Episode Transcript
Key Takeaways
- You have to win the business out of the market; it’s not deserved.
- The patient experience is crucial for turning prospects into clients and referrals.
- Consistency in patient care and experience is vital to maintaining trust.
- The reception area and consultation room are key areas to influence patient decisions.
- Managing the perception of time can greatly enhance the patient experience.
Winning the Business
You have to have the mindset that you need to win the business out of the market. You don’t deserve the business. You have to take it. You have to win it.
You have to be better than the competition.
Importance of Patient Experience
Welcome to Practice Perfect, episode number three. In this episode, we’re gonna discuss how to create a fantastic patient experience. The reason I wanna talk about this topic is because the patient experience can make a big difference in how well your practice does. The patient experience is the difference between getting more of those prospects to turn to clients and getting more of those clients to turn to referrals and send other happy patients your way, more patients like them that had a great experience, more patients like them that will send other happy patients because they will have the same experience.
Understanding Patient Flow
What I’m talking about, of course, is patient flow. So what is it? If you’re not familiar with the term, patient flow refers to the process of how a patient moves through your clinic from when they get into the door to when they leave. I like to expand that definition and also include everything from the point of initial contact, the first phone number or email, right through to the follow-up sequences that you have after they visited you, even after they’ve had their surgery.
Joanna’s Journey
To do this, what I’d like to do is to take you on a journey of a cosmetic patient that’s walking through a clinic. And as I’m doing this, I’d like you to just pause and picture that situation, picture that scenario, and contrast it with every stage of that journey and how your practice is handling it. I think that you’ll find a lot of opportunities for change, for growth, for improvement, and we’ll discuss the specifics of what you can do after the story. So let’s get into it.
I’m gonna tell you about Joanna. Joanna is a fictional patient. Joanna is going to be the one going through this journey with us. I want you to picture Joanna as your ideal patient.
Reception and First Impressions
Joanna picks up the phone after seeing your advertisement, after coming to your website, and she calls your clinic, calls the office, and the phone picks up in two rings. Pleasant receptionist is on the other end. She answers all of her questions with empathy. She gives her the information that she needs.
She asks all the qualifying questions to make her feel like she knows what she’s doing. She offers to book the consultation. That goes well. They find a great time.
Joanna feels confident that this is the right clinic because the receptionist has told her about you. She’s credentialed you.
Consistency in Care
The day of the appointment arrives. She comes on time. She pulls up to the office from the outside.
It’s a nice, well-kept building. Parking was easy. She knew exactly where to park because the video told her so, and the day before, she got a confirmation email. That email told her exactly where the parking would be, how to get up to the office, and what to expect.
Consultation and Decision Making
She speaks to the doctor. He’s friendly. He listens. He doesn’t rush her. He takes the time to listen. He answers her questions.
He asks questions of his own. As she’s preparing to have the physical exam, she looks around the office and notices that there are diplomas. There are thank you cards. There’s photos of the doctor and his family.
Post-Procedure and Follow-Up
The procedure goes well. Post-procedure care is excellent. Nobody ever leaves her alone.
She was promised that before and they delivered. Someone is with her every step of the way. She’s never left alone after the procedure. She recovers.
The Role of Consistency
So that’s the danger with implementing these processes is that you want to make sure that your staff is consistent with them. Don’t start and stop something because it will reflect negatively on you, even though nobody’s owed anything.
Conclusion and Call to Action
Creating a fantastic patient flow is going to be the key to unlocking your practice and unlocking prosperity. I hope this was helpful.
I hope you go and you take some action. If you have any questions, by all means, visit us at thinkbasis.com where we hold a podcast or just Google Practice Perfect Podcast. You can also reach me on LinkedIn. Just look for my name, Nick Dimitriou.
Just Google me on LinkedIn. Reach out to me. I’ll be happy to answer questions if you’ve got them. I always love to hear from listeners.
So I’m gonna wrap it up. I hope that you’ll go out there, you’ll make change, you’ll do well. I’ll catch you on the next podcast and have a good day.