How Trust Grows Your Reputation & Practice

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome back to podiatry marketing. With me today is big Jim Mac. How are doing today, Jim?

Tyson, I'm doing well. Better than I deserve though.

Then you you deserve. I didn't actually introduce you as my cohost. So you are my cohost, big Jim McDonald. How are doing?

I'm good. I'm good. You're my number one cohost if I remember correctly. So

That's what you said last week.

Keep on yeah. We'll keep on spreading that rumor around. Hopefully, we can be have you become like the Internet's number one podiatry podcast, you know, cohost.

Co host. Number one cohost. Does that make you number two then?

Yeah. I mean, you're also the number one host, I guess, with the podiatry legends podcast. So I guess we got to we're we're battling you know, you're battling yourself for that top spot.

It was around two fifty at the moment in podiatry legends. So so time flies when you're having fun.

Having a great time.

What is our topic of discussion today?

Yeah. So today, we're gonna touch base about how trust grows your reputation and your practice. So I think it's it'll be a fun topic to jump into today.

Especially talking about trust because as we're recording this at the moment, you cannot see me on the video. It's just a blank screen in front of you. So as far as you know, I am sitting here like a mature adult while we're doing this recording, and my pants aren't down around my ankle and I'm dancing around.

Oh, now now now I can see you. So I I can confer I can confirm that you're fully clothed so that I feel much better. Sorry. For the next, like, twenty or twenty five minutes.

Jeez. I just had to say it because we were talking about that beforehand. Okay. We're talking about trust.

Yeah. So speaking of trust, I think one of the big takeaways that it it makes sense, but not a lot of people have time to think about it. People are busy on practice. They're doing their thing, they're taking care of patients, but we really need to get back to kind of what does build trust for a practice? What builds the reputation of your practice to get those new patients to come see you?

And, you know, I would say that the first thing that trust is not, or, you know, what's really important to get, you know, kind of to understand is really that, you know, it's not what you say about your practice. It's what others say about you that's important. And, you know, whether that's on your website or around town, you definitely wanna be an advocate for yourself, and that's really important. But, you know, what's golden is when other people are singing your praises. I think that's kind of the theme of kind of where we're gonna get into a bit today.

Yeah. Because I do. I always get concerned when I see a business and they'll say part of their marketing will be, we're the most trustworthy, whatever the business is. And I'm like, if you have to tell me you're trustworthy, I don't trust you.

Yeah. Having some other people to back you up.

I know it seems like, yeah, they're trying to say we're trustworthy, but I I feel it has a negative result when they say it. But if other people are saying it, like, through reviews or just word-of-mouth, then it has a completely different then then it it seems real.

No. I think you're completely right there. You have to have some backup. I think it's good to be confident and portray that you are the expert, and there's ways of doing that in an authentic way that don't seem extremely boastful, but it has to be balanced by showing, by building that trust and showing other people kind of lending you trust, like whether it be on your website and other places, and we'll get into some of those forms of how other people can extend trust to you. But I would say that it all, building trust in your reputation obviously starts with providing great care.

And that, whether you have the best marketing, the fanciest looking clinic, you drive the fastest, most expensive car, unless you're providing a high level of care to your patients and they understand that you are providing that care, The rest of the stuff doesn't really matter, to be honest. Because if you're not providing great care, that's gonna shine through any type of, you know, shine or obfuscation of, like, your the marketing that you provide. So that that's really important step number one. And I'm sure you you can understand that, Tyson.

So you say so the first thing basically is if you don't provide good podiatry care, it doesn't matter what you say or what anybody else says about you, people will come to your clinic and they'll never come back again because they won't they won't trust you because you you caused them harm instead of looking after them. I remember going to a dentist once oh, the dentist I see now. And when I saw her, I said, look. I just wanna let you know, and you probably heard this before, I don't like dentists. And I said, the reason I don't like dentists is because they they hurt.

You know? They it's it's never comfortable. You never go there and go, well, hey. Scale and clean. Can't wait.

