30 Day Social Media Challenge For Your Practice


Let the challenge begin! Can you handle 30 Days of Social Media Posts, Tweets, Pins, Instagram Pics & YouTube Videos? We know you can!

 

It’s always a good idea to publish content. It’s a way of showing up for yourself and your practice for your patients, and future prospects!

 

Today, we’ve got a number of ideas to help you jump-start that process of showing up for yourself on Social!

 

Here are 30 Ideas

 

  1. Take a Picture of your Workspace…
  2. Answer a Question…
  3. Introduce your newest employee or a co-worker…
  4. Share something Popular (nationally or locally)…
  5. Ask your audience a multiple choice question…
  6. Share about a Future Community Event…
  7. Share something funny…
  8. Post a Fill-In-The-Blank Statement…
  9. Share Your Company’s Property Story…
  10. Create a video, featuring your company or property…
  11. Share a ‘TBT’ or Throw Back Thursday Image…
  12. Post Something Seasonal…
  13. Share Some Inspiration…
  14. Highlight a Patient of the Month or a Patients ‘Pup / Dog’ of the Month…
  15. Share an attention-grabbing statistic…
  16. Interview a patient…
  17. Share someone else’s content…
  18. Do a repeat of something that worked well…
  19. Share your latest email newsletter or announcement…
  20. Edit and Share An Image…
  21. Link to an infographic you think your audience will enjoy…
  22. Share your favorite or current book…
  23. Correct a common misconception that relates to your industry…
  24. Give a shout-out to another practice…
  25. Show off your expertise with a helpful tip…
  26. Post something in celebration of a company milestone (eg Birthday / Anniversary)
  27. Cross-promote your Social Channels
  28. Ask people to join your mailing list
  29. Share something about an event you recently attended
  30. Thank your followers for their support

 

Now that you have a solid list of ideas for Social Content, it’s time to get started!

 

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://chat.practiceinsidersedge.com/PIE-Triage-Call


15 Ways to drive traffic to your Practices Website


Driving traffic to your website is critically important if you are a ‘locally-based service’.

It’s particularly important if you are a healthcare business owner.

However, when you’re a practice, it can be hard to rank well in the search engines. You’re likely up against the big practices, and their huge advertising spends which makes it near impossible to rank at the top for local searches.

And with so many websites and competitors out there, it can be quite a challenge to get visitors.

It’s just not as easy as “build it and they will come”.

Here are 15 Ways to drive traffic to your practice’s website:

 

  1. Search engine optimization (SEO)

What is SEO?

In basic terms, it means your website is technically sound so that it can be indexed by the search engines and well-designed for good usability. It also contains content (including keywords and phrases) that people are searching for often.

A great place to begin is to check that your website is appearing in the search engine. If it isn’t, then you may need to verify your site with Google Search Console. 

To appear in local searches on Google Maps, be sure to add your practice to Google My Business (now known as Google Business Profile).

Also, check your page (and post) titles and meta descriptions. To assist with your ranking, they need to be the appropriate length and contain your keywords.

It can take a while to see the benefits of SEO as it takes some effort and time to create the optimized site structures and content. However, once you enhance your website, you can gain free traffic from the search engines, so it’s worth the investment and effort.

Some of the components of SEO are technical, and if you aren’t confident in this area, We would be elated to help or point you in the right direction.

 

  1. Directory Listings

There are both free and paid options when it comes to directory listings. (Do your research with Paid Directories and pay attention to how they bill (monthly or PPC)

Start with the membership associations that you belong to, and search for a directory on their websites. Find out how you can get a listing to promote your practice.

A good example of this may be your local Chamber of Commerce. 

To find other online listings, search for your niche in Google and add the word directory after it. You will likely find blog posts that people have written containing the most popular directories which you can work through one by one.

 

  1. Backlinks

One strategy to drive traffic to your website is to partner with another practice that can link to your site and send you referral traffic.

This strategy is known as backlinking, and it also adds authority to your website. It’s excellent for SEO as it means you will likely rank higher than another site with lower authority.

When setting up the link, be sure to check that there is not a ‘no follow’ reference on the link. A no-follow link is not good for SEO as the link will not carry any authority.

