5 Steps to Get More Patients in Your Door (and Prevent Them from Walking Out Early)

Use Automated Patient Marketing Strategies to Increase Clinical and Financial Success

In this age of technology, people turn to the internet for recommendations on everything from where to eat, what movies to watch, and even what care provider to visit. How do you make your clinic the go-to place for patients in your area?

Step 1: Gain Insight

It costs 5 times as much to attract a new patient than it does to keep an existing one.¹ Patients who appreciate their therapist and the care they receive are less likely to self-discharge early or seek care from another provider. But, how can you tell which patients value their care team and which ones are unsatisfied with their treatment before they are already out the door?

Asking your patients one simple question, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey, can reveal tremendous insight to the way your customers view your brand:

“How likely are you to recommend [Clinic Name] to a friend or colleague?”

The widespread popularity of NPS is due to its ease of use, benchmark ability, and correlation with increased business growth.²

Step 2: Take Action

Knowing your organization’s Net Promoter Score is critical to driving business growth, improving quality of care, and increasing patient loyalty. Promoters, patients who rate a 9 or 10, account for 80 percent of referrals in most businesses.³ Detractors, patients who rate a 6 or below, account for 80 percent of negative word-of-mouth.³

Do you have a strategy in place to leverage promoters and minimize detractors?

Being able to intervene early to dissatisfied patients could have a big impact on your revenue. Automatically sending the survey to your patients at specific points in their episode of care can provide precise and actionable data points, and increase the likelihood of converting a detractor or a passive patient to a promoter who can advocate for your clinic.

Step 3: Increase Retention

Improving patient satisfaction survey results by just one point can lead to increased profits of $1,443 per patient day.⁴ Asking patients how they feel about your practice demonstrates that you are interested in quality and improving care processes. Giving customers an opportunity to provide honest feedback about their experience empowers and encourages them to become active participants in their care.

Capturing satisfaction data is the foundation for creating actionable strategies to promote growth and engagement throughout your organization. Send engaging and targeted content to patients periodically throughout their journey of care to demonstrate that your team is committed to helping them with their recovery.

Step 4: Build Lifelong Relationships

Research shows that increasing patient retention rates by 5% increases profits by more than 25%.¹  Creating lifelong relationships with your patients that last beyond the episode of care is imperative to your clinic’s success. Continuing retention efforts with patients who have been discharged increases the likelihood that they’ll return to your clinic for future care episodes.

Informing patients of the importance of an annual exam or explaining the various benefits and capabilities of different services can increase appointment leads and retention rates. In addition, providing your patients with education relevant to their age, condition, or location can increase engagement and satisfaction.

Using a patient marketing platform that tracks the success of each kind of outreach email can provide valuable insight as to how to target your patients.

Step 5: Drive Growth

Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool any company has. Companies that prioritize the customer experience generate 60% higher profits than their competitors.⁵ An integral piece of any patient marketing strategy should revolve around your group of loyal promoters, as they can have a direct impact on your financial growth.

Stand out from other clinics. Automatically reaching out to each patient who rates your clinic highly and asking them to write a review for you online, or on frequently visited social media sites, can increase brand awareness, efficacy, and new patient acquisition. Not using social media as a marketing tool fails to capture the 2.3 billion people actively using these platforms.

Additionally, contacting patients who have been discharged and informing them of new services you offer or different conditions your team treats increases awareness of your capabilities and keeps your brand front-of-mind.

A Full Circle Solution

Connecting with your patients before, during, and after their episode of care will put your organization top of mind and prove your clinic is dedicated to providing the highest quality of care. To increase acquisition and retention while building lifelong relationships it is important to give your patients a voice, respond to their feedback, and engage them throughout their recovery cycle and beyond.