Home Health & Hospice Week

Spend a little energy to gain a lot of insight into improving your bottom line.

If you're a durable medical equipment supplier who's not utilizing focus groups to grow your business, you could be making a big mistake.

Focus groups are an excellent way for suppliers to gain valuable advice from customers and referral sources on how to improve operations, observes Joe Groden, a former DME business owner who's now the head of JG Consulting in Penfield, NY. Unfortunately, the DME industry is not using focus groups as much as it should, Groden says.

"Most of the time everybody's so busy," he tells Eli. "It's not difficult to put a focus group together, but it does take a little bit of energy."

Here are a few things to think about when organizing a focus group:

Who? The first thing to consider is whether your focus group should be made up of your customers or the health professionals who serve as your referral sources--discharge planners, occupational therapists, physical therapists, nurses, etc. Don't mix customers and referral sources, Groden advises.

"The discussion for health professionals would be way too detailed for the public," he notes. You could even narrow the group down further--focusing, for example, on ostomy patients or diabetics.

Limit the number of participants in your group to no more than 15, says Groden. A group composed of health professionals could include anywhere between eight and 15 people, while a number closer to 15 works best for the customer group to ensure adequate feedback, he counsels.

When? Because it can be difficult for health professionals to get away from work later in the day, hold their focus group early in the morning. Groden suggests an 8 a.m. start time so participants can be back at work by afternoon. Consumers, on the other hand, might have difficulty getting up that early, so plan their group for the afternoon or evening.

Offer the professionals a continental breakfast and consumers light snacks and beverages. And give everyone a modest thank-you gift--perhaps coupons for a car wash or an item imprinted with your company's name, Groden suggests.

"It really is a nice touch," he says. "They appreciate that you took the time to do that."

There's No Place Like Home for a Focus Group

What? As far as the discussion goes, Groden says, start with a fairly general statement like, "How are we doing?" or "What can we do better?" That way, you can uncover simple problems you can fix.

For example, Groden's company had a catalog of products aimed at OTs and PTs. He held a focus group to talk about how people were using the catalog and how it could be improved. He learned that readers wanted more pictures so they could better understand how the product worked.

"In the next edition of the catalog the pictures were put in, and the therapists were really appreciative," he says. You might also turn up problems with specific products that you could then pass on to the manufacturer.

Where? Hold the focus group in your company's offices, Groden advises. One benefit of holding the focus group at your home base is participants get a chance to build deeper connections to your business. And by walking past your showroom, they might see products they didn't know you carried.

If for some reason you need to hold the group elsewhere, try to find a restaurant with a private room to minimize distractions, he advises.

How long? Avoid tiring your participants. Limit the focus group for consumers to about two hours and the one for health professionals to about three.

"There's got to be enough time for discussion, but you don't want to go on repeating, repeating, repeating," Groden says.