There is a natural progression to starting an alternative health practice. After opening your doors, the first order of business is, of course, to get as many new patients as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, a natural second step in this process is to forget all about these patients once they leave the office. The file goes safely in the cabinet, and the next time it comes out is when the patient takes the initiative to call for an appointment.
Getting your holistic patients to return with regular frequency iswhere you start to reap the rewards of the hard work and expense of attracting new patients to your practice in the first place. It’s where you begin to turn your focus from the external world of prospective patients, to the internal world of the existing patients in your practice.
Why? First of all, new patients are expensive. It takes far more time and money to attract a new patient to your practice than it does to get an existing one to revisit. Secondly, from a health perspective, one visit is generally not enough to cure what ails – wellness takes time. And you want the success and close relationship that comes from multiple visits. It’s what encourages referrals.
Finally, without steady return visits, it’s very difficult to implement the other multipliers and take your practice to the next level. Building a successful business requires new patients, but it also requires them to return.
Return visits hinge on four factors, each of which is critical.
Your Business/Health Care Model
Your business model is the system by which you create, market and deliver your products to your target market. Does your model of alternative health care call for regular return visits, or is it focused on short-term care of acute issues? A chiropractor, for example, might focus on acute issues like back pain resulting from a car accident. The patient will come for regular chiropractice visits until the problem is solved. Another chiropractor, however, might operate differently, recommending regular chiropractic care on an ongoing basis for better health and prevention of illness.
This distinction can be made in almost any alternative health care practice, from naturopathy to TCM to body work.
Your Authority
Part of ensuring return visits to become comfortable as an authority in the patient-doctor relationship. This doesn’t mean becoming authoritarian, aloof, or condescending; it means recognizing that you are an authority in your area of expertise. You’ve studied it, practiced it, and presumably had some success.
How does this relate to return visits? Patients come back to see their naturopath, for example, because as the expert, the doctor tells them when to return. Don’t be afraid to tell your patient when you need to see them next. If your health care model calls for regular return visits, then explain the importance of that, and as an authority in your job, tell them when to come back.
Your Communication
Sadly, it’s easy for patients to forget you exist until something’s wrong. It’s important to find ways to stay “top of mind” with your patients, and remind them that wellness is a preventative job.
Don’t rely on your new patient marketing to do this job for you. Your exsiting CAM patients need a different message, and will appreciate the “exclusive” feeling that comes from personalized letters, email and newsletters delivered only to practice members.
Your Service Quality
In the end, you’re only as good as the quality of the products and services you provide. A great business model and communication strategy will only take you so far unless what you offer is of sufficient quality.
What defines a quality experience in an alternative health practice? Many consumers will equate quality with value. That is, they’ll compare the complete experience they’ve had in your practice against the dollar price they paid, and using an unknown formula unique to them, calculate the value. Was it worth it? Did they get more than they paid for? Less? This formula is unique to each patient, but rest assured, it exists.