And I I do remember her, like, putting a hand on my shoulder and say, I promise I won't hurt you. And then in brackets, she proves then she said, as much as what the others have previously. And but she said she always lived up to that. She always knew that I was just a bit nervous and anxious and really took her time, probably spent a little bit more time with me. And over a period of time, now I go in there and I I jokingly around saying, yeah.

Yeah. I'm fine. And and she probably gets me through in and out a lot faster than what she used to. And when people ask me who's my dentist, I can easily say who it is, and I do trust her.

No. That's a that's a really great point because I think it is not only the the quality of care or the type of care you provide, but what is your attitude and how compassionate are you to the patient's Like you said, like, whether it be good or bad, sometimes you have these people that are not necessarily great physicians, but they show a level of care and compassion for someone. Obviously, it'd be great if everyone provided the best care ever and was also compassionate. But someone might provide amazing care, but they see that patient as a diagnosis, they walk in and out of the clinic, or out of the clinic treatment room in like two minutes. They answer questions, or they don't make the patient feel like they were heard.

So when I say providing excellent care, it isn't just like being clinically sound. It's also, you know, providing that patient with that experience where they feel like you're worthy of that trust, and you listen to them, and then, you know, you you kind of help propel them in the direction of of getting better, you know, then that is really, really important.

Well, it's no different if someone was treating an ingrown toenail you were just doing, you know, routine care and they had a bit of ingrown toenail, it's almost impossible to treat that ingrown toenail without inflicting some form of discomfort if it's pierced the skin or or in some way. But in but reassuring the patient that I'm gonna do my best to limit the amount of discomfort that you're gonna have, and you take your time, and you're not rushing the patient because patients can see when you're rushing. They can tell if they've been to you three or four times before and they can tell what your mannerism is like, and then the next time you're running behind so you think, oh, I'm gonna speed up with this patient, they can pick that you're rushing. And therefore, I think your level drops a little bit if you don't give provide that same amount of care every time they come in.

Yeah. I think consistency is really, really important, not only with the care you provide, but also just the your mannerisms and how you treat somebody, whether you're running behind or you're running ahead or you're right on time. Like you said, patients will pick up on that. So you just really need to, you know, it is that communication and the way that you treat people with compassion that just consistently is what really matters there and for that first point. Second point being, I think you really need to develop mutual respect and relationships with other health care providers, right?

Whether this is serving committees at your local hospital, maybe it's helping a physio down the road with certain things. Building these bonds and this network of healthcare professionals is also a way of growing your reputation in your local community, but also building trust. So whether that's sending a, someone sends you a referral, providing a letter, a referral letter back to them saying, hey, thank you for sending this patient. They were diagnosed with this thing, or we're treating them in this way. It just shows that you're kind of going the extra mile, not only just to like do it because you know, you feel like you have to, but, you know, to kind of developing a bond and kind of a network of trusting health care providers, over time, it's just good for your own reputation.

Then you become that local expert of the foot and ankle or whatever kind of niche within podiatry with these other health care providers. And maybe they'll send you people in the future, but also they'll talk well about you and the care you provide to some of their colleagues. Maybe it's an internal medicine doctor you become friends with who has a group of other, 10 other doctors in their office, and they ask, I know you send people to this physician. Why do you send them there, to that podiatrist? What is he like?

It's just a way of providing value to your community, other health care providers. It's just a really win win situation there when you network with other health care providers and provide value to them.

Yeah. And it and something that you build up over time. You're not going to have this fantastic relationship within a week or within a month. So it's something you gotta build up over six months, year. Sometimes it takes years to develop that relationship.

But I think from a patient's point of view, there's nothing better than if there's another health health care professional in your area who is very well respected. You know? You see them in the newspaper, in the media, and you know they're respected, and then you see you'll see your patients will see you with them talking. It could be at a sporting event. It could be somebody else.

And they straight away if you're aligned with somebody else who already has a lot of respect and is quite trustworthy, it just rubs off on you. But you've gotta build your rapport with them. They've gotta trust you first before they let you into their circle.