If you don’t have any established partnerships, another way to get backlinks is to search for broken links that no longer work on other websites using the brokenlinkcheck site.

If you can find a website in your niche that has a broken link and you happen to have a similar blog article on the same topic, then send a quick email to that practice letting them know that they have a broken link and if they would like a replacement article then you have one available.

 

  1. Internal Links

While internal links move visitors around within your site, they can also assist with driving traffic to your site if they are well designed.

Excellent site structure is essential to see the benefits of SEO. If the search engines can determine that your site has good internal links, then it will rank higher than those that don’t.

When your website pages link well, you are also more likely to keep people on your website longer which can help with making those all-important sales conversions.

Consider how you can also use high-volume pages to drive traffic to other low-volume pages on your site. Use your Google Analytics platform to identify where you might be able to boost the traffic to your sales pages with strategic links from well-performing blog posts.

 

  1. Email marketing

When writing emails to your list, always ensure there are links back to your website within the email.

If you write a new blog post or want to promote one of your services, be sure to include a link directly to the relevant pages.

And don’t forget to add your website link to your email signature on every email you send.

 

 

  1. Blogging

Creating highly valuable content on your blog is a great way to drive traffic to your website.

It will increase the chances of your website being found in the search engines and perhaps being shared on social media by other people.

There are many formats that you can use within your blog to boost the chances of it being shared on social media. Interviewing an influencer in your niche is one way to do this, as there is a high chance that they will share the article with their audience once you’ve published it.

Pinterest is also a great place to share your blog articles and drive traffic for free.

 

  1. Media and PR

If you have a newsworthy story to tell or could contribute to an article that a journalist is writing, then it could generate some free publicity for your practice.

Identify the publications you would like to appear in and make contact with the journalists in your local area who write about practices or trends happening in your niche.

There are also websites such as HARO (Help A Reporter Out) that connect journalists with bloggers and contributors.

 

  1. Paid Advertising

While you may not have a large advertising budget, there are low-cost ways to drive traffic to your website.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, all have affordable advertising platforms where you can promote your practice for as little as $5 a day.

The benefit of these platforms is that you can target your audience quite specifically. You also have the option to remarket to people who have visited your site before when you install a tracking code.

You may also consider using Google Ads and Google Remarketing if your audience would more likely use search to discover your practice. As always, before you spend any money on advertising make sure that you are clear on your end goal and marketing objectives.

 

  1. Social media

You can drive considerable referral traffic directly from social media once you have built up your following.

The key to growing your audience is to have an optimized profile that includes the keywords for your practice and that your content is engaging.

It’s essential that you show up consistently on social media every day to create brand awareness. If you need help with this, we would be elated to help. Besides, you’re in the practice of what you do…not Social Media Management.

 

  1. Facebook groups

Sharing your links and helping others out inside of Facebook groups is an excellent way to build awareness.

However, be strategic about the groups that you decide to join, so that you are using your time efficiently. It’s very easy to lose hours and hours on social media during your day, so be sure to get in and get out when you need to.

Also, it’s a good idea to monitor the results you’re getting. You’ll find that you generate more traffic, subscribers, and sales from certain groups and you’ll soon work out which ones to visit.

 

  1. Video marketing

Many people don’t realize that YouTube is a massive search engine that can be very effective in driving traffic to your website. 

Consider the types of videos you could create to post on here, as well as the promotional videos you could make to market your services on YouTube.

Google also indexes and returns videos in the search results, so it’s crucial to optimize the videos you are posting on your website by adding appropriate titles and meta descriptions.

There is an increasing demand for visual content online!

Video marketing is one way that you could differentiate yourself from your competition who may not be doing this yet.

 

  1. Online Question Forums

Answering questions on forums such as Quora is a great way to build your authority in a niche. Search for others by typing your niche with the word forum after it into the Google search.

You can also include a link to your website in your profile and your answers. A website link to your blog that answers specific questions about your industry or niche could significantly increase traffic to that article.

Searching on these sites before you write a blog article is also an excellent way to research what you should write. 

