Photo by Cedric Fauntleroy:
Competition always exists in business, and the healthcare industry is no exception. In order to keep your clinic thriving, you need to find ways to make your practice stand out from your competitors. To do this, you first need to understand the mindset of your patients.
With more options being made available to them, patients are now expecting more than just medical expertise from their healthcare providers. After all, this is a basic expectation when a person’s well-being is on the line.
In a US survey involving more than a thousand respondents and healthcare service providers, it was revealed that patients consider convenience, cost of medical expenses, and frequent communication as the top factors for their healthcare choices. This means that the whole patient experience from the initial contact up to post-treatment care are as important as the quality of treatment or speed of recovery.
Aside from this, the survey also showed the importance of personalized service when it comes to treating patients. Healthcare providers are expected to know relevant details about their patients, such as their lifestyle, habits, family medical history, and genetics. Patients also want their physicians to care more about their quality of life, happiness, and stress levels.
To keep your clinic competitive, you need to pay attention to the needs and preferences of your patients, then make adjustments whenever possible without affecting the quality of your service. Here are 4 things that you can do to attract more patients to your clinic:
- Modernize Your Services
Today’s world is moving at a faster pace because technological innovations and the digital transformation of business processes have enabled shorter turnaround times for many products and services. Due to this, people have gotten used to getting what they want in an instant.
The healthcare industry is not an exception when it comes to these new consumer expectations. Medical facilities are expected to make use of technology in order to provide better comfort and convenience for their patients.
Using technology to your advantage through the use of AI or a Telehealth App would give your clinic a distinct advantage over competitors who insist on sticking to traditional operations. Aside offering convenience for your patients and driving more traffic to your clinic, modernizing your services would also reduce the workload of your support staff and make your operations much easier to manage.
- Offer Other Payment Options
The cost of medical expenses is one of the patients’ top concerns when it comes to healthcare. Thus, giving them options to settle their bills other than straight cash is one of the benefits that you can offer without significantly affecting your bottom line.
Credit card payments will give your patients a respite from heavy medical expenses because this allows them to break down the cost into smaller amounts which could be paid on a monthly basis. On top of that, you can also benefit in terms of reducing risks on fraudulent or faulty payments while also saving you time in billing and collection.
- Improve Your Online Presence
Geographical boundaries used to limit the reach of service-centered businesses like healthcare. However, the continuous increase of internet use around the world has slowly broken down these barriers, thus opening up a lot of opportunities for medical practitioners everywhere.
Take advantage of this by creating and maintaining a strong online presence. Not only will this enable you to reach potential patients beyond your immediate vicinity, it can also help boost your reputation within your community.
Start by setting up your own website, then make sure that it is informative, credible, and relevant because in many cases, it will likely be the patients’ first exposure to your clinic. Give your visitors a glimpse of the quality patient care that you are offering by keeping the site helpful and responsive at all times.
Complement your site with active social media accounts which you can use to keep your community of patients updated about your practice and other related information. Your social media accounts will also serve as a communication channel where you can engage with your community, so that you will always be healthcare provider that they think of whenever the need arises.
- Encourage Patient Reviews And Testimonials
Don’t underestimate the value of word-of-mouth referrals because in some cases, they can be even more effective than professionally managed commercials or advertisements. A positive recommendation from a friend, neighbor, colleague, or relative could go a long way towards driving traffic and creating new patients for your clinic.
Of course, in order to generate positive reviews, you first need to make sure that you deliver quality care and exceptional service to your patients. Most of the time, patients who are satisfied with the treatment that they received will voluntarily talk about you without any prompting from your end.
You can also give them a little push by making follow-up calls on the patients who have previously consulted with you or have undergone treatments at your facility. If they are happy with their experience, you may invite them to write a testimonial on your website or social media accounts so that your potential patients can see the quality of service that you are able to deliver.
