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second; it made sense so I gave my email.
Two valuable lessons emerge: the importance of the consumer rationale,
or value proposition for the consumer, and how the request is
communicated.
Should the Consumer Care?
At the dealership, they have a good reason for why I should provide my
email address. The value proposition is that if I want to save on future
oil changes I need to provide my email address even if this means they
might use the email address for other things. Indeed, I do get
announcements of new service campaigns and new model announcements. It
makes sense.
Explain Why with Your Request for the Email Address
There is something they do not do well at the dealership, however.
Like me, most consumers probably wonder what kind of unwanted
communication they will receive if they provide their email address. Few probably take time to ask “Why should I give you my
email address?” As a result, the dealership doesn’t get
nearly as many email addresses as they could if they took a different
approach. Every customer should be asked for their email address by the
service person with the accompanying rationale. Something like: “May I
please have your email address so that you continue to receive our
valuable oil change coupons. We no longer send them out by mail.”
These lessons easily apply to ophthalmic practices. By now, most
practices understand that collecting patient email addresses is an
important activity. Even if these addresses are not currently used,
there is a sense that having this information builds a foundation for
better patient communication: patient education, announcing new
services, optical sales events, and even medication recall. Beyond
marketing, email information becomes crucial for efficiently meeting
meaningful use requirements for patient communication such as the
delivery of an electronic copy of a patient record.
In my discussions with ophthalmology practice leaders who express
difficulty collecting email addresses, after some
probing questions, it usually becomes apparent that either the practice
has only a vague concept of how patient email addresses will be used or
they haven’t properly trained their staff on how to ask. Management must
clearly define the value proposition for the patient: what will the
patient's benefits be? The request must
marry rationale in a simple statement: “May I please have
your email address so that we can send you instructions on how to
register online? This way you will avoid spending extra time in our
waiting area filling out paper work.”
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