If you are writing about a popular or trending topic, then there will be a larger volume of people who will be searching for your content.

There’s no point in writing a blog article that no one is searching for an answer on, so be sure to choose topics that are regularly searched.

 

  1. Podcast Interviews

You may have a podcast, or you may be invited on to someone else’s podcast. Either way, the episode provides a way to promote the content on your website and drive the audience back to it.

You could increase the amount of traffic to your website by also including a special offer or by sharing something interesting that they can find out more about on your site.

Podcast episodes are also then shared on other social media platforms and via email marketing, making the audience for them much more extensive than just those listening to the audio.

 

  1. Guest blogging

Writing articles and pitching them to other larger media outlets or influencers is a great way to build your profile and get a link to drive traffic back to your website.

It can take some time to write a guest blog post though, so it’s important to choose a topic that others would be willing to share on their site. Identify syndicated publications that will share your articles on multiple platforms.

Don’t forget to invite others to write a guest post on your blog. If you publish their content and they are a well-known person in your industry, then you could attract a new audience. Contributing influencers will likely share your website with their (more substantial) audience to drive traffic to your site.

 

  1. Printed Marketing Collateral

Additionally, besides online methods, there are also offline forms of marketing that can increase your website traffic.

It should be standard operating procedures to include your website address on all forms of stationery, brochures, flyers, merchandise, and promotional materials.

 

How to determine what to focus on to get traffic to your website

It’s easy to become overwhelmed when you read through this long list of ways to drive traffic to your site.

However, it’s important to consider which methods will be both sustainable for you to keep doing overtime as well as which ones will generate the most traffic.

For example, if you don’t like writing or aren’t that good at it, then starting a blog is likely not a good idea. Instead, recording videos might be faster to create. (Tip: You could always have your videos transcribed so you can repurpose as long-form content on a blog or as an article on LinkedIn or on a Facebook Page)

Alternatively, you may feel more comfortable hosting a podcast or going live on Facebook where you can speak to your audience.

Try to pick a few methods above that you know you could stick to doing. Consistency is a big deal that will help deliver results! Additionally, remember, you don’t have to be overwhelmed by all of this! You don’t have to do all of them at once.

Building up a following, and traffic flow will take some time if you don’t have a large budget, so be patient and consistent with your marketing activities.

I would love to hear what you have found to be effective in driving traffic to your practice’s website? 

Let me know in the comments below!

 

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://chat.practiceinsidersedge.com/PIE-Triage-Call


Create Content For Your Practice That Is Worth Sharing

Create Content For Your Practice That Is Worth Sharing

We all know that content marketing is the name of the game for most practices. Content is king and all that. But how does a practice create enough good content to reach its marketing goals? Read on as we break down simple content ideas that you can use (and reuse) to grow your practice.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions are great for creating content around your practice. It’s always a good idea to write down the most frequently asked questions your prospective patients ask you about your services.

There’s a reason the FAQ section exists. It’s a great way to answer and convey information back to those that ask these questions…frequently. Chances are if frequently asked questions are asked, that they will likely be asked again by future prospective patients.

Creating content around these questions is a great idea. In fact, taking it one step further and telling your audience the ‘Should Ask Questions’…and answering those in long-form content instills trust or expands interest in your service that your audience may not have thought of or considered.

Behind The Scenes

How does your practice work? You might think that people aren’t interested, but there’s a reason that shows like “How It’s Made” are popular. Think about your process and what makes it unique. Break it down into a slideshow, video, or photo array to share on your website and social media. Alternatively, you could do behind-the-scenes videos introducing your staff.

Service Demonstrations

You won’t be shocked to hear that service demonstrations are the kind of content you can create cheaply, but you might not realize the possibilities for content creation that are locked inside the services you offer.

Beyond the simple introductory service demo, you can show your patients the potential for other services. Even a service that doesn’t require a demo can be highlighted in a demonstration video! Example of how you perform warm up stretches for athletes in the clinic or how you can use a physio-ball or foam roller.  Sure we may not all agree on their functional purposes but teach your prospective patients YOUR belief system behind the tools/devices.

