A lot of effort is put into gaining patient’s trust, and we need to make sure that this trust remains throughout the treatment, but also after.
A new patient becomes an additional brand ambassador to attract new patients as the recommendation (word of mouth) is always the best conversion vehicle.
To maintain a long-term trusting professional relationship, make sure that you follow the 5 below methods:
1. Communicate clearly and transparently with patients both face to face and online.
Regardless of how often a patient visits the clinic to receive a treatment, he expects to enjoy more and more attention proportional to his total spending. Patients need clear answers, explanations that they understand, and attention from the entire team in your practice.
2. Let them know all the possible treatment options and help them choose what suits them best.
Try to offer at least 2 treatment options depending on the patient’s concern. When you offer the patient the opportunity to choose, he feels that he is in control of his health and appreciates the fact that you have given him this freedom of choice.
3. Highlight the benefits and risks for any treatment at every opportunity.
Give time to the discussion with the patients, it is never wasted time, only earned trust that is reflected in referrals and loyalty.
Keep an archive of before-after photos for discussions with patients. They are ideal for exemplifying each treatment. You don’t have to display them everywhere online, because if they are not accompanied by clear explanations, presented in an attractive visual format, they become just images.
4. Maintain communication with patients even after the completion of the treatment.
The database, the patients who have entered the door of your practice at least once, will remain the main source of income, already earned. Build loyalty and recall programs, communicate regularly with them, and inform them about the clinic’s activities and offers. Make them feel part of a respectable structure, a structure with values, an entity they can resonate with and want to stay with in the long term.
5. Protect data. Secure all the information and personal data of all patients.
Call on the cyber security services to secure all the information.
This database, which the clinic owns, is the most valuable component. It is an important segment of communication that we can activate and reactivate even in the absence of Facebook or any other online platform at some point.
And a bonus method that has never failed…
6. Continuous training of the team through dedicated courses.
Performance is obtained through training and continuous education. Make it easier for all employees to participate in professional and why not motivational training courses (fresher and refresher courses), at least once every 6 months. The training of the employees, the understanding and application of the high standards that you have thought, designed and invested in the clinic, must be found in the professional approach of each member of the team.
Lastly, recruit a patient coordinator who will homogenize and facilitate this communication between doctor-patient-team.
Nothing is impossible, and trust is what you have before you will be required to give a solution to any problem/disease.
If you wish to know more about specially designed training modules for staff members and for patient coordinators, please contact us.
Thank you,
Dimitris
