Patient retention is the backbone of a successful chiropractic practice. While attracting new patients is important, focusing on retaining current ones proves more cost-effective and simpler.
Prioritizing patient retention involves seamless scheduling, automated reminders and redesigning the entire patient experience, both in and out of the office. Automated outreach systems and in-house membership plans can also boost patient retention rates significantly. By shifting marketing and patient experience efforts toward retention, DCs can establish long-term relationships, ensuring a steady flow of appointments and sustained practice growth.
This article shares key insights into why patient retention should be non-negotiable and highlights easy-to-implement strategies to improve your practice’s patient retention.
Tips for patient retention
Why does patient retention matter for DCs?
You may have heard this before, but it’s much more cost-effective (and simpler) to retain your current patients than it is to acquire new ones. In fact, it’s about six to seven times more expensive to acquire new patients than to focus your efforts on patient retention.
Does this mean you shouldn’t keep acquiring new patients as a primary goal for your practice? Not at all. However, it does mean shifting your marketing and patient experience efforts to prioritize patient retention could be a more effective strategy.
Patient retention can be looked at from a short-term and long-term perspective. In the short term, patient retention means getting patients seamlessly scheduled for follow-up appointments. Long-term means consistently re-engaging with your inactive patients so you can stay top of mind, connect with them and regenerate a steady flow of reactivations and appointments for your practice.
How to improve patient retention rates at your chiropractic office
Make scheduling seamless
Requiring patients to call in or schedule in-office isn’t always a convenient way to get them back in the doors of your practice. Set up software that gives your patients the ability to schedule 24/7. This way, they don’t have to call in when you’re open to set up an appointment. Instead, they can go to your website or your social media at any time and set up an appointment in the open appointment times you have over the next few days.
Implement automated reminders
Patients appreciate regular, automated reminders so they don’t miss their appointments. Text or email reminders sent a day or two before the appointment with a confirmation option can help ensure that patients arrive on time for their appointments and minimize no-shows.
Redesign your patient experience
This means putting yourself in the shoes of your patients and walking through their entire experience, from scheduling their first appointment to when they leave your practice. The patient experience includes in-office factors, such as wait times, staff friendliness, comfort, billing and convenience.
It also includes out-of-office factors, like email or text reminders for appointments, regular outreach and staff availability to answer questions. As you audit your patient experience process, continually ask the question, “how can we make this a better patient experience?”
Automate your outreach systems
An automated email list that provides value, discounts on appointments and the latest news from your practice is a great way to stay in touch with your current patients and improve patient retention. When you reengage with them, you’re ensuring you’re top of mind, and when you offer them regular value, you’re positioning yourself as an authority in your profession.
Consider in-house membership plans
Want your current patients to come in more? Consider offering an in-house membership plan to improve patient retention. You’ll have to run the costs and audit the pros and cons, but setting up a monthly membership could boost your patient retention in a way that pay-per-visit appointments can’t. If a patient pays a monthly fee to come into your office two to three times (depending on the custom details of your membership), they’re far more likely to come to your practice more frequently than if they had to individually schedule out pay-per-visit appointments. With focused effort and marketing, solid membership packages and seamless membership, this concept could help your practice with patient retention.
Final thoughts on patient retention
While expanding your chiropractic practice may naturally lead you to wonder how and where to find new patients, focusing on converting your existing patients into loyal repeat customers actually offers you a higher return on the time, money and energy you invest in marketing. Retention is all about keeping your practice top-of-mind for patients and making it simple and convenient for them to choose it.
For more strategies to improve patient retention, as well as more insights, trends and studies related to the chiropractic profession, subscribe to Chiropractic Economics magazine.