Strategies for Thriving in a Changed World: 

The Patient Journey Series: Creating Your Clinic Persona

To effectively map out the Patient’s Journey, you must understand who your customers are. Not just on a surface level – but how they think, feel, move, respond, who inspires them, persuades them, what scares them- you get the picture.  Do you really know who your patients are- or do you think you know? In our last newsletter, we shared a roadmap for creating patient personas. (Click here to check out our last article) 

Understanding who your patients are is critically important. You also need to understand who YOU are.  Understanding who your clinic is- if it were a person – absolutely helps understand who is attracted to you, who you attract and why. 

This is what we call the Clinic Persona

Why do all this? It’s about knowing your patients, yourself and the understanding the journey. Solid execution of these strategies results in better outcomes for you and for your patients. Better outcomes means more patients are satisfied with their hearing care provider. More satisfied patients means more referrals. More referrals means more people that need help, seek help. Ya got it? See the pattern here? Every next step needs to be the best step for the patient.

What is a Clinic Persona

Very similar to the patient persona, however your defining your clinic- as if it was a person with values, fears, personality, etc.  We are capturing insights into the personality of your clinic, what motivates the team, frustrations, goals, motto/mission values and the brands that your clinic aligns with. This is an exercise in taking your mission/values/SWOT analysis and turning it into a persona profile. Looking at your clinic as a whole as if it came to life as a person. Kinda of like putting a human character to your car.  How many of you name your car?  If you’ve ever seen that insurance commercial where the gal refers to her car as Brad. 

This may seem like a frivolous exercise to some. I promise you- this is not. This is a service business – a professional built on relationships – not just products or price. Certainly products & price are important but they are not why a patient becomes a lifetime patient. Having said that- there is the right fit for everybody

There are patients who want a relationship with Costco. There are patients that want a relationship with a larger brand that may be a manuf owned network. There are patients that want a relationship with a family or the individual provider that has gone all-in for the community. The purpose of these exercises is to define who your patients are, who your clinic(s) or brand is which guides and directs the behaviors and strategies to ensure you are “dating” the right folks

How do we create it?

What is your elevator pitch? 

Who are you?

What is your mission?

What is your why?

What is your professional journey?

The clinic persona will not take a long to build out as the patient persona. Let’s start with your NAME. This isn’t your “real” name or your clinic name- this is your Persona Name. If your clinic was like a transformer and came to life as a person- what would her or his name be?

Next, let’s talk about Personality. If you’re clinic was a person and y’all were hanging out-how would you define the personality? 

Outgoing, quick witted & full of energy or chill, laidback and peaceful? Defining the “personality” of your clinic will impact colors, design, style and communication.

Moving on to Motivations & Emotions.  Same idea- if your clinic was an individual- a friend, what are the motivations for success?

What are the emotions that surround that? This is your “why” statement. For example- the motivations may include: To create a legacy for my children because it provides me certainty. OR To be a leader in the community which creates influence. Many of you own a single clinic while others may own a larger network of clinics.  personas can be created for regions rather than a single clinic. For those that work for an owner of a small or large network- you can still work through this exercise.

Drop in the Demographics. Age, Work, Family, Location, Character 

This may seem kinda weird. We are talking about your clinic but keep in mind, we are trying to develop a “Persona” for your clinic

So how “old” would your persona be?  Is it a 29 year old fireball or a 55 year old woman of wisdom. There is no right or wrong- this is a tool that provide insight & revelation as to how and why certain patient persona respond the way they do.

Let’s look at the Goals, Values & Frustrations of your clinic persona. Goals could include: being healthy, robust and strong & active or financial freedom. Values could include for example: offer grace, truth and love in every interactions or it could include: being direct, speaking bluntly without flowery language. Frustrations might be something like: inefficiency, dishonesty, inconsistency – ego & pride might be a frustrations.

The Quote/Motto is the same idea as what we did in the Patient Persona, however this is the quote/motto of your clinic. What would be hanging on the wall in the home of our “Clinic’s Persona” would be the same thing hanging in your clinic.  A good example would be “Treat others the way you want to be treated” or “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”. It’s a bit of a play on what you might have written as your business mission statement. 

Next drop in the Bio. If your clinic were a person, where did he or she go to school? What is his or her past work experience look like

What experiences did he or she have? 

Finally, identify the Brands that your “clinic persona” would buy

What stores does he or she shop in? What websites does he or she visit? This is a great tool to identify and align more effectively with your patient personas.

LET’S TAKE A QUICK LOOK AT AN EXAMPLE

The clinic persona is an important tool that contributes to better patient outcomes and to better align staff and flow, creating a better patient experience.