28
doc • Spring 2016 • Business Section
Kentucky
Grow Your Practice by
Thinking of Yourself as a
Brand
By Jim Ray
For years, the given way
a physician grew a practice
was through referrals from
colleagues and associations
with certain hospitals and/
or insurance plans. The environment is
changing. While these traditional channels
remain important, the consumer is more
empowered to seek out information about
a specific physician. That shift is impacting
how physician groups and individual practioners grow their respective practices.
Today’s consumer is much more inclined
to read online reviews, visit websites and
even online physician directories. The need
to establish and monitor information has
become increasingly more important to a
successful practice.
Rather than referring a patient to a colleague from medical school, physicians
may be encouraged (even pressured) to
refer that patient to another member of the
hospital network. Overtime, this may erode
the traditional flow of new patients to your
practice.
I encourage professionals
to begin thinking of
themselves as brands.
This may alter your perspective on
how accessible you are to the general
public.
Let’s consider a few of the implications.
Brands such as GE, Apple, Starbucks and
even Littmann (the company which may
have made the stethoscope you use) all
focus on producing great products. More
importantly, these brands seek to instill a
distinct image in your mind about the product and/or service offered. It’s about the
“experience.”
The same applies to you and your practice. That’s why you’ve invested so heavily in
your education and training. You’re providing a service and you want your patients and
their families to be happy with the care they
receive. Ultimately, you hope they were sat-
isfied enough to recommend you to friends
and family. This is simple brand positioning.
Consider how many times your patients
are given the opportunity to complete surveys about their experience. While we want
to know that the care provided was effective
and met expectations, there’s another reason
we ask those questions.
We want to know if there was a problem
that needs to be addressed and/or resolved.
This fact alone provides insight into an
interesting fact. When it comes to effective
branding, it’s the market, not the company
(e.g. physician), that determines the brand’s
value.
While we may have logos and color
schemes those aren’t your brand. They’re
merely representations of it. Your brand is
based on the value attributed to it by the