Marketer in Milwaukee. I plan and run campaigns, events and partnerships, and I do a lot of the writing and design along the way.
Fluent in English and Spanish.
Thank-you cards that let the referring doctor hear from the kid they sent us.
Most of our patients come to us through referrals from pediatricians and other providers. Once a kid starts therapy, though, the doctor who sent them usually doesn’t hear much back, and a generic thank-you from the marketing department doesn’t do much to keep that relationship warm.
The people who could tell the real story were our clinicians, and they’re busy. Asking them in staff newsletters and emails wasn’t working, because those weren’t getting read.
Main goal: strengthen our relationships with referring providers so they keep sending families our way.
A doctor doesn’t need another card from a clinic. What they’d actually love to hear is that a kid they referred is doing better. So instead of thanking them ourselves, we let the kid do it.
We designed a thank-you card written from the kid’s point of view: “I’ve been working super hard on ___ with ___ at the ___ clinic. I can now ___! I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you for cheering me on!”
Kids fill it in when they’re able, and clinicians fill it in with them or for them. It takes a couple of minutes during a session, and the doctor gets a real update about a real kid.
The cards: two rounds of design, a first version with a “milestone” photo card, then a cleaner MSS-branded version in two sizes.
Getting clinicians on board: we turned it into a staff challenge, with Bingo cards at every front desk to keep thank-you cards top of mind.
Where it is now: cards go out on a regular schedule, and over the holidays our top referrers get theirs hand-delivered. On visits to referring offices, we’ve seen our cards pinned up on their walls. A written workflow keeps it running.