The Four-Minute Rule for Healthcare Practitioners – helpful and highly effective strategies in healthcare practice marketing for YOUR Practice.
Our Four-Minute Rule for Practitioners is a key ingredient in the design and implementation of an office procedure to warmly welcome new patients.
The principle is akin to the idea that you never have a second chance to make a good first impression. The practitioner’s four-minute rule says that, in meeting a new patient, you should invest the first few (up to 4) minutes in greeting the individual on a personal level. The intent is to engage in an initial conversation that is non-clinical…getting to know the person, their family, or just about anything other than the reason for the healthcare appointment.
Although this simple technique is widely known and costs nothing, it is commonly forgotten or short changed. Using it in the new patient welcome process, however, has important benefits.
The rule helps to:
Establish trust- Open channels of communications
- Develop rapport, understanding and empathy
- Initiate a bond among patient, practitioner and practice
- Create a foundation for a positive patient experience
The rules are:
- The practitioner needs to use it consistently with each new patient;
- The practitioner has the most impact with the patient, but every member of the staff should also apply the rule; and
- Don’t skip this rule because the practice is “too busy.”
In healthcare marketing and new patient welcome procedure specifically, a trusting patient is more likely to follow-through with treatment recommendations, and satisfied patients refer friends and family. It’s simple, easy to do, and, not surprisingly, only takes a few minutes.
