Our society is conditioned to view medical authority as amongst the highest levels of authority and direction possible. No one leaves a hospital without being officially “discharged”, and not doing what “the doctor ordered” is tantamount to insurrection and anarchy. A doctor’s prescription sets in play a powerful set of events that are to be complied with, or else! (i.e. risk of serious injury, disease or death).
This helps us understand why professional referrals are among the most powerful referrals around. When a physician “orders” a patient to see you, a dentist, the patient presents to your office with “doctors orders” to fix a specific problem. When the doctor has already reviewed with the patient why they believe you can help them reduce cardiovascular risk factors, eliminate painful headaches and jaw problems, and/or help them get a better nights sleep, they show up at your office with a mindset more conducive to accepting treatment recommendations. This constitutes a much higher quality referral.
The psychology of endorsement is a powerful aspect of this phenomenon. When a highly respected authority figure endorses or recommends you it carries powerful weight and influence. The beginning point in your new relationship with the patient starts where their relationship with the referring physician left off. This is called “transference of credibility”. The patient isn’t starting from scratch in measuring you because your credibility has already been authenticated by someone they already know and trust – their doctor.
Considering the value of this endorsement, it must be used correctly and the opportunity not be squandered. The astute dentist will even go out of their way to ‘help’ the referring physician make the best referral possible. It is ultimately in the best interest of the patient for this to occur.
This is called “pre-staging the referral”. Your goal is to have the referring health professional make the best representation of you that is possible. If you have done your part well, the referring doctor and their staff will have pre-staged the patient’s first visit with you, as well as pre-sold the patient on the merits and qualifications of seeing you.
Assuming that your professional expertise and competence merits the referral in the first place, you want the referring doctor to say good things about you and to build you up in the mind of their patient.
What you don’t want is to have the referring doctor tell their patient to see “any dentist”! You are not “just any dentist!” You want the physician to “talk you up” and build confidence in the mind of the patient that they are going to receive the finest of care in your capable hands. After all, you wouldn’t send a patient to a physician with the recommendation of “well-yeah – they are okay!” You would assure your patient that the physician you are sending them to is very competent and will certainly help them with their problem. It makes everyone in the equation look good and have confidence in the process and ‘the system’.
For obvious reasons it is not wise to assume that the referring physician knows how to represent you to their patients. What you can assume is that the degree to which a referred patient knows about you and is prepared to see you will be an indication of how well you have prepared the referring office to make the referral in the first place. It is therefore best to be proactive in ‘helping’ the referring office know enough about you and what you do that they can speak well of you to their patient.
There are several ways to ‘help’ the referring physician make a better endorsement of you and your services. Providing them with the “evidence” that you “know your stuff” is critical. Why else would they prefer you over any other dentist available to them in their community? How else can they overcome the inertia of trying to convince someone to travel across town to see you, rather than the dentist around the corner?
Giving a 3-ring binder filled with the latest research communicates your competence in the applicable knowledge arena. Using a biographical sketch provides professional information about you and comfortably communicates your credentials, training and background sufficient such that the doctor knows something about who they are referring their patients to. Personal communications in the form of written letters, newsletters, and in-service staff trainings, are all valuable methods to build professional relations and confidences.
You must also keep in mind that there will be “rebound communication” as a result of any referral made to you. You must assume that the patient is certain to communicate back with the referring party about their visit with you and your office team. Bad reports about how they were treated, or anything else negative taken back to the referral source will not reflect well upon you. Conversely, positive reports will most certainly encourage the referring party to continue to include you in their referral network.
Each member of your team should be well rehearsed in the role they play in this process. Each will have a part to play as the new patient calls and then shows up as directed by their referring doctor. How this reception is executed and how the new patient is made to feel, will forever shape the mindset of the patient and will have great bearing on whether treatment recommendations will be accepted or not. The success of transference of “power” in these interactions is very much dependent on good first impressions and on the due respect the new doctor and staff give the referring doctor. It is important to edify the referring doctor in front of the new patient, and to validate the premise of their concern which prompted the referral.
The receiving office team should have this process broken down and each member should know their parts cold. Scripting and dress rehearsals are in order as each team member must not underestimate their contribution. Whether or not this flows together well will determine whether the patient receives the needed health care that has been recommended. The reception of the referral should be a well choreographed interaction with the new patient.
Follow up communication with the referring doctor is essential. It is not only expected professionally, but it can also be thought of and used as good marketing protocol. Every piece of patient-related communication given back to the referring professional must be attended to. Well written and appreciative reports can go a long way to help pre-stage the referral process for all future referrals.
Pre-staging the referral process to optimize the quality of the referral interaction and to cast you in good light, is good for the patient, for the referral process, and good for growing a referral practice.
In the next installment of Mastering Professional Referrals we will address how to use and market Risk Factors.