10 Patient Interview Techniques that are AWESOME
“Good artists borrow from other artists; great artists steal.”
– Pablo Picasso
Here are 10 patient interview techniques from America’s #1 surgeon on social media: Dr. Miami. Use these to make your own patient videos more engaging for your fans, funnier or simply easier to watch.
These techniques, with video examples, come from Dr. Miami’s interview of the rapper Kodak Black on May 11, 2016.
Doctors, surgeons, therapists and many other professionals can use these patient interview techniques to improve social media videos, especially customer testimonials videos.
- Use Written Notes and Scripted Questions
- Be Prepared to Transition to Unscripted Conversation
- Proximity
- Mirroring
- Mentoring
- Personal Stories
- Controversial Statements
- Dancing
- Controlling the Pace of the Interview
- Spotlighting
Use Written Notes and Scripted Questions
Dr. Miami brings a page of written notes into the interview with him. Even the best, most confident interviewers prepare notes ahead of time. That’s why they are confident – because they have done their homework.
Be Prepared to Transition to Unscripted Conversation
Dr. Miami tosses the written page of questions away because the people have warmed up, there is laughter and the conversation has taken a life of it’s own.
He fully transitions to unscripted questions when he asks Kodak Black, “What happened between you and Soulja Boy?”
Proximity
Notice how close Dr. Miami is sitting to Kodak Black?
Clearly there is a level of trust and familiarity here. According to the Proximity Rule, we only allow people within 18″ – into our Intimate Zone – if we trust them.
Also, that trust is communicated in images and video on social media by ‘mirror neurons’ that help us, the viewers, actually feel the emotions between Dr. Miami and Kodak Black.
Anybody posting customer images on social media should use the Proximity Rule to show new customers or patients that your existing customers trust you, now. Therefore, they can trust you, too.
Mirroring
Mirroring is the unconscious imitation of “…gestures, speech patterns, or attitudes of another person”. Mirroring has been observed in babies and adults and is also related to our mirror neurons mentioned above.
Mirroring evolved in early humans to help people establish rapport before language. Mirroring is reciprocal so, as we mirror each others’ gestures and speech, we also begin to mirror ideas and attitudes of the other person.
Closely related to mirroring, which is unconscious, is repeating peoples’ statements. Dr. Miami repeats Kodak Black’s statements in several places in the video, especially at 1:58 and 2:10.
Repeating peoples’ statements is conscious – but, also a social skill that signals rapport and cohesion:
Repeating people’s words helps with your own personal understanding of another person’s point-of-view, but it also sends a social signal, called the echo effect – to the listener too.
The “echo effect” tells people that you’re on the same page as them.
It shows that you’re listening to what they are saying, and not just thinking about what you want to say.
It also shows the other person that there is a mutual understanding between the two of you.
The Echo Effect
Mentoring
Dr. Miami is in his mid-40’s while Kodak Black is early 20’s so it seems natural that Dr. Miami will have some life advice for the younger man – and, he doesn’t disappoint.
However, he is not preachy and the advice flows naturally from the conversation when the talk turns to money at 3:49, Dr. Miami talks about the importance of ‘multiple streams of income’ for the young rapper.
Personal Stories
Dr. Miami is prepared to share a vivid personal story – one where he was almost killed – when the moment is right at 4:46 in the video.
Controversial Statements
By 5:33 in the video everybody has warmed up and acting friendly so Dr. Miami felt comfortable to let fly a controversial statement:
“Women are deceivers”
Dr. Miami
He said it light-heartedly and used a Bible reference to put some distance from himself and the statement. But, his intended effect was to jazz up the group along gender lines and perhaps invite the ladies to respond – which they did!
Dancing
If you are familiar with any of the Dr. Miami videos on YouTube you’ll know that he is not much of a dancer. But, hey! This is the internet! We can’t interview a famous rapper and NOT expect to bust a move.
Again, Dr. Miami is a performer and he doesn’t disappoint at 2:49 and 3:15.
Even though Dr. Miami’s dancing is not great, this does lead to probably the BEST moment of the video, when the two share a coordinated dance move and then Kodak Black bursts into a really happy belly-laugh, fully caught on camera.
Controlling the Pace of the Interview
Never forget who is in charge – Dr. Miami doesn’t forget. He first attempts to wrap-up the interview here at 6:21 but the moment isn’t right.
He has the presence of mind to see that the group wants to watch a Kodak Black music video and is patient and gracious enough to watch for about 10 more minutes until 7:28 when he says his goodbyes and heads back to the clinic.
Spotlighting
Dr. Miami kept the conversation focused on Kodak Black. Kodak Black is the hero of this story. His testimonial – shared at 7:22 – is what the viewers want to see.
When the group wanted to watch the music video, Dr. Miami had the grace to cede the spotlight and he got almost another 10 minutes of solid gold Kodak Black content for his social media channel.
10 Interview Techniques from a Social Media Superstar
So, there you go:
- Use Written Notes and Scripted Questions
- Be Prepared to Transition to Unscripted Conversation
- Proximity
- Mirroring
- Mentoring
- Personal Stories
- Controversial Statements
- Dancing
- Controlling the Pace of the Interview
- Spotlighting
Take another look at the video:
Use these tips in your own social media videos, especially customer testimonial videos. You don’t even need to be a physician or a surgeon.
You customer doesn’t need to be a famous rapper – simply someone known in the neighborhood who has friends online who would enjoy watching your video.