Recently we received an announcement from a practice in California.  Simple and to the point, it read:
  
“The owners and staff of (XXX Physical Therapy) are pleased to announce that we have moved to our new location, with more space and extended hours.  Our telephone and facsimile numbers are the same.”

The name of the practice is, unfortunately, the same as numerous others in California.  There was no new address listed, and while the sender advised us that the telephone and fax numbers hadn’t changed, neither was given.  The announcement was printed on a plain blue sheet of paper. 

Luckily we were able to identify the practice through various means, including a process of elimination from information in our database.  As a result, we were able to contact the owner and subsequently obtain the information changes.  The call also afforded us the chance to encourage the owner to re-send the announcement in a format that gave more details of the move in order to capitalize on an obvious public relations opportunity.

This incident illustrates the critical ‘never assume’ when communicating with clients in writing. 

Before sending out any information about your practice, make it a habit to have that ‘second set of eyes’ review what is being sent.  This is also a good policy when preparing printed materials, such as business cards.  Can you afford to re-print anything simply because of a simple typo or address error?