Content Curation

Not every piece of content you post needs to be original. The key here is to not simply share the content as is. Instead you should find a way to add some authority or a unique twist to it.

For example, you might find an article in your local newspaper or an industry publication with a list of…whatever. Instead of simply posting the list, share it and point out which part is your favorite and why. You could also mention something that wasn’t included in the list that you think should have been.

Patient Testimonials

To make your patient testimonials effective, it may be useful to map out an outline based on the patient’s story. That way, you can share the kind of journey that will resonate deeply with people and help them to make an emotional connection with your service. Think of doing a video case study of your patient testimonial and give them some background behind the entire process.  In other words, where did they start, what did you do, how did you do it and what was the outcome.

Your Brand Story

Differentiating yourself from your competitors is a must and content marketing provides the ideal way to do it. No matter what industry or niche you’re in, your brand has a unique story that is yours to tell.

I hope you get the idea here. Your focus should always be in providing value and entertainment to your audience. You don’t need to have a huge content marketing budget to create the kind of content your audience will love…and be eager to share.

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://chat.practiceinsidersedge.com/PIE-Triage-Call


33 Places You Can Promote Your Practice For Free


When it comes to promoting your practice, it may feel like your only option is to pay the big bucks and start advertising. HOWEVER – we’ve got some great news for you, especially if you’re on a budget. (Like MOST healthcare business owners)

There are several options for you to promote your practice, absolutely for free. A lot of this is thanks to social media. There are countless stories and case studies of those who built their entire practices utilizing social media and social media.

The best thing you can do when these new options are available is to think of how you can leverage them as a healthcare business owner.

Now, are you ready to start promoting your practice, for FREE?

HERE ARE 33 (+1) PLACES YOU CAN PROMOTE YOUR PRACTICE FOR FREE
  1. Facebook Pages
  2. Facebook Groups
  3. Facebook Live
  4. Facebook Stories
  5. Facebook Page Stories
  6. Facebook Messenger Stories
  7. Facebook Messenger Bots
  8. Facebook Watch Parties
  9. Facebook Events
  10. Pinterest
  11. Pinterest Communities
  12. Pinterest Group Boards
  13. Instagram Posts
  14. Instagram Stories
  15. Instagram Live
  16. Instagram Reels
  17. Twitter
  18. Twitter Group Chats
  19. YouTube
  20. YouTube Live
  21. YouTube Shorts
  22. Snap Chat
  23. Email Marketing
  24. Affiliate Marketing
  25. Host a Webinar
  26. Be a Webinar Guest
  27. Blogging
  28. Guest Blogging
  29. LinkedIn Posts
  30. LinkedIn Messages
  31. LinkedIn Groups
  32. Host a Podcast
  33. Be a Guest on a Podcast
  34. TikTok

SAVE this list and test some of these out. Try a new one and see if you can generate additional revenue in your practice but utilize ALL of these free platforms to market your services.

A word of caution…

Each platform has its own voice. Avoid ‘copy and paste’ marketing and you’ll likely get a better result!

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://chat.practiceinsidersedge.com/PIE-Triage-Call


Four Steps to Turn Fans into Brand Ambassadors

Four Steps to Turn Fans into Brand Ambassadors

Did You Know…

Highly engaged patients buy 90% more often and 60% more per transaction and that 77% of patients are more likely to get a new service when learning about it from friends and family?

In a perfect world, everyone who avails your services would talk about them to everyone they meet.

The problem is, we don’t live in a perfect world. And while some of your patients might be ardent fans, others might need a bit of coaxing to get there.

The good news?

You can turn patients into enthusiastic brand ambassadors in just four easy steps!

  1. Model The Behavior You Want To See

This may mean doing things like creating brand hashtags and using them in your posts. You could also seek out some influencers and have them post images of themselves with your services using these hashtags. People who follow your brand on social media will see the posts and hashtags.

  1. Request The Behavior You Want

The next step is to ask your followers to do the thing that you’ve modelled for them. For example, if you wanted patients to post pictures of themselves doing an exercise or a stretch, you could ask them to post them with a special hashtag.

