How much do you tell your staff about what’s really going on in your business?
Dr Benji Dhillon, co-founder of Define Clinic in the UK, goes the whole 9 yards.
He shares his financials with his whole team:
“Our clinic revenue and targets… how much we’ve made in a week, how much we’ve made in a day, how much we’ve made in a month – it’s not a hidden number,” he told me in our recent podcast.
“Everyone knows those numbers in the clinic… [Even though] that’s never been the case in the clinics I’ve worked in – the number is always confidential to the owner.”
It’s pretty gutsy to share all that, don’t you think?
But he has a very clear rationale for being so transparent.
“It makes your staff feel like they’re with you on your journey.”
In other words, your team becomes much more engaged with your business – and more personally invested in it – when they understand what you’re trying to achieve…
…And when they feel trusted with real information.
Even if their salary doesn’t change one jot, they start feeling more like stakeholders than guns-for-hire.
Now, studies show that this is an increasingly common approach. Employers are more likely to share their financials with their employees today than they were a decade ago.
But I’m a marketer, not a management consultant…
…So I can’t tell you whether that’s the right thing to do with your staff.
But I do know that this kind of approach works with your patients, in your marketing.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting you reveal your revenue to them!
But just like Dr Dhillon was looking for ways to make his staff feel like they’re “with him” on his journey…
…You need to find ways to make your patients feel they’re “with you” on your journey.
In other words, your marketing should be turning them from occasional visitors to your clinic…
…Into people who feel involved in your practice, who have a stake in your success, and who want to cheer you on.
Can you see how different this is to simply blasting off yet another offer?
When you create that kind of loyalty, you create patients for life.
Of course, that effort starts in the clinic. Your marketing alone can’t make patients invested in you if they have an impersonal experience when they walk through your doors.
But your marketing can still do a lot of heavy lifting.
…You need to find ways to make your patients feel they’re “with you” on your journey.
In other words, your marketing should be turning them from occasional visitors to your clinic…
…Into people who feel involved in your practice, who have a stake in your success, and who want to cheer you on.
Patients are going to feel a lot more engaged with you if you don’t hide behind a façade of sterile perfection or “professionalism” – like so many other clinic owners.
Instead, trust them enough to be open about what you’re going through – both ups and downs…
….And share something of yourself.
Here’s an example.
During the second COVID wave, most clinics in the UK were forced to shut for a second time.
Now, if you were in that situation, you could have done what most clinics did. Send out a formal note telling patients that the clinic is closed until further notice, or restricted to a few key treatments, and that you hope to re-open soon.
That would have done the job… But it wouldn’t have won hearts or minds.
But what if you had sent out a different kind of note?
One telling patients that this is a very painful moment for you, because you’ve put everything into rebuilding the practice after the first shut-down – and this feels like a real blow.
Plus, you hate the idea of another period of time without practicing. Being able to treat patients again since the end of the first lockdown has re-energized you!
You could have expressed empathy and care for your staff, who were going through a hard time too. And perhaps added a word or two about how you intend to spend the lockdown (improving the clinic… and watching quite a bit of Netflix).
But the most important parts of the email should have focused on your patients, who would have experienced their own stresses during the lockdown. Not to mention disappointment at missing appointments!
You could have asked them to write back and let you know how they’re faring – because they’re part of your clinic’s family. And you could have told them you can’t wait for the day when you can welcome them to your clinic and care for them once more.
Or if none of that resonates, you could write whatever is true for you…
You probably wouldn’t want to sound angry. But it shouldn’t be taboo to acknowledge that this is a difficult time for you and your staff as well as for your patients.
Can you see how that little bit of vulnerability creates a much stronger bond with your patients…
…And gets them on your side?
It makes you human and relatable – without sacrificing any authority.
And it makes patients feel like they’re with you on your journey.
The good news is, you don’t have to wait for another lockdown to be more authentic and transparent with your audience. And you don’t have to be authentic and transparent only about tough things!
There are always opportunities…
It should be part-and-parcel of the way you communicate.
If that’s something you’d like help with, drop me a line today.
We help clinic owners all over the globe create powerful marketing that resonates deeply with their patients. And we’d love to help you too.
Miriam Shaviv is creator of Inbox Express, the library of marketing emails for aesthetic clinics and med spas, designed to make your marketing effective and easy – and send the right messages to your patients as you re-open after Coronavirus! Find out more here.
She is Director of Content at Brainstorm Digital, which helps aesthetic clinics and med spas get patients through their doors again and again – without the headache of costly online advertising.
