Superb Customer Service: Increase Referrals Without Deep Discounting!
By Joe Sansone  With Medicare threatening to cut reimbursements yet
again and new competitors gobbling up market share, O&P
facilities are now forced to analyze their businesses and seek
opportunities to increase their referrals. Many companies may feel
they must join competitors in accepting lower reimbursement rates,
just for the privilege of being on a managed care plan. Rather than
taking the easy way out by negotiating contracts with lower margins
in a futile attempt to stay afloat, you can enlist other options to
increase your practice's profitability.
The Road Less Traveled
If accepting lower reimbursements from additional
managed care plans is not the path you choose, another option is to
increase the number of referrals you receive. Although difficult,
increasing your level of services is a tried-and-true method to
increase revenue. Here are some ways to increase your level of
services:
On-Call: Although one of the most controversial
issues in the O&P industry, on-call service is one of the most
effective ways of increasing referrals. How on-call requests are
handled in the O&P industry varies dramatically throughout the
country. While speaking to large groups of practitioners and asking
for a show of hands of those who routinely provide after-hours
on-call service, I have seen as many as 80 percent or as few as 5
percent of the practitioners raise their hands. Providing customers
with 24-hour service seven days a week offers a unique opportunity
to differentiate your facility from competitors.
Have you ever received a call from a panicked case manager at a
hospital asking how quickly you can make and deliver a TLSO,
because the hospital has been waiting three days for another
provider to supply the brace? These types of calls are an obvious
cry for help--and a salesman's dream come true. An alert
practitioner will turn this request into an opportunity to impress
an account and garner future business.
If a company markets its 24/7 services to case managers and
nursing personnel on the floor, it will eventually be called. Many
O&P providers have been successful in securing long-term
contracts by offering these services. The scenario is usually as
follows: even though they are not directly contracted, a hospital
has been using one O&P facility, with a relatively slow
turnaround time, exclusively for several years. A new company
enters the market and solicits the hospital's business, offering
unsurpassed on-call service. Even though nurses and case managers
are familiar with the slower turnaround time of the current
provider, they still remain loyal.
 An emergency arises; the old company can't provide
the product in time, so the new company is called. The new company
delivers the product quickly, leaving the hospital staff visibly
impressed. After several similar instances, the nursing staff
realizes that the new company is more responsive, and the newer
company not only receives STAT orders but soon receives all bracing
orders.
Turnaround Time: If an urgent call at 8:00 PM
is for a custom TLSO, it does not serve the customer or patient if
the practitioner casts for the brace, then drops the cast off at
the fabrication shop the next morning to be completed that
afternoon. When addressing turnaround time, companies that provide
their own fabrication have a distinct advantage over facilities
that use central fabrication.
A select few O&P facilities, besides having an
orthotist on-call, also have a fabrication technician
on-call. When the practice receives a call at 8:00 PM for a
custom-molded TLSO, the orthosis is on the patient by 8:00 AM when
the physician makes his rounds the next morning.
Such turnaround time will not only win the O&P provider the
allegiance of the hospital, but also the loyalty of referring
physicians. I recall when we fit a patient with a non-urgent brace
in a hospital on Easter Sunday. I was bursting with pride when the
physician commented on how impressed he was with our turnaround
time. He had never before experienced such service with other
companies and pronounced his undying loyalty. When an orthopedic
surgeon learns that upon sending a patient to your facility, you
are able to pre-cert immediately, cast or measure his patient for a
brace, and then automatically schedule a return visit quickly, you
are more likely to become his provider of choice.
When my sales representatives provide an inservice to a facility
or a managed care entity, they offer a challenge: send us a
custom-molded TLSO, and we will turn it around in less than four
hours. We have the largest staff of practitioners and the largest
fabrication department in town. We dare the referral source to call
us for an emergency order, because we know that we will come
through for them.
House Calls: Making house calls is probably the
most unreasonable request that practitioners receive. However,
providing this service clearly differentiates you from your
competitor. When our O&P company first started out, it was a
promise to make house calls as required that enabled us to get
noticed. Later, these relationships allowed us to become a
preferred provider for the referral sources.
Managed Care Issues: In what ways do you work
with managed care entities? Are you the provider that case managers
call when they face a difficult situation or dissatisfied patient?
Offer this level of service to your payers, and you may become the
first person they call.
Inservices: Do you know medical professionals
who would benefit from specific education in O&P products and
services? Inservices provide a valuable service for your customers
by expanding their knowledge--and they go a long way towards
gaining future referrals.
Physician Service: The service that physicians
receive from O&P providers is not to be overlooked. How often
do your physicians or referral sources see a representative from
your company? I often consult with practices whose largest
referring physicians rarely see a representative from their O&P
provider. If there is a vague or ambiguous prescription, how
quickly does the physician receive a follow-up call? Are your
practitioners available for consult whenever a physician calls, or
is the physician forced to wait until a practitioner can call at a
later time? Does the physician's staff have a relationship with
someone from your company, so that they can address any issues that
may arise? Build this sort of relationship with your physician's
office to retain your hard-earned business.
Making the Most of Your Service Levels
It is very important to ensure that the additional services you
provide are not wasted. Are your physicians and customers aware via
marketing efforts of the levels of service that you are willing to
provide? Keep in mind, providing the best service in your
market is absolutely useless from a business perspective if a
physician does not know what you are doing for him and his
patients. I have seen companies lose accounts because
other practitioners have walked in the door and promised levels of
service that very much impressed the physician. It was too late
then to point out to this physician that the current provider had
been providing the same levels of service for the past several
years.
Your company's practitioners also must focus on high-level
customer service and be ready to provide it. I remember
interviewing a highly qualified practitioner who actually yelled at
me when I described the level of service our company provides and
requires from our practitioners. He said we would be doomed to
hiring only mediocre performers by requiring this service level.
Surprising--or maybe not so surprisingly--he was looking for a job
because he was closing his doors due to a lack of business.
As stated earlier, it is much easier to attempt to find simple,
easy fixes to increase referrals. However, the more difficult
strategies will often bring the greatest amount of referrals. Do
not take the easy way out. Service your customers and your
patients--and you will be able to increase your business while
providing unsurpassed patient care. Joe Sansone is CEO of TMC Orthopedic, Houston, Texas. 
Table Of Contents - October 2003
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