  1. Incentivize Your Fans

Some people share photos of themselves simply because you asked. But, many more people will do it if you give them a reason to do it. You might run a contest where you’ve given away a product or service (or a year’s worth of “something”). If you choose to do a contest, make sure to post a clear set of rules for entry!

  1. Deliver Rewards

Contest Winners will get a reward, but you should also reward others who enter with some recognition and love. Liking their posts, commenting on them, or even sharing them with your followers can make your fans feel special and appreciated.

Brand ambassadors are more than just enthusiastic fans. When brand ambassadorship is at its best, patients identify heavily with the brands they love!

Not Sure Where To Start?

Try asking on social media! Your fans who are already engaged will be eager to tell you what they want – and you can use their advice as guidance to get things started

If you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://chat.practiceinsidersedge.com/PIE-Triage-Call


5 Strategies To Keep Your List Engaged After They’ve Subscribed!

5 Strategies To Keep Your List Engaged After They’ve Subscribed!

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to increase brand awareness and engage with your patients.

However, it is not enough simply to have an email list and send out an occasional message. You need to find ways to engage the people on your list and keep them interested if you want to convert them into paying patients.

Here are 5 Foolproof ways to start with…

Put Value First

It’s perfectly acceptable to include a call to action in your emails, but the bulk of your message should be focused on your patients – not you!

Draw Them In With Your Subject Line

One of the best ways to make your newsletter readable is to use compelling and relative images to break up the text. A good guideline to use is to have 70% text and 30% images!

Use Smart Design Elements

The design of your email can be just as important as the content. Don’t expect that a plain text email with no formatting is going to draw people in. You want to compel your visitors to actually read it!

Segment Your List

It’s a good practice to segment your list. For example, an acupuncturist might send out separate newsletters for women’s vs men’s issues. The idea here is to ensure the people who receive each email are those who have a genuine interest in its content.

Having an email list is important, but the key to using it successfully is to find ways to actively engage your prospect and patients.

As long as you stay away from overt sales pitches and give them an email that’s relevant, easy to read, and compelling to look at, you will be able to keep your patients interested.

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://chat.practiceinsidersedge.com/PIE-Triage-Call


6 Ways You Can Win With Direct Mail For Your Practice


Direct Mail is not dead!

 

There are so many ways to leverage direct mail to get real results for your practice. There’s no question you might need to allocate a budget for this sort of advertising and marketing. 

 

However, there are ways that you can improve the results and ensure you win with your direct mail campaigns.

 

Here are 6 ways you can win:

 

  1. Variable Data Printing

    Did you know that there are printers who will segment mailers into small batches to print personalized information on mailers?

    It’s called variable data printing. You can choose to print mailers based on the user’s geographical information. For example, you can target a single zip code or batches of zip codes or even go after “the everglades of Florida” if that is your niche market.

  2. Personalized URLs

    One of the coolest ways to bring your direct mail campaigns into the digital age is to give personalized URL (PURL) or a Custom Domain. Assigning this domain to a special page so that when a prospective patient enters it into their browser, they’ll land on your campaign page (Which is ideal for tracking). We use our own link system called GRROLink: https://grrolink.co/

  3. QR Codes

    Another thing that you can do is combine mobile marketing with Direct Mail by including a Quick Response (QR) Code on your mailer. A QR code is similar to a barcode but it can store up to 100 times as much information.

    Mail recipients can scan the QR code with their smartphones and from there, the sky’s the limit. You can use your QR code to direct people to a specific URL or landing page, provide them with personalized coupons, or give them access to exclusive content!

  4. Pop-Up Mailers

    One classic example of a Pop-Up Mailer technique came from retailer IKEA. They sent out a mailer that popped up and turned into an IKEA table when it was removed from the envelope.

    The mailer was fun and creative and made a big impression with their clients.

    There are thousands of ways you could adapt this idea for your practice. The key is to choose a pop-up that represents you, your product or your service.

  5. 3D Mailers

    A variation of the pop-up mailer is creating a 3D mailer.

    Instead of simply sending a boring postcard or envelope, consider sending them a larger item, such as a poster, in a tube, or brochure with a USB drive cut out. Another idea is to enclose a sample of your product.