No. That's that's very right. You have to, like they're they're not gonna be willing to, like, you know if you have a lunch and learn with them that one time and you expect, like, a flood of referrals, that's you know, you're you gotta like, people know what feels transactional, what feels real. So it's it's finding those ways to develop those real network you know, networking relationships with people to help them understand that you're not just in it for the transaction. You're in it to help the patient.

You're there to help them treat their patients better, and you are that local expert. So I think that's really important. The next point I think is really important is it's on a similar line, and we think we talked about this maybe in a previous podcast, but it's that kind of nonmedical professionals or, you know, people that, other places where your ideal patients go to seek advice or counsel or some expertise. You know, the most common example of this to me is, I'll let's say you like to treat runners. So having good relationships with not only, you know, the medical professionals like physios and other people that treat runners, but also that local shoe store or the race director at the local marathon.

Yeah. Maybe it's some other people, you know, that that treat runners or, you know, maybe it's a massage therapist, you know, so it's not necessarily like another doctor, but someone kind of in that scope that might be giving advice to runners if they have a painful heel or an ingrown toenail. Just providing thought to those folks, whether it's a night where you discuss marathon injuries for free at the local running shoe store. Just or maybe it's doing something in concert with the race director or the local marathon, a night of a learning opportunity for them to run about running injuries or something. So there's a lot of ways to build out your network outside of the healthcare professionals that can add real value to to kind of build that reputation and trust that you have in your that people have in your practice.

Yeah. And it does have an accumulative effect over a period of time with your professional and also your nonprofessional referrers or the the people you connect with. When I think back to my clinic, I think most of the at the time, you know, the people that are on the local council, our local members of parliament, our federal members of parliament, the mayor of the town. They were all patients in our of our clinic, but they didn't all come in that first week or that first month. It was it was connecting with people, whether professional affairs or people who you know, the the local masseuse, connecting with all these people over a period of time because they then talk to other people.

And then word-of-mouth gets around that you comes back to what you said about providing good care right at the start.

No. Exactly. And I think you touched on the point that that's really important is that there is there's kind of some there's different forms of of word-of-mouth now in the digital age, but that, you know, that word-of-mouth from whether that's your, you know, your local representative in government or the the masseuse, the running shoe store owner, now these people are kind of multipliers. Right? Like you, a running shoe store person probably you know, that own someone that owns a running shoe store probably sees, you know, there's 50 or 60 people coming into their store just to buy shoes every day, but maybe there's three or four people each day that have some kind of foot problem they're trying to fix or something they wanna get over and they need to be seen by somebody.

So, you know, these are really important kind of word-of-mouth opportunities to kinda get who you are out there. There's also these kind of digital word-of-mouth opportunities. And that's, like you touched on previously and we've talked about in some previous podcasts, you know, these are patient reviews. Yeah. These are, you know, patient testimonials where, you know, like we talked about, you definitely wanna, you know, be confident, not be shy about the care you provide, but, you know, when you back up some of these, you know, claims that you make with patients saying similar things, or even sometimes patients will say things in a more relatable way than even you could have imagined.

Right? Just since they are the patient, they know how you made them feel and they can express it. When we're trying to imagine how we make other people feel, sometimes, you know, as much as we wanna get in the patient's shoes, sometimes it's a little tough. But, you know, sometimes when you review those Google reviews or those, you know, WebMD reviews or those health grade reviews, you can really understand the impact you're having on people, And then it it can change the way, you know, maybe you display those things on your website. You display those things with permission in some of your advertising online.

It's just a way of really connecting with people in the ways that they wanna be spoken to and kind of sharing their experiences about you just really speaks volumes. I think that's something that I don't always see enough on clinic websites, to be honest. I think I see a lot of written copy and physician biographies, and those things can be beneficial. I'm not saying those are bad, but I think it really, having those things on a website just really speaks to people that want to be treated by someone that cares, that's a high level professional, that other people have seen in the local community, that have treated things that they have. And there's no better better way to express that sometimes than with reviews or patient testimonials.

