Are you focusing more on patient acquisition than retention for your dermatology practice?
Find out why retention is just as important.
Are you focusing more on patient acquisition or patient retention for your dermatology practice? If you answered “acquisition,” you should consider focusing on patient retention just as much as you focus on acquisition. There are many good reasons why retention is just as important as acquisition.
Ideally, every patient would stay with your dermatology practice for years, but usually, you’ll see them for a few visits and then they seem to disappear. Growing and developing your patient base is crucial to your success, no matter your location or specialty. Patient retention plays a significant role in long-term success (https://cutera.com)
Why Is a Patient Retention Important?
A loyal patient is more likely to return to your practice and buy your services and products than a new patient. In addition, existing customers are much more likely to try a new service or product than a new customer.
Long-term patients usually spend more per visit than new patients. They have a relationship with you and your practice, and they trust you more than a new patient would. The trust you’ve built over the years makes long-term patients more confident in you and your services. This trust-factor gives you the perfect opportunity to sell more services and products. You can increase sales volume for less effort and expense than it takes to woo new patients.
How to Increase Patient Retention in Your Practice
So, how can you motivate current patients to become repeat patients? Many factors help dermatology practices build patient loyalty. Here are few factors that can influence patient retention and bring in repeat business.
- Making a good first impression is critical: the first impression is more often than not the lasting impression. Remember, your patients are trusting you with the health of their skin, so make sure that when they arrive they are acknowledged and welcomed. Remembering your patient’s first name will create confidence, trust, and comfortability.
- Stay in touch with your patients, using their preferred mode of communication, whether that be a phone call, email, or both. While you will go over many aspects of their treatment in the office or give test results over the phone, sometimes your patient won’t remember everything. Having a handout ready to give them, or sending information by email can will let them know you care that they have all the information they need.
- Provide top-notch customer service. Often, patients will switch practices if the receptionist is rude, or if they do not make their next appointment before they leave your office. Plus, many patients will stop buying a product because of a bad customer experience.
- Anticipate obstacles and issues so that you don’t just react, but are ahead of any problems that could impact patent retention.
- Staying on schedule is a great way to keep patients coming back. Everyone has tight schedules these days, and most people take time off from work to come to your practice. Making sure you stay on schedule shows that you respect their time. And they are most likely to return because they will know what to expect.
- Offer a loyalty program. When a patients visit your practice, give them loyalty points or other incentives to return, such as a free service or consultation for when they have accumulated enough points. This keeps your patients motivated to return to you for products, services, and treatments.
Improving patient retention can be incredibly valuable to your practice. It doesn’t take much to turn a new patient into a long-term patient if you have the right patient retention strategy. This takes the responsibility of remembering you and your practice off of the patients. It gives you more control not only of your current patients but your ability to attract new ones as well.