The most effective way to increase your client retention rate is to establish a trusting, caring, and loyal relationship with your patients.

Building and nurturing your relationships with your clients should include providing consistent attention, giving of your time, and showing that you care. When your patients trust you, they will remain with your practice.

Being understanding, empathetic, kind, and communicative with your clients or patients is imperative if you want them to have a positive experience and keep coming back.

Patient Care Plan

Whether you are a dentist, chiropractor, or a nursing home facility, you will need to develop a patient-focused care plan.

Be sure to discuss the different options available for short or long-term treatment with your patients and their families, should they want to be included in the conversation.

Communicating your unique value add to your client is critical as well. For instance, if you are an orthodontist offering braces, communicating to your clients how only six percent of dentists have received the specialized training that you have can help establish trust and goodwill with your clients.

Once you have established the best course of action for each patient, be sure you and any members of your facility understand the goals, processes, and treatment procedures.

It is essential that every member of your practice work towards the same purpose and follow the same plan.  

You can get valuable insights into what is essential to patients through questionnaires, interviews, and surveys.

Ask direct questions about every aspect of your clients’ or patients’ experience with your facility.

Don’t forget to start with the very first interaction a patient has with your practice.

This is usually your administrative staff that answers the phone to make appointments.

Your primary goal is to ensure that every patient who walks through your door has the best possible experience.

Stay in Touch

Patients appreciate receiving a text message or phone call reminder about an upcoming appointment. Because most people are very busy with work and family, it is not unusual to forget and miss a scheduled visit.

Follow-up calls after a medical procedure to see how a patient is doing are also appreciated and can build loyalty. Even sending a birthday card can make people feel special and let them know that you care.

Ask for Feedback

The best way to know how clients feel about you is to ask them. You can’t make improvements if you don’t know what you are doing wrong.

To identify why a patient decides to return to your practice, create a survey to assess their satisfaction level and encourage feedback.

Online surveys are convenient for patients and cost-efficient. Study the feedback and make changes in your build and nurture a strong and trusting relationshippractice and a business model based on the results to increase client satisfaction and loyalty.

By proactively seeking feedback, you are showing your desire to make improvements to increase your clients’ satisfaction.

Be Understanding and Caring

If you want to build and nurture a strong and trusting relationship with your client base, you have to know what they want, what they need, and how they already perceive their experience.

No one likes to be treated like a number or like they are part of an assembly-line process. We are human beings and appreciate it when doctors, dentists, or other practitioners treat us as such.

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We have all experienced waiting for what seems like an eternity in a doctor’s office, only to see him very briefly as he is anxious to rush out the door to his next patient.

This kind of treatment is not conducive to establishing trusting and personal relationships. It is well worth the effort to take that extra step and give a little more of your time but requires commitment on the part of the practitioner.

Reaching out to patients who miss an appointment or spending more time with those who need or want more attention will go a long way to establish trust and build loyalty.

Creating a personal connection with patients at every level of your practice, starting at the reception desk, will keep them walking through your doors and feeling satisfied with your service.

Make Things Simple

If you are in the professional services industry, it is easy for your clients or patients to get frustrated and confused. Spending too much time in a waiting room for an appointment and trying to decipher confusing billing or payment procedures can undermine patient loyalty.

To create stress-free and straightforward patient experiences, you should streamline your processes and try to avoid overbooking.

For example, sending automatic appointment and billing reminders will make your clients’ lives easier and help your practice by minimizing no-shows and increasing the chances of getting paid on time.

If your clients or patients are happy and satisfied, they are much more likely to keep coming through your door. Following the suggestions above will get you started on the right track towards enhancing your clients’ experience and boosting patient loyalty.

Feature image source. Pixabay CC0 License.