Social Media Management Software for PTs

As your practice starts to expand it digital marketing channels from the clinic’s website to email campaigns to social media, it can become challenging to keep up with all the different messages. Your social media marketing alone might include three or more platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. What is the best way to manage your social media without spending ton of money? Start using a social media management software like HootSuite!

Social media management software is a web-based program that integrates across different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.) and allows for content planning, post scheduling, and analytics.

The team at Practice Promotions has experimented with several different services, but ultimately chose HootSuite as the best program for both our company’s social media management and our clients. Before we dive too deeply into HOotSuite, let’s look at some key features to help you choose a social media management program that works for your practice.

Key Features for Social Media Management

Integration across major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google +. Most physical therapy practices are active on at least Facebook and Twitter. The ability to connect and manage those accounts from one program is key to effective social media management. Note: some programs may offer a set number of platforms for free (HootSuite offers 3 free) and then may charge for adding more platforms. A great workaround to save some costs is to use a management program for the maximum number of free platforms and then manually schedule posts for others. However, this will increase the time needed to manage your social media so weigh the pros and cons of budgeting costs versus time.

Advanced scheduling for posts can solve for much of the day to day work that goes into marketing your practice on social media. Management programs should offer the opportunity to schedule posts for either individual networks (ie. Facebook) or for groups of networks (ie. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). If you are scheduling three posts per week, you can schedule the entire month (12 posts) in roughly 30 minutes!

URL shrinking is beneficial for platforms, such as Twitter, that restrain characters in individual posts. Some social media management programs incorporate a tool into the post creation window that allows for URLs to be condensed. For example, if you want to link to your most recent blog post (http://ift.tt/1M3LaBo) then shorter URL (www.ow.ly/asd123) would be generated—saving characters so that you can increase your marketing message.

Analytics integration and reporting within the program will save you time pulling stats from multiple platforms. HootSuite allows a certain type and number of free reports and then charges for additional metrics. Even the basic reports, such as Facebook Page overview, Twitter overview, and Link Clicks, can provide excellent insights into how your social media marketing is performing.

If your practice is considering a social media management program, do your own independent research and go ahead and try a couple different ones to see which works best for your marketing. Most programs offer free trials for several months or are free (with conditions) overall so there really isn’t a cost to explore. Our team uses HootSuite and often helps set this up for our website clients as part of their monthly maintenance subscription. Give us a call to learn more!

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Holiday Marketing for PT Practices

The holidays can often be a tough time of year for physical therapy practices. Patients are busy with family events, school activities, and prepping for the holidays. This usually leaves going to PT pretty low on the To Do list. How can practices plan to offset the end of year slow down? The answer: with holiday marketing campaigns!

Holiday Marketing Plans

The season’s major holidays might be at the end of December, but the holiday season can start as early as Halloween. Think about your local superstores—they start selling Christmas trees the first week of November. The best way to start planning for your December and early January marketing is to look back at last year’s stats for those months. When did you start to see a decline in patient visits? What weeks had lower numbers for doctor referrals? Remember to avoid the actual week of the holiday as your office was most likely closed for a few days or had reduced hours. Note which weeks started to trend downward and plan to offset that this year. Typically, you would want your marketing campaign to hit about three weeks before your slow week. So if the last week of November (aka Thanksgiving week) was slow, you would want your marketing to reach patients the first week of November.

Holiday Marketing Ideas

You can always use seasonal themes to market your clinic during the holidays. Fall and winter imagery, Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas etc. offer a variety of fun marketing opportunities and promotions. Some of our favorites are:

• Using images of people raking leaves or shoveling snow. These can easily relate to back pain from seasonal chores and are great reasons for people to go to PT.
• Thankful For referral incentives. During November, run a program to increase patient to patient referrals. Ask patients to refer someone who they are thankful for and, in turn, they will receive a Thank You gift card.
• Give Back and Get Back. Giving back or donating to the community is very popular during the holiday season. Coordinate with a local food bank, outreach group, or religious organization to generate good PR and community sponsorship. Have collection boxes at your clinic and run an incentive for those who donate. For example, persons who donate a toy for Toys for Tots at your clinic can get 15% off a massage or yoga class. Or, consider boosting January revenues by offering an incentive for half off personal training for those that donate to December drives.
• Done with Deductibles. Many patients will have used up their insurance deductibles by late November and December. Send a postcard reminding patients to see you for PT now that it will be mostly or entirely covered by their insurance.
• HSA and FSA Close Outs. Depending on their policy requirements, some patients will have to use (or lose) their HSA or FSA balances. Encourage patients to do so by making appointments for PT. Does your clinic offer annual facility memberships for patients to continue using your gym after their therapy has ended? This could be a great opportunity for patients to pre-pay for next year’s membership.