    This technique isn’t new – but still works!

    It’s especially effective if you’re launching a new product. Again, don’t be afraid to get creative with these ideas!

    By the way…a 3D mailer is more likely to be opened than a letter.

 

  1. Co-Op Jumbo Mailers

 

Lastly are Co-Op Jumbo Mailers!

 

If you’re not familiar with Jumbo Mailers, local marketing companies sometimes offer co-op mailing opportunities. These co-op’s typically have a bunch of local companies who pull their advertising resources together to mail out their advertisements of coupons on one single ‘jumbo’ postcard.

 

This brings the cost down and makes direct mail accessible for most local practice participants.

 

I hope you found some value here with these 6 Ways You Can Win With Direct Mail. 

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://chat.practiceinsidersedge.com/PIE-Triage-Call


How to Handle Patient Complaints About Your Practice


Patient complaints are a reality of running any health care business. While receiving negative feedback can be unpleasant, it is essential for making noticeable improvements to your company and holding onto patients and…. bringing in more new patients too. 

 

One way you can mitigate the sting when people take time out of their day to complain about your product and/or services? 

 

Acknowledge them! 

 

When they feel heard, more than likely they will go away happy- even if not satisfied with what was done in response. 

 

In the best-case scenario, your patient may even have a more positive view of your practice after a complaint is resolved than before they even had an issue

 

What Are Patients Complaints?

There’s always a chance that a patient can be disappointed with the product or service delivered, even if it matches your expectations. That can lead to patient complaints and unhappy patients overall.

Patient complaints demonstrate that there’s a mismatch between the product or service delivered and the patients initial expectations. 

When complaints are one-off occurrences or mistakes, they can be interpreted as negative feedback and the relationship between the health care practitioner and patient can usually be salvaged. When they’re consistent trends, they need to be addressed at a more fundamental level.

This conflict in expectations and results can be associated with several different reasons: 

  • Unreasonable expectations that are hard to meet. Occasionally patients have a long list of demands that are difficult for any health care business to meet. They may have unreasonable expectations regarding pricing, the level of service, time spent with patients or they may have misunderstood one of your practice’s purposes. 
  • Scenarios that are outside your control. Sometimes things go wrong and they have nothing to do with your practice or your care. 
  • Misleading marketing around the healthcare businesss offering. Sometimes health businesses misrepresent their products or practices through their marketing and social media campaigns, and prospects may feel that they’ve invested in an offer that didn’t meet their expectation
  • Operational failures. Sometimes a practice has great providers but there is an issue that takes place before or after care. This can happen when health care businesses that don’t fully train employees.

Where Are Patients Most Likely to Complain? 

Depending on your health care business model and location, patients may have multiple options for lodging a complaint.  Patient feedback can appear in two different ways, public and private. 

Naturally, if you’re providing channels for private negative feedback you’re more likely to be able to handle these issues outside of the public eye. 

Here are some of the top ways patients usually choose to complain: 

  • Frontline staff. If you own a patient-facing practice, your patients may be more likely to complain in-person to a staff member who happens to be on duty.
  • Surveys. If you send out regular patient satisfaction surveys, they may use it as an opportunity to share complaints about your health care business or offers.
  • Online reviews. Sometimes dissatisfied patients will use 3rd party review sites for complaining about your health care business. If you do receive online negative reviews, remember it is really important to acknowledge the feedback and be empathetic.
  • By phone or email. Health care businesses that provide a more personalized service to a smaller group of patients, may receive more complaints directly to their phone lines or through email.
  • Social Media. It’s becoming more common for patients to leave comments and reviews on health care businesses’ social media profiles. It’s critical to have a policy in place because social media is so public.

What Do Patients Typically Complain About? 

Regardless of industry, health care businesses will be met with some form of complaint at one point or another. Whether it’s as a result of an error you made or due to something they felt was impossible for your patients to overcome, there are certain scenarios that tend to provoke complaints the most.

Having an awareness of what your patients typically complain about will not only help you improve your health care business’s offering but also help your employees prepare for handling common complaints.

