Download GI Generation (age 73+)

Understanding Your Customers &
Their Requirements
Kristine A. Morrill
London, UK & Strasbourg, France
Credentials
A founding partner of medeuronet – a panEuropean company whose vision is to accelerate
time to market and drive profitable sales growth
for innovative, start-up companies, as well as
managing director of KAMCommunications – a
healthcare marketing communications company
based in London
Goals for this talk
• Provide insight into challenges of practicing
medicine in 2010
• What about ophthalmology?
• What about patients?
• How you can help
The Top 10 Challenges
of Practicing Medicine in 2010
1. Rising operating costs
2. Managing finances
3. Implementing
electronic record
keeping
4. Maintaining physician
compensation levels;
5. Recruiting physicians;
2010 Medical Group Management Assoc. Survey
6. Collecting from patients
who self pay
7. Negotiating contracts
with payers
8. Managing teamwork and
group dynamics
9. Modifying physician
compensation methodology
10. Participating in CMS'
Physician Quality Reporting
Initiative, or PQRI. (US
only)
The Challenges of Practicing
Medicine in 2010
This is not just a US phenomenon!
• In Europe:
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Governments are capping healthcare spending
Rejecting code requests for new technology
Reducing reimbursement
Increasing regulatory requirements
• In Australia, the Australian Medical association cites:
▫ Undue influence and constraints on medical practice by third parties
such as governments, insurers
• Developing countries have been particularly hard hit according to 1
study
• The slow economy continues to impact consumer spending
What about for Ophthalmology?
• Similar to the rest of medicine, with some key
exceptions:
▫ Looming shortage of ophthalmologists (US,
France, in particular)
▫ Techno-medico-ethical economics
 According to practice management consultant John
Pinto: ‘Medical technology has become a kind of
sorcerer’s apprentice, generating a flood of potential
benefits and an unsustainable escalation of costs’
▫ The aging population puts an increased strained
on ophthalmic services
Typical Ophthalmology Patient in 2010
• Four primary age groups:
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Young Baby Boomers – age 45 to 54
Old Baby Boomers – age 55 to 63
The Silent Generation – age 64 to 72
The GI Generation – age 73+
Key Characteristics of the 4 Groups
• Young and Old Baby Boomers
▫ AKA: The Never Satisified Generation
▫ Greater affluence: In 2004, UK Baby Boomers
controlled 80% of the wealth in this country
• Young Boomers key characteristics:
▫ Less optimistic, distrust of government,
general cynicism
• Old Baby Boomer key characteristics:
▫ Experimental, individualism, free
spirited, social-cause oriented
Key Characteristics of the 4 Groups
• The Silent Generation
▫ Born between the Great Depression and WWII
▫ Key characteristics: Hard working, loyal,
submissive, technology challenged, traditional
• The GI Generation
▫ AKA ‘The Greatest Generation’
▫ Perseverance and resilience, self-sacrifice, family,
consensus and teamwork
The Baby Boom Bulge
• The largest population segment today (35%)
▫ Positives
 Growing old gracefully is not an option for this group
 Will not compromise on health and appearance – have
worked long and hard for later years, want to enjoy and
grow old beautifully and in health
 Willing to spend money on health
▫ Negatives
 Size of the population will put a tremendous
strain on healthcare systems
 Growing levels of eye disease such as diabetic
retinopathy and ARMD
What It all Means
• Ophthalmologists are feeling pressure from all
sides:
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Patients
Government/Insurers
Rapidly evolving technology
Shrinking practitioner population
means greater workloads
How Can We Help?
• Certainly, ophthalmologists are under pressure
in 2010
• Meanwhile, your job is to grow your business
and increase sales
• So, how can you help?
▫ The answer is by helping your customers grow
their own practices
• Assisting your customers in being better
businesspeople and marketers will pay off for
you
MD Support Programs
• Develop cost-effective tools and programs for
MDs
• By providing tools and programs, you build
customer loyalty
• These programs also provide additional face
time and sales opportunities!
• Plus programs can be built around new
technology to help MDs see the financial
advantages
MD Support Programs
• These tools and programs can take many
shapes
• Cost is what you can afford – but you do
need to plan on investing upfront
• Good packaging and MD input in
development are critical factors for
success
Subsidize Articles & Abstracts
• Find a local PR agency that can help your
customers develop articles
• Offer assistance in drafting and submitting
abstracts to your country meetings or Europeanwide meetings
▫ How many of you currently pay for customers to
come to meetings like the ESCRS?
