The relationships you build with your patients are powerful. They are the basis of good word-of-mouth. You can say your practice is the best, but no one will listen until your patients start talking. How do you get your patients to start talking? Better than that, how do you get them to actively refer their friends and family to your practice? It takes real sales skills. You have to establish agreements, which is what sales is all about.
We have surveyed many private practice owners to find out how they built their practice, and the overwhelming answer is through word-of-mouth. When asked how they created the word-of-mouth, the majority said they do a really good job with their patients and hope the patients tell their doctors about the PT practice. Well, that’s a good start.
Unfortunately, that’s not enough to generate strong word-of-mouth that results in patient referrals. Patients consider excellent service a part of your job. So, when I ask, “What do you do to create goodwill, patient referrals and word-of-mouth, besides doing a good job with your patients?” The answer is usually, “Very little.”
You ABSOLUTELY have to get your name out there and that starts the foundation that gets you referrals.
When the patient is in your practice you MUST get RESULTS! It truly takes sales skills in order to have compliant patients who follow their treatment programs and understand why they are not to discharge themselves when they begin to feel better or their co-pay gets too steep. You have to be unreasonable about their reasons to quit their physical therapy prematurely and you push them through to get them FULLY rehabilitated. When you do you have a lifetime loyal patient!
A discovery I made early on is that patients who have been helped want to help in return. Sometimes PTs tell me that they feel funny asking their patients to refer others to them, but the thing to remember is that the patients who have been helped by you actually want to return the favor. You will find that you don’t usually get what you don’t ask for.
With that being said, I put together a webinar I think you will love. It’s called Attracting New Patients and I’m giving you insant access to it. This short webinar will help you get more new patients faster and easier. Watch it by clicking here —> https://ghl.ptpracticesuccess.com/ANP