As a clinic, figuring out how to get patients most effectively and efficiently is one of your main priorities.
It can also be one of the most challenging aspects of operating a medical or cosmetic business.
On one hand, it entails careful planning and strategizing in order to determine the right marketing solutions and tactics that will help bring clients to your clinic.
On the other hand, there is also a struggle to balance the costs associated with marketing efforts with the need to reel in customers fast and increase the chances that they will come back.
Luckily, not all hope is lost. There are some solid tactics you can implement to help grow your patient base and bring in more revenue. In this blog post, we will break down those strategies that are known to have a positive impact on customer growth.
Let’s dive in.
Why A Growth Strategy Is So Important
Before diving into the tactics that will help you reel in more patients, you must center your growth plan around a solid strategy.
The reasoning for this is that some growth tactics may not be best suited for your practice and the types of services you offer. What's more, in as much as most if not all of the growth tips shared with you in this blog apply to most clinics, having a clear and concise game plan will make it easier to track the progress of your goals and gauge your success rate.
For that reason, you need to come up with a proper growth strategy that will help you to pick the right tactics that will help you meet your goals.
Some of the things that you should bear in mind when determining your strategy are the following:
- Understanding Patients Needs: Taking the time to understand your patient's needs is at the core of any strategy you come up with. It will allow you to see what people are looking for from a service provider in your clinic and how they want it delivered. For example, if you know that your services might be too costly for customers to fund in one go, then that would direct you to a financial solution that will grant them greater flexibility when paying for your services.
- Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): You need to identify the key performance indicators that will help measure the success rate of the strategy you implement. That way, you can check the results of your strategy over a given timeline, be it weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
- Set a goal: A strategy is not complete if you don't set a goal that you work towards. In your case, it may consist of setting a target number of patients you wish to reel in every month. You may also consider valuing your ability to retain customers by keeping an eye on the number of repeat patients that you have over a given period.
- Focus on customer lifetime value: Customer lifetime value (CLV) can be best defined as a type of investment strategy that focuses on customer retention. The CLV value shows how much a patient is worth to you throughout his/her lifetime by taking into account your company's expenses, including patient acquisition costs, as well as revenues generated from their patient referrals and repeat business. Ideally, you want your patient CLV to be greater than the patient acquisition cost. That way, you secure clients whose high spending power compensates for the amount it took for you to acquire them.
Once you have put together the elements of your strategy, you can then set your plan in motion for clinic growth.
Let's take a look at some of the best practices you can implement today.
Offer Flexible Finance Plans To Patients
Flexible finance plans are among the most lucrative and remunerative practices that clinics can implement to attract more patients in a short period.
A flexible finance plan can be best described as an option that grants patients the opportunity to cover the payments of the services you render to them based on repayment terms and conditions that are usually comfortable for them to meet.
Delivering flexible finance plans is a win-win for clinics and their patients alike since:
- It allows for more patients to access your clinic which implies an increase in your service orders and overall revenue.
- It shows customers that you care about them, thus improving customer-business relations and increasing the chances that they will become repeat clients.
- It enables you to stand out from competing clinics that do not offer this type of service. Even for those that do, you can gain an advantage by offering a more compelling plan.
Usually, since managing flexible finance plans is a time-consuming and complex process, clinics tend to partner with a third-party financial institution that handles all repayment processes.
Here's how you can partner with a reputable finance company to deliver this can of financial solution to your customers.
Flexible Finance Plans with Time Investment Company
Time Investment Company (TIC) is a family-owned institution with a trajectory of over forty (40) years offering financial solutions to both businesses and their customers.
Over the years, we have worked with several clinics across the cosmetic, dental, and general healthcare industries specifically, acting as third-party lenders that enable them to deliver flexible finance plans to their customers.
In our capacity as a financial institution, we help clinics like you to design and implement these kinds of solutions for your customers so they can access your services under favorable conditions. We work alongside you to figure out the best repayment terms that are suitable for your patients so that they find your finance plans attractive.
As a financial institution led by a close-knit family, we are grounded in solid morals and values that emphasize empathy and understanding above all else. For that reason, not only do we craft patient-centered financial solutions, we also ensure that you get the financial capital you need in record time.
As soon as a customer has confirmed their order with your clinic, we release the full amount of the service payment to you while we handle the repayment process directly with your patient.
With TIC, offering flexible finance plans is easy and helps you to reel in more patients and grow your business.
Schedule a strategy call with us and one of our team members will help you get started.
Boost Customer Referrals
Another solid way to increase your patient numbers is to combine flexible finance plans with tactics to increase the chances that your patients will refer others to your clinic.
Referrals are a free form of marketing that all clinics should take advantage of. One of the easiest and most natural ways to boost your referral rate is to offer consistently great services. However, in these times, that can only get you so far.
Instead, give your patients an incentive that will make them want to actively participate in referral campaigns. A classic example would be to offer patients a $25 Amazon gift card for every patient referral they send your way.
That way, they are more likely to be engaged in the referral process since they understand there is a possibility of a reward.
Offer Discount On Future Service Orders
In addition to flexible finance plans and a strong referral campaign, a tried and proven way to increase the number of patients a clinic pulls in is to give a discount to existing patients on future services they may be interested in.
This practice operates on the same principle as customer referrals. The logic is that presenting patients with an incentive or attractive reward encourages them to want to leverage your clinic for future services.
it is well known in business that it is more financially viable to maintain an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one. Therefore, being able to entice a patient who has already used your services with a discount will be more cost-effective than it would be to lose that patient and acquire a new one.
Granted, this does not mean that you should abandon efforts for new customer acquisition. It simply means that by emphasizing retaining customers, you will also see an increase in service orders at an overall lower acquisition cost since they are already existing patients.
Partner With Time Investment Company Today
All in all, there are a few solid practices that you can put in place to help secure more patients and increase your clinic's service orders.
Offering finance plans is one of the best ways to reel in more customers. Not only are you providing them with an opportunity to access your services at an affordable rate, but you also show them that you care about their well-being, thus boosting customer engagement and thus encouraging them to leverage your clinic.
Time Investment Company can help you deliver the flexible finance plans that you need to attract more patients to your clinic.
Don't forget to set up a strategy call with us to come one step closer to achieving the growth you know your clinic deserves.
