5 Ways Doctors Can Connect With Their Patients
When it comes to your customer loyalty or connecting with your patients, there are so many things involved that can cause a relationship to go down the tubes.
When it comes to your customer loyalty or connecting with your patients, there are so many things involved that can cause a relationship to go down the tubes.
- The secretary answering the phone in a less professional manner.
- A patient coming on the ‘wrong’ day. You know the day that you have patients back to back to back, and then have an emergency come in, and then your computers go down.
- A patient mishears you given advise to another patient.
- The list can go on and on and on.
The business strategies you have in place, often don’t play much of a role in retaining customers. Or getting ‘raving fans’. What helps make sales and bring back patients is the actions you and your staff take.
There are so many actions you and your staff can take to raise your customer loyalty and connect with your customers on a personable basis. However, for today’s purpose we will discuss the top five things you can do to connect with your customers.
1. Watch For Warning Signs
Many dentists and other healthcare professionals tend to overlook their patients warning signs. This is a complete no-no! For example, if a patient asks you for a copy of their dental records, it is possible they are not happy with the service they are receiving and wanting to review their records to go elsewhere or to look for a discrepancy. If your patient stops communicating with you, missing appointments, etc. chances are they are off in the distance finding a new dentist to replace you.
I don’t mean to scare you, because every doctor will have a few sour patients, but if all of your patients tend to fall off after a couple visits, chances are it is you and not them. By assessing the situation, you can finally identify the issue and address them, so your patients stop falling off the wagon.
2. Be Accountable
We all get those pesky surveys at the end of a customer service call, am I right? This is a great tool to gain insight into your patients’ attitudes. Conduct a survey here and there because many of times people will answer them and give you their honest opinion. You may even receive feedback about an issue you did not know you had.
However, a tip to the wise, you should not have 5 pages worth of survey material. A lot of people’s attention span are not that long and chances are from pages two through four they will either “Christmas Tree” it or back out of the survey because it is way too long.
3. Build relationships
Build relationships; you are probably thinking you have so many patients and don’t have enough time in a day to get to know each and every one of them. Well, that answer is wrong!
You need to stop worrying about how many patients you have and build a personable relationship with the each one. By having a personable relationship you can know what their needs, wants, and what needs improvement in your business. Not to mention, the better your relationships with your patients are, the higher the chance they will tell their friends about you.
4. Be Responsive
Being responsive is easy when things are going great. However, when things start to get tough many companies shut up and do not say a word to their patients. Well, that is what you will need to change. If you have a huge problem effecting your office and patients, you need to address it. Yes, there will be a lot of not so nice responses, but at least you did your job. Your patients may not like the issue, but they will be grateful that you informed them of the situation.
When informing your employees and patients of the issue, you will also want to have a solution to the issue. This will help relieve some tension and reflect your company in a good light to your company.
5. Prove you’re worth it
You have to prove to your patients you are worth every penny. You have to show them that you are the one for them. What you can do for them, how it will make their life easier, and why they should choose you over your competition. This can vary from patient to patient, that is why you need develop a personable relationship with each and every one of them.
These are five easy tips to help you connect to your customers and develop a great customer loyalty. It is vital that you implement these tips into your business strategy for a long healthy business.
High rankings in the search engines mean nothing if you aren’t building relationships that create a loyal following.