Yeah. So I know in Australia, we can't do that. We're not allowed to throw them on our website testimonials. So but in America, for example, when someone puts a testimonial up, are they allowed to use their full name, do they have to put Jim m? Can they put actually Jim McDonald?

Are they allowed to?

I think sometimes they're I think it's gonna be sometimes varied by state. There's definitely, I think, some states that don't necessarily allow it, but I think if you do have a written release from a patient that says they're they're okay with you using their their full name, I think, you know, sometimes to protect, you know, even though, you know, some doc some physicians or some people will feel differently. And like you said, sometimes it makes more sense to just use Jim M or Yeah. Something that's a little bit more anonymizing than the full name. But there are definitely different it kind of varies by state and kind of the comfort level of the clinic and of the patient, I think, is important to take into account.

Yeah. I suppose it depends on the profession, doesn't it? Like, you're a defense attorney, you don't wanna put, Jesus, he's got me off for the third time. I didn't go to prison. Jim McDonald.

Yeah. You know, that's a bit of beneficial thing about and most of the patients we treat aren't wanted by law enforcement or spending time behind bars. I mean, there's sometimes we have some patients like that. But

But what you were saying though about or before you get into that last point, but what you're saying about whether it's a patient review, and you can picture one patient talks to another patient, and the patient says something positive about it. They said, oh, Jim, yeah, was my podiatrist. He was great. Oh, okay. The next thing they they go down the shoe shop, and they're and they're looking at shoes, and they said, oh, maybe you should see a podiatrist.

This is a guy, Jim, that you should see. Oh, okay. Yeah. I've heard I've heard about him. Then they go to the doctor, and the doctor says, I'm gonna refer you to podiatrist.

Or maybe, have you thought about seeing a podiatrist? I've heard about this guy called Jim, and the doctor all of sudden will go, well, actually, I've heard they're good. And to me, that's that that's why it's it's not just one layer of trust. It's it's these multiple layers of trust from different areas. And when you hear it from more than one place, it must be true.

I think that's a really excellent point. It's kinda like that multi touch point. Right? I think we've talked about this a little bit in the past about online visibility or just even visibility of not only yourself, but also the quality of care or the type of care you provide. Yeah.

Because we always being in our practice all the time when we're doing the ingrown toenails or doing the sports medicine or doing the diabetic foot care, we know what we do, so it doesn't feel like we really and not that we're totally self conscious about it, but if we keep saying, you know, we're the diabetic foot care specialist, you know, the more we say that, when we say it out loud to ourselves, we're hearing it every single time. But like you said, you know, maybe that local health care provider didn't know you did that, or the local patient or the, you know, the the medical supply place didn't know that they have a podiatrist who is skilled in the in the with this type of of care.

Yeah.

And when we

say it out

loud to all these people three times, yeah, it was three times for us, but for each of those person, it was only once. So multi multiple touches, more visibility, hearing it from different sources like you talked about, whether it's it popped up on Google Ads, they saw the their website, they talked to their primary care doctor, they talked to their their friend who has a running shoe store. Like you said, those things are exponential ways of building that trust and reputation as opposed to just, like, some random person. You know, just there's there's two reviews on Google. Right?

And that's the only place they saw was is that they're, you know, one of two reviews, one of which is like a a one star review. You have to be every trying to be everywhere is impossible, but being in those places where The places where are taking advice. Right. Or people they respect and already trust and that are help lend that trust to you in your practice is huge.

Yeah. It's but health care is one thing, but it's no different to what you're buying. Like, I I recently bought a DJI microphone. And I've been looking at this thing for a long period of time, and I was thinking, oh, I shoulda get this one. I shoulda get that one.

I'm not sure what to get. But then all of a sudden, other people and other platforms that I trust, the information that comes from there, all of a sudden were talking about this particular one that I was looking at getting. Once I saw three, four, five different people from complete different areas, so there was no influence from the other one, all saying the same thing, I went, I'm now convinced that that is the microphone that I wanna buy. It was not when we bought this one, the one that we use here on the podcast. I've been looking at this pod this microphone for a while.