If you want to save time and make your patient happy, then don’t hesitate to collect feedback from them. It takes just a little bit of work every day for both the patient and health care business owner alike in order to avoid confusion or conflict.

Here are some areas that patients typically complain about and plausible solutions to those complaints.

Slow Patient Service 

Whether you run a telemedicine or brick and mortar practice, patients appreciate efficient service. Patients like to feel that their time is respected and they don’t want to waste any of it waiting in line while talking on the phone with your company’s team.

Long wait times mean that your practice does not prioritize practice experience and may be unable to deal with patient flow efficiently.

Heres what to do: 

  • Training! Helping your staff understand how to communicate with patients when wait times exceed expectations can decrease complaints.
  • Improve your operations! Adjusting processes, adding staff, being aware of inventory or signage are also good ways to pre-emptively address potential bottlenecks

Long Wait Times or Unavailable Services

In the world of marketing, an out-of-stock product or fully booked appointment is better than a sold one. Your health care business must be doing something right if patients are willing to wait for you for long periods of time between patients. 

However, outdated inventory and no available bookings can make potential patients lose interest in your company quickly so it’s important that these items stay on hand at all times.

Patients may keep calling and emailing your health care business for updates about these unavailable services and products. 

Ultimately they may leave you negative feedback either online or in-person. 

Heres what to do: 

  • Training your staff to communicate empathetically with patients for the inconvenience is a good start…
  • Setting realistic expectations via communication of wait times in the office. 
  • Setting realistic expectations by communicating when you next expect to have these products or services available is ideal.

 

No Follow-up

Even if you have the best intentions of resolving a patient’s issue, they may feel anxious about your progress and want to know how it is going.

If patients are in need of help with time-sensitive requests or complaints, then they’ll be looking for updates on what information you’re able to find.

It’s important to be upfront about expected response times and stick to them. This way, you can give all patients the best service possible without disappointing some people just because their expectations are too high.

Here are a few follow-up best practices:

  • It’s ok not to have the solution right away. It’s a good idea to communicate with the patient that you are actively trying to solve the issue. 
  • Set patient expectations with realistic timelines for resolution. If you know it will take a few days to resolve the problem, don’t promise a solution for the next day. 
  • Think about the channel through which the patient made the complaint and the acceptable response time. 24 hours is acceptable for a negative online review or an email, but a few hours or less is generally expected for in-person or phone complaint
  • If a complaint is time-sensitive, reassure patients by providing a few regular updates.

How Should Any Health Care Business Handle Complaints?

Your practice will be able to turn complaining patients into loyal advocates if you are aware of the issue and resolve it, as well as effectively communicate throughout. This is a great way for both sides to win!

 

  1. Make it Easy for Patients to Complain

Patients will not feel inclined to go through the hassle of complaining when they know that their feedback is only going to be met with a formality.

To help create a solid patient experience, patients need to feel that the health care business cares about their thoughts and feelings and their overall health. When patients complain, it should be easy for them to share their honest opinions and thoughts with a health care business. 

You could encourage patient to share their thoughts by:

  • Putting a form on your website to encourage feedback and complaints.
  • Posting a feedback link in your newsletter, social media platforms, and in-office.
  • Actively ask your patient for their opinions.

Proactively asking your patients for honest feedback is a great way of preventing complaints from escalating. Sending out patient satisfaction surveys at regular intervals helps you gauge how they feel about your health care business and if there are any problems that need to be addressed before it’s too late!

 

It can be used as an opportunity for uncovering valuable insights such as what may not be working for your health care business

 

When patients complain, ask valid questions to dig deeper into what caused the issue in the first place. 

 

When a patient registers a complaint, consider asking the following questions:

  • Could you elaborate on that point more? 
  • Could you clarify what you mean by that?
  • Help me understand how we can meet your expectations?

Here’s the thing, although patient complaints are never comfortable, it’s also a good time for some self-reflection. 

 

Ask yourself:

  • Do I need any further details? 
  • Why is this complaint significant for my business? 
  • What happened to cause the patient to complain?
  • How can we prevent this from recurring?

