First Impression: Have you ever wondered what patients think of your practice?

The initial stages of a patient’s journey begins from the time they hear about your practice. Maybe a family friend has recommended them or a referral from another clinician. Either way, it is incredibly important to get the initial steps right, from your website, to booking process, to when the patient arrives at the practice.

In today’s society, everything is a google search away and people research a business before enquiring further, so what are your Google Reviews saying about your business, are you responding to show you care about your patients’ feedback and concerns.

What information can patients gather from your website, can you see the services offered and fees associated, do you have a BOOK NOW button clearly on your webpage for ease of booking?

Having an efficient booking system in place will ease the burden of phone call contact at reception which is important to manage the administration workload.

Another great tool clinics are adopting is the use of Webchat software, patients can communicate with your teams to arrange appointments or ask questions that may not require a phone call.

Utilise your practice team to test out various platforms to see how user friendly they are, you need to remember for it to be effective, anyone needs to be able to use it.

Signage is imperative for marketing your business and for locality. This is a great way to attract New Patients and other healthcare professionals and businesses who want to collaborate. Is your signage visible from the street from multiple locations and directions?

Parking is important no matter what type of practice you are in, do you have parking onsite or street parking, and is that information relayed to your patients prior to arriving. Maybe this is part of the initial confirmation SMS that is sent to all New Patients or in a welcome email. This will ensure patients arrive on time for their appointment and will guarantee a smooth running of the practice and happy clinicians and patients.

Another important one to note is once a patient arrives, what is your check in process, be mindful that in busy times you may need a solution for patients; a tablet with the option to register their arrival or the ability for patients to do so on their own device.

Some questions to ask your practice team is what patients hear when they are waiting for their clinician or service, calming music can help patients stay relaxed and happy. A television in the waiting room could be a great opportunity to market your services within the practice or to advertise new clinicians commencing. It could also include a video about the practice and practice team to demonstrate the culture and vibe of the practice.

We consult with practices around minimising debt and debt recovery and some simple ways to mitigate this is in your layout and education to practice staff.

Ensuring your reception area is located at the front of the practice will significantly decrease patients’ ability to walk out and ensuring your administration team are free to take payments as a priority. The last thing you want is for patients to be in a rush and wait too long to be attended to and leave.

Another great strategy is at the end of a consult, the clinician could walk the patient out to the waiting area as they collect the next, this inadvertently ensures they don’t walk out without paying, this is also a great strategy for serial offenders.

It is all in the communication to the practice team to ensure they are aware of patients who don’t always remember to check out so an alert can be added to your PMS for the whole practice as a reminder.

In today’s competitive environment, often the difference between patients staying with your practice or transferring is based on the level of service that your business provides and the quality of care you are providing and the dealings they have with the practice staff. First impressions count.

These are all things that can be investigated when doing a Practice Review where we look at what you’re currently doing and what you could be doing to increase your impact and impressions.