Relationship marketing in healthcare has become vital to the success of doctors and hospitals across the country. Open lines of communication between doctors, staff, and patients build loyalty, increases trust and helps to increase profits. Patients, now more than ever, want to be involved in healthcare decisions that affect their lives. Relationship marketing is used in the healthcare industry to change opinions, fix misconceptions and provide better care for all in the long run.
Know Your Patients Well
Know your patients well and institute a patient first policy. Make sure you and the staff follow the patient first policy at all times. Your primary goal should be the healthcare and satisfaction of every single patient. Find ways to add value to a patient’s experience at your practice.
Welcome and ask for patient feedback as often as possible. Request that they complete survey cards after their appointment, on your website or over the phone. Take this feedback to heart and try to implement suggestions that would improve their experience.
Frequent Communication
Frequent communication is vital to relationship marketing in the healthcare industry. Listen to what your patients have to say, react to what they say and adapt to their suggestions. Encourage open communication between your practice and patients. Reach out to them frequently so they know you value their opinion and thoughts.
Open all lines of communication with your patients, including email, phone, social media, website and face-to-face discussion. Open communication helps build trust and loyalty among your patients to the point where they will recommend you to their family and friends.
Touch Human Emotion
You can succeed in relationship marketing by touching human emotion. Patients base their commitment to a doctor off of trust and their own satisfaction with your practice. Patients rely on doctors to solve their health issues, which means doctors have a moral obligation to faithfully represent their patients’ interests.
When a patient develops a serious condition, the doctor should show compassion when speaking and in their actions. Compassion helps patients know that the doctor actually cares about them and understands their situation. Doctors must provide patients with information that is unbiased, useful and scientifically correct.
Patient Engagement
Patient engagement is another aspect of relationship marketing in the healthcare industry. Instant communication has taken over just about every industry in the world because of social media. People have become accustomed to receiving a response to their questions almost immediately because of Facebook and Twitter.
Gone are the days of waiting to hear back from a doctor hours after reaching out. If you truly want to succeed in relationship marketing, patient engagement should be the main part of your practice’s operations. You should also have an active LinkedIn account and your practice’s website should have a blog that is updated at least weekly to keep patients informed of the medical world.
Relationship marketing in healthcare has become vital to the success of doctors, hospitals and urgent care centers across the globe. The more these entities engage with their patients, the more satisfied patients will be with them. Contact Vassallo Marketing today to discuss a blog marketing package that suits your company’s needs.