• Enables you to get the word out on new
products, while allowing the MD to promote his
or her practice
Sponsor Clinical Marketing Studies
• Provide simple study plans to encourage MDs to
try new products and collect clinical data
• Small studies of 20 to 30 patients enables MDs
to develop knowledge that leads to product
endorsement
• Important to have agreement in place on use of
data
• If data is good, encourage MDs to speak and
write about the results
Practice Marketing Toolkit
• Develop an electronic toolkit (provided on a CD
or memory stick) that gives the MD tools to
promote their practice…
Surgery Communication Pack
•Newsletter template
•Press release template
•Key stats & advice
•Patient brochure
•Hard and soft copies
•Guidance notes
CD
• Practical advice on do-ityourself PR and Marketing for
ophthalmology practices
• Complete with templates for
news releases and patient
letters
•Available to order at
www.kamcommunications.com
Provide Business Management Tools
• Ophthalmologists are not trained to be
businesspeople
• Yet, today they are expected to deal with a
myriad of business issues
• One possibility is to support their participation
in workshops available at meetings like the
ASCRS , ESCRS & AAO
• There are also books available
• This book was written by
an ophthalmologist who
• Founded a medical
practice
• Got an MBA
• Helped build one of the
first MD-led practice
management companies
Help Develop a Simple
Marketing Plan
• Even in countries where MDs cannot advertise
or do public promotion, it’s possible to market
• Marketing need not be expensive and elaborate
▫ Word of mouth marketing and social media
marketing are among the simplest and most cost
effective tools
• Here’s an example of a plan developed for a UK
ophthalmologist…
The Goal
• Create new sources for potential patients for a
London-based cataract-refractive clinic
Objectives
- Boost
enquiries and increase treatment rates
-Drive consumers to the website / enquiry line
- Position OUR LASER CLINIC as the trusted, personal and
recommended eye care provider for all needs
- Implement activities that demonstrates a measurable Return
On Investment
- Create a point of difference
Challenges and opportunities
• High consumer drop out rate
between enquiry and
treatment
• London centric which limits
patient base and media
appeal
• No ‘new’ technology to
announce
• Strong competition
Tighter consumer
communication relationship
from first enquiry
Innovative 4 star hotel
package and national
aftercare treatment
WoM recommendations
Profile strong credentials as
trusted brand
Innovative incentive scheme
– added value
Target audience
Location (Geographic segmentation):
• SE based (80% of patients – primary target)
• Outside SE (20% of patients, therefore drive awareness of added
value package and national aftercare chain)
Profile (Demographic segmentation):
• Generation Y (18 to 35 year olds)
▫ Affluent and highly educated
▫ Tech savvy and ideal candidates as healthy eyes / ages
• Generation X and baby boomers (35 to 60 year olds)
▫ Affluent and increasingly driven by vanity
Strategic approach
1.
Staying “eye to eye” with consumers every step of
their journey
▫ Create a tighter model
▫ Introducing more frequent letters and engagement opportunities
▫ Buddy scheme
2.
Creating a buzz in the city
▫ Taxi chat
▫ The cutting edge with hairdressers
3.
Strategic alliances with mutually beneficial partners
▫ Hotels / Health spa / dating sites / companies
1. Eye to eye with consumers
Develop a more frequent contact model for communicating with
potential patients
Enquiry
Treatment
Decision making
6 months later …
Website generated
email newsletter
Letter / Brochure / CD
(current offering)
Buddy scheme
introduction
Incentive and new
testimonials profiled (ideally
matching their profile)
2. Creating a buzz
• What is a bzzz campaign?
▫ Bzzz campaigns rely on word of mouth
▫ Bzzz campaigns involve recruiting Bzz agents (influential people) to
spread the word
▫ Third party recommendations are welcomed as consumers have an
increasingly cynical view of direct marketing
• Who are our third parties?
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Other patients (AV already running ambassador scheme)
Hairdressers
Beauticians
Personal trainers
Taxi drivers
Celebrities
Other eye care professionals – after care network
3. Strategic alliances
• Step 1: Identify list of top tier partners to approach
• Step 2: Create short presentation clearly outlining mutual
benefits of partnership
• Step 3: Set up meetings /calls with partners to discuss the
opportunities
• Step 4: Create supporting joint branded literature
▫ Leaflet at both outlets
▫ Website links
▫ Loyalty schemes / incentives (includes staff treatment and customers)
Possible budget
• Consultancy fee
▫ Time and expertise of PR agency (recommended, but not mandatory)
• Implementation costs
▫ Third party costs associated with activity (excludes incentives)
▫ Account management costs to be billed on a monthly basis including
phone / post / printing etc.
• Eye to eye with consumer
▫ Fee: £3,000 / Costs: £tbc (design of collateral)
• Buzz campaign
▫ Fee: £3,500 / Costs: £tbc (design of collateral)
• Strategic alliances
▫ Fee: £5,000 / Costs: £tbc allow costs for travel to meetings / design and
print of collateral
Keys to success
•
•
•
•
Build a customer database
Test drive your marketing plan
Revisit your marketing plan on a quarterly basis
Most importantly, use tools to measure its
effectiveness
The wonders of the internet
• The internet and the world of social media on
the internet are excellent, inexpensive marketing
tools. Why?
