Question

Topic: Strategy

Starting A New Phlebotomy Company

Posted by Anonymous on 12/7/2010 at 12:51 PM ET 125 Points
I'm starting my own mobile phlebotomy company doing home visits for the elderly and for patients who cant get to the Doctor office or to the lab. I am hving some issues with marketing to doctors let them know of my service to request referrals from them to their patients. Any suggestions?

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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 12/7/2010 at 1:10 PM Author
    No problem. My company specializes in mobile phlebotomy services including outpatient draws, as well as other mobile and bedside related Phlebotomy services. We have more than 30 phlebotomists plebotomists with over 4 years experience available for drawing services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

    Our service area currently includes the Greater Los Angeles and (West) Inland Empire Areas in California.

    Our service is available for individuals, doctors, medical laboratories, skilled nursing, and assisted living facilities. Our mobile phlebotomy services include, routine specimen collection, process and handling, shipping of specimen to its designated laboratory, specimen collection for stat labs, specimen collection of specialty test kits, specimen collection for research and investigational testing, specimen collection for family study testing, and blood collection for health fairs.

    I hope this sheds a bit more light. Thank you so much for your immediate response. If you need more info, please tell me what you want to know specifically.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 12/7/2010 at 1:52 PM Member
    You have 2 audiences: people who use a competitor to you and people who don't use mobile phlebotomists. For the first group - what do you offer that they can't/don't? That's the core message you need to showcase. For the second group - educate about the benefit you can offer. You can't send the same marketing message to both groups - you need to segment your audience, and send the correct message to them.
  • Posted on 12/7/2010 at 1:56 PM Author
    What type of collateral do you have to present? What is your value and/or differentiation to all of the others in your industry that the physicians are presently using?

    Believe it or not, there are no other companies in the area doing what my company does. My company actually offers a physician's patients an alternative to having to go to a lab. Our mobile medical specimen collection and delivery service makes getting lab work easy. No more waiting in line at a local lab or hospital for hours just to be stuck in the arm by an unsympathetic technician. We will go to their home or place of work to collect the specimen ordered by their physician. Our service takes about 10 minutes out of their day. They don't have to take time off of work, drive to a lab, and wait forever just get poked and drive back home. Our rates are low and our tech are all experienced with at least 4 years of experience. This would add a completely new level of service to any physicians patients at no cost to the doctor.

    What are you presently doing to garner some visibility with your prospective clients?

    I have been going to labs, doctors offices and hospitals with treats for the front office staff, cards and flyers.


    Have you set aside a budget to use for enhancing your visibility?

    Yes.
  • Posted on 12/7/2010 at 2:01 PM Author
    @Jay Hamilton-Roth

    Thanks!
  • Posted on 12/7/2010 at 2:11 PM Author
    @W.M.M.A.

    I thought of that, but didn't want insult the physician with such a small referral fee. All I could offer is a max of $5 per patient...
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 12/7/2010 at 3:17 PM Member
    You're joking, right? Mobile phlebotomy?!? That's hilarious.
  • Posted on 12/7/2010 at 3:31 PM Author
    @SRyan ;]

    Nice dude...
  • Posted by mgoodman on 12/7/2010 at 3:31 PM Accepted
    Do you accept all the same insurance payments as the local labs? Are you part of the HMOs in your area? I would think that's the place to start. Don't most patients -- especially elderly ones -- have some sort of insurance (in addition to Medicare)? Does it cost them any more to use your services?

    If you haven't looked into it yet, it might be worth inquiring about a base level of cable tv advertising. You could start with a limited-area test, and then expand if it seems to be working. I've been surprised several times at the low CPM for local cable television advertising. If they can target older audiences, that's even better. The strategy would be to get the patients to request your services instead of going to a lab. As long as it doesn't cost the patient too much more, it sure seems like an attractive proposition.

    Hope that helps. You would still need to make sure the physicians don't undermine your efforts, so don't stop calling on them, but there's no reason you can't also start advertising to the end-users.

    Let me know if you need more information on this.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 12/7/2010 at 3:38 PM Accepted
    I know you didn't ask, but your website needs some serious attention. Reverse type is hard to read. Some pages have text that doesn't adjust to screen size. Someone needs to proofread the homepage copy. And the domain name is so wrong for a consumer audience I can't begin to deal with it. (The name and logo are so inappropriate that they will be a total turn-off to your consumer target audience. My first thought was, "This must be a spoof of some kind.")

    Your business concept actually sounds great, but the execution on the website needs some help. You might want to get some outside marketing expertise before it's too late.
  • Posted on 12/7/2010 at 3:58 PM Author
    @mgoodman

    WOW! Painful...but much appreciated critique. The funny thing is that my target audience is of course the elderly. I initially thought that the name was a bit disturbing. I have been marketing directly to my end users for a while now and that has been working brilliantly. They seem to find the name of the company quite entertaining and catchy, they seem to have no issue remembering us...so I kept it. Haven't heard anything good or bad about the logo. I have a steady costomer base of just over 400 patients on a monthly basis. Marketing to them has been no issue at all. They love our phlebs and our cost is only $10 more than the lab's. We have a pretty steady base. I just figured that if I wanted to expand a bit more rapidly, it was about time to hit the docs and hospitals. Also, for some reason insurance companies do not recognize phlebotomy as a billable service. So thats a no go. Thanks for the constructive criticism.
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 12/7/2010 at 4:10 PM Member
    My bad... I was thinking of PHRENOLOGY. (Maybe that could be an add-on service?)

    Sorry, I didn't mean to offend!
  • Posted on 12/7/2010 at 4:13 PM Author
    No biggie...I guess a Mobile Phrenology Service would be quite comical. Consider the misunderstanding, understood.
  • Posted on 12/7/2010 at 5:11 PM Author
    Sure. I have no issues with getting patients 1 by 1 through marketing and referrals. My problems are with getting to the physicians of these patients who have hundreds of more patients.
  • Posted on 12/8/2010 at 10:20 AM Author
    @ W.M.M.A.

    Hmmm...I love that idea! I read about how Rx reps have had some success with this type of meeting. I've heard it can become quite costly but I think it would be worth a shot. Thank you.
  • Posted on 12/8/2010 at 10:35 AM Author
    @W.M.M.A.

    I appreciate that! I certainly will. Thanks.
  • Posted by cookmarketing@gmail. on 12/8/2010 at 7:12 PM Member
    It's not the doc's, it is the insurance companies that will make the decisions
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