By April L. Jasper, OD, FAAO
Promote your practice and educate your community about your products and services with patient testimonials–on video and in print.
Soliciting testimonials from patients via video and the written word can give you the tool you need to effectively promote your practice. Rather than take your word for it, people can hear from satisfied patients why your practice is the best place to care for their eye and vision needs. Here is how my practice acquires these testimonials and some pointers from my experience.
Use Hand-in-Hand with Patient Satisfaction Surveys
A patient testimonial for marketing purposes is not the same as a patient satisfaction survey in which patient thoughts about their experience are understood to be private. But you can offer a box for patients to check on the survey if they feel comfortable with you sharing their thoughts with others for marketing purposes. Or you could contact patients with positive feelings (who choose to include their name on the survey) to ask if they would be interested in offering an on-the-record testimonial.
The gathering of patient testimonials began informally in our office. When a patient would mention how much they liked their experience in our office, I would ask them if I could write their comments down and use it in our brochure. I would use their first name only. As we became more comfortable with the process of soliciting feedback, we graduated to true written testimonials such as those that we now collect via a DemandForce patient satisfaction survey. Companies such as Websystems and Solutions Reach also offer survey tools that can be used to solicit feedback for the improvement of your practice, as well as for publicly shared testimonials.
Get Informed Consent from Patients
To protect yourself legally, it is important to create a document that states that the patient will knowingly be participating in videotaped testimonial that will be used to market your practice. The patient then must sign and print their name on this document before you permit them to participate. The signed documents can be scanned into your practice management system or electronic health record system so you will never lose them, but it also is important to keep the original hard copy on file as proof of their consent should you need it.
Create Videotaped Testimonials
We produced our first office videos four years ago as we started to see the Internet becoming a more important part of marketing. We had so many people comment that they had looked us up on our web site that we decided we needed testimonials on our site. We contacted a few of our most loyal patients and asked them to come to our office for a videotaping as they talked about their experiences as patients of our practice. It was very informal. The video crew asked them leading questions to get them started talking and then the patients just took off remembering details of the patient experience that impressed them.
Consider What You Want to Ask
In addition to general questions asked by the video crew, you should have your own questions in mind. These questions should be short and easy to understand. Here are a few questions that we might ask:
What do you like about Dr. Jasper?
What did you find most enjoyable about the office?
What would you like to tell your friends about Advanced Eyecare Specialists and Dr. Jasper?
Why do you continue to go back to see Dr. Jasper?
$2,000 to $4,000 in Cost for Videotaped Testimonials
Costs typically range from $2,000 to $4,000 to have a professional company such as Eyecare Video do the taping and editing, however it is worth the cost because of the return on investment in search engine optimization and trust that it builds in new patients who have never seen your office. Editor’s Note: When your web site features video, it gets pushed higher in the search listings on Google because videos are considered to be what is known as “rich content.” Search engines are programmed to put the sites with the richest content higher in the search results than other sites without such content.
This was probably the best marketing money I have ever spent. That is why I have gone through the process three times in four years.
Minimal Time Investment
The videotaping process took about three hours of our time, and we have done this three times now to keep our videos updated.
Post Videos on All Your Web Pages
We post the videotaped testimonials on our social media pages in addition to our web site, and include a link on electronic communications such as promotional e-blasts and ask our patients to go to our web site to view the videos before their visit.
Related ROB Articles
Help Patients Get the Picture with Video Marketing
Key Marketing Tool: Local Media Appearances
Your Practice Improvement Guidepost: Patient Satisfaction Surveys
April L. Jasper, OD, FAAO, is the owner of Advanced Eyecare Specialists in West Palm Beach, Fla. She is featured in a cover story in the Spring 2012 issue of MBA Insights. To contact her: drjasper@aeswpb.com.
