Getting New Patients. Retaining Existing Patients. More Annual Collections. These are the three most critical goals of every chiropractic practice. If you want to build a high-revenue generating chiropractic clinic, you will have to take care of your most significant assets: patients. Acquiring new patients is terrific, but retaining existing patients should be your primary focus.

Imagine this scenario:

The patient, Jack, comes in for his first appointment at the Chiro Clinic in San Francisco. Jack called the clinic to verify if they accept his insurance. The clinic said yes. He visits the clinic the next day after he verified it. The patient got treated by the provider, didn’t have to wait for long, the staff was friendly, and everything went smoothly. After the treatment, the front desk staff told Jack he owed a $15 copay and informed him he will receive his invoice over email and can pay via credit card, check, or cash during his next appointment. After a week, Jack receives an email from the Chiro Clinic with an invoice saying he owes $20 for his last appointment. Jack feels wronged as he was told he will only have to pay $15 for his first appointment. The clinic neither sent any clarification for the increased copay amount nor did they request any feedback on his experience. Jack, however, paid the $20 copay amount but never visited the clinic again.

There are four things that went wrong here:

1. The patient was not communicated with the correct copay amount during his first visit.

2. The patient was asked to pay in person during his next visit.

3.  The clinic neither called nor sent a text message requesting the patient’s feedback.

4.  One wrong experience resulted in the loss of a valuable patient for the clinic.

Not knowing what discourages your patients from coming back could result in a significant chiropractic patient retention problem on your hands.

In this blog, we will tell you 3 research-backed chiropractic patient retention steps that thousands of successful chiropractic offices are utilizing them as we speak.

1. Digital Interactions

A recent survey by Patient Engagement HIT shows that more patients are looking for the same kind of user experience they get in the consumer world—a convenient and easy digital interaction. Specifically, four in 10 patients in the survey said they’d be willing to pay more for more convenient care access and provider choice. Just like any other service—dining out, buying products, or booking a ride-share—your patients want their healthcare access just a few clicks away on their smartphone.

Technology can bridge that gap between patients’ expectations for easy digital interaction and your ability to deliver a more seamless and satisfying patient experience. Instead of having to reach out to you by phone or filling intake forms at your office, chiropractic software and tools can help patients to book appointments, check reminders, text questions, or submit intake forms digitally at their leisure. Overall, digital interactions through technology could lead to higher chiropractic patient retention.

2. Digital Communication

Patients invest most of their energy outside of your clinic and office hours which makes correspondence and engagement so significant. That’s where digital patient communication comes in. The large majority of patients want to receive digital communications like text and email over other patient communication methods, such as phone calls. Send appointment confirmations via email or SMS/text after patients have booked, and then send a reminder 2-days, 1-day, or minutes before a scheduled appointment. Patients are busy. They tend to forget about scheduling an appointment with their chiropractor once they start to feel good. We analyzed data and found that clinics that use patient reactivation software to recall inactive patients bring on average 35 patients.

Clinics using zHealth Patient Plus, a patient reactivation software, brought in on average 22 appointments from reactivated patients in a few months. After the visit, use thoughtful communication touch points to interact with patients to show them you value their feedback. Sending automated patient review requests via text shortly after a visit is the best time to get feedback, as the experience is still top of mind. If patients don’t share their reviews after the first request, sending a review reminder increases the chances of getting patients to submit a review. Our data shows clinics using zHealth Review Plus, a review automation software for chiropractors, get reviews from 46% of patients after the first Review Plus message. Even lower ratings (1-3) from patients can help improve the quality of your services and lead to happier patients (and better reviews) over time.

With zHealth Review Plus, you will get automated notifications when patients rate your clinic from 1-3 (out of 5) so you can talk with the patient and identify what resulted in the negative experience. Apart from reminders, recalls, and reviews, chiropractic clinics need to carefully communicate expectations, payment details, care instructions, and wait time in a way that patients understand. On-going communication via email or text message helps ensure care adherence and return visits.

3. Digital Payments

A study shows that one-third of healthcare consumers are unsatisfied with their provider’s digital billing process. 51% of patients say they either struggle to get out-of-pocket cost information from their provider or did not receive the payment information accurately. If 86 percent of patients say they would like to pay their bills online, but your clinic does not provide that option, then you’re only going to lower your collections and increase your accounts receivables. Writing a check and mailing in their payment or waiting at the front desk just to pay a $20 copay leaves patients frustrated. In an era of increasing competition, chiropractic practices can’t afford to lose patients frustrated by inefficient billing and payment processes. Automating all billing and patient payments in your practice will save time, headaches, and frustration from manually entering billing information for all parties involved. If you could save 40+ hours a month by simply automating your billing and enabling patients to pay online, wouldn’t you do that?

Conclusion

Change is never easy at any size practice but the shift to digital interactions, communications, and payments is a transition worth making. Patients will appreciate the modern experience you’re delivering, and your practice will reap the benefits of improved efficiencies, higher patient retention, and increased revenue.

Related Articles:

Unlock The Digital Front Door With Chiropractic Software

How to Get More Positive Reviews from Your Patients

The Key Customer Experience Aspects That are overlooked by Chiropradtors