If you ask many business owners why patients or clients should pick them over their competitors they might say “we provide better service,” “we listen” or "we give people what they want". Now, this might be true, but I guarantee you your competitor is thinking the same thing.
Telling people why they should pick you is just not good enough. Actions speak louder than words. You need to prove it to them and sometimes that is not good enough. Most companies compete on price and product. With doctors, our product is ourselves. Patients will choose a doctor by the way we communicate and relate to them as well as the way they are treated. Most doctors are nice and caring, so there is really no major advantage here except if your competitor is rude and nasty. Patients have high expectations when going to see a doctor. So, if you just do what they expect, then you will not be any different from any other doctor they go to. What will set you apart is something only you do that no competitor can see. In his book, The Bottom of the Pool, Andy Andrews calls it the Obvious Greater Value (OGV).
OGV is your advantage and if you provide it you will have a business that is constantly thriving. It is the postal worker who might hand-deliver the mail to an elderly woman so she wouldn’t have to go to the end of her driveway to retrieve it. Or, the UPS driver who puts your packages where you want them and the pharmacist who walks in front of his counter to shake hands to a customer.
How can you use OGV in your practice? How about delivering a patient’s shoes to his house if he is disabled? If a patient tells you they are going for a biopsy to rule out cancer, even if it is not foot-related, how about giving that person a call to see how everything went? Or calling all your new patients the next day and your surgical patients the night before and after the surgery. You don’t need expensive gadgets, like a mug with your logo on it or an emery board to give to the patient in hopes they refer other patients. All you need is OGV.
