Aug. 10. First enquiry. Answered with No. 3.
Aug. 15. Wants more particulars. Asked him to come to Chicago.
Aug. 21. Enquires about fees. Told him it was impossible to fix amount in advance of seeing patient.
Aug. 26. Will be in Chicago Aug. 30th, 9 a.m.
Every letter received from Mr. Oxbow and a copy of every reply is filed in the same manila pocket so that when wanted they are all together, and can be taken out in a minute.
Suppose Mr. Oxbow is not rated in Dun or Bradstreet? It is the correspondence chief’s business to ascertain his financial standing if it is possible to do so. Frequently this is done through the doctor’s bank, or the doctor may be a subscriber to some commercial agency. In either event a confidential enquiry is made as to the responsibility of Mr. Oxbow. The answer may say: “Good for $10,000;” or “credit good, pays bills promptly;” or “credit poor.” In the great majority of cases information of some kind will be secured which can be entered on the cards for future reference.
How are enquiries from prospective patients secured? Some of them are made voluntarily, being induced by the enquirer having read in some city paper about the doctor’s success in certain lines of practice—one of those articles which the clever press agent, who is usually the correspondence chief, has had inserted in the guise of news. Generally, however, enquiries are drawn out by a systematic campaign through the mails, or by resort to publication in the country papers.
No wide-awake, progressive correspondence chief will wait for voluntary enquiries. He will make an arrangement with a clipping bureau by which for $5 a hundred he will be supplied with clippings from all the papers, large and small, in his territory announcing the illness of citizens. When the Beeville Bugle publishes the news that “Abner Skeets, a prominent resident of Beeville, has become a victim of chronic arthritis,” the paper is not in the office of the clipping bureau over a few hours before the correspondence chief has received the paragraph. In this manner he comes into possession of hundreds of similar news items every week.
All the various publicity articles which the city papers have published about Dr. Wilkinson and his wonderful success have been reproduced by the zinc-etching process and thousands of slips printed in a manner which makes them bear the appearance of having been torn out of the original publications.
As fast as the clippings come in Mr. Press Agent sorts them by towns and has one of his stenographers make a card index, giving the name and address of each prospect and the nature of his disease, as well as the date of mailing the first clipping. Then he has plain envelopes addressed to each prospect, and encloses in these envelopes one of the prepared news items applicable to the ailment with which the party addressed is afflicted. There is no printed business card on these envelopes and, as they are invariably addressed by hand, the recipient is under the impression that the communication has been sent by some unknown friend who desires to let him know of this doctor’s success in the treatment of just such cases. The recipient does not connect the doctor with the sending of the clipping as he argues that, if it came from a doctor, the envelope would bear his business address, and there would be some note of explanation. Besides, there is not one chance in a million that Dr. Wilkinson ever heard of him, or knows where he lives, or what the nature of his trouble is. Of course it was sent by some friend.