Identifying and Then Managing the Zero Moment of Truth in Your Medical Practice

Abstract:

We are all aware of the clinical changes that are taking place in medicine, which include stem cells, 3-D printing of organs and body parts, new delivery systems for medications, precision medicine, and nanotechnology to treat various diseases and conditions. Similarly, huge changes are occurring in how we attract and maintain patients, so that process is going to be very different from what we did in the past. One of those changes that will be necessary to manage is the zero moment of truth (ZMOT)—that moment when a patient first hears about the doctor and the practice and then starts the search process to make a decision whether or not to become a patient in the practice. How we manage that ZMOT will determine the success of our medical practice. This article defines the ZMOT and provides suggestions for managing that critical moment when patients decide to become part of your practice.

The traditional method of marketing and promoting a practice consisted of “hanging a shingle” on the door; placing a small, paid, announcement in the paper that indicated your name, address, and phone number; and, finally, depending on word of mouth from satisfied patients to the rest of the community about your areas of interest and expertise and the excellent care you provided your patients. This process was used for several hundreds of years and was considered the ethical approach to practice development. Only rarely did medical practices avail themselves of newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio, and television, because this was considered verboten, and the word “advertising” was considered unethical.

Next came the 1990s and the incorporation of the Internet into medical practice. The doctor took his or her tri-fold, tri-colored brochure, electronically transferred the document to the Internet, and declared that the practice had a website. This kind of marketing was unidirectional, or “push marketing”—the information was created and there was no means for the viewer of the website to interact with the practice except by telephone. At this time there was little opportunity for patient feedback outside of snail-mailed letters or word-of-mouth comments to friends and family.

In the 2000s, medical marketing became permissible, and two-way communication between the prospective patient and the doctor and the medical practice became possible. Doctors contributed content on a regular basis to their websites and even encouraged patients to communicate with the practice through blogs, emails, and videos. After the website was created, there was little to be done by the practice but to sit back and wait for patients to make a connection with the office. The next step, the “moment of truth,” occurred when the patient called the office, the point where he or she started to have an experience with the practice. These crucial interactions—the telephone call, the reception area, the exam room, and the encounter with the doctor—were the ways that patients decided whether they had a favorable or negative experience. The next moment of truth was the decision to remain a patient in the practice. Considerations in making this decision included whether access to the practice was easy to obtain, whether there were value added services, and whether the doctor and staff were compassionate and caring.

Since 2010, the landscape has changed significantly. Today 88% of U.S. consumers will conduct Internet research before buying a product or using a service such as healthcare. Contemporary consumers rely on 10 or more sources in making a purchase decision. By 2015, this number climbed to 22 sources in healthcare and other hospitality industries. Most patients will solidify their decision-making before actually calling a medical office to make an appointment or entering the reception room of the medical practice. New technologies have become readily available to facilitate discovery and engagement of these sources that our patients are using to make a healthcare decision.

The adoption of mobile devices and social media networks and unbiased third-party review sites really launched the new era of medical marketing. In 2011 that Google coined the term “zero moments of truth” (ZMOT) and released an e-book called Winning the Zero Moment of Truth.1 The premise of the book is that decisions to select a healthcare provider break down into a series of multiple moments of truth, each of which requires special understanding to help nudge patients along their search journey. For example, when a patient is considering making an appointment, whether driven by a stimulus or need, patients are essentially going to “Google it.” Anyone involved in the art and science of search wins in this moment by ensuring that their web pages are optimized to outperform competitive pages as people search. One suggestion for identifying those keywords that patients are going to use is to go to ads.Google.com and use their “discover new keywords” to identify the keywords, ranked from highest to lowest, that patients are using to find your practice. When you start creating content for your website and social media programs, use these keywords in the titles of your articles and blogs, and use the most commonly used keywords in the content of your articles. This is just one of the many ways that search engine optimization will use to place your practice on the first page of the Google search.

