Marketing

Think In-Person: Focus on Reality Ahead of the Virtual

By Brian Chou, OD, FAAO

Online tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp and Pinterest can help patients find you and tell them about your practice. Yet do we fixate on the virtual realms to the detriment of patient care? Rather than conversing with the patient sitting in the exam chair, how did it become normal to ruminate about posting the next Facebook or Twitter update? Instead of engaging patients in discussion in the office, why do we flock toward so-called “social” cyberspace? To be sure, virtual connections are important. But maybe the pendulum has swung too far from the meaningful personal connections which should matter the most. Let us not forget the lack of equivalent substitute for in-person communication and physical examination within a brick-and-mortar facility.

Paying greater attention to your in-office interactions with patients than to your online “chat” gives patients what they most want—a compelling relationship with your practice in which they feel comfortable to discuss health concerns. I postulate that most patients don’t want their doctor to be just another Facebook “friend.” They have enough of those. They want a reliable, trustworthy source of information and caring service. They want a doctor who spends most of their time examining patients, not trolling Internet message boards for new patients.

The truth is that few patients want to get Twitter updates from their gynecologist or proctologist—and probably not from their optometrist. Nor do they want to “like” them on Facebook and broadcast that to all their contacts. Instead, average people want to “follow” their favorite athlete or rock group, and to let their circle of contacts know about that. Most optometrists fall in between a gynecologist and celebrity in that regard, and probably closer to the former. Yes, that may be hard to accept! Seriously, though, do you think your patients want to get a status update on whether you have a pimple on your buttock? I’m being facetious, but my point is that in the online world it’s easy to inhabit delusions of grandeur. There is a human desire to feel connected, needed and important, and Facebook and other social media is good at making us synthetically believe that this is the case. My challenge is for each of us to think more about getting LinkedOut of the digital world rather than LinkedIn, in order to regain a healthy balance of real-world interactions where greatest effort is placed toward the patient’s best interests, not online narcissism and self-promotion.

Striking a purposeful balance between real and virtual worlds requires evaluating how to connect with existing patients amid the increasingly cluttered field of electronic detritus. For some practices, a simple electronic lifestyle questionnaire can guide a beneficial conversation in the exam room. Electronic media can also help you better learn who your patients are, from their families, hobbies and aspirations, which in turn direct individualized treatment for desired outcomes. Let the virtual world enhance your real world interactions with patients–heaven forbid, not the other way around.

How do you balance your online interactions with patients with the ability to connect with patients while they are in your exam chair and in other in-person situations?

Brian Chou, OD, FAAO, is a partner with EyeLux Optometry in San Diego, Calif. To contact him: chou@refractivesource.com.

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