Imagine if 1 in 3 patients replaced themselves with a friend or family member. What would that do for your practice growth?
Imagine if 1 in 3 patients replaced themselves with a friend or family member. What would that do for your practice growth? Building these referral processes can take time, but with a few simple techniques, they can be fruitful for many years to come. Think about it like investing—small steps which become a habit over time begin to build upon their own success. The key to getting more word-of-mouth referrals is marketing to your past patients every month! 1 MAKE IT ABOUT YOUR PURPOSE Getting your staff on board can be one of the toughest aspects of referral generation for a Practice Owner. So the key to a good referral system is it must be about your mission to help people feel better. PTs and Chiros love helping people—it’s what our careers are about! As an owner, it’s important not to push policies on your staff but instead RALLY them behind the mission of your practice. Helping is not selling when it is genuine and caring. When everyone stays focused on finding more people who need help getting off medication, avoiding unnecessary surgery, playing with their kids or grandkids, or getting back to sports, referrals become natural conversations instead of sales pitches. 2 AUTOMATE YOUR REFERRALS “Automation doesn’t mean high-tech, it means having a clear, repeatable system.”
That’s a tip Jamey Schrier, PT of the Practice Freedom Method gave us. You see, generating referrals is vital to growth – but you can’t spend all your time on it! Instead, you need a clearly defined process your entire staff can be trained to fulfill. A REFERRAL PROCESS EXAMPLE Around the 5th visit—or when your patients on average are seeing real results – the therapist sits down and asks to take the patient through a short quality assurance form. The questions are:
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How are you doing, are you feeling better?
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What specific ways are you feeling better?
• Would you return to us for future pain issues? • Would they like to help someone they know feel better as well? Most of us can think of a friend or family member who doesn’t feel perfect. When they begin to talk about someone, ask for specific issues and offer them a brochure or newsletter on that topic to pass along. Also, if it is a family member, allow them to bring them on their next appointment for a free conversation about their pain and treat it like a mini-evaluation. These steps build upon the patient’s happiness with their results, and build trust in the referral.
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5 POWERFUL HABITS TO GENERATE PATIENT REFERRALS HOW TO SCORE MORE PATIENT REFERRALS
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5 CONNECT WITH PAST PATIENTS 60-65% of your patient volume should be repeat patients or patient referrals. Imagine if 1 of every 3 patients replaced themselves. What if 1 of those 3 also came back? Your patient volume would BOOM! A vital habit of referral-generating practices is past patient marketing. Emails, Social Media, Newsletters, and other mailers should be second nature to your marketing plan to keep your practice top-of-mind. First, when the patient has just completed care, be sure to send an email request for a review. Online reviews create a trusted image for prospects looking into your services and allow you to utilize the patient’s referral even if they never tell another friend. Next, market the same referral system mentioned before in every newsletter, regular social media posts, and occasional special mailers. Your previous 3-5 years of patients could be a goldmine of referrals.
3 WOW YOUR CURRENT PATIENTS Focus on each step a patient takes during their time with your practice. You can’t generate referrals if your customer experience is just normal. From the front desk to the waiting room to their treatment, each interaction with your staff and your facility offers an opportunity to impress and educate your patients. Sure, word-of-mouth can spread from just quality treatment, but it spreads faster when you encourage, educate, and empower your patients to make referring easy.
So remember— keep your focus on your purpose and be consistent. The key to getting more word-of- mouth referrals is marketing to your
Your mission is helping people live pain-free naturally. Help them catch that vision!
4 MAKE IT EASY TO REFER Patients are busy like you; even with the best experience, they won’t go too far out of their way to get someone to you. Give them tools! That’s why the next step is empowering easy referrals. Make it easy to pass information to others!
In addition, utilize email as a digital referral card. Send an email with an ebook or information about the benefits of therapy and encourage your patients to forward it to their friends. Include a link to your website and the same referral incentive you do on your cards.
past patients every month!
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Brochure. Patients may not know which of their friends need your service right away, but when it comes up in conversation they are very likely to pass along a brochure or
a referral card especially if it includes a free consult. Make sure each patient receives at least 1 when they complete their treatment. • Automated patient emails. Your website and emails can also help patients refer their friends. Schedule automated follow-up emails once a patient is feeling better. Include a link to your website that has condition information that can be forwarded to a friend. • Gift cards. Want to encourage them a little more? Offer a gift card to the referring patient and the new patient so they are more likely to hold onto the literature you give them. Keep this offer consistent and market it across all patient materials.
THE BOTTOM LINE “If getting referrals comes from a place of gratitude and helpfulness, it works. If it comes off at all as a sales pitch, it doesn’t work.” - Jamey Schrier So remember—keep your focus on your purpose and BE CONSISTENT. The key to getting more word-of-mouth referrals is marketing to your past patients every month! At Practice Promotions, we provide powerful marketing services that increase your word-of-mouth referrals, get past patients back, and fill your schedules. Visit our website at PracticePromotions.Net and we can help you, too!
