If you’re thinking – “How to get new chiropractic patients?” The answer is simple – “Provide the best patient experience”.
If you’re looking for ways to improve patient experience, engagement, communication, and satisfaction at your chiropractic practice, this guide is for you.
In this guide, you will learn:
- What is patient experience?
- How to enhance the patient experience
- Patient Journey Mapping
- Chiropractor Patient Communication Checklist
- Chiropractic Patient Retention
- Ways to Improve Patient Experience
- How Patient Experience Software can help you?
What is Chiropractic Patient Experience?
Patient experience, often referred to as chiropractic experience, encompasses a wide array of interactions that patients engage in with your chiropractic practice, spanning various stages of their journey. This holistic perspective involves their initial interactions before scheduling an appointment, the actual experience during their appointments and treatment sessions, and extends beyond to post-appointment follow-ups and ongoing care.
Your patients want a good experience. They want compassionate patient-centered care. Patients look for digital channels to communicate with your practice. They want convenience.
Recognizing the significance of patient experience management is pivotal in delivering comprehensive and high-quality chiropractic care. While offering exceptional chiropractic treatments remains paramount, the patient’s entire journey contributes to their overall perception of your practice. Timely appointment scheduling, seamless access to essential information, and effective communication channels all play a pivotal role in shaping patient experience.
Today’s patients seek more than just clinical excellence; they seek a positive and compassionate patient-centered experience during their chiropractic treatments. They desire not only effective adjustments but also a supportive and empathetic environment that caters to their individual needs and concerns. This emotional aspect of care leaves a lasting impact on patient satisfaction and loyalty.
In an era marked by digital connectivity, patients increasingly expect the convenience of digital channels for communication within the context of chiropractic care. These platforms allow them to easily reach out, schedule chiropractic appointments, receive updates, and seek clarifications about their treatment plans. This integration of technology not only streamlines processes but also aligns with the modern patient’s expectations for convenience and efficiency.
If you’re wondering how to get new chiropractic patients and maintain the loyalty of existing ones, you need to implement patient experience management strategies that encompass various aspects. Swiftly addressing patient concerns, fostering clear and open communication, and tailoring care plans to suit individual needs all play pivotal roles in elevating the overall experience. Moreover, involving patients in shared decision-making processes and taking their preferences into account adds an extra layer of enhancement to the patient journey throughout chiropractic treatments.
Chiropractors can learn about customer experience from other industries as well. An example is a fast food chain in California. If a customer wants to order food, they can simply go to their website, select what they want and pay on the website. As soon as the order is placed, the customer gets a text message confirming the order. In that message, it also says “Click here upon arrival for Curbside pickup….” With a link to click. In addition, as soon as the food is ready, the customer gets another notification “Your freshly made order is ready!” And then somebody walks out to the customer with their food.
What you want as a chiropractor is to delight your patients with a seamless patient experience that starts with them booking an appointment online and continues all the way after the appointment is complete.
Patients have some expectations from you. Meeting your patients’ needs will not only help you improve their experience and patient satisfaction levels but will also make your job easier and help you get the word out. How?
The reason is simple: positive chiropractic experience is directly linked to key success metrics for chiropractors. Before we answer how to improve patient experience, let us first understand how to attract new chiropractic patients and the terms, factors, and steps that you can take to achieve this goal.
Patient Journey Mapping
Patients today want more than just quality care. Patient Journey Mapping is a powerful approach to understand the patient’s perspective and uncover opportunities for improvement and innovation.
1. Getting Found
In today’s healthcare landscape, the internet is a huge tool. Patients increasingly turn to Google Search and Review Sites as their initial step in booking chiropractic appointments. Being visible during this online search phase is pivotal for drawing new patients to your practice. Utilizing platforms like Google, Yelp, and similar search engines and review sites is a robust strategy to reach patients actively seeking chiropractic treatment. So how to enhance the patient experience using review sites? Strategic optimization of your online presence on Google, Yelp, Facebook, and other review sites is crucial. Ensuring accurate practice information, showcasing positive patient testimonials, and promptly addressing inquiries can significantly influence patient impressions and foster a patient-centered environment.
2. Online Appointment & Reminders
According to an NRC Health survey, 80% of patients said they would switch providers for convenience factors alone. The online appointment booking feature in patient experience software is one of the important convenience factors for patients.