ZMOT is the interval between first hearing about a doctor or medical practice (i.e., the stimulus) and the first moment of truth, which usually is a phone call to the office (Figure 1). It is during this interval that potential patients use the nearly unlimited resources at their fingertips for research, fact checking, testimonials, and insurance checking for authorization and pricing. Most of the resources patients use to inform their decision fall outside the direct control of the practice. The ZMOT represents the first time in a conservative business milieu that patients have owned a piece of the decision path. And never forget that patients revel in their new role.

Figure 1. The zero moment of truth (ZMOT) is the interval between first hearing about a doctor or medical practice (the stimulus) and the first moment of truth, which usually takes the form of a phone call to the office.

What Does ZMOT Look Like?

Let’s look at a simple scenario of someone encountering the ZMOT during a decision to select a healthcare provider:

Lisa, a marketing director at a software company, has just moved to a new location in the community and is looking for a pediatrician for her children. She types in “pediatrician” plus her new zip code into the Google search window. She sees a list of 8 to 10 pediatric practices within her area. This list functions as the stimulus in this example, because it piques her interest enough for her to want to learn more about these practices.
Lisa decides to do some research on several of the pediatric practices. This is the ZMOT, where she looks at online reviews and testimonials to help her decide which practice to choose for her children.
Next comes the first moment of truth, where Lisa decides to call one of the practices and request an interview with the doctor(s).
Lastly, there is the second moment of truth, or the ultimate moment of truth, which is the experience that Lisa has after taking her children to the practice and having either a positive or negative experience. Lisa will share those experiences with others by word of mouth or go to one of the online physician rating services and weigh in on her experience with the pediatric practice. Lisa’s experience becomes the next potential patient’s ZMOT.

The most important lesson from Google’s eBook about the zero moment of truth is that practices need to be aware of the ZMOT, be prepared for it, and, finally, to ensure that the ZMOT has been managed and not missed or ignored.

If you’re available at the zero moment of truth, your customers will find you at the very moment they’re thinking about becoming a patient.

Passing the ZMOT Test

Make sure information about your practice is readily available and easy to find. patients will be looking for the following types of content to help them make a decision: patient testimonials; answers to FAQs for the medical conditions where you have an area of interest and expertise; and case studies where you have treated patients with medical problems you are interested in attracting to your practice. They want reviews from your existing patients and also from their family and friends who have had a positive experience with your practice. Honestly, they are not interested in hearing directly from you and having you toot your own horn.

Focus on optimizing both the desktop and mobile versions of your site. Most product research starts with an online search on a computer or smartphone, so it’s important that your site is properly optimized for search engine optimization. Try doing some of the following searches on Google: your practice area and medical conditions you treat. An example from my practice might be “vasectomy + New Orleans.” You will see that I’m on the first page of the Google search (Figure 2). You want to be sure that your online reviews of your practice are as close as possible to four stars. Best of all are testimonials and opinions from others in your area and your industry. This search will show you exactly what a patient sees (or does not see) when researching your practice or your name.

Figure 2. Use search engine optimization to place your practice on the first page of the Google search.

Think video/YouTube. It’s not a coincidence that YouTube is the second most popular search bar on the internet. Consumers are looking for visuals and audio to help them decide. For healthcare, this means incorporating patient testimonials and discussions about disease conditions on blog sites. (I use WordPress.com, which easy to use—and it’s free.)

Don’t get lulled into thinking that because you have a presence on Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest, you are doing all that you need to do attract and maintain patients in your practice. That’s just the beginning. Once the patient enters the practice, this is where the rubber meets the road. The experience the patient has now will determine that patient’s satisfaction and his or her willingness to share that experience with others.

Bottom Line: Putting a strategy in place to prepare for the ZMOT should not drastically change your current marketing strategy. After all, the fact that patients research before becoming a patient isn’t earth-shattering news. But it is important to be aware of what information potential patients need during this process, and how easy it is for them to access it.