Patients won't switch healthcare providers unless their experience is remarkably different or better.
So how do you get patients to switch? Differentiate your practice from the competition.
Here's how:
1️⃣ Know Your Competition
✅ Understand what people like about them or don't like about them.
✅ Read reviews, ask people who use their services, call and try to schedule an appointment, check their social media, and read comments.
✅ Their weaknesses can be your opportunities. For example, I recently needed to choose a hotel in Portland for an upcoming trip. If I saw lots of reviews complaining about the front desk staff or the cleanliness of the hotel, I moved on. Ultimately, I went with the hotel with loads of compliments on the friendly staff and the speedy check-in process.
2️⃣ Survey Your Patients
✅ Create surveys based on your research on your competition. * Ask what keeps them coming back, what parts could be improved, and what brought them to you in the first place.
✅ Use this feedback to prioritize improvements you make.
3️⃣ Be Your Own Patient
✅ Go through the same processes firsthand.
✅ Identify pain points in scheduling an appt, waiting in line to check in, trying to reschedule an appointment, calling to talk to your provider, trying to get a refill, or using a walk-in spot.
People will tolerate waiting, errors, and inconveniences once or twice, but if it's just the way you do business, they're going to go somewhere else.
✅ Make sure every touch point is pleasant, efficient, and convenient. Happy patients refer everyone they know to your health center!
4️⃣ Implement and Track Improvements
✅ Create a plan to implement ways to improve the patients' experience and track their progress.
✅ If you find significant deficiencies in your patients' experience with your health center, you can't just fix them by talking to staff. You need an improvement plan and ways to measure progress, such as patient satisfaction scores, decreased cycle times, and lower wait times, to ensure the patient experience is truly unmatched.
Aim for excellence at every patient interaction, from the first call to post-appointment follow-ups. Make your health center the one everyone talks about! 💪✨
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