How to Create a Great Patient Experience
Your patients come to your practice when they need your expertise to help them solve their health challenges. But they will stick with you as a practitioner when they have a great experience.
After all, patients are customers, too. When they are happy with their treatment, they’re more likely to follow your prescribed treatment plan and keep coming back for follow-up appointments.
Health practices suffer needlessly when they don’t correct patient issues. According to this Issuetrack article, the five most common complaints patients have about working with health professionals are:
- Long wait times to see the doctor
- Issues with staff members
- Amount of time spent with the doctor
- Insurance and billing issues
- Lack of communication and dismissiveness
Most of these are easy to correct when you choose to create a great experience for your patients.
It’s just smart business to make patients happy. According to the Harvard Business Review, retaining just 5% more of your customers can increase your profits anywhere from 25% or more.
So here’s how you can build a better patient experience…
Help Patients Feel Cared For and Heard
One of the main reasons why patients change health care providers is because they don’t feel like they are getting the care they need. When you ask questions and listen, you’ll show that you are paying attention to their needs. Many times patients just want to know that they are being understood.
Patients are more likely to follow your prescribed plan once they feel like you have understood their concerns and are actively listening to their complaints.
Create a Friendly, Pleasant Environment
You can make the customer experience better whether you see clients in person, virtually, or both.
If you meet in person, you can make your physical space feel more relaxing to help your patients feel at ease. Add green plants, paint the walls a calming color, and make the waiting area look more like a spa than a clinic.
When you meet virtually, you can offer them a great online experience by connecting through a user-friendly interface. You can offer appointments through paid versions of HIPPA-compliant popular video software.
Or you can use the Well World platform for video chat — which is free when you are a Well World practitioner. The Well World app enables patients to also connect for quick messages through the text chat feature.
Because all features in the app are 100% HIPAA and PIPEDA-compliant, you will be able to meet securely and protect your patient’s sensitive information.
Keep Patients Engaged in Their Plan
You can invite your patients to use the Well World app to follow their care plans. Well World makes it easier to deliver lifestyle and nutrition information and guidance all in one place — so it’s easy for patients to follow their plans.
The app also encourages engagement and compliance through automated reminders and tracking. So patients are more likely to keep following their plans each day.
You can see exactly what patients track through your practitioner portal. So you can monitor their progress, follow up and provide support when necessary. And because you have an inside look at their progress, you’ll be more easily able to offer advice and tweak their plans as needed.
Give Patients a Premium Experience
Do you have different levels of service that provide extra touchpoints? For example, if you offer concierge medicine, you could also offer faster responses to your patient’s text and video messages sent through Well World — i.e. answering within 24 hours.
If you offer support between appointments for VIP patients, you can have patients get in touch with you through text or video chat through Well World. So if patients have specific questions or issues with their plan, you will be able to see where they need help.
You could also reserve VIP time slots in your schedule for last-minute virtual appointments. These last-minute scheduled, or spontaneous, video calls can help patients feel better cared for and supported.
Surprise Patients With Incentives
You’ll really stand out from most other health providers when you offer your patients special bonuses and incentives.
What would patients love to have as a bonus from you?
Some ideas could be:
- Discounts on their Designs for Health supplements when they re-order through Well World
- A free service or product when an existing patient refers someone new
- Free samples of your favorite Designs for Health nutrition bars or shakes
- A bonus session when they refer a new patient to your practice
You can get creative with your incentives and give something that patients will really love — and that’s easy for you to provide.
Add Value and Stay Top of Mind
You can easily stay in touch with all your patients through email newsletters. Some things you can write about include:
- Updates about your practice’s services
- New individual and group programs that you’re launching
- Articles that you write about your practice specialty
- Guides and tutorials that help patients take control of their own wellbeing
- Invitations to your wellness talks — virtually or in person
When you provide consistent communication — whether they are current or past patients — your practice will stay top of mind. And your consistent communication will help build trust and loyalty for your practice.
Providing an excellent patient experience takes a little extra effort. But it can go a long way to building a successful practice that lasts.
