2009.06.18 23:19:32

John McDaniel

You only get one chance to make a first impression.  I am guessing you’ve heard that before, right?  How does this impact the management of your office?  In what ways are you managing your patients’ first impressions?

In my experience, impression management is underrated and under emphasized.  If you doubt the seriousness of the impact of first impressions I direct you to Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink” and Michael Levine’s “Broken Windows, Broken Business.”  Or you can take my word for it and do this to get your thinking right on the importance of impression management:

1. Determine the level of importance you think first impressions have on your practice
2. Now double that importance
3. If you are not motivated to make immediate changes from this analysis, double it again

The purpose of this blog is to call attention to a few types of first impressions that many practices seem to neglect or consider less important.  These areas are the front door, the business sign, the parking lot, the landscaping around the building, and the reception area.  Below are a few thoughts on each of these critical areas.

The front door of most businesses is one of the most overlooked aspects of the physical plant.  In most cases, every customer walks through this to access the business, yet very little thought is given to the door and its condition.  Take one day a year and have the staff and yourself look at the door.  Consider a new door.  At the very least, keep the door clean and representative of the atmosphere you are aiming for.  Realize that the door has to be more than “just OK.”

Signs are more expensive than people expect.  This leads to some bad decisions regarding signage; specifically doing signs on the cheap.  Realize that the only people that do not use the sign to identify your business from the road are the already established customers.  Every single new patient is highly likely to see your sign before anything else related to your business.  Pay the extra money to have the best signage you can – it is worth it.

Your parking lot can make or break your business.  I am not exaggerating for effect or being flippant when I write that statement; it is a fact.  All patients that come to your office will use the parking facilities.  To them the parking lot is your lot.  Is it clean?  Is it kept up?  How convenient is it to get in and out of the lot and the individual spaces?  Is there more than enough parking for your busiest day of the decade?  Is it easy to find the parking spaces for your practice?  Parking lots are one of the top 3 issues for consideration when choosing a location for a business.

The landscaping (the hard and soft-scapes) for most offices fall into one of three categories: terrible, non-descript, or slightly above average.  All three assessments are unacceptable.  This is an opportunity to distinguish your practice from all other businesses and not just other practices.  Most towns/cities have a business that has a pond with fish, an outdoor seating area, or some other notable exterior feature.  Consider using the landscape to distinguish from the pack.  At the very least, landscape so people perceive something different and positive as they approach the building.

The reception area sets the tone for the entire internal experience in the practice.  Most reception areas in most office look OK and are utilitarian in their design.  That is fine for the reception area of a cheese sciences lab but not for a health care practice.  All of the senses should be considered when designing (or redesigning) the reception area.  The look should reflect the vision of the practice.  The smell should be inviting and pleasant.  The sounds should be relaxed and not chaotic.  The feel should be warm, cozy and comfortable.  Consider offering a way for the area to taste great as well, such as coffee or mints.  Reinvent the reception experience in your office and you will be rewarded down the road.

Le Meas,

John G. McDaniel, OD, MLHR
President/Founder
Waugoo Consulting Group, LLC
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

first impressions | branding | marketing | office appearance | image management

2009.04.05 13:21:40

John McDaniel

When I ponder the concept of naming a business I automatically think of constipation.  Not that yours truly has suffered such ailments but a client that I remember has.  During the process of starting up his business (not optometry related) he phoned to say “I need to the right name for business and I need it now!”  I asked why the sudden urgency to make this decision.  Suffice to that I learned that increased stress levels and constipation are rather good friends.  It is funny what things you remember.

Naming a business is stressful.  A plan and some guidelines can reduce the stress.  That said, before I give my variation of naming guidelines it is imperative to point out that some of the best business names in history are the ones that break all the “rules.”

