As a consultant in the health care industry, the most common question I hear is, "How can I keep new patients coming into my practice?" It is a legitimate question when one considers the increasing level of competition. But the answer is the same now as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow: Once you get them in the front door, your No. 1 job is to keep them from walking out the back door. New patients have already made a commitment by showing up at your office for the first visit, so make sure they have no reason to leave you.
What's Trending: Optimal Practice-Patient Interaction
Good customer service has become the mantra in almost every sector of the economy. As usual, the more lucrative industries are the most sensitive about service complaints, so they set the trends for the rest of us.
For example, the big banks and credit-card companies now proudly announce that their customers will have all their calls answered in U.S.-based contact centers. Outsourced call centers are doing less of the crucial customer service and are used progressively more for low-level intake or basic support. Ease of communication – whether on the phone, with online chat or in face-to-face encounters – has become the driving force for acquiring new clients.
The new gold standard for customer service is a pleasant, efficient and relaxed dialogue between business provider and client. It is the key to keeping clients coming back and bringing their friends and family with them. What is being phased out of service are heavily accented call agents who lack the ability to quickly resolve issues and leave the caller satisfied and assured all is well.
Even worse are robot voices or canned recordings, which potential clients cannot hang up on quickly enough.
Contact centers in the U.S., employing well-trained agents with good communicative and analytic skills, are becoming the standard for quality inbound call handling. The increased cost of using an all-American labor force is more than offset by the increased value derived from great customer care and the single-call resolution. (The future of the contact center and its accompanying technology is an entire article in itself.)
Tips for Your Practice
We know practices that have adopted a more customer-centered attitude throughout their front and back offices are handily winning the race for more new patients.
Customer service cannot be purchased. It is a value and behavior office members must learn and practice consistently. It is a team effort and everyone must play a part.
Customer Service Tip #1: Keep Your Staff Focused
Office members must learn to leave their personal lives outside the job. It takes maturity, discipline and goodwill to provide good customer service.
Maturity: Everyone must learn how to focus on the patient in front of them at that moment. Eliminate distractions such as conversation with other staff members, cellphones and office phones. The patient needing your help takes precedence over everything.
Discipline: Customer service is a comprehensive program that begins from the first hello, and ends with a fond farewell. No one can let down and give in to a bad mood or a sarcastic remark, because one slip destroys the team cohesion and cooperation. Everyone must be on board or the system will fall apart.
This is where goodwill is essential. Goodwill begins with each individual committing to leaving distractions and disruptions outside the office. Goodwill also relates to interactions with all fellow employees, understanding that if I do my job well and totally, that I can then hand off the patient to the next person in the process.
And of course, all staff members must have goodwill for the patients, listening to their fears, reassuring them and making them feel as positive about their chiropractic experience as possible.
Tip #2: Create Community With Patient-Centered Marketing
Many large practices have learned that to grow and maintain cash flow, they have to use marketing services to keep new patients coming. This works provided the marketing company is a right fit for the practice. Smaller practices may not be able to afford the price of a complete marketing program, but with a patient-centered staff, a patient appreciation plan to show gratitude for referrals, and a Web presence, you are in the game.
Patient outreach in the form of a practice Web page, with some blogging and online / email newsletter services, keeps patients feeling they are being taking care of and are part of a larger community.
From there, the sky is the limit: Sponsorships, contests, health tips and project volunteer efforts all contribute to that feeling of community.
Tip #3: Provide 24/7 Access
You must take care of your new patients when they make first contact. Millennials are notorious for making contact after hours and just as notorious for not leaving messages. Either they connect with a live person or they move on to the next office on their list.
Invest in a good call center that answers calls 24/7 and can schedule new patients for you. Again, customer service on that first call can make or break the long-term relationship.
Roll Out the Welcome Mat
So, a wide-open, welcoming front door is now the norm for a modern practice. Making new patients feel appreciated, heard and taken care of is the minimum they expect.
Attending to their health care needs, including them in a cohesive community, and making them feel valued will keep them from walking out the back door and going to the competition.
When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
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Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
