Are Your Marketing Dollars Well-Spent Or Do You Not See A Light At The End Of The Tunnel?
July 16, 2021
5 Common Mistakes Made With Marketing Staff:
- There is no marketing orientation for new employees: This is pretty common. Since marketing stands alone in your agency, it often is not structured. Marketing staff tend to pick up information along the way. Maybe you have more than one branch, so they shadow another marketing employee a short time. This may help the new employee understand someone else's schedule and routine, but it doesn't help them develop what needs done in their own communities. A marketing employee should have assistance from supervisory clinical staff when meeting with a physician's group for presentations, but the follow up and follow through needs to be the marketing staff. We see many agencies where the marketing staff expects to have a nurse with them every time they are out. This is not only a huge cost, but not necessary. If your marketing employee wants a nurse with them every time they are out, then they aren't the right marketer for your agency. Marketing should not have to be by the buddy system.
- They have never seen a visit made: How can our marketing people understand what our business is if they haven't seen it in action? Now, I'm not talking one or two visits, but a variety that properly shows what your agencies does and provides. It shouldn't be just uncomplicated patients, but complex ones where you show how the clinical staff manage patients, families, and interactions with physicians as well as other providers.
- They haven't seen your pitch: Whether you have a marketing, business, nursing, or therapy degree, you as the administrator should be able to give the pitch. You should be able to help marketing staff understand how to read the room and guide what you talk about based upon who is there. Often times we see pitches that are the exact same regardless of who the marketing employees is seeing for a scheduled appointment. This means the marketing staff is giving the same pitch to the new physician in town as the one who has been giving you referrals for 20 years.
- You haven't seen their pitch: This piggybacks on the last bullet point. Sometimes, we take our marketing staff out to let them see us pitch someone a couple times and turn them loose. We do supervisions on all clinical staff yearly, why wouldn't we be doing the same things for the people out there selling the product we provide? Once, I was in an agency and went on a planned marketing visit to an MD office. This employee had been with this particular agency over 20 years. The marketing person told me after the presentation that she learned things about the agency she never knew on the presentation. This was a huge eye opener when I talked to the administrator about it. This individual had been the face of the agency for decades and didn't know the basic items about the services that were spoken about in the pitch. Don't assume length of time with the agency makes them better.
- We don't set an effective marketing plan in place: Often times, we see marketing staff who are given expectations as to how many contacts are to be made in a week or month, but it doesn't tell them the focus for follow up. Let's say Dr. Jones is new to town but not new to referrals to homecare and hospice services. So, we go in speaking the first time about what service lines we provide so this physician knows. What do you tell marketing staff about the plan for the the next visit? And, then the third visit? We need to have specific goals that guide the marketing staff as to what the focus of marketing efforts should be. This is a missing link. We also need to guide marketing staff to non-traditional marketing venues as well. Do they know what has been successful in your area in the past? Are you looking closely at the referrals you receive for frequent fliers? Do they always come directly from the doctor or hospital? Have you effectively found ways in your community to support other providers of services to your patients such as: the Area Agency on Aging, United Way, housing providers, or those doing home modifications? Have you talked to local fire departments and police departments about those emergent calls they seem to get frequently? Have you considered adding services based upon these contacts? Maybe you want to become a provider of ERS in your agency because your local EMS spends too much time picking people off the floor. You can see opportunities for referrals and additional service lines by just listening to your community.
Kenyon Homecare Consulting Can Help:
At Kenyon Homecare Consulting,
we can help you develop an effective marketing plan without breaking the bank in the process. We can guide you on non-traditional marketing strategies and help you understand potential opportunities for growth. Call us today at 206-721-5091 or contact us online
to see how we can help you maximize your marketing efforts.
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HOPE Question and Answer Repository
Today, this article will look at little different than out typical articles. We all know the costs of losing employees and trying to hire and train new ones. It is exhausting and expensive. So, we think about our wages and benefit packages all the time. What can we do differently that makes people stay? We can’t change the job and we don’t want to keep people that don’t like the work itself. So, how do we acknowledge employees in a way that is valuable to them and that our businesses can afford to do? 5 Things To Consider About Employee Recognition At Your Christmas Party: 1. Years of Service: These can be based on milestone work anniversaries (5, 10, 15 yrs, etc.). If a person has been at your agency 11 years, you pull them up and acknowledge them in the group of employees who have been there at least 10 years up until the time they hit the 15 years landmark. This way longevity is recognized yearly. 2. Special Employee awards: Now, this may be difficult if your staff is very small, but acknowledge the employee who has gone the extra mile in the job they do. Tell the story. The employee needs to know when the employer is proud of the work that has been done. Consider a plaque or certificate. Don’t minimize the value of the employee having them to display. 3. Acknowledge all employees in the mix: Because we are a clinical industry, the administrative staff is often overlooked on day-to-day operations. Ultimately, don’t miss the chance to acknowledge the employee who was able to catch billing errors or collect on a large account. Staff doesn’t like to hear about money, but those types of collections keep Christmas bonuses in place! So, make sure the other staff knows the accomplishments of the finance department or the office manager that every caller loves to speak to. Don't ever forget the IT staff that is on call more than any clinical person in your agency! 4. Letters from the administration: Add a personal note to your staff either collectively or individually depending on the size of your agency. If you are larger, there are employees you don’t often see or get to talk to on a regular basis, so take the time so send a note with that Christmas bonus. 5. Consider the Christmas bonus: Listen, some of you can afford to do substantial monetary bonuses and that is fantastic. However, if you are not in that position, consider something in its place. Maybe small gas cards go with the letter from administration. With the cost of groceries, consider something that helps with the costs of daily living for employees. Big box gift cards in your area will always be used. You may do a lot of these things on a yearly basis to employees. All this being said, it doesn’t mean there aren’t reasons for acknowledgement throughout the year. However, your annual Christmas party is a good way to do it collectively. Between your annual party, write the individual cards to employees when you hear a patient interaction worthy of praise. Or, maybe you buy a gas card for the employee who has picked up extra shifts and always shows up on time. Ultimately, employees will feel valued. You will not regret the time, effort, and energy put into these efforts. Merry Christmas! If you want help with recruitment and retention strategies for your agency, please call Kenyon Homecare Consulting at 206-721-5091 or contact us online today.