When it comes to your practice, the most important people are your patients. Outside of providing excellent service, one of the best things you can do is to express appreciation for your patients.
Building positive relationships not only encourages those patients to keep them coming back, but it also drives them to advocate on your behalf. According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising.
Here are some great ways to express thanks to your patients and show them how much they matter to you:
- Schedule a “Patient Appreciation Day.” This could be as big as an off-site event or as small as a post on your social media page. Make it fun! Have a theme and consider giveaways to extend that positive conversation beyond the event.
- Communicate with your patients on a regular basis even if it isn’t about their healthcare or to advertise a new hearing instrument. Consider birthday cards or a seasonal greeting card with personalized notes. You could even include special offers such as battery packs or other accessories for patients during their birthday month.
- Create a personalized “Welcome to our Practice” folder for your patients. Include a staff bio letter, a FAQ for their new hearing aids, and any other useful and relevant information about the practice. You can also include a “My Hearing Journey” section where patients can jot down sounds they are now hearing and how their experience has been with the new devices. Encourage patients to bring this in to each appointment so they can share their insights and help the provider at the same time
These are just a few starter ideas on how you could start to build a patient appreciation strategy. The best strategy is the one that you’re able to execute.
Patient appreciation is something that should be continuous. Remember what Maya Angelou once said, “…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
