Every patient wants to feel special. Listened to. Respected. It doesn’t matter what the persons’ age. Fortunately, there are doctors out there who really know how to make each patient feel as if he or she the only person that doctor sees. These doctors take the time to explain. To follow-up. To calm nerves. They forge a relationship. And if cultivated, it can last a lifetime.

So, as a marketer, how do you make sure caring bedside manner goes beyond the bedside? Here are some thoughts:

Encourage doctors to know patients. There’s nothing like a doctor or staff member who jots down (or types up) personal notes in your chart and then asks you about your family or career each time they see you. CRM is an effective way to help personalize the patient experience.

Have your doctors pick up the phone. Skype. Send a text. Shoot an email. Doctors who dedicate some time each day or week to follow-up with patients who’ve had a surgery or procedure are proving just how important their patients are to them. Doctors might not make house calls anymore, but they can still make contact with patients at home. It could be as easy as picking up the phone. Telemedicine – where doctors video conference with patients – is gaining in popularity as well.

Also, a friendly text or email reminding a patient of an appointment is usually a welcome gesture. More and more, doctors are also reminding patients via an email blast to use up their insurance benefits before the year’s end.

Keep the lines of communication open even when the office is closed. No patient likes having to wait for the doctor’s office to open on Monday morning to schedule an appointment to address whatever happened over the weekend. For those doctors whose websites don’t have it already, creating a patient portal allows people to schedule appointments online, ask questions, access their electronic medical records, pay bills and refill prescriptions.

Share the knowledge. For the most part, patients want to be informed. Which is why websites like WebMed are so popular. Recommend your doctors invest in a couple of iPads for their lobbies. Have them bookmark relevant sites and download helpful and healthy apps. If they have blogs, Twitter or Facebook accounts, make sure patients can easily see those, too.

Have any other ideas on how to keep the patient front and center? Let us know your thoughts.

SoLoMo  – a marketing strategy incorporating social features, location data and mobile applications – is affecting all aspects of marketing at a rapidly growing rate. It is a lesson that every brand, from high-stakes retail to the restaurant around the corner from my house, needs to take into consideration. What’s the rationale behind this movement?

Nielsen and NM Incite published a helpful graphic that provides an informative view of consumers’ social, local and mobile consumption habits and how these three players relate to one another. It’s titled, “The Most Valuable Digital Customers,” and here are some of the statistics that caught my attention.

Social

• App adoption rate
• 58% used the Facebook app
• 18% used the Twitter app

Location

• App adoption rate
• 39% used the Google Maps app
• 5% used the Foursquare app
• 5% used the Yelp app
• 45% of visitors to local deal sites are very likely to recommend those daily deal sites
  Visits to coupons/rewards sites are up 11% since 2009 (65.4 million, August 2009 vs. 72.3 million, August 2011)

Mobile

• 38% of Americans own a smartphone
• Smartphone users spend 2/3 of their mobile phone time on apps
• 44% visit social networking sites

Those who acknowledge this shift and incorporate social, local and mobile strategies will be rewarded with increased customer loyalty and trust. Look at brands like American Express and its Small Business Saturday campaign. Or Krispy Kreme and the company’s new Hot Light app. Neiman Marcus is another brand that has truly embraced SoLoMo, utilizing Foursquare for its recent “Foursquare Challenge” promotion where 15 high-end clutch purses were hidden in secret locations throughout its stores nationwide.

Here’s the fascinating thing about SoLoMo – you do not have to be a glossy, national brand in order to incorporate social, local and mobile strategies. SoLoMo is just as important, if not more, to small business owners in your community. These establishments live and die by customer loyalty and word of mouth. Social, local and mobile have the potential to be game changers for those small businesses that recognize the possibilities available in these areas.

Regardless of whether you are a small mom-and-pop store or a high-stakes brand, you need to be cognizant of how SoLoMo will impact your online identity. The increases in smartphone ownership mean not only are users active in virtually any location, but they’re only a couple clicks away from their entire social graph. The repercussions for those brands that choose to ignore this shift? Potentially missing out on sales, customer insights, credibility and the opportunity to influence.

Are you taking advantage of SoLoMo for your brand? Tell us about it.