One of the best areas to focus your marketing and patient education on is continuing care, especially if you are running or hoping to transition to a concierge practice.
Cheaper to Keep ‘Em
Just as it’s less expensive to keep good employees than to continually hire new ones, it’s also cheaper to keep existing patients coming back than to always be marketing to find new ones. Happy patients also do a lot of the marketing work for you. They refer their family and friends to you. That kind of marketing costs you nothing and is the best endorsement you can receive.
Keep ‘Em Coming Back
If you’re practicing in a concierge model, you obviously need to sell continuing care. People aren’t going to join a membership practice if they only need to see you once a year or can stop coming in after the initial complaint is (or feels) resolved.
You have to show them the value of continued care, that it’s good value for the money they spend and for their health too.
Continuing Care Requires Continuing Education
If you want patients to keep coming back to your practice, you have to educate them on how they can benefit from continuing care. You aren’t just selling your specialty; you’re selling overall health and wellness. It’s common sense to us as practitioners that what we do impacts more than the initial issues that brought a patient into our office.
But not all people have been educated on matters of holistic wellness. When we do A, B through Z can be impacted, negatively or positively. I once worked with a chiropractor who told all his patients, “Always run it by your chiropractor.” What he meant was, no matter what health problem you’re having, even if you think it’s unrelated to what he does, let him know about it. Chiropractic does a lot more than heal a sore back or neck.
Even if their complaint is something you can’t help with, you can help guide them to the proper resources. That helps build trust between you and your patient, and helps to keep you involved in their overall health.
Structured Education
You shouldn’t take a haphazard approach to patient education. You want to have a structured program in place and apply it to everyone who comes into your practice. The first step is to educate potential patients on the structure of your practice. As soon as some people see “concierge practice,” they think it’ll be too expensive.
We know that isn’t true, especially for patients with high-deductible plans. But we have to show them it’s an affordable model.
Once you get past the money hurdle, you have to educate them on the value of continuing care. You can frame it like a subscription service. Rather than getting a package of makeup or snacks every month for a monthly fee, they get robust health!
You should devote part of your education plan to the benefits of continuing visits after the initial problem they sought help for has been resolved. This is the most important part of educating your patients. You want to build a relationship with your patients that lasts for many years, not just see them when they’re suffering and in pain.
Always Teaching
You want to have steady contact with your patients, but you want there to be value in every e-mail, newsletter, or mailing. If there isn’t that value, people start to think of stuff from your office as spam or junk mail, and they’ll treat it accordingly.
Everything you send to patients should have a component of education in it; when you alert them to your holiday hours, you can include information on how regular chiropractic visits can help to improve immune function. If you’re sending out information on chiropractic and kids, let them know you’re holding a clinic on the proper use of backpacks (this is a great one to get people back in the office if they’ve been putting it off during the summer).
It’s the education they’re receiving that creates value in their minds.
Make Your Job Easier
Educating your patients on the importance of continuing care makes your job easier. Patients are more compliant, they’ll trust you more, and they’ll keep coming back!
For more information on building community connections, I encourage you to read my new book Community Connections! Relationship Marketing for Healthcare Professionals. If you want more valuable information about how to Connect with YOUR Community, you can find FREE healthcare practice marketing content, PowerPoint Presentation Jumpstart Kits, workbooks, blog articles, and my FREE “Practice Marketing Planner” Now!
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