For more tips on holiday marketing for physical therapy practices, follow our blog and social media accounts. We love sharing tips from different industries and marketing experts!

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Website Marketing to Increase Doctor Referrals

When creating your physical therapy practice’s website, the primary audience in mind should most definitely be patients. Patients are most likely to come to your site for information and often determine whether they want to see you for PT based on your content. In addition to patients, doctors or their office staff can use your website as a tool to decide whether to refer patients to you. It is important that when creating your website, you consider doctors as a secondary audience and tailor your website marketing to their needs.

Best Practices for Website Marketing to Doctors

What do doctors value most when visiting a PT clinic’s website? First, they expect to see a well-designed website that functions flawlessly. A site that is mobile-optimized and responsive is very helpful as many doctors use a smartphone or tablet device as they move between appointments. Doctors also appreciate clearly labeled navigation—if you have specific content for the medical professional, use a direct menu label like “For Physicians” to help them easily find their content.

When it comes to content, doctors like to be able to quickly determine if you practice provides the right type of therapy for their patient. Including a list of your services with links to the corresponding services pages give both the high level overview and detailed descriptions that doctors need before referring patients. The content on these services pages, though tailored to patients, should convey expertise and authority on the treatment provided.

In addition to the doctor, the office’s staff may visit your website to help coordinate referrals. The staff benefits most from being able to accomplish tasks online versus having to call your office. A web form can be a great tool to allow offices to submit a referral request online. Include fields for the patient’s name and telephone number, the doctor’s name and telephone number, and a write in field for specifics or notes. Ensure that once submitted, this form goes to an inbox that is regularly checked, such as the front desk or referral coordinator. Train your staff to take action upon receiving these emails—prepare a listing of available appointments and call the patient right away to get them scheduled for PT. Remember to call the office back as well to thank them for the referral and to gather any additional information for intake.

Lastly, a list of insurances that you accept and whether you take cash can be helpful for doctors and their staff. Patients have a much better experience if they know in advance whether your office accepts their insurance. We recommend always including a disclaimer “Insurance plans accepted are subject to change. Please call our office to confirm your plans acceptance,” just in case.

When we design a PT website, our team looks at the full range of uses and benefits for patients, doctors, and the public. Call our team today to get a free website review and to learn how your website marketing can start bringing in more revenue to your practice!

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How to Maximize Your Sponsorships with Marketing

A huge part of a practice marketing plan often involves partnering with and sponsoring local community events and organizations. From little league teams to seasonal running races, sponsorships are a great PR opportunity to showcase your expertise and dedication to local residents and businesses. But, many practice owners shy away from sponsorships due to bad past experiences—lack of return on investment, poor planning from the organization, or conflicting interests with other parties. How can you take advantage of sponsorship opportunities and avoid all the stress?

Set a Business Plan and Goals

Taking the time to plan what you hope to achieve for your practice will guide your expectations and evaluation of the sponsorship opportunity. Formulate goals that are quantifiable, such as “I want to get 10 new patients from sponsoring the 5K race”. Then compare these goals against the costs, in terms of both time and money, to be a sponsor. For example, you need to pay $1,000 to be a sponsor + $500 on marketing supplies (brochures, giveaways etc.) + $200 to pay your PTs for working the race day tent, a total cost of $1,700. Now compare this cost to your goal (10 patients at $100 profit per visit times 6 visits = is $6,000). That’s $4,300 to be gained from this sponsorship.

Develop a Sponsorship Contract

What are your expectations for the sponsorship? These can range from general to specific. Think first about your marketing opportunities—most events do pre-event marketing as well as during the event, you want your practice to be included (and in the right placement) during these promotions. Establish requirements that suit your practice’s plan and goals, such as your logo and business name needs to be included on all posters and on the race bib. If there are digital communications to participants, your logo and link to your website should be included in these as well. Be sure to get these expectations in writing and get agreement with the event team.