Other people have told me it was great, then you went and bought one. I had microphone envy, and then I had to go and get one as well. So if people ever see the video, they'll see we've got the same microphones. So it is health care is going to work. I think when it comes to your health, it's even more important that these different layers sort of overlap each other.

Yeah. I think they overlap, and there has to be some continuity there. Right? Like, you want to have it be as seamless as possible. I think we talked a little bit as well.

Right? Like, if someone's saying you're the most amazing person ever, you're the best podiatrist in town, And they go to your website, and it looks like it was built in 1999 with just basic HTML and, like, flashing GIFs on it. And doesn't really, you know, doesn't really there's a bit of a disconnect between this they said this person was amazing, but their online presence looks like it's from 1999. Yeah, it just, there's a disconnect there. And the more ways you can keep those different inputs kind of like on a similar level and positive, the better off you're gonna be having that patient not only come in and see you, but then also have a great experience and then hopefully spread that word to other people in your local area.

So you said that you had one last point.

Yeah, so the last point, and it's similar to the kind of previous one, is that not only is it important to have those patient testimonials or patients are saying about you, but there is some benefit of displaying your expertise in some different ways. I'd say number one is if you're part of some different podiatry associations or professional organizations, having those be front and center on your website, especially your homepage, is super important. People trust organizations. You know, obviously, if you're board certified or have certain skills that set you apart from other podiatrists locally, you know, those are things you wanna put on display and kind of have those symbols of trust speak for you. A symbol like that's gonna be much more than, you know, three paragraphs about your surgical training or how you make the best orthotics.

They're not gonna wanna read that. But if they see a symbol that looks official that says you have, you know, they can kind of infer that you have those skills, it's gonna be a very powerful thing. And something we've touched on a lot in the past as well, along with these logos and these symbols is that just have authentic photos of you doing exactly the type of care you wanna provide. It's I keep hammering on this and maybe, you know, definitely email into the podcast if you're tired of me mentioning this, like, maybe every four to five weeks. Like you talked about, you know, people can people are very savvy these days.

Right? The Internet's been around long enough that they know it's what's authentic and what's genuine. Yeah. And by, you know, you really build trust about, you know, you build trust in people's expectation. You know, you help generate expectations, build trust that you're gonna be the best person to do a certain thing or provide a certain treatment or provide treatment to a certain type of patient by showing it.

Not by talking about it, by showing it. And I think with those symbols, with authentic photos, just really speak to people on a visual level. More like a visual storytelling than a a written or oral storytelling. I think it can be a huge boon for building that trust and building the reputation in your practice and all that great care that you provide.

Well, I think they were fantastic points. And if anyone is listening to this, I would go back and just listen again, especially if you're driving in the car and you weren't able to take notes. Just go through what we've spoken about and listen them down and just go, am I touching all these bases? Am I am I looking at this? And it's something you should probably sit down with your team and go over and go, are we what what what's our trust level with all these different areas, and what can we do to improve upon this or have even more connections in the different areas?

No, I think that's a great point. And like you talked about, sometimes just asking your patients certain things, right? Like, you know, your patients are the kind of best bellwether, and, you know, whether it be showing up in reviews or what people tell you in clinic, sometimes people are happy to provide a little bit of feedback. And I think this is, it's also kind of who's appointing in your practice, right? Like, do you have images of you treating runners and you're still not getting runners?

There's ways to kind of diagnose and adjust your strategies. So there's no one simple way that's gonna work for everybody. But if you're consistent about putting the right messaging out there, providing great care, networking with people, both healthcare professionals and non healthcare folks in your local area, you're gonna generate that digital and kind of regular word-of-mouth to help build that trust and reputation. So Tyson and I are here. We're always open to your questions, your feedback.

If there's ways that we can, you know, provide you some some help along the way, we're happy to do so. But I I really enjoyed this this conversation we had today, Tyson, on this topic. And, yeah, I'm looking forward to the next one.

No. It was fun. And I look forward to talking again next week, Jim.

It's a look at plan.

Okay. Bye.

Bye, Tyson. Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.