Asking the right questions will help you uncover the root of a problem so that it can be resolved. Depending on how your health care business is structured, you may choose to assign one team member as a patient complaint specialist who handles complaints and uncovers insights about what needs improvement in order for clients to have an even better experience with your company.

  1. Respond Proactively and Efficiently

Acceptable response times depend on the nature of the complaint.

 

Here are some complaint response time best practices: 

  • Respond promptly.Negative feedback requires a swift reply and resolution to show care and action from your health care business.
  • If the feedback is public, respond publicly. It’s an opportunity to show future patients you’re responsive, capable and willing to right a wrong.
  • Read through the complaint thoroughly. Use the patient’s own words to personalize your reply. This goes a long way to display empathy!
  • Offer a solution.  Showing empathy for the situation and being respectful is vital to successful response management, but a solution is at the core of what the patient wants. Providing a solution that’s appropriate to the complaint, whether that be compensation, a refund, or replacement. 
  • Put the right person in charge. Make sure that the person replying to negative reviews has the authority to offer solutions.

Taking time to regularly monitor your patient complaints is important to ensure you don’t miss one. 

 

  1. Follow up to Verify You’ve Solved Their Problem with a Suitable Solution

When you’ve found the cause of a patient complaint, identified an appropriate solution and proposed it to them, don’t forget about follow-ups. It can be hard for patients to let go so make sure they feel heard by following up on your proposal in order to see if their problem has been addressed or not.

 

Patients appreciate health care businesses that care about their experience and their overall satisfaction. 

You can then follow up with patients by: 

  • Asking them if there’s anything else you can do to help them.
  • Simply asking if the solution worked out for them. 
  1. Record the Complaint and Analyze Patterns

When you receive a complaint, it’s important to record the type of complaint and who it came from. 

The complaint could come from: 

  • A regular patient
  • A one-off patient
  • A high-value patient

 

If you receive multiple complaints about the same issue from a similar type of patient point, you can identify trends in your operations!

It’s important to identify high-volume complaints as these can point to dominant issues throughout your health care business

Identifying repeat complaints and taking steps to address the root cause, it’ll become easier to prevent future complaints! 

Here’s How You Can Support Your Employees to Properly Handle Patient Complaints? 

Health care business owners should provide employees with the proper training to help them resolve patient complaints in a timely manner.

Clear guidance and policies will help ensure that each patient complaint gets a standardized level of attention from staff members, while those complaints are recorded properly.

Create a Clearly Written Complaint Handling Document

Writing a guide to handling patient complaints professionally and effectively is a good idea. This document should be comprehensive so employees know how to deal with different situations as they come up, both on the job training-wise and in a pinch when no one else is around for guidance.

As we mentioned earlier, if you’re consistently collecting feedback, you should be familiar with common patient complaints and have a specific way for your employees to be able to handle them. That way, employees will understand what’s expected of them as the complaints arise. 

Try to provide guidance on how they should react, how to escalate the complaint, and provide possible solutions.  

To avoid complaints, make sure your complaint handling document is easily accessible to all staff members. After reading the document you should feel confident in making judgment calls and tackling different situations on your own.

Give Your Staff Resources to Resolve Complaints

If you want to make your employees feel confident in handling complaints, consider providing interactive training sessions. You could incorporate role-play situations where we show them the potential set of patient problems that can occur and force trainees to come up with solutions on their own.

Re-evaluate How Your Health Care Business Handles Complaints Routinely

Handling patient complaints is one of the more difficult aspects of working in a client-facing role. It’s important for employees to feel well-equipped when handling these types of cases, so it’s necessary that managers check on their staff quarterly and provide high quality training sessions if needed.

Final Thoughts On Patient Complaints

Complaints are inevitable when running any health care business but they can also provide useful information about where improvements need to be made which will ultimately benefit patients as well!

Patient Support is a big part of your health care businesses’ marketing! It tells a story of how your health care business values your patient sentiment. Take it seriously!

It is important to make the effort to work on the issues that patients complain about, and proactively improve how your health care business deals with negative feedback. You might want to try implementing a few of our suggestions for handling complaints and see if you can retain more loyal patients.

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://chat.practiceinsidersedge.com/PIE-Triage-Call