Beyond Bedside Manner. Insights on Perfecting the Patient Experience by Shareef Mahdavi has been mentioned recently in a few different forums. It's written for any medical professional and staff who work in the office. The author encourages digesting the concepts in small pieces and giving the ideas time to percolate. What better way to do that than in a four-part series?
The book explores the patient experience and how to create loyalty, namely through six drivers: Profession, Patients, People, Place, Promotion, and Price. Each one influences how patients perceive your practice. The cycle of a great patient/customer experience starts with a remarkable experience, which leads to enhanced word-of-mouth recommendations, which then increases referrals that allow you to do more procedures. In short, great experiences lead to better business.
So, let's look at our drivers of experience, beginning with Profession: What profession are you in? How do patients view what you do? A great example would be an audiologist stating he's in the communications business. Another is a story about how, in 1962, President John F. Kennedy visited NASA. During his tour of the facility, he met a janitor who was carrying a broom down the hallway. The President casually asked the janitor what he did for NASA, and the janitor replied, "I'm helping put a man on the moon."
Urban legend? Perhaps, but the message is clear. Thinking larger than just what you do every day can lead us to think out of the box, be more authentic and relatable to our patients, and establish a connection. Perhaps we're in the "Quality of Life" business.
I’ll be back next week to discuss the second and third drivers: Patients and People.