With an online appointment scheduling option, they get to select an available time slot that works best for them. Online appointment software paired with automated reminders can increase your appointment requests, free up essential staff time, and reduce no-shows.
3. Treatment and Patient Communication
Providing chiropractic treatment is your forte. There is a positive association between these four factors – the treatment you provide, good communication between you and your patients, patient experience management software, and care outcomes.
Good communication with your patients throughout their treatment journey is the cornerstone to delivering the best experience. When patients engage in their care they tend to have better outcomes and be healthier. With a secure and user-friendly Patient Portal, patients can communicate about their health problems, history, and other details with you online, thus maximizing your connection with patients.
Sending automated text and email reminders to patients for their upcoming or missed appointments is another way to communicate and stay connected well. Patients want convenient ways to book appointments and pay. Having an integrated patient portal, appointment scheduling, and payment platform in your chiropractic practice management software is a perfect way to improve patient communication and experience at your practice.
4. Patient Collections and Online Billing
Proactively discuss the estimated costs for the treatment and offer different payment options to keep patient satisfaction high and remain competitive in the market.
Chiropractors must accept insurance plans from their patients, and for patients who have no chiropractic insurance coverage, flexible payment programs like credit card processing and cash payment can be arranged. Email patient balances or send a text message to patients so they can pay online with zHealth Pay, payment processing and patient experience improvement software designed for chiropractors and wellness providers.
zHealth Software offers an iPad App for Cash Practices and integrates well with credit card payment processing system. You can bill insurance companies and submit claims with a few clicks.
5. Reputation Management
Patients evaluate a provider based on online reviews. Your online reputation is the first impression of your practice among potential patients. Positive reviews help you get found online when patients look for chiropractic treatment services.
Good patient experience will encourage patients to leave a positive review for your practice. Positive reviews will attract new patients and the cycle will continue. Evaluate software programs that integrate with chiropractic software to automate the process of obtaining positive reviews from patients you served.
How to Improve Chiropractor-Patient Communication?
Communication plays an important role in how you build trust, attract new patients, explain the philosophy of chiropractic, and establish a sense of connection between you and your patients.
Patient outcomes depend on successful communication. With effective and compassionate communication, you build a successful chiropractor-patient relationship, provide optimal patient care, and enhance the patient experience.
The communication checklist given here is developed with chiropractic practices in mind and incorporates points essential to achieve effective communication in the chiropractor-patient relationship.
What Is Chiropractic Patient Engagement?
There are many benefits of patient engagement in chiropractic practices. But why is patient engagement important to the success of your practice anyway?
Low patient engagement makes it hard to reach revenue goals. Engaged patients are more proactive about their health. When you connect with patients, there’s a good chance they will return to your practice for follow-ups and recommend your practice to friends and family. So how can you connect with and engage patients?
Reimagine the pre-visit experience. This includes (but is not limited to) discovering your practice and choosing to schedule an appointment, paperless check-in, and reducing wait times. Automate many routine communications channels with a patient experience management software system to improve each and every process prior to the patient visit.
Cater to patients’ needs with patient retention software to promote engagement before, during, and after the appointment. They don’t just want good treatment from you. Their needs extend to the way you educate them, collect payments from them, understand them, and communicate with them.
Improve face-to-face interactions with patients. Explain their condition and treatment in layman’s terms and suggest healthy habits they can follow.
Offer personalization to make them feel you care for them. Use patient engagement tools like automated patient reminders and an online scheduling tool to provide more personalization to your communications.
Send automated feedback reminders to patients via text message or email. Thank patients for positive reviews.
All these patient engagement strategies can collectively make a big difference in whether existing patients return to your practice and whether new patients choose your practice.
How to Improve Chiropractic Patient Retention?
It is more cost-effective to retain an existing patient than to attract a new one. When you retain a patient, they bring you more revenue over time with regular visits and word-of-mouth referrals. Retained patients are often the ones who are most satisfied with your chiropractic care services.
Your happy patients can be your best brand ambassadors. Satisfied patients who have an excellent experience are more likely to return and recommend your practice to others. So what are you doing to improve patient retention? What are the key initiatives you can take to retain more patients in your chiropractic practice?
Patient Retention Magnet
Remember these 7 retention magnets to improve your practice’s retention rate and keep your office full of happy patients.