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Clinic Yields 8 TO 1 RETURN Using Print + Digital Newsletters CLIENT CASE STUDY:
Single-location practice sees remarkable success with the Ultimate Marketing System
MONTHLY NEW PATIENTS
The practice, located in Wisconsin, aimed to enhance its patient outreach and engagement by leveraging the Ultimate Marketing System. This comprehensive approach encompassed various marketing channels, with a strong emphasis on targeted monthly newsletters. KEY ACHIEVEMENTS NEW PATIENT GROWTH. The practice witnessed a substantial 17% increase in new patient acquisition in 2023 compared to the previous year. REACTIVATED PATIENTS. One of the most notable achievements was the consistent increase in reactivated patients. The practice observed a steady upward trend in reactivated patients, with a noteworthy correlation to the implementation of monthly newsletters. TOTAL PATIENT VISITS. The overall patient visits also showed a positive trajectory, aligning with the increased engagement strategies. The combined impact of new patient growth and reactivated patient numbers resulted in a significant boost to the total patient visits throughout the year. STRATEGIC INITIATIVES NEWSLETTER CAMPAIGNS. Monthly newsletters played a pivotal role in maintaining patient engagement. The content focused on informative healthcare topics, practice updates, and promotional offers. The consistent delivery of valuable information fostered a sense of connection with their community. PRINT AND DIGITAL NEWSLETTER ROI. The practice achieved astronomical Return on Investment (ROI) on both print and digital newsletters throughout the year. Notably, the month of July stood out with an impressive 8 to 1 ROI after they achieved $16,000 in leads on a $1,725 newsletter investment. The inclusion of both print and digital mediums ensured a broad reach and diverse engagement with the patient base. CONCLUSION The practice’s outstanding 2023 performance, driven by the Ultimate Marketing System, emphasizes the impact of integrated strategies on patient retention, acquisition, and impressive return on investment. Crucially, the client’s commitment to providing custom content monthly, active participation in calls, diligent stat reporting, and overall engagement with marketing efforts, coupled with their openness to implementing suggestions, underscores their proactive approach in growing their practice.
50
40
30
20
10
0
PER MONTH
MONTHLY REACTIVATED PATIENTS
40
30
20
10
0
PER MONTH
MONTHLY PATIENT VISITS
1000
750
500
250
0
PER MONTH
YEARLY TOTALS
400
300
200
100
0
REACTIVATED PATIENTS
NEW PATIENTS
SIMPLE IDEAS TO INCREASE DOCTOR REFERRALS 3
Want more doctor referrals? While you don’t want to be reliant on physicians, you don’t want to ignore them, either! Similar to patient marketing, it is important to take the time to plan before initiating a program for doctors. Here are some easy steps to get started: COMPILE AN EXISTING CONTACT LIST First, list all the practitioners that referred to your clinic in the past month. Then, expand that list to the past quarter or the past year. This will provide you an understanding of your top referrers. Especially if you have been in business for several years, you might not have kept up with new offices or practitioners that have come into town. Or, with recent healthcare changes, doctors may have changed practices or regrouped into new organizations. • Do research. Search online for new providers who you would like to see referring to your clinic. Target those in geographic areas or with specialties that would compliment your patient demographics. For example, if you treat a lot of athletes, look for orthopedics or sports medicine doctors nearby. DEVELOP A NEW CONTACT LIST • Now that you have a comprehensive list of doctors in your area, it’s time to develop your marketing plan. Your marketing needs to stand out in the crowd! MONTHLY MAILERS Sending a trifold brochure each month is very consistent and keeps your contact info fresh in the doctors’ minds. This is also a great way to share your expertise and patient testimonials. 1 • Good for: consistency; easy to plan; works well for communities with a high number of providers; also helpful for rural communities where offices might be far apart • Not good for: your only source of marketing. You will need to integrate additional efforts to successfully target the medical community.
2 HANDOUTS Develop a series of high-quality handouts relating to common diagnoses treated by your providers. Handouts are the perfect leave-behind for a marketing office visit or luncheon. It’s also important to make sure to leave several copies, especially ones for the front desk and referral coordinators. • Good for: distributing contact info to new providers; adding value to office visits; sharing the great results that can be achieved through your services. • Not good for: marketing to existing referrers. If a doctor already refers to you, they know that you’re an expert from their patients’ feedback. Handouts are better for marketing to new providers. OFFICE VISITS Building referral relationships takes time. It’s almost like you are courting the doctor and their office—and it has to be genuine. 3 • For existing offices: change up your game! You have probably done the morning coffee, lunchtime sandwiches, or afternoon snacks. Try something new. Bring in a great testimonial from a patient referred to you by the office and thank them for sending the patient your way. • For new offices: make the first move! Find something in common with the doctor and staff—do you both sponsor little league teams or are you members of the same professional organization? Start the conversation and offer to visit and meet in person. You could even give a workshop to their staff about fixing shoulder problems, etc. Follow up the visit with a thank you note to the doctor. Also, don’t be afraid to include a specific web page with results and referral information on your website. The bottom line: don’t be reliant on doctors. But don’t be afraid to market to them, either! And if you do, it’s best to have a plan. At Practice Promotions, we provide powerful marketing services that increase your word-of-mouth referrals, get past patients back, and fill your schedules.
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Physical Therapy Clinic Gets Over 2x New Patients + Their Busiest Year EVER with New Website!
PATIENT PERFORMANCE WEBSITE
GOOGLE AD PRO SYSTEM
ENGAGE EMAIL SYSTEM
LEAD ANALYSIS SYSTEM
PRACTICE NEWSLETTER SYSTEM
143 % Increase in New Patients
65 %
20+
Patient Calls/Month from Google Ads
Increase in Patient Visits
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