What to focus on in 2020 for maximum ROI
Happy New Year! Are you ready to take your practice to the next level in 2020? Focus on a few specific goals proven to help you build patient loyalty and brand awareness and plan steps to accomplish them. It doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming. Here are three resolutions for doctors to consider making this year.
1. Be proactive in your patient satisfaction efforts.
Are you measuring patient satisfaction in your practice? If not, why? It’s the most concrete way to find out what patients want and whether you’re meeting their needs. And it’s far more cost-effective to please the patients you already have than to try to attract new ones. It costs about five times more to attract a new patient than it does to keep an existing one, according to Health IT Outcomes.
To gauge patient satisfaction, check your online reviews, ask new patients how they found you, and ask current patients for their feedback verbally or in a short survey.
Some ways to gauge patient satisfaction include:
- Monitoring your online reviews. No, anonymous ratings aren’t the most accurate picture of your practice, but you should at least know what patients are saying about you online and see if any themes emerge.
- Asking patients verbally. Instead of asking yes/no questions, get more specific, such as, “How was the appointment-scheduling process for you?”
- Conducting a brief patient satisfaction survey. This could be as simple as a short, automatically generated form emailed to patients after their appointments.
- Asking new patients how they found you. If they were referred by another patient, that’s a good indication your current patient is happy with your practice. Seek that person out and thank them.
For more on this topic, check out our previous post, How to Measure Patient Satisfaction in Your Practice.
2. Boost your online marketing.
It’s a sad fact that most health care providers are behind the times when it comes to marketing strategies. If you’re still relying on outdated marketing techniques like print brochures and ads, make a resolution to get on board with digital marketing in 2020.
Content marketing is one element of digital marketing that’s being used effectively by businesses of all sizes and types. It means providing relevant and useful content—such as blogs, eBooks, and videos—to your customers or patients instead of pitching your products and services.
According to HealthcareSuccess.com, content marketing is a natural fit for health providers. “Among the benefits, it is a marketing tool for patient engagement, retention, branding, and professional reputation building.”
[bctt tweet=”According to HealthcareSuccess.com, content marketing is a natural fit for health providers. ‘Among the benefits, it is a marketing tool for patient engagement, retention, branding, and professional reputation building.'” username=”goRendia”]
This year, consider embracing or boosting content marketing by publishing regular blog posts, sending out an email newsletter, and scheduling seasonal videos on your social media profiles.
In the New Year, consider:
- Publishing weekly or monthly blog posts. Regular blogging on topics of interest to your patients boosts search engine optimization (SEO)—that is, the number of visitors who find your website through web searches.
- Sending a monthly or quarterly email newsletter to your patients. Services like Mailchimp or Constant Contact make this easy.
- Hiring help or leveraging Rendia. If you anticipate that finding content or keeping up with posting will be an issue, hire a blog writer or contact your Rendia Customer Success Manager to help you plan out dozens of video-based posts to schedule out seasonally—including content for disease awareness months and reminders to schedule regular checkups.
For more ideas, check out our recent post, How Can Content Marketing Help Your Medical Practice?
3. Invest in your success.
Why is it that doctors are willing to invest so much time and money on their education and training, but often aren’t willing to invest in their practices? Sure, you can get by with a few basic chairs and a potted plant in your waiting room. And you can make do with the free patient education materials that come with your EHR. But why would you want to when today’s health care consumers expect better and will change providers to get it?
Here are several smart ways to invest in your practice’s success that will give you a significant return on investment:
- Upgrade your waiting room. It’s patients’ first impression of your practice. Some comfortable chairs, free WiFi, and a fresh coat of paint go a long way. FYI: Pantone announced the 2020 Color of the Year is Classic Blue.
- Update your technology. Whether that means investing in new treatment options for blepharitis or having iPads available for patient use in your waiting room, embracing the latest technology sends the message that your practice is up-to-date, professional, and cares about what patients want.
- Embrace digital patient education tools. Using visual simulations such as Rendia’s Outcome Simulator, you can show patients—not just tell them—what to expect from various surgical procedures, increasing conversions, easing patients’ anxieties, and helping them make more informed decisions about their care.
Many New Year’s resolutions don’t “stick,” but if you commit to making a few specific, measurable changes in your practice, you’re sure to see a difference this year.