Purpose
It is important to consider the purpose of a business name.  A common misconception of this purpose is that a name should attempt to convey as much information as possible about the business.  That approach is a big mistake.  It leads to long, unruly, and unremarkable business names.  The real purpose of the name is to brand a business as succinctly as possible.  Branding is a broad concept but pertains to naming by dealing with two questions:

1. What is the “big” picture point of the business?
2. What differentiates you from your competition?

Crafting a list of adjectives and adverbs that seek to succinctly answer those questions is a good place to start.

Long Term Business Strategy
The next consideration is the long term strategy of the practice.  More specifically, an analysis of where the practice falls on the business life cycle is useful.  Early on in the life of a practice the name of the doctor tends to be of utmost importance.  It is often necessary to develop a “doctor centered” model to grow a practice during the early phases (including the early phases of an ownership transfer).  As a practice moves through the life cycle there is a tendency (a good tendency) to move toward a “practice centered” model.  This implies a stronger focus on the “entity” versus the “doctor.”  This results from, among other things, an increase is technical support as well as increased delegation of patient care tasks.  Some practices also find that their unique combination of human resources drives this change in focus of its own inertia.  Further along the life cycle exit or succession considerations become apparent.  A more transferable name is desired.  For example, it is easier to transfer equity in a practice named “Community Eye Center” than it is a practice named “Bob Smith, OD.”

Permanence
A name is forever.  Well, not really; but kind of.  I think it depends on what the meaning of “is” is.  This perception of permanence is what I believe to be the strongest factor in causing business owners so much stress when naming a business.  The sense is that once you commit to a name, you have committed to that name forever.  I say differently; only diamonds are forever.  Practice names can be changed as long as the process of changing the name is managed well and the time horizon is years versus months.  A common name change is to go from the doctors name to a less personal entity name, e.g. going from “Bob Smith, OD” to “Community Eye Center.”  This type of change happens all the time.  There are two key lessons here.  First, pick a name for the five year plan of the practice and not for the 15 year plan.  Long term, in this case, should mean five years.  Second, your practice will be dynamic and the branding needs will change.  When they change you should at least consider the possibility of a name change.  While not the first club out of the bag by any means it is, none-the-less, a club in the bag.

The key to a name change is going slow.  The process needs to take years and there should be well defined and well planned stages in the morphing process.  The name change should occur additively.  In other words don’t go from “Bob Smith, OD” to “Community Eye Center” all at once.  At first merge the names, if possible, or create a hybrid of the two.  Then, over the course 1-2 years, begin to drop the old name from things.  Do the name changes in stages that makes sense for your given situation.  Consider all things with the clinic name associated independently such as stationary, signs, the webpage, exam forms, e-mail addresses, etc.

General Recommendations

1. How memorable is the name?  This is likely the most important factor when selecting a name.  The more memorable the better assuming the associations and connotations are positive (e.g. Ted Bundy’s Eye Care)
2. Consider the web domain name – pick the name that is available in a domain name if possible
3. Legal – check with your state regulations regarding business names and have an attorney check the availability of names.  Before you have a lawyer check create a ranked list of 3-5 options in case the first few checked are not available
4. Check the competition – within your local market your name needs to help separate you from the competition; select a name that helps with this process of differentiation
5. Pronunciation – the name should be easy to pronounce.  Or you could just pick “Waugoo” and confuse everybody all the time.
6. If relevant to the life cycle stage of the practice, consider the ability to add doctors, staff, products, services, and locations with respect to the name.  The more flexibility the better.
7. Get three to five opinions from business people you respect.  It is best if some of those people have participated in the naming process before.

Finally, stop stressing too much.  I’ve never seen a practice not sell because of an incompatible name and I’ve never seen a practice thrive or starve because of a brilliant or disastrous name respectively.  Besides, whatever name you pick 10% of your patients will call you “Dr. McDonald” at the “ear clinic” anyway.  People…gotta love ‘em.

Le Meas,

John G. McDaniel, OD, MLHR
President/Founder
Waugoo Consulting Group, LLC
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

Practice naming | business names | naming a business | marketing | branding