Medical practices turn to us for guidance on where to invest their marketing dollars. While there are certainly a number of essential tactics, the #1 place to start should always be the patient experience.
You can have the greatest web site in the world, but if a patient has a negative experience in your office, it loses value. Worse yet, if that patient not only shares their negative experience with family and friends, but also posts it on social media and online review sites, you are even further in the hole.
Customer service matters. And customer service, as we define it, does not mean web site chat bots, computerized phone trees or centralized call centers. It is personalized care and attention. This means listening, responding, remembering, empathizing, problem-solving, guiding, informing, communicating, following up and thanking. Most of all, customer service is delighting — it is ensuring that you are going above and beyond to meet the unique needs of each individual patient. That is what will make you stand out from the crowd, especially in this impersonal, time-crunched, technology-driven world.
Invest in delighting your patients, and you will not only retain them, you will build marketing ambassadors for your practice — real people who love to share their stories and experiences. That is, by far, your most fundamental and valuable marketing investment.