Acquiring new patients can be one of the toughest and most expensive challenges a chiropractic practice faces. Because of the expense and effort, it’s crucial to create and maintain an effective patient acquisition strategy alongside a retention strategy for your practice.
This article shares six patient acquisition strategies to implement in your chiropractic practice.
1. Monitor your patients’ experience in and out of your practice
In the business world, customer acquisition overlaps with the analysis of a customer’s journey. Though your practice is far from being a cut-and-dried business (things are inherently more complicated when you’re acquiring patients, not customers), the idea of a patient journey is still relevant.
If your patients don’t enjoy their experience in your office, it’s unlikely they’ll stick around or refer new patients to you. Further, no patient acquisition strategy can help you get new patients in the door again as recurring patients if their experience isn’t enjoyable.
Fine-tune your patients’ experiences by analyzing what their end-to-end journey with your practice is like. Elevate their experience with marketing automation, personalized messaging, easy scheduling and seamless follow-ups. Ensure their in-office experience and out-of-office experience are both pleasant and proactive to keep them coming back.
2. Focus on ease of scheduling
Part of your patient acquisition strategy should be to ensure the fewest obstacles in the scheduling process. While some new patients might not mind calling to make an appointment, it’s far more likely you’ll appeal to a larger audience if you provide digital self-scheduling. A tool like this is a win-win for your prospective patients and your staff.
There will be minimal resistance to patients booking appointments, and your staff will no longer be in charge of tracking patient schedules and keeping up with your calendar. A digital customer relationship management (CRM) system that allows self-scheduling can ensure seamless appointments.
3. Improve your online presence
We live in a digital age, which means most patients are going to find you online. In other words, part of your patient acquisition strategy should be to ensure your practice is easy to find and present when they go looking. An up-to-date website is a must, digital booking is non-negotiable and adding social media to the marketing mix is a good idea, too. Your prospective patients are going to want to see that you’ve made a mark online, that patients are leaving you positive reviews and that they can get the social proof they need to trust you.
4. Manage your reputation and optimize reviews
Research shows about 90% of patients use online reviews to evaluate physicians. Further, nearly 77% of patients will look for online reviews as the very first step in finding a new healthcare provider. The numbers don’t lie. Your reputation doesn’t just precede you; it decides your fate.
Another critical piece of your patient acquisition strategy is ensuring you’re accumulating positive reviews on digital platforms, such as Google, Yelp and beyond. This is a necessary step toward building social proof and gaining credibility. Further, your website and other digital channels should include easy-to-find reviews of your practice so prospective patients don’t have to go searching to learn about you.
To acquire these reviews, you’ll need to incentivize your current patients. Create a referral or loyalty program that rewards leaving reviews, add consistent reminders in your email marketing strategy and make leaving a review a routine step in your patients’ experiences.
5. Optimize patient onboarding with digital solutions
Fewer obstacles should be a common theme in your patient acquisition strategy. Once you’ve gotten your new patients in the door, ensure the patient experience remains seamless. Avoid handing them a collection of papers and pens to get their information; optimize their onboarding with digital tools that they can fill out quickly and easily.
6. Analyze existing patient relationships
Just as you analyzed your current patient journey, take time to evaluate your relationships with current patients. Are they happy with your practice? Are there improvements you can make? Sending out questionnaires with incentives for responding (like a discount or a free treatment) could help you get honest feedback from your current patients, which could help you make adjustments that would improve your patient acquisition strategy.
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