- Communication equals connection
- Switch to an EHR system. Go paperless
- Listen, learn, and inform
- Improve the in-office experience
- Reduce wait times
- Be mindful of customer service
- Manage your online reputation
- Start using patient retention software
Now that you know how you can engage and retain more patients, it’s time to look into ways to sustain and grow your practice.
How to Improve Patient Experience
1. Be Found Online
If you want to know how to attract new chiropractic patients, you have to first assess your online visibility. Did you check where and how you appear online? On Google? On Yelp? On other review sites? Does your practice show up in other business directories and review sites? Can you be found on social media sites? Have you provided information about your practice and services with address and timings?
Patients are tech-savvy now. The information your practice puts forth online affects your impression among prospective patients. To further confirm if you’re the right chiropractor for them, they search for your website. Designing a website with patients in mind will help you build trust with patients and increase the chance of appointment requests.
2. Make It Easy to Book Appointments
Patients search for chiropractic services at their convenience when they get time, for instance, while going to their office, during lunch break, before going to bed, or while having their breakfast. Once they landed on your site after making a search online, they often look for an easy way to book an appointment as per their schedule. That’s where patient experience software will help you. You get a patient portal, online scheduling feature, and digital intake in one software to provide a top-notch patient experience.
If you want patients to feel confident that they’ve actually selected the right chiropractor, put patients in control of the way they can schedule an appointment. Your website should provide a convenient option to book appointments online at any time. A website with an online scheduling feature enables patients to conveniently book appointments at any time, instead of having to call during business hours.
Automating patient appointment booking not only helps to improve chiropractor patient engagement, but also helps you to maximize your practice’s productivity, reduce stress for your front-desk staff, save time, and get more appointment requests in a day.
Another way to positively affect patient experience is to send them reminders about their upcoming or missed or cancelled appointments. Here are a few ideas:
- Send Appointment Reminder: Send your patients a reminder the day before so that they don’t miss their appointments.
- Follow-up Reminder: Some of your patients may visit you every week, every month, or need to visit your practice after two months, sending them follow-up reminders will show you care for them. They will appreciate it and you may get another appointment booked.
- Missed Appointment Reminder: No-shows are not good for your practice. Sometimes, patients miss an appointment because of urgent work or other personal reasons. You could send a missed appointment alert with a notification of available slots.
3. Expedite the Patient Intake Process
Intake forms are tedious and take time. Patients take their time to carefully read consent forms. They will take 10-15 minutes to fill out the paperwork. On the other end of the spectrum, if patients fill out forms haphazardly without taking time, it will create an information gap between you and the patient. With paper intake forms, you only slow down your office.
Expedite the patient intake process by giving them the ability to view and fill out patient forms online before they visit your practice. They can fill out the form from the comfort of their homes. They won’t have to wait in the waiting room longer when they arrive and you can keep your office at the scheduled pace.
4. Minimize Wait Times
Long wait times not only frustrate your patients but also affect your practice’s efficiency. One of the easiest ways to improve the patient experience is to reduce wait times. Here are some ways for reducing patient wait times at your practice:
Start Using At-Home Patient Check-In: You can get an at-home patient check-in feature with chiropractic practice software. It helps to streamline patient data collection so they will be ready for an appointment as soon as they arrive at the office.
Use Chiropractic Software: With chiropractic practice management software, you can monitor patient flow in a day and restructure your workflow when necessary.
Pleasant Waiting Room Experience: If you have hired a front-desk staff or receptionist and using chiropractic practice software, they can together help you create a positive, personalized patient experience. The software will take care of online appointment bookings, so your staff won’t have to answer the telephone and schedule appointments. The staff can create a pleasant waiting room experience by greeting patients when they come and answering their questions if they have any.
5. Spend More Time with Patients
Enhance chiropractor patient engagement by prioritizing valuable interactions. When patients have ample time to communicate with providers, their satisfaction with the care experience often improves. To optimize the time you dedicate to patients, consider the following strategies.
Transitioning from manual to automated tools streamlines patient and practice record management, freeing up more time for patient interactions. Overwhelming administrative tasks and documentation can result in patient dissatisfaction and personal burnout. To maximize patient-facing time, initiate the care process well before their practice visit.
Implementing online patient intake forms reduces waiting times, ensuring prompt patient attention upon arrival. Utilizing an integrated online patient check-in feature within chiropractic practice software equips you with readily available information on your desktop or iPad during treatment sessions. This eliminates delays and elevates patient satisfaction levels, ultimately enhancing chiropractic patient engagement.