▫ Quick access to a wide range of three key
population segments:
 Geographic
 Demographic
 Psychographic
Who Uses the Internet?
• The people sitting in your customers waiting
rooms!
• The internet knows no age boundaries. 3 in 5
over-45s are now internet users, while usage
among 45-54s peaks at 81%
•
Internet Usage by Age & Type
Younger boomers (ages 45 – 54)
•Use email – 90%
•Use search engines – 90%
•Research products – 82%
•Get health info – 74%
•Get news – 70%
Older boomers (Ages 55-63)
•Use email – 90%
•Use search engines – 89%
•Get health info – 81%
•Research products – 79%
•Buy something online – 72%
Silent Generation (Ages 64 – 72)
•Use email – 91%
•Use search engines – 85%
•Reseach products – 73%
•Get health info – 70%
•Get news/buy something online – 56%
GI Generation (age 73+)
•Use email – 79%
•Use search engines – 70%
•Get health info – 67%
•Research products – 60%
•Buy something online – 47%
The 6 key
social media platforms*
•
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Facebook
MySpace
LinkedIn
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube
Keys to success
with social media
• Understand the benefits of social media, such as:
▫ Consumer & competitive insight
▫ Generating awareness & thought leadership
▫ Online reputation management (especially key in refractive
surgery)
• Incorporate the right values:
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Transparency
Honesty
Relevance
Value
Commitment
Keys to success
with social media
• Keep your mind open to different types of online
communities
▫ Keep track of patients’ interests & hobbies
• Respect the rules of the site & the leader of the
group
• Don’t be the only one talking about a practice &
services
▫ Encourage happy patients to log on & join in the
conversation
Don’t forget about email!
• With all the hype & focus on social networking,
it’s important to keep email in the mix
• Inexpensive tool that allows you and your
customers to reach hundreds quickly
• Important to deliver value with the message
▫ Consider a quarterly practice e-mail newsletter
• Many cost effective tools available for creating
electronic newsletter and patient
communications
How to Measure Effectiveness
• To ensure that you’re spending money wisely
and helping your customers
• Do NOT expect instant results from any
marketing initiative
• On the other hand, don’t wait a year before
following up with a practice
▫ People will forget and nothing will change
• Build-in milestones that require assessment of
progress -- no less than quarterly
How to Measure Effectiveness
• Track referral sources!
▫ Include a line on the patient information
sheet/have staff log it into the patient records
▫ Keep a record of your sources
• Track website traffic
▫ Surprisingly inexpensive
▫ Allows you to see how long visitors stay on the site
▫ You can gather demographic information
How to Measure Effectiveness
• Encourage MDs to use patients as referral
sources:
▫ Create a standard questionnaire that can be sent to
each patient after they’ve had surgery
▫ Ask about practice impressions/overall
experience/if they would recommend the practice
▫ Telephone survey -- have a staff member conduct a
follow-up phone call to ask about their experience
▫ Follow-up with people who opted for treatment at
another center
How to start developing MD programs
1. Sit down and discuss your ideas with your team
2. Talk to your customers about what would help them
1. And not just your top 5 customers!
2. Talk to midsize and smaller customers, as well
3. Develop a plan that sets out:
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Your objectives
Challenges and opportunities
Tactics
Tools for measuring effectiveness
Schedule for implementation and budget
You cannot succeed in marketing if
you aren’t willing to take risks. It’s
just impossible.
6 Keys to Marketing in
the Current Environment
1. Visibility – to stay top of the
class, you must stay top of
mind
2. Understanding – let people
know that you understand
that times are tough
3. Differentiate – Know your
USP (Unique Selling
Proposition)
4. Adapt – To grow, you have
to get creative
5. Avoid the discount
6. Keep technology current
5 Musts for Marketing Now
1. Spend smarter – have a well-thought out strategy and a
detailed marketing plan

Have a clear rationale for every activity
2. Encourage MDs to focus on their patient base – former
& current patients are more likely to turn to a trusted
source

Plus, customer retention marketing is less expensive than attracting
new patients
3. Keep an eye on market trends – pay attention to how
patients are reacting to the recession
4. Invest in new technology/growth areas
5. Protect the marketing budget
Final considerations
• There is no “one size fits all” solution
▫ What works in Brazil may not work in France
• You do need to dedicate the time and
attention
• Teach MDs that it’s OK to think about
patients as customers
• And that a “great customer experience” is
critical to success
• Keep marketing & supporting your customes,
even when business is slow
Thank you for your attention!