Very powerful and personal message.
Clients have chosen to visit you and are willing listeners. Message can be tailored to client's needs.
Only those clients who choose to attend get the message.
Clients may attend when you are busy and unable to devote enough time to delivering the message.
Staff may be resistant to the idea of 'selling' and avoid or dilute the message.
Probably the most successful method of communication in the right hands and at the right time. However, very limited access to target audience and time consuming.
Telephone
Very powerful and personal message.
Message can be tailored to client's needs.
'Cold' calling is increasingly perceived as intrusive and rude.
Very time consuming and may need to be done outside of normal working hours.
Unsuitable for large campaigns and best suited to individual and specific messages.
E.g. update on hospitalised patients, reporting lab results etc.
e-mail
Cheap.
Large volumes of information can be distributed quickly.
e-mail addresses subject to frequent change and unreliable.
Research shows that information not instantly relevant is usually treated as 'spam' and deleted.
Potentially valuable method of mass communication compromised by recipient's perception of poor value of message.
Text Messaging
Cheap
Mobile numbers subject to frequent change and unreliable.
Very limited message content.
Message too easily ignored or deleted.
Unsuitable for large campaigns and best suited to individual and specific messages.
E.g. update on hospitalised patient.
Post cards
Relatively inexpensive.
Immediate impact.
Difficult to personalise the message. Cannot include information on additional products or services.
Relatively poor value for the fixed cost of postage.
Letters including inserts
Precise and personal.
Research* shows that people spend up to 10 minutes reading mailings.
Message can be digested in own time and pace.
Can be returned to at will.
Large volume runs can be time consuming to organise.
A boring repetitive task which staff often dislike.
Message can appear 'amateur' unless high quality materials are used, detracting from the professional image of the practice.
Ideal method of conveying complex and multiple messages to a large audience.
Professional quality materials and presentation enhance the practice's image
* Royal Mail Communications Research, 2004
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