Consumers don’t take the messages put out about brands and believe it. Instead, they come across marketing communication and try products or services, forming their own opinion. By definition, consumer attitudes refer to the degree they like or dislike a brand’s products based on how important certain features are. Consumer attitudes can help determine the likelihood of purchasing products from a specific brand versus a competitor’s. The Fishbein Multi-Attribute Attitude Model is used to assess consumer attitudes regarding the favorableness of similar products from competing brands. The model considers how consumers feel towards particular product attributes and has them rate how strong they think a product or service fulfills each feature in question. The model can uncover areas that a brand excels in and where improvements need to be made to become a stronger competitor.
For example, a survey could be conducted amongst new patients that have recently visited a different doctor’s office. Each respondent could rate how important wait time, appointment availability, waiting room experience, and physician bedside manner is to them. They then would rate how positive or negative your private practice ranks for each category and determine its overall score. This score would then be compared to a perfect score and the score of competitors. Based on how well the practice ranks in each category, a consumer’s attitude towards your practice can be changed by changing their beliefs towards your businesses low ranking attributes or changing how important they perceive an overall feature across the service category.
Let’s say your office has a high patient volume and ranked low on in-office wait time. You can leverage a strong bedside manner and change the patient’s belief that a long wait is negative; by promoting the perception that the wait time is directly related to the physician giving each patient careful attention and quality care.
Next Step
Perhaps the need to assess your patient’s attitudes towards your private practice has never come to mind. However, the Fishbein Multi-Attribute Attitude Model can uncover insights to let you know how to acquire new patients and gain referrals from existing clients. Listen to your consumers and learn how to better serve them because customer experience can set your practice apart in an industry where patients are starting to be seen as consumers. If you haven’t yet read my last blog on consumer perceptions.