One strategy that will help you increase returning patients at your clinic is patient engagement. “Recovery is indeed a manifestation of the law of nature, efforts of patients, and guidance from a physical therapist or rehabilitation specialist,” as said by Joerg Teichmann. If we talk about the doctors or the clinics, it is not just about providing the best staff and services to the patients. Indeed, patient engagement strategies are required to be followed. So what do you mean by engaging your patients? Why is this necessary? Keep reading further to learn about it.
Patient engagement is all about getting closer to your patients to create a patient-friendly environment for them. Once a patient gets familiar with you, he will share his problems with you more openly. Moreover, the patient will feel much more comfortable visiting your clinic time and again. Therefore, it will be beneficial for you in several ways. So, let us learn about the different patient engagement ideas.
Patient Engagement Strategies
Encourage your patients for feedback
It is always great to take feedback from your clients. You can keep a feedback diary at the reception or straightway have a one-to-one feedback session with your clients. The suggestion boards can also be added to the walls to receive valuable feedback. It will not just help you to learn about the patients’ opinions but also enhance your waiting area and let your new patients learn deeply about your clinic.
You will be glad to know why people love to visit your clinic. Moreover, you will get an idea about what they feel is lacking and where you should put in some extra effort. The received feedback will let you improvise accordingly and make room for your growth.
Use social media as a tool
Another great patient engagement strategy is to click pictures and create short videos with your patients. Post these on your social channels. Ask your patients to follow your practice on Instagram or Facebook. Keep posting regularly so that you keep popping up on their screens as well as their minds.
You can also add testimonial videos of your happy patients to let the world know how thankful you are towards your clients. It will not just attract more patients, but your existing patients will also be overwhelmed.
Offer some freebies
Freebies can work wonders in engaging your patients. You can offer a free follow-up to your patients. These free follow-ups will not just help your patients trust you but will also help you attain more visits over the course of time. Moreover, some patients will think of visiting you but might not have a vehicle for commuting. For such patients, you can offer free pick and drop services.
Treat your patients as guests
Complimentary beverages can be offered to the patients in the waiting area. If you have millennial patients, they can be best engaged by offering a free wifi service. However, make sure you inform them about text neck syndrome and the right way to hold the mobile phone. A few patients can be book lovers, so why not add a reading corner. Good hospitality can be a huge feature of your chiro clinic that will help you get returning patients. These patient engagement strategies have been widely followed by chiropractors in the US and Canada.
Stay in touch
It is worth staying in touch with your patients post-treatment. You must give them follow-up calls or contact them via emails and text messages. This will help you keep a record of their recovery, track their post-procedure care and assist them in case they find any problem.
Moreover, Accenture’s recent survey disclosed that 70% of patients prefer health specialists that provide follow-up reminders in different ways.
Wishing your patients on their special days like birthdays and anniversaries will make them feel special and thankful towards you. Just dropping a wish on their WhatsApp can prove to be a thoughtful deed.
Gift Cards Are In
Every person loves to receive gifts. So, why not try out this with your patients. Offering gift cards to patients is a great patient engagement strategy. Apart from gift cards of your own clinic, you can tie up with nearby coffee shops, grocery stores and give these gift cards to your patients. This will make them feel happy about their visit to your clinic. Not many chiropractors do this but if you ask us, gift cards can do extremely well.
Give Reminders Through Technology
It is pretty obvious that you would suggest some lifestyle modifications to your patients during and post-treatment. Some patients might be given medication too. Also, it is easily understood that many of the patients tend to forget things due to a chaotic life.
So, why not give them reminder calls or simply drop reminder messages. It can even be done via emails. You can also make this happen through a software application. This can happen to be an effective patient engagement strategy as a chiropractor.
It might also interest you to know about the best chiropractors in London, Ontario.
Post-Treatment Packages
All the professional Chiropractors are well learned, skilled and experienced. So, it is well understood that you have the expertise in treating patients and giving them proven results. But what about sustaining this fully-fledged recovery?
Once the treatment procedure is completed and the patient feels recovered, he might not get back to you until he faces a problem in the longer run. Well, you can offer post-treatment massage packages. Being a great patient engagement strategy for chiropractors, it will help you get return visits. You must let your patients know about the importance of maintaining their recovered health.
Returning Patient Offers
There are several ways to motivate humans. So there are for the patients too. Every individual has a child within them. Therefore, to make them act accordingly, you can offer some rewards and discounts.
You can keep a certain level of health goals to be attained by your patients in the given time duration. Once they reach that goal, you may give them a catchy reward or simply a discount on further sessions.
Conclusion
The Chiropractors have real magic in their hands. Just a single touch and can make a big difference for the patient. Although, Chiropractors are already efficient and effective in treating thousands of patients. But this article will help you to enhance your patient engagement strategies.
Working on a person’s mind is the ultimate power tool. So, why not use this tool to increase the number of returning patients. We have mentioned a few ideas to strategize your patient engagement and hope to get positive feedback from you.
Feel free to drop us a line and tell us what are you practicing at your clinic.