Advice from the pros- make sure that the event team is also the marketing team. Sometimes the race might be managed by a local organization, but the marketing is created by the larger race company (say Tough Mudder or Spartan Race). Be sure that your agreement is valid with all operational parties

Do Your Own Marketing

No one knows your practice and its brand as well as you do. Marketing the sponsorship in your own campaigns and promotions is a must! Add information about the event to the follow channels to really see results:

• Newsletters
• Postcards
• Social Media (make a Facebook event)
• Emails and e-Newsletters
• Website Event or Blog Post
• Office Flyers and Posters

Also, watch for cross-promotional opportunities on digital channels. If the event sends out an email or social post, share it with your patients and on your own social media. Link to the event website directly from your blog post to make it easy for patrons to sign up.

Sponsorships can be an excellent marketing opportunity and way for your practice to get more new patients. Let our expert team help you with your next event—we can build a custom marketing package to suit your needs and ensure results!

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How to Handle Phone Calls with Upset Patients

One of the most challenging parts of your staff’s job is handling upset patients. These communications most often occur over the phone and can escalate quickly, taking time away from other patients and responsibilities. Think back to the last time an upset patient called in, maybe they were surprised by their bill or annoyed that their appointment was rescheduled, and how that call impacted your office staff.

Now most phone training is customer or patient focused—what does the customer want or need, how do they feel etc. But, is that really the most important issue at hand? Think about this call from the lens of your front desk and other patients. The front desk answers the phone to hear an upset patient and immediately goes into crisis mode, solving for the problem as quickly as possible to calm the patient down and to be able to end the unpleasant phone call. The call might last 5-10 minutes and often results in a marginally satisfied patient, a frazzled receptionist, and a waiting room full of uncomfortable patients who have just listened to a one-sided version of the call. How can you avoid these situations, while still helping the patient reach resolution and ultimately, a neutral to positive emotional state? Let’s look at some tips and training that might help…

Tips for Resolving Patient Phone Calls

• Train your staff to transfer the call once the appropriate recipient is identified. For example, if your front desk handles scheduling and check-ins and billing is handled by a different staff member, then get the upset patient to billing pronto! The patient might really want to have someone listen to them vent about their bill, but that shouldn’t be your receptionist.
• Have a warm transfer to avoid unnecessary repetition and frustration. If the patient needs to speak with billing, train your front desk to place the patient on a brief hold while they establish the transfer. Simply dialing the extension and switching the line doesn’t set up a great customer experience. Instead, use the hold time to 1) call billing and ensure someone is available to talk and 2) give the billing team a heads up and important information (name, file number etc.) so that they are prepared to handle the call effectively.
• Take the call in private especially if your front desk is within full hearing of the waiting room. Always have an additional line or portable phone in a quiet room where the staff can handle the call discretely. Remember that access to computer records might be important, so ensure that a laptop or additional computer is available.
• Report out on difficult calls or patients so that management has full context of the conversation. If a staff member spends 20+ minutes on the phone with an upset patient that should be documented and shared with the owner and manager. This helps provide transparency and allows management to know when they need to follow up. Great customer service can be achieved when the owner personally calls a disgruntled patient to check in and make sure their needs were met. Your team will also feel supported and empowered that you are taking a vested interest in the communications.
• Know when to take a message. If a patient calls back several times to complain or starts to begin aggravated, train your staff to politely take a message, “I’m sorry, our patient coordinator is unavailable at this time. I can take a message and they will reach out to you within the next business day,” will end the call before things get heated and allow the patient time to cool off. This might feel counter-intuitive, but sometimes silence and “space” are the best tools to dealing with a difficult situation.

Your front desk is the “front-line” of your practice. From keeping the clinic operating smoothly to handling patients, the front desk needs to be on their A-game. A difficult patient or upsetting phone call can throw things out of balance. Training and supporting your staff, while helping the patient seek resolution, can ease tensions and leave all parties feeling respected and comforted.

For more help with patient relations, check out our blog posts or call our account management team. We have years of practical experience in managing PT practices and patient communications.

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