Four strategies to increase patient referrals

According to a study done by Wharton School of Business, 83% of people who are satisfied with a business’s services are willing to refer others; however, only 29% actually do the referring.

With the goal of increasing patient referrals in mind, consider the following three common reasons you may not be receiving as many referrals as you could be:

Reason #1: If your patients come to you for one thing, they may not realize you can help them with other things. Have you ever noticed this before? For example, they may come to you because their back is bothering them but have no idea you can help them with their headache issues.

Reason #2: Even if your patients appreciate you, what they say to others about you may not translate into the person they refer actually coming in for an appointment with you. For example, a DC client of mine said one of his patients came in one day very excitedly saying, “I told so-and-so about you. That you’re amazing; it’s like voodoo!”

Even if your patients have the best intentions, the people they refer may not understand the power of chiropractic. That coupled with things becoming potentially lost in translation when a patient refers can lead to referrals not coming in.

Reason #3: You may not be at top-of-mind awareness for them. Patients get busy with their lives and don’t have it at the forefront of their mind to refer people to you.

Four strategies to increase patient referrals

1. Educate

During your patient visits, constantly educate your patients and share your excitement about the different types of issues you’ve been helping patients with. If you offer different services, constantly share this information with your patients. This will lead to an increase in patient referrals.

For example, I’ve been seeing my current DC for more than a year and only found out recently he offers acupuncture on Saturdays. It was not something he or his staff proactively shared with me. I only learned this information because I made a comment that the practice seemed rather busy during a Saturday visit and his chiropractic assistant mentioned he sees patients for acupuncture every Saturday.

That experience is a great example and reminder of the importance of sharing information about the different services available in your practice. This will surely help you increase patient referrals.

2. Simplify

Make it easy for patients to give you referrals and make it easy for the person referred to understand more about who you are and how you can help. Have brochures, handouts and event flyers you and your staff share with patients to contribute to further educating their referrals.

One of my clients who was really good at getting referrals would regularly place FAQ brochures about her practice, including a well-written bio and brand story, in a plastic rack near the door of her treatment room. If a conversation with a patient felt appropriate for this, she would ask the patient, “Would you like to take one for a friend?” and hand her patient a brochure.

It also helps to bring up to patients specific situations of when to refer, i.e., “In case you come across someone who is complaining about xyz, tell them about us and we’ll take good care of them.”

3. Communicate

Send out educational emails consistently to your patient base and list. If you educate them about different conditions you can treat, they become more educated about the scope of what you can help them with and will be more likely to come in themselves. It’s also possible a patient of yours or someone on your list may not have an immediate need to come in for a visit, but someone they know does.

This is where it can be helpful to encourage people to refer. For example, include a call-to-action at the bottom of your emails, stating, “Share this with a few people who can benefit from this information.” Ongoing communication with your current patients will result in an increase in referrals.

4. Host events

Hold periodic events and encourage your patients to invite friends or family to come. These can be talks about a particular topic, patient appreciation events or other community gatherings. Get creative and have fun with these.

The most important key to success is bringing your unique flair to the events you host. An event can involve food, i.e., potluck and talk/workshop. Educating your patients and people they invite can further their understanding of chiropractic and other services you offer, ultimately leading to an increase in patient referrals.

Hosting talks can lead to other opportunities, including speaking opportunities. For example, a DC client of mine once spoke in front of a small audience and was at first admittedly disappointed, but that opportunity led to additional speaking opportunities because someone who attended his talk told him about another opportunity to speak. This has happened to many of my DC clients.

Final thoughts

In summary, the ultimate key to increasing patient referrals is having a good system and approach in place for each of these strategies, effectively communicating with your patients and sharing your joy and excitement for helping more patients.

CHEN YEN is a practice makeover mentor, speaker and founder of Introverted Visionary, which helps introverted visionary holistic health practitioners grow fulfilling six- to seven-figure practices in a third of the time it typically takes, without having to do it the exhausting extroverted way. Clients include a past president of the American Chiropractic Association, Sports Council, a recent president of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians and a board member of the American Society of Acupuncturists. Her mission is to wake up the planet and make holistic options mainstream and the first line of care. She can be reached at mentor@fillmyholisticpractice.com or introvertedvisionary.com.