As an audiologist, you understand the importance of patient care. You know that if you treat your patients well, they will come back. If you treat them poorly, on the other hand, they aren’t likely to schedule another appointment with your office.
However, did you know that people crave not only good patient care, but also good customer engagement? And in this day and age, they want good customer engagement both in-office and online.
With this knowledge, you may want to evaluate how your office currently provides customer engagement. This concept must extend to your entire office and team, not just you as the audiologist. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you assess your hearing practice’s level of customer engagement:
- Does your office have social media pages?
- If so, do you regularly post on these pages?
- Do you respond to customer comments or questions on your social media pages?
- Do you respond to online patient reviews?
- Does your office team know patients by name when they come in for appointments?
- Does the staff have the patient’s information readily accessible?
- Do you and your team members remember any details about the patient that can make conversation more personal?
- Do you send your patients a message or a card for their birthday or holidays?
- Do you hold events that patients are invited to, or do you participate in community events as a practice?
- When a potential new patient contacts the office, are they treated in a courteous manner and allowed to express any personal preferences about their appointment or treatment?
Give yourself one point for every question that you answered “yes” to. If you scored below 5, you may need to reassess the way your office engages with customers and see what more you can do. You may wish to use the points above as inspiration for ways to improve customer engagement.
The benefits of good customer engagement are myriad. Here are just two of the top benefits of engaging with your customers in an effective way:
- More new patients – New patients are often the result of marketing and word-of-mouth referrals. If your online presence and marketing demonstrate a high level of customer engagement, potential patients are more likely to choose your office. And of course, if your current patients can provide a glowing recommendation based on how your office has engaged with them, you are more likely to gain new patients through their referrals.
- More returning patients – It’s no secret that when patients are treated well, they are more likely to come back. Even if you know a customer is satisfied with the care you provide, go the extra mile to engage with them. For example, if a patient leaves you an online review, respond to them (whether the review was positive or negative). A recent study revealed that over 50% of customers expect a company response to their online review within one week, but most do not receive a response at all. Be the one who goes above and beyond.
Now that you understand the importance of exceptional customer engagement—while your patient is both inside and outside of your office—get out there and provide the high level of care and engagement that keeps people coming back for more. To learn more about how you can engage your customers, especially in the online world, please contact us today at AudiologyPlus.