How to Create a Boatload of Clinic Capacity — and Quickly Fill It

// By Craig Kartchner //

What does deep-sea fishing have in common with CRM? To be successful, both require real-time information and open lines of communication.

Years ago, a friend of a friend shocked everyone in his circle when he quit his corporate job and decided to become a helicopter pilot. He eventually landed a job piloting a helicopter to spot fish in open waters for a commercial fishery. That career change was fascinating to me for many reasons, and I’ve thought about it a lot since. Odd though it might sound, I think open-water fishing can teach us about how to create capacity in our medical clinics using customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.

Important caveat: I know almost nothing about fishing — deep sea or otherwise — so my analogies will probably be laughable to knowledgeable fishermen. 

You Can’t Market a Spot That Doesn’t Exist

Many clinics around the country struggle to keep up with customer demand for appointments, contributing to poor patient experience. Inability to easily get an appointment is the most common complaint we receive.

Healthcare marketers are loathe to aggressively promote clinics when they know those clinics don’t have capacity, a practice that leaves frustrated customers and low experience scores in its wake.

Imagine that our patients/customers are beautiful yellowfin tuna and we’re trying to catch as many as we can. The boats in our fishing fleet are our clinics, but they’re already full of fish. How do you make the most of the opportunity without swamping the boats?

Log in below to access this content: