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 staf 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 staf 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 of 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 staf 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:
•
How are you doing, are you feeling better?
•
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 ofer 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.
(continued inside...)
VISIT OUR ONLINE STORE!
Discover Patient-Boosting Print Marketing Materials! Visit Our Online Store Today at PTMarketingStore.com!
5 POWERFUL HABITS TO GENERATE PATIENT REFERRALS HOW TO SCORE MORE PATIENT REFERRALS
(continued from Page 1)
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!
•
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!
VISIT OUR ONLINE STORE!
Discover Patient-Boosting Print Marketing Materials! Visit Our Online Store Today at PTMarketingStore.com!
CASE STUDY:
60% Increase in Reactivated Patients with Digital + Print Newsletters
PRIOR TO PRACTICE PROMOTIONS
REACTIVATED PATIENTS
$ 957,120 ESTIMATED REVENUE
REACTIVATED PATIENTS
997
150
PATIENT VALUE
x $ 960
100
50
AFTER PRACTICE PROMOTIONS
$ 1,538,880 ESTIMATED REVENUE
REACTIVATED PATIENTS
1,603
0
AUG 2020
FEB 2021
AUG 2021
FEB 2022
AUG 2022
PATIENT VALUE
x $ 960
KEY RESULTS
How This Clinic Propelled Themselves To Unbelievable Past Patient Numbers Since Joining Practice Promotions! Picture this —your PTs’ schedules are packed full, so you decide to reduce your spending on marketing. But suddenly, patients that you were once reaching are no longer seeing your clinic name! Now they’re seeking treatment from your competitors. Going idle on your marketing can do more harm than you think. Check out this multi-location Chiro + Sports Therapy clinic who used month-to-month patient newsletters to reach new highs! Remember—acquiring a past patient is more cost-effective for your clinic than acquiring a brand new patient, making Patient Newsletters one of the strongest marketing strategies out there for PTs and Chiros!
60% INCREASE in Reactivated Patients
AVG. 91 REACTIVATED PATIENTS PER MONTH since beginning Digital + Print Patient Newsletters (February 2021-Present)
122 REACTIVATED PATIENTS in October 2022 (Most ever!)
CONTACT YOUR ACCOUNT MANAGER ABOUT DIRECT MAIL NEWSLETTERS!
SIMPLE IDEAS TO INCREASE DOCTOR REFERRALS 3 2
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.
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.
VISIT OUR ONLINE STORE!
Discover Patient-Boosting Print Marketing Materials! Visit Our Online Store Today at PTMarketingStore.com!
4 Quick Resources For The Month! Improve Results, Innovate, and Inspire Your Team!
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
PODCAST EPISODE
EPISODE 59:
Tired of Patient Cancellations & Drop-Offs? Here’s How to Fix Them…
Spring Into Action Postcards to Prepare Your Patients for Spring!
Tired of Patient Cancellations & Drop-Offs? Here’s How to Fix Them…
Do patient cancellations drive you crazy? In this podcast, Neil interviews Dee Bills, the founder of Front Office GURU, to talk about how to build a winning front desk team. Dee successfully built training systems and processes in her own PT practice resulting in consistent arrivals over 95% and a growth rate over 300%.
Winter is melting away…and now that it’s nicer outside, it’s the perfect time to encourage patients to make their movement a priority! Check out these NEW Spring Postcard designs that are SURE to get past patients back on the calendar.
PODCAST EPISODE
FREE STUFF!
Download the FREE Social Media Calendar!
Is Direct Mail Marketing Dead? Or Should You Be Using It? EPISODE 53:
Is Direct Mail Marketing Dead? Or Should You Be Using It?
In this podcast episode, our Print Director McKenna explains why Direct Mail isn’t dead, and debunks these 3 lies: 1) Direct Mail doesn’t work. 2) Print marketing is too expensive. 3) There’s no way to measure the results. Don’t miss this!
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6Made with FlippingBook Converter PDF to HTML5