Can't you just smell the coffee?

Or the fresh-baked cookies?

Imagine walking into your doctor's office and smelling the aroma of a fresh brew or hot-out-of-the-oven mini chocolate chip cookies. What would that suggest about the office?

Of course I am being a bit fanciful, but here is a fun and thought-provoking article from Medinnovationblog about shaping your patients' experiences when they walk into your practice.

Starbucks doesn't sell coffee - it sells community, a coffee-drinking experience and free coffee grounds for your roses!

Why not reconsider what it is you "sell" when patients come to see you?

Is it comfort (think cookie and coffee aromas, with plaid or chintz-covered furniture), "cutting edge knowledge" (plasma TV screen with educational videos), serenity (small water fountain and "spa music") or Platinum Club treatment (bronze sculpture with spot-lighting, and art on the exam room walls)?

This is a snippet from the article:

Why do some doctor practices attract and keep loyal patients? Why do Starbucks customers in New York City return for coffee an average of 18 times a year?

In Starbucks case, Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks, it’s the total “experience.” Starbucks a neutral place – neither home nor work – where one can meet friends, listen to music, use your laptop, find a date, conduct business, snack, enjoy various coffee concoctions, and even pick up coffee grounds for free for you roses. Yes, Starbucks is offering coffee grounds for free to feed your roses at home, as part of its “green” image.”

In a 2006 book The Starbuck Experience: 5 Principles for Turning the Ordinary into the Extraordinary, Joseph A. Michelli, PhD , says all of these possibilities flow from 5 principles Schultz uses to inspire and motivate his employees to do their level best to please Starbucks customers and to keep them coming back.

These five principles are:

• Make it your own - experiment on your own in your own way to give your customers a unique experience.

• Everything matters - It’s not only the big things – the layout of your café – but the details that your customers observe and talk about and tell others.

• Surprise and delight - Free coffee grounds for roses or a specially made coffee drink for a special customer are examples.

• Embrace resistance - If a customer resists, overcome that resistance with special attention and warmth.

• Leave your mark - Do something that your customer or the community where you serve remembers.

I encourage you to read the entire article (click here to access it) as it goes on to give several good tips from Susan Keane Baker's book, Managing Patient Expectations: The Art of Finding and Keeping Loyal Patients - tips  for getting the "scoop" on what it's like to come to your office, and how you might use that information to truly shape a desirable patient experience and build fierce loyalty!

As the article author, Dr. Richard Reece, writes in conclusion:

Look at the total experience of your practice through your patients’ eyes. See through their lenses how your practice fits into the human condition and into the community as the place to go. This new perspective may pay dividends. It’s the total “experience,” and every detail that goes into that experience, that counts. (emphasis mine)