1. TODAY’S PRACTICE
Marketing Mishaps
Are You
Experienced?
It’s time to step into your patients’ shoes.
BY SHAREEF MAHDAVI
W
hen we talk about experience in refractive D O CTOR A S BR AND
surgery, we’re usually referring to the num- Without question, this principle also applies to the mar-
ber of cases a surgeon has performed. This keting of refractive surgery. Unfortunately for the refractive
definition has created a pecking order within surgeon, med school didn’t offer courses on marketing,
every community of surgeons: Dr. A is the busiest, Dr. B is much less instruction on how to “brand” your services to
second busiest, and so on. I think it’s time we turned the create a unique niche in your community relative to other
table around to look at experience from the patient’s per- providers. Nonetheless, the marketing concept called
spective. Why? Because having a lot of procedures under “brand building” has always been around for the medical
your belt is no longer a sustaining advantage over your profession. As recently as 20 years ago, brand building was
peers. Many surgeons have surpassed the amount of experi- simply thought of as building a good reputation in your
ence required to overcome community. Now, societal
the learning curve associated “ … the patient’s experience pressures, especially the
with LASIK. notion that “time is money,”
By expanding the defini- extends far beyond their moments have forever changed the
tion of experience to include under the laser and the occasional service-based professions.
understanding how the postoperative visit.” Consumers expect, and, in
patient experiences the LASIK fact, demand high levels of
decision process and proce- service. Medical consumers
dure under your care, you begin to see your patients in a are no exception, and refractive surgeons have no choice
whole new light. If you ever saw The Doctor, a movie starring but to expand their efforts to establish a good reputation
William Hurt as an egocentric heart surgeon, you know that includes all of the customer-service elements that will
about this shift in perspective. In this film, the hot-shot doc- help build their brand.
tor was diagnosed with a tumor and had a rare opportunity Don’t let a lack of formal marketing training intimidate
to live in the patient’s shoes. What he experienced horrified you. For those of you who have been jaded by the current
him to the point that he demanded changes in the system state of the industry, listen up. You don’t have to solve the
to better address the true needs of patients. “chicken or egg?” dilemma on LASIK marketing, which
One surgeon’s novel insight into the patient experience plays out something like this: “I know I need to advertise in
at a hospital is an example of a major topic in marketing order to attract patients, but I also need to perform
and branding activity. A while back I was invited to a mar- enough cases in order to have money to pay for the adver-
keting conference regarding what makes a brand great in tising.” This type of “numbers game” will likely keep you
the mind of the consumer. After listening to dozens of from doing anything to improve the long-term prospects
speakers, one conclusion was pretty clear: Marketing was of your refractive practice; it’s played whenever you con-
quickly headed toward driving brand loyalty through the template what it takes to be successful: Hiring a marketing
overall experience that the consumer had using the prod- coordinator, moving to a better location, and so on.
uct or service. It mattered less and less how “cool” your
name or logo was (think “Yahoo!”); instead, it was the end- BACK TO BA SICS
to-end customer experience that would increasingly mean All of these features should be thought of as higher-
success or failure for the brand. order issues that should be addressed only after some of
72 I CATARACT & REFRACTIVE SURGERY TODAY I JULY/AUGUST 2002

2. TODAY’S PRACTICE
the basic building blocks are in place. First, focus on the PERCEPTI ON AFFECTS E XPERIENCE S
foundational issues of customer service, such as tele- Focusing specifically on LASIK, the patient’s experi-
phone etiquette, providing accurate and easy-to-digest ence extends far beyond their moments under the laser
information, and offering warmth and compassion to and the occasional postoperative visit. We tend to
those seeking your care. Why are these of greater impor- define their experience from our vantage point (ie,
tance? Because, with refractive surgery, attracting when we see them for surgery). But in reality, patients
prospective patients through external marketing is the go through dozens of checkpoints at which they are
beginning—not the end—of the decision-making evaluating (sometimes unconsciously) their feelings and
process. Once a prospec- attitudes toward you and
tive patient finds you, it no “ ... the key is to create such a strong your staff. All of these can
longer matters how they positively or negatively
arrived at your door. What experience that you and the proce- affect how a patient
they perceive and experi- dure are forever bonded together in judges the overall experi-
ence from that point for- the patient’s mind.” ence, perhaps even more
ward is what counts. strongly than the clinical
outcome of the proce-
ROLE REVER SAL dure. I suspect that when a patient is unhappy, the
One of the best ways to understand refractive patients’ roots of dissatisfaction have little or nothing to do with
experiences is to undergo LASIK yourself. If you were to the clinical or technical aspects of the procedure. Most
analyze LASIK procedural volumes among refractive sur- of the negative consequences can usually be traced
geons, I’d bet a lot of money that those who have had the back to one of two things: The provider either said too
procedure themselves perform significantly more proce- much (created unrealistic expectations) or listened too
dures than their counterparts who still wear glasses. Part little (didn’t hear what the patient was truly saying or
of this may be due to the obvious endorsement by the asking).
provider who “took his own medicine.” But more impor-
tantly, the experience of being a LASIK patient can create E XPER IENCE AFFECTS PERCEPTI ON
an awareness and sensitivity that is apparent to prospec- Patient perception affects experience, and that experi-
tive patients. Understanding where the person across ence will, in turn, affect their ongoing desire to recom-
from you is coming from is a basic tenet of good care. As mend the LASIK procedure and (hopefully) you to per-
author Stephen Covey states, one of the seven habits of form it. We all understand that the basic procedure
highly effective people is to “Seek first to understand, then itself yields tremendous positive benefits; the key is to
to be understood.” And so it is with LASIK. There is no create such a strong experience that you and the proce-
substitute for understanding the LASIK experience by dure are forever bonded together in the patient’s mind.
becoming the patient. Moreover, every staff member who The strength of that bond is often the difference
is a candidate should also become an advocate for the between a patient saying to their friend, “You gotta
procedure and those persons considering it. have this too,” versus steering that friend directly to
you.
WORD OF MOUTH In short, you would be wise to pay attention to the
More than anything else, it is our experiences as con- overall experience of each and every one of your LASIK
sumers that define our recommendations to others. Take a patients. Becoming a patient yourself will help you tune
moment and think about something you recently enjoyed in to what’s really happening at every step of interaction
doing and later told your friends about. Chances are, you that you and your staff have with patients. Pay atten-
made mention because the experience so completely tion to each of the little things, and the big thing, your
exceeded your expectations. It wasn’t about the money brand, should get a major boost. ■
you spent; it was about the value you received relative to
your investment of time and money. One of my personal Each month, industry veteran Shareef Mahdavi looks at
favorites is Netflix, the DVD rental service that eliminates a different topic relating to the business of refractive sur-
the hassle of renting movies to watch at home. Choosing gery, exploring how mistakes from the past can be used by
movies from their Web site’s virtual library and then all providers for effective marketing. He was formerly the
receiving them in the mail is so much more fun that our head of marketing for VISX and is based in Pleasanton,
family has, in turn, influenced a lot of friends to try their California. Mr. Mahdavi may be reached at (925) 425-
movie delivery service. 9963; shareef@sm2consulting.com
JULY/AUGUST 2002 I CATARACT & REFRACTIVE SURGERY TODAY I 73