Guest Author: Eoin Moynihan
Today, we live virtually every aspect of our lives online through our phones, laptops or PCs: banking, utilities, social networks…even TV and cinema are now accessible via our phones!
Every time we interact with a brand or service provider, we are on a digital journey. This is equally true for Podiatry patients when they interact with your website, your email, your online advertising and more.
l look at the digital patient journey from first contact through to rebooking. I have split the journey into six stages: three before the appointment, the appointment itself and two after the appointment.
Stage 1 – Awareness & Interest
Our Podiatry patients when they interact with us are on a journey of care, but as paying customers, they are also on a customer journey. The key is to treat your patients with respect by nurturing both of these journeys.
Many Podiatry practices consider their patient’s digital journey being bookended by appointment confirmations at the start and reminders at the end. This approach is short-sighted and fails to take advantage of the data and digital assets at your practice’s disposal.
Your potential patient’s journey begins when they become aware of, and interested in, your clinic. Digital touchpoints at this stage could include social media, search advertising (organic search, PPC (pay-per-click), maps and ‘Near Me’ search campaigns), email and text campaigns, vlogs, podcasts, online videos, webinars and more.
Stage 2 – Building Credibility
Once a potential patient is aware of you, they will look for signs of trust, authority, credibility and likeability to reassure them that they are making the right choice by selecting your clinic. The potential patient may visit your website, browse your social media, read online Podiatry reviews and more.
It is important to recognise that these digital touchpoints enhance, or are enhanced by, traditional touchpoints such as word of mouth, press and radio advertising, PR and print media such as brochures and flyers. At their best, traditional and digital marketing work hand-in-hand.
With virtually every purchase journey starting with a Google search, and this search being ever more likely to be on a mobile phone, your patient will probably have experienced several digital touchpoints before they even phone in or book online.
Stage 3 – Pre-Appointment
Once you have converted a patient from an enquiry to a confirmed appointment the pre-appointment section of their digital journey begins. It is also at this appointment that practice management software such as Cliniko, PPS, Nookal and others come into their own.
Pre-appointment touchpoints can include appointment confirmations, appointment reminders, any necessary information such as new patient forms, Covid-19 safety procedures, welcome videos, map directions to the clinic and more.
These touchpoints build trust between the patient and the clinician even before the patient sets foot in your clinic. Knowing the person you are going to meet, even if only in the digital world, means the patient is more invested in their appointment and far less likely to cancel.
Emily Ball is Clinical Director of ‘Active Step Foot & Ankle Clinic’ in Hampshire:
‘Our pre-appointment cancellation rate dropped from 32% to less than 5% when we introduced a series of digital touch points prior to the appointment.’
Software packages such as Cliniq Apps integrate with practice management programmes like Cliniko. They allow you to send patient forms, provide a remote check-in function so you can manage the flow of patients into your clinic, and provide the reassurance that you are Covid-secure.
Stage 4 – The Podiatry Appointment
The appointment provides an opportunity to ensure the digital contact data you have for the patient is updated. You can also check to find out which digital communications channels the patient prefers to engage with.
Data quality is fundamental to running a successful digital patient journey programme.
Stage 5 – Post Appointment
The appointment is the starting point for building a deeper relationship with your patient.
Patient feedback requested and received with due care and respect, not only helps improve patient care but also builds on the trust established prior to and during the appointment. Your practice management software will, in most circumstances, allow you to automatically send feedback requests and other review tools such as Net Promoter Score surveys.
When the feedback is positive, you could ask the patient whether they would be willing to provide a review on Google, Facebook or some other platform. If there are suggestions as to how you can improve service delivery, you can use these to improve systems, processes and training.
You can also add value by automatically sending follow-up information relevant to the patient.
Stage 6 – Rebook & Reactivate Campaigns
Just last week I had a conversation with a practice owner who said:
‘I have over 10,000 email addresses and I do nothing with them.’
In my experience, most clinics incur marketing spend of between £5 and £25 to acquire a new patient. If, for example, you have a list of 1,000 lased or dormant patients and email them, a rebooking response rate of only 5% would generate 50 additional bookings. How much revenue would that generate for you?
A practice I worked with emailed their database of 2,054 lapsed patients. They had a reactivation rate of 2% and netted over £4,000 in revenue. A far more cost-effective approach than relying solely on new patient acquisition.
When I work with podiatry practices, I encourage them to send out three, six and twelve-month reactivation communications to lapsed patients – and that’s the minimum!
Clearly, such campaigns must comply with GDPR regulations.
I also advise practices to send out regular ‘conversation starter’ emails to their patients. This keeps your practice fresh in your patient’s mind and encourages them to champion you to their network of personal contacts.
In Summary…
Some practices shy away from reviewing their patients’ digital journey. This may be because they fear not knowing enough about digital communications channels; they may consider the patient/customer approach clashes with their perception of their roles as professional clinicians; they may not start because they fear what they may find!
If we operated in a vacuum, ignoring the patient digital journey would have no serious repercussions. However, we operate in highly competitive and changing times and the danger is that your competitors may have the temerity to treat the patient digital journey with the attention and respect it deserves.
Eoin Moynihan
eoin@activestep.co.uk
LinkedIn – eoinmoynihan
Clubhouse – @eoin.moynihan
Biography
Eoin graduated in Human Resource Management. He subsequently moved into learning and development as an Instructional Designer & Project Manager. For the past five years, Eoin has been Operations Director of successful podiatry practice. Taking the lessons learnt from personal experience, Eoin is now a consultant helping medical practices of all shapes and sizes to optimise their patients’ digital journey. Eoin has worked with many different practice software packages including Cliniko, Jane App, TM3, Nookal and Coreplus, and digital marketing apps like Cliniq Apps and Mailchimp.
Hi, I’m Anne Batty, Managing Director of Paperclip. I am passionate about customer service. I believe enduring relationships are built on being open, transparent and trustworthy.
I love questions. So, if you have a question relating to telephone answering – pricing, technical, scope and more – I would love to hear from you at anne@paperclip.co.uk or 01246 418181.
Paperclip’s clients enjoy working with us. I know you will too.