Use chiropractic SOAP note dictation software to document Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Treatment Plans during the patient conversation. With fully customizable SOAP note templates and dictation features, you will not have to keep looking down to take notes and give more time to concentrate on the patient in front of you.
Automating patient health documentation can be one of the most important ways to use patient experience software to improve patient care. From patient check-in, SOAP notes to billing, everything can be done automatically today to save more time and enhance the patient experience. ,” according to Sukhi Singh, CEO of zHealth Software.
6. Manage Online Reputation
With the increase in healthcare costs and competition in the chiropractic industry, patients often reassess their visits by analyzing – was the service delivered as promised, was it delivered with quality, and was it delivered at a fair price?
In today’s consumer-driven market, chiropractors need to focus on two goals – providing excellent care and running a profitable business. These two goals are interconnected through reputation management and patient experience.
According to a recent survey, 95 percent of patients – and 97 percent of millennials – find online ratings and reviews ‘somewhat’ to ‘very reliable.’ Therefore, managing your online reputation is crucial to improve the patient experience.
Your online reputation depends on several factors like average star rating, the total number of reviews, and frequency of reviews. An automated patient review software makes it easy for you to ask your patients for reviews.
Use patient experience improvement software to cultivate positive reviews on platforms such as Google, Yelp, and more. This can significantly amplify patient confidence and inspire them to schedule appointments. In return, your practice gains new patients who are already impressed with their initial perception of your chiropractic services. This strong beginning, combined with exceptional care, not only enhances the patient experience but also fuels the expansion of your practice.
7. Educate and Inform Patients
As the chiropractic industry is moving toward patient-centered care, practices need to focus on informing and educating patients on their conditions and treatment plans to foster better engagement. However, education goes beyond patient-chiropractor conversations within the office. Consider these four strategies for success:
- Take advantage of technology: Technology makes patient education materials more accessible. For instance, when patients fill their intake form online, they have more control on how to convey their problems to you. Print the patient SOAP notes with a click of a button in your chiropractic SOAP note software and hand out the printed file to them, so they can review their condition and treatment plan. Use one of the best patient experience software programs that allows you to send documents to the patient’s email address with one click.
- Stimulate patient interest: Establish rapport by asking questions, answering their queries, and considering specific patient concerns. Explain their conditions and treatment in layman’s terms. Utilize visual aids as often as possible.
- Include family members: Involving family members in patient teaching results in better care management.
- Inform them about different aspects of health care: Chiropractic patients often get treated for their musculoskeletal disorders. Some of the conditions like back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, etc. are a result of lifestyle choices and dietary habits. Tell them what precautions they need to take, how to follow a healthy lifestyle, and how they can improve their habits to prevent future problems. When you do that, patients realize you care for them and see you as a trustworthy source for health-related information.
Transform Your Patient Experience with zHealth
In the chiropractic industry, technological advancements are only getting better and more frequent.
Now is the best time for chiropractic practices to gain a better understanding of the patient experience. Technologies such as patient experience software programs can transform the way you deliver patient experience.
Audit your processes to find out which areas are affecting patient experience and satisfaction. Find out if your manual processes are turning them away from your chiropractic practice. Identify which areas of your practice workflow are affecting your productivity and profitability. It’s important to understand all of the points where patients may reach out for help and optimize workflow accordingly. By investing in patient experience improvement software, you can positively shape patient experiences.
Streamlined Patient Experience with zHealth Software Program
Incorporating advanced patient experience software programs such as zHealth brings a seamless flow to healthcare interactions. Providers and staff effortlessly curate a hassle-free experience for patients during their appointments. From swift registration and check-in processes to the meticulous tracking of interactions, all essential information finds its efficient home within the patient management system.
Enhancing Retention Through Feedback Collection
One crucial facet of patient experience management is ensuring robust patient retention. Patient experience improvement programs are designed to collect valuable feedback post-appointment, automatically. This feedback not only hints at potential retention and referrals but also plays a pivotal role in fine-tuning future patient experiences. Even negative feedback doesn’t go to waste, as it stands as an opportunity for improvement and helps mend relationships with dissatisfied patients.
