Brand advocacy is essential in the healthcare industry. Period. Loyal patients bring regular revenue but also drive referrals. It is by far the most organic and cost-effective way to grow your patient base.<\/p>\n
But of course, feedback is a double-edged knife. On the one hand, it provides extremely relevant and actionable data for improving the patient experience. But negative public reviews can hurt your practice\u2019s reputation and ability to attract patients.<\/p>\n In fact, more Americans check online reviews<\/a> (90%) to evaluate physicians than asking friends or family (80%). So, it’s safe to say that understanding the key drivers behind such feedback is crucial to resolving the issues at hand.<\/p>\n So how can healthcare providers go about turning patients into brand advocates?<\/p>\n If you\u2019re going to make meaningful improvements to patient experience, you need to know what to change. That means data.<\/p>\n Collecting data and feedback from patients (or any type of customer) is remarkably straightforward. All you need to do is look online for reviews and ask questions directly.<\/p>\n Our favorite methods are:<\/p>\n What feedback are you looking for?<\/strong><\/p>\n You want to focus on feedback that is actionable. For example:<\/p>\n For most medical practices (especially family doctors and dentists), you\u2019ll want to focus on the patient experience. Areas like communication, appointment availability and reminders, wait times, staff interactions, quality of care, and amenities should be considered.<\/p>\n Look for this information in your reviews and social media, and build survey questions which dig into these areas. And of course, encourage patients<\/a> to share anything else they think is important \u2014 because there\u2019s always something surprising you haven\u2019t thought of.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t just blindly follow advice online or from peers. Vague directions like \u201cmake the practice more welcoming\u201d or \u201cbe more transparent\u201d aren\u2019t actionable. You also don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll fix your specific problems.<\/p>\n Thanks to your data-gathering diligence, you have a whole battery of exclusive patient feedback about your practice, physicians, and processes \u2014 so let\u2019s use that, shall we?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s your basic action plan<\/strong><\/p>\n Dive into your survey results, social media comments, and online reviews. Highlight everything to do with the patient experience.<\/p>\n Now group all the major observations within each category. For example, if numerous patients mention \u201cI had to wait 15-30 minutes past my appointment time,\u201d then you should group those together.<\/p>\n Once done, work with your practice team to prioritize this list. Then simply go through and create solutions to every problem and start systematically implementing them. In some cases, publicize the solution so patients realize you\u2019re making improvements.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t just focus on the negatives, either. Search for positive feedback in areas where you can double down. If patients love the medical leaflets available in the waiting room, or your digital appointment reminders, then you can make these even better.<\/p>\n Pay attention to the long-term effects<\/strong><\/p>\n Brand advocacy is not an overnight transformation.<\/p>\n You shouldn’t go asking for instant feedback on doctor interactions, for example. And you definitely shouldn\u2019t expect 1-2 changes to double your patient load overnight.<\/p>\n Instead, make these positive changes for 6 months and then analyze the effects. Run more surveys, check your social media, mine the latest reviews.<\/p>\n Because you\u2019re using real data from real patients, you are guaranteed to see success. When patients see how you\u2019ve acted on their feedback to create a better experience, they will:<\/p>\n Over the long term, you should be watching your bookings and new patient\/retention numbers \u2014 they will tell the real story. If those numbers are trending up, you know you\u2019re turning regular patients into advocates.<\/p>\n You might be thinking this all sounds a bit trivial. A bit simple. Well, creating brand advocates is<\/em> simple:<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the most explosive or trendy advice. It\u2019s advice that\u2019s been proven to work in every single industry.<\/p>\n Yet ironically, despite being absolutely contingent on positive patient experiences, healthcare businesses are the most reluctant to conduct this kind of work. After all, they have a lot on their plate already! But our survey and patient feedback tools<\/a> can take a ton of the pressure off and make this process as simple and effective as possible. Get in touch today<\/a> and let\u2019s talk about how we can build your army of healthcare advocates!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We live in the review era. Most of us check online reviews before going to a physician, and often go by what it says online. Any healthcare provider that\u2019s not proactively gathering feedback to curate the patient experience is digging their own shallow grave. Brand advocacy is essential in the healthcare industry. Period. Loyal patients bring regular revenue but also drive referrals. It is by far the most organic and cost-effective way to grow your patient base. But of course, feedback is a double-edged knife. On the one hand, it provides extremely relevant and actionable data for improving the patient experience. But negative public reviews can hurt your practice\u2019s reputation and ability to attract patients. In fact, more Americans check online reviews (90%) to evaluate physicians than asking friends or family (80%). So, it’s safe to say that understanding the key drivers behind such feedback is crucial to resolving the issues at hand. So how can healthcare providers go about turning patients into brand advocates? Start by gathering feedback from patients If you\u2019re going to make meaningful improvements to patient experience, you need to know what to change. That means data. Collecting data and feedback from patients (or any type of customer) is remarkably straightforward. All you need to do is look online for reviews and ask questions directly. Our favorite methods are: Run surveys and interviews \u2014 The power of surveys is that they\u2019re fast, customizable, and can be totally anonymous. This is where the most actionable feedback (the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":45534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,172],"tags":[272,893,254,650,975,721,720],"yoast_head":"\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/patty-brito-Y-3Dt0us7e0-unsplash.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nStart by gathering feedback from patients<\/h2>\n
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\nTry sending these immediately after visits (if it’s a successful outcome), or once a treatment is complete. Sending via email or SMS is usually best, but older patients will appreciate a paper form. Since healthcare tends to cover all ages, integrating both options would be smart. Then, take it to the next step by approaching your most vocal patients for short interviews. This is where you can dive deep and generate really powerful insights.<\/li>\n\n
Act on feedback to provide next-level patient experiences<\/h2>\n
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Make it easy on yourself<\/h2>\n
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