical strains does your patient consistently endure throughout the week, and how does that affect his/her overall health. What careers and jobs are more prone to X or Y type of injury?
Family Size
Taking into account your patient’s family size will help you with scheduling, creating bundled services, and determining the patient’s health. Is the patient married or single? Does the patient have children and how old are they? A patient’s day-to-day life is greatly influenced by the people consistently around them. These are all questions to consider when creating your patient profile.
Financial Situation
Are your services geared for a higher income demographic, or are they offered at an economical rate? This isn’t to say that the services you provide need to be “the cheapest deal,” but it all comes down to what you think your services are worth and that kind of patient you want to attract. What are popular services within your practice? What do they cost? How do your rates compare with other competitors, and how does that fit into your patient’s financial plan? Perhaps your patient is happy to spend their hard earned dollars on your elite service; but it’s up to you to figure out your target.
Location
Where does your patient live? Are they nearby your clinic? Do they reside within an affluent community? Determining a location for your patient will help close the discrepancy between interested and uninterested individuals; it gives you an advantage in terms of where you should be targeting your marketing.
Mental and Emotional State
What is the mental and/or emotional state of your ideal patient? Most likely, they’ll have a degree of concern or stress in regards to their physical health. Your purpose is to alleviate their pain and worries, but first, you’ll need to assure them of how you can get them to that point of relief. Starting with the patient’s mental and emotional state will give you the opportunity to navigate different avenues toward the desired outcome.
Means of Communication
How does your patient keep in touch with others? Do they prefer traditional mail for reminders and appointments? Do they lead a fast track life and schedule all their appointments via Google Calendar? Or how do they like to hear about promotions and notifications? Are they avid Facebook users? Keeping in contact with your patient is a necessity, so determining how you’re going keep up the communication is vital. Researching the various age distributions within the top social networks might be a good place to start.
Personalization and Other Interests & Values
If you’ve created your ideal patient using the former points, you’ll have an outline of a fairly static profile. It’s time to add personality to your patient. Give him or her a name. What are her hobbies? How physically active is he? What are their interests and values? All of these factors will help you determine what it is your patient is trying to achieve by seeking your services. Does your patient want to be an active part in his/her children’s lives? Are aches and pains an obstacle in obtaining that goal? Aligning your patient’s interests and values with the rest of the facts gives you a better understanding of your marketing objectives.
Creating an ideal patient, or patient profile, will help you target and narrow your consumer base. It’ll be worth noting that these factors are continually changing. You have to be cognizant of when the community changes, or when a patient’s values change. It’s a little extra work but it will help weed out any individuals who aren’t interested in what you have to say. By honing in on the ideal patient, you will be able to market your business better and attract patients who are actually interested in your services. Not to mention that it will save you some time and a buck or two down the road.
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If you’re ready to take your practice to the next level, build authority, become a celebrity in your town, and build a 7figureclinic and beyond, then you need to get in touch with me. I’m currently taking on a few private clients right now. It’s been almost 12 months since I’ve open up space in my 7figureclinic growth system and it won’t be long until the few spots I have are filled up. Complete the application here to see if you qualify.
