Patient Loyalty - What is "Patient Experience"

INTRODUCTION:

In previous editions of patient loyalty blogs, we had discussed why patient loyalty is critical for the growth of a dental practice and how various forces work against attaining the optimal patient loyalty. In this blog, I'm going to discuss the "patient experience" a most critical driver to patient loyalty and patient retention.

We had used Life Time Value (LTV) of a patient to show the magnitude of a loss in a practice revenue, which makes patient retention an extremely critical key performance indicator (KPI) for the growth of a new dental practice.

Pricing (cost of treatment), Quality (of treatment) and Experience are the primary drivers of patient loyalty. However, pricing and quality are eroded (read previous blog for why?) leaving us the only option of "patient experience".

How do you develop a consistent "Patient Experience", which can help with loyalty?

The experience consist of various aspects from the time patient thinks of going to dentist or makes an appointment to getting treated and paying bills. These various interactions are foundation of a patient's over-all experience, which then translates into patient loyalty.

The experience of patient begins much before patient's visit, i.e. search practice online, browsing website, booking appointment online, phone call, etc. How do we manage virtual experience?

Further, to accentuate the issue, when patient visits a practice, how to make sure that all interaction either at front-desk, during treatment and check-out are all consistent?

To summarize all aspects:

Before the Visit: a) awareness, b) online, c) other interactions (phone, text).

During the Visit: a) front-desk check-in, b) waiting, c) clinical care, d) patient education, e) check-out

After the Visit: a) post-appointment feedback, residual payments, and future visits

In economics, when a market saturates, the differentiating factor diminishes, i.e. most market competes on cost and quality. Hence, it is extremely critical for a new practice to differentiate through "experience" to attract and retain patients.

Let's look at hotel industry. How can Ritz Carlton maintain its patronage at much higher price point compared to others in industry? Because they manage "PATRON EXPERIENCE" as a CORE STRATEGY!

In a nutshell, the management of patient experience is a complex process. It needs a highly evolved and meticulous planning for each aspect of patient interaction.

CONCLUSION:

In summary, every new practice, must think about "experience" as a CORE driving strategy for a practice growth.

In my next blog, we will take wholistic approach to develop a template to create a consistent patient experience before, during and after the patient visit, which can help differentiate a new practice from its competition.

There are cloud dental solutions available in the dental market to manage before, during and after visits patient experience. tab32 is the only platform, which addresses the patient loyalty comprehensively within its cloud dental EHR platform.