Why Patient Satisfaction Matters (Other Than Online Reviews)
Every healthcare practice wants their patients to be thrilled with the treatment they receive, but patient relationship management takes time, work, and planning. It requires continuous upkeep to make sure your entire team is upholding the standards that will put smiles on patients’ faces.
When our healthcare marketing team communicates with clients about the importance of patient satisfaction, clients immediately think of online reviews and how much they affect patients’ opinions. While online reviews are important, there are several other reasons to make patient satisfaction a daily priority, and to come to the experts like McCauley Marketing Services if you need help.
Protecting Your Ongoing Revenue
Patient retention is among the most critical ways to keep your practice financially viable. You could master the art of attracting new patients but if each patient only comes once and leaves because of a sub-par experience, you’ll eventually run out of new patients to bring in. Patients will only stay with your practice as long as they are getting the smooth and helpful medical experience they want.
Keeping Your Most Valuable Patients Happy
It’s no secret that some patients spend more money with your practice than others, and you might be able to list them by name. While it’s important to keep these high-spending patients happy, some practices do this by compromising the attention and experience they provide to lower-spending patients in the process.
If you aren’t delivering a satisfactory experience to all patients consistently, it will eventually come back to bite you. First, you never know who those lower-spending patients are connected to. They could be close friends with some of your higher-spending patients and neglecting their friends could be enough to drive them away from your practice.
Second, if you allow employees to be lax in their service to anyone, it’s inevitable that one day, they will be lax with one of those VIP patients by mistake. Ultimately, the only way to make sure your highest-spending patients are happy is to train your staff to make sure all your patients are happy.
Encourage Patient Referrals and Physician Referrals
Referrals through word of mouth are among the most common ways patients find out about healthcare practices, and we aren’t only talking about referrals from fellow patients. One of the best ways to build a loyal patient base is to get the ever-coveted referrals from other physicians.
These are high-trust referrals: when a patient’s doctor recommends a specialist for a particular need, patients usually feel that the doctor knows who is the best of the best. But how do doctors find out which other doctors are the best for their patients? Oftentimes, they find out because their other patients have told them about their experiences.
Strengthen Your Relationships with Current Patients
A common mistake is looking at each patient as “on/off” switch – either they’re an active patient or they aren’t. The truth is that you can improve your revenue by continuing to market to your existing patients.
The stronger of a relationship you have with your patients and the more often you communicate with them, the more services they are likely to seek from you. After all, a patient might be willing to suffer through an unpleasant experience once per year for their annual check-up, but you won’t be their first call for optional services and treatments.
Taking Your Patient Relationship Management Seriously with Help from McCauley Marketing Services
Patient satisfaction is critical for every healthcare practice, no matter how loyal you believe your patient base to be. Our team has expertise in helping both growing practices and long-established practices to boost their patient relationship management, improve retention, and reap the rewards – and not just the five-star ratings. For help with your practice, call our healthcare marketing specialists today. Remember to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more marketing tips.