Trust marketing: working with public opinion in the sale of medical services

Trust is a psychological phenomenon, an unconscious feeling of security, readiness for dialogue and interaction. Being an irrational feeling, it is trust that serves as the basis for performing rational actions. For any business, people's trust is capital, the importance of which nothing can compare with.

Marketing is psychology

A person's decision-making is not within the scope of his conscious actions. As was proven by Richard Thaler (Nobel laureate in 2017, who received this prestigious prize for studying the psychological foundations of consumer economic behavior), man is irrational. First, he makes decisions on a subconscious level, and only then rationalizes them. Information that affects the subconscious is images, smells, rhythms, design, music, atmosphere, etc. The emerging subconscious sensations and emotions are the basis for decision-making, however, in order to rationalize your choice in your favor, it is necessary to provide strong arguments to the conscious mind (rationality). In our case, the arguments are the client's benefits.

What does a person trust?

A person trusts personal experience, the opinion of people who are authoritative for him; independently obtained information and your own conclusions; trusts when the information received coincides with his ideas; when there are many sources confirming the veracity of this or that information. Often trust is based on the opinion of the majority of representatives of one's cluster. But most of all, a person trusts his own consumer experience.

Customer lifetime value is a concept that includes a repeat customer's history of regular purchases and the creation of a trusting relationship. As we know, the most expensive marketing is attraction marketing. The brand invests money and effort to gain trust from its potential customers, and after the first purchase, a relationship begins to develop between the buyer and the company. With high-quality services and a decent level of service, customer loyalty increases, and the costs of retention and development decrease in proportion to the increase in trust. Therefore, the longer a client is with us, the lower the marketing costs, the more and more often he is willing to pay, and the higher the profit from each purchase.

Based on the degree of trust, clients can be divided into five groups:

1. Innovators: 2%
2. Early adopters: 14%
3. Early Majority: 35%
4. Late majority: 35%
5. Conservatives: 14%

It is worth remembering that at the stage of opening a medical clinic or launching a new medical product (service), advertising and direct sales, as well as sales promotion campaigns, are effective for the categories of innovators and early adopters, and for the majority and conservatives, brand strength, trust marketing, and time work ( duration of existence on the market).

Your target audience has a template in their minds of a clinic they trust. This pattern is almost the same, because it is determined by the similar lifestyle of the representatives of your target audience. These people have similar expectations from the services, price levels and service in your clinic - the so-called cloud of expectations. If you haven’t taken something into account and at least one of the significant factors is below the level of expectation, the person will not become your client. Study the needs and lifestyle of potential clients in order to get into their cloud of expectations as accurately as possible, which will make it easier to establish trusting relationships with clients and reduce the costs of attraction and retention marketing.

Reputation "body armor" is woven from PR work

While focusing on the target audience and its needs, we must not forget that PR is not intended only for its eyes and ears. The main goal of PR is to create public opinion, build a brand, strengthen a positive reputation and combat reputational threats, and protect reputation. Thanks to PR work, you receive the support of those people who may not be users of your services, but are able to influence the decision to purchase your services by representatives of the target audience. Therefore, under no circumstances exclude the public from your promotional activities.

What happens if you don’t do PR work? If there are negative reviews, complaints and complaints from customers, society will not support you. It will be more difficult for you to make excuses, and you will be reluctant to forgive your mistakes. The lack of a positive reputation, which is created only by PR tools, is akin to the lack of body armor in a war where shooting is taking place.

Our whole life is a game

They are playing with us. We are being manipulated. Brands create meaning and value in their products and services to attract people. And it is not product characteristics that make people adhere to the brand, but the consonance of the values transmitted by the brand through trusted channels.

Let us remind you that PR can be different: internal, external, political, social, religious, lobbying, PR of products and services, PR of individuals, anti-crisis PR, explosive... There is practically no aspect of our life where there would be no PR. All our choices in the modern world are the result of PR. Advertising only brings the moment of purchase closer as a result of the decision made.

What to do if a crisis occurs?

If you are in a crisis and don’t know what to do, exercise your muscles: build the strength of your brand through PR. This is a win-win solution because no advertisement can sell a product or service to a jaded consumer unless you have earned their trust. Remember that the public opinion generated by PR serves as a breeding ground for purchasing decisions by your target audience.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the only capital that any business should fight for is the trust of its consumers. And for the medical business, gaining trust, maintaining it and increasing it is the only way to look into the future with confidence.

Read the full version of the article in Les Nouvelles Esthétiques Ukraine 1 (125)/2021