Elevating Engagement with Personalized Communication
The heart of any successful patient experience lies in engagement. Achieving this is a core objective, which is met through personalized communication at every touchpoint. Patients today don’t merely seek access to their medical history; they also look forward to clinic communications that align seamlessly with their healthcare journey. By delivering relevant and well-timed communications, healthcare providers not only elevate the patient experience but also nurture positive patient relationships.
Seamless Integration for a Patient-Centric Approach
This patient-centric approach is seamlessly woven into chiropractic practices through real-time synchronization. The software integration empowers patients to access real-time appointment availability, facilitating swift scheduling. Furthermore, it enables the completion of HIPAA-compliant forms digitally, expedites post-appointment payments, and simplifies the process of booking follow-up care.
zHealth: Elevating Patient Retention and Satisfaction
At the core of this transformative process lies the commitment to optimizing patient experiences. zHealth patient experience software comes integrated with practice management software, so you can offer solutions like online patient scheduling, automated patient reminders, patient intake forms, online payments, and more to your patients.
FAQs on Chiropractic Patient Experience
Q: How to Increase Chiropractic Patient Retention?
A: In the chiropractic industry, retaining existing patients is essential for financial success. Patient retention drives better outcomes for patients and chiropractic practice growth. To increase chiropractic patient retention, your practice needs:
- Patient reactivation software – Engaging your inactive patients so that you stay top of mind will help generate a steady flow of reactivations. Patient reactivation software or recall software identifies patients who have not visited your practice for a while and sends them automated appointment reminder messages. Patients can easily book their appointments by clicking on the link in the recall message.
- Exceptional Patient Experience – Providing an exceptional patient experience at every touchpoint is one of the most important things you can do to immediately improve your patient retention. How to provide that exceptional experience? The answer is simple – start using patient experience improvement software. The software will help you provide your patients with the convenience of online appointment booking and online intake paperwork, which they can fill from any device, anytime. Minimize the wait times. Provide them with the access to their data and SOAP notes. Keep them engaged with birthday messages. Use 2-way texting to start conversations with patients. All of these are possible with patient experience management software.
For more information on how zHealth Software can accelerate your patient retention strategy, contact us at [email protected] or request a free demo here.
Q: Ways to Attract New Patients to Your Chiropractic Practice
A: Whether you have just started a new chiropractic practice or have been growing steadily for years, the most important part of practice growth is attracting new patients. At zHealth, we have worked with thousands of chiropractic practices and helped them grow their business. Here are some ways successful practices use to attract new patients:
- Provide a online appointment booking portal
- Manage online reviews and reputation
- Expand your service offerings with memberships
- Provide exceptional experiences to increase word-of-mouth referrals
- Serve local communities and expand your outreach
Q: How can I improve my chiropractic business?
A: At zHealth, we have worked with thousands of growing and successful chiropractic practices and here’s what they do to improve their chiropractic business.
- Use cloud-based chiropractic practice management software that is specifically designed for your unique needs.
- Use custom SOAP notes with voice dictation functionality to save time and serve patients better.
- Outsource your insurance billing if you want to save money and time and get paid faster.
- Manage your online reputation with automated patient review software.
- Automate and streamline your billing operations with chiropractic billing software.
- Enhance patient journey with online scheduling, digital patient intake, patient portal, and 2-way texting.
- Automate administrative tasks and save hours every week with chiropractic software.
- Engage existing patients with birthday messages, recall reminders, and missed appointment alerts.
- To know more about how you can improve your chiropractic business and grow your revenue, contact us at [email protected].
Q: How do chiropractors attract new patients?
A: For chiropractors who want to attract new patients and grow their practices, they need customized, comprehensive approach tailored to today’s patient needs. If your chiropractor practice want to start receiving an influx of new patients, try following these five steps to gain the attention of new consumers:
- Offer patients convenient options – Such as appointment self-scheduling, digital patient intake, and patient portal.
- Maintain a positive online reputation – Encourage patients to share their experiences in an online review with automated review software.
- Schedule follow-up appointments – Strengthen your practice’s overall patient loyalty by sending patient reactivation messages. Automate this process to save time.
- Expand your services – Offering contactless payment solution or membership benefits.
- Constantly engage patients – To continually stay connected with patients, your practice should start 2-way text messaging facility, provide telehealth services, and send automated reminders for upcoming visits or rescheduling missed appointments.
Need more help? Contact zHealth Software to learn how we helped chiropractic practices bring new patients and increase their income.
