{"id":2371,"date":"2012-09-13T10:35:51","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T15:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/?p=2371"},"modified":"2012-09-13T19:34:15","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T00:34:15","slug":"10-strategies-for-improving-patient-retention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/10-strategies-for-improving-patient-retention\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Strategies for Improving Patient Retention"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our recent webinar on patient retention<\/strong>, we reviewed basic procedures that can be used to decrease patient drop outs.<\/p>\n

More significantly, we looked at a new or model for practice retention<\/strong> that many businesses are now using successfully.<\/p>\n

If your visit average is less than 60, then you can benefit from the material we covered.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The old approach to patient retention is focused around patient control procedures<\/strong> designed to \u201cplug up\u201d the \u201cleaky bucket.\u201d\u00a0 These still work and we covered some of the more effective procedures.<\/p>\n

But this approach tends to address the symptoms more than the causes.<\/strong>\u00a0 A more effective approach is focuses on teamwork.<\/p>\n

Patients, like customers, want two things: results and a \u201cgood feeling.\u201d<\/strong> The \u201cgood feeling\u201d is a product of how much each doctor and staff member genuinely cares about that patient at the time he or she is interacting with that patient.\u00a0 Patients will even tend to stay with a doctor and a practice if their results are not satisfying IF the service is extraordinary.<\/p>\n

An effective method of improving patient retention includes role playing the \u201cmoments of truth\u201d<\/strong> each team member has with patients. These include phone and walk-in greetings from the front desk, patient encounters with the doctor, therapist, and with the billing department for financial consultations.<\/p>\n

Here are ten strategie<\/strong>s you can put into place to keep your chiropractic patients coming back.<\/p>\n

10 Strategies To Improve Patient Retention<\/strong><\/h2>\n

__1. Love The Services You Provide.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 If you don\u2019t love what you do, how can you expect your patients to?\u00a0\u00a0 People buy based upon confidence \u2013 and if don\u2019t have faith, confidence and love for your services, your patients won\u2019t either and they won\u2019t come back. (They won\u2019t refer either.)<\/p>\n

__2. Love Your Patients.\u00a0<\/strong> People can tell if you are being real, or just reading a script. You see it when you go to the chain stores and the checkout clerk says \u201chello\u201d, or \u201chave a nice day.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 They say the words, but it isn\u2019t genuine.\u00a0 They just don\u2019t care. Practice and improve these \u201cmoments of truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

__3. Their Goals.<\/strong> Be goal oriented with your patients. Get them to set and commit to a goal for improving their health. Keep them recommitting.<\/p>\n

__4. Coaching Patients.\u00a0<\/strong> Once you have their commitment, you now can use your patient control techniques. The webinar included a short presentation on an effective patient recall system used many years by Linda Skiles, former Chiropractic Assistant of the year in WI. The forms discussed in the webinar are located on our PM&A members site.<\/p>\n

__5. Education to Make Your Patients Self-Motivated.<\/strong> Would you as a chiropractor, or experienced chiropractic team member, stop getting adjusted? Of course not.\u00a0 And why not?\u00a0 Because you know it how important adjustments are to maintaining your health. You have been educated.<\/p>\n

__6. Help With Finances.<\/strong> Third party pay is confusing. Financial concerns can be embarrassing for your patients. Providing friendly and easy access to personal help in working out paying for their services can assist keeping your patients coming back.<\/p>\n

__7. Stand for Something.<\/strong>\u00a0 Your mission has to extend beyond relieving pain, just like Apple goes beyond computers or Starbucks beyond coffee. If you honestly embrace a greater purpose, your patients will see why you do what you do, not just how you do it. They will want to support that purpose as well by getting adjusted regularly<\/p>\n

__8. Family.<\/strong>\u00a0 People like to belong to communities. We like to have friends. Some offices call their patients \u201cPractice Members\u201d, while others have \u201cwellness clubs\u201d,\u00a0 and advisory committees.\u00a0 However you do it, your patients should feel like they are part of your inside circle.<\/p>\n

__9. Measure, review, improve.<\/strong> Constantly work on improving your service.\u00a0 That which you don\u2019t improve upon eventually atrophies.<\/p>\n

__10. Take care of each other.<\/strong>\u00a0 We spent a lot of time on this one, but need to spend more. One of our webinars later this year will zero in on how this action helps create a winning team.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the way you treat each other is the way you will treat your patients.<\/p>\n

The webinar is located on our PM&A members site now. PM&A Members: Marketing Training\/ Patient Retention<\/a><\/p>\n

[Download version of this file for your staff meetings and reference: 10 Strategies for Patient Retention<\/a>. ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our recent webinar on patient retention, we reviewed basic procedures that can be used to decrease patient drop outs. More significantly, we looked at a new or model for practice retention that many businesses are now using successfully. If … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,13,172,211],"tags":[361,357,359,113,173],"class_list":["post-2371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chiropractic-marketing","category-marketing","category-patient-education","category-patient-referrals","category-patient-retention-chiropractic-marketing","tag-chiropractic","tag-chiropractic-marketing","tag-marketing","tag-patient-education-2","tag-patient-retention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2371"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2385,"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371\/revisions\/2385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}