Who are you serving?
I’m sure you’ve all heard the ‘leaky bucket’ analogy. Where no matter how much water you put in the bucket, because there are holes in the bottom, it never fills up!
And while there are many reasons for this, this week I want to discuss ‘who are you serving’ as one of the main factors.
You see I am a PC guy but have an apple phone. I like what I like. I am not an apple geek and really have no desire to buy anything from them but an iPhone. Likewise, there are some amongst you who cringe at the thought of owning anything but apple. Why? because we like what we like, and we buy what we want. Furthermore we desire confirmation bias, this is surrounding ourselves with other people who agree with our buying decisions to make us feel good about our purchases and part of a shared community.
And this is what you need to aim for in your practice, it does not happen by accident. It happens by design. And that design really is yours to choose. Choose it well and you will have a fantastic community that self refers and plugs the holes in the bucket themselves.
Imagine a week in practice whereby everyone on your list to serve that week you were excited about? You genuinely looked at the people coming in to see you with a joy and an eagerness to take care of them. That is what I am talking about. But too often we have those people who creep onto our list that we just do not want to serve, no matter how mission driven you are, don’t kid yourself. We’ve all been there!
So what can you do?
It’s quite simple really, choose a group of people who you would love to take care of, invite them in, then ask them to bring more people just like them to your practice? Sounds simple… here is how.
1. Identify your customer.
Who is it you want to serve, think not just demographics (age, sex, location). But more importantly, think about psychographics, this is the secret to lifetime patients who want to be with you. What do they like to spend their money on, where do they go on holiday, what music or recreational activities do they enjoy and where do they hang out? This is what you want to identify in you market, so you can find them and then create a space they enjoy.
2. Go find them.
From your psychographics, get smart on your marketing and acquisition. Where do they hang out, set up some talks and screenings at these places. If online, target your marketing to them.
3. Create a space for them.
As I have mentioned in my blogs before, you need to make your space appealing in three ways; visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic. Make sure that your space reflects the desires and likes of your chosen psychographic.
4. Solve their problem.
And most obviously, solve their problem. If you complete the first three steps and compound it by solving their problem, you now have a hugely satisfied patient who will go and tell his community to come and ‘hangout’ and experience your practice.
Take the time to put these steps into place and once the ball starts rolling, your off! Remember you get to choose who you serve, so choose who you want to hang out with.
With love,
Tom