10 Ways To Improve Your Patient Experience – For Medical Centres

When you fly an airline such as Qantas, the reality is they don’t really give a toss whether you have a good experience or not. The same goes for the local medical centre. Not only is it impossible to get an appointment when you are sick, it is equally as impossible to get someone just to pick up the telephone. When asked why it is so hard to pick up the phone when you ring  rather than being left on hold, the answer usually is simple… we’re busy.

So, Medical Centres, please lift your game. Here are 10 ways you can improve your marketing immediately and increase patient satisifaction;

1. Answer the telephone! And if you can’t answer the telephone, find other ways in which your patients can make their appointments like using www.clinicconnect.com.au
2. Be polite – afterall, we are your patients (i.e. customers) and one day, there will be competition out there where service is important
3. If you bulk bill, keep our Medical details on file, just in case we don’t remember our card, or our dog has chewed it, or we have lost it
4. Keep your receptions clean – seriously, there are so many Doctors waiting rooms that are filthy that it is disgusting
5. Remind your customers when they need to come for their annual checkup – its the cost of a postage stamp, envelope and a piece of paper and let’s face it, it will make you money if your customers come in when they should
6. Say thank you when you have finished your consultation, afterall, you just made money out of your patient and they deserve to be thanked
7. Remember Patients birthday’s – yes, not hard for you to do as you do have their birth dates on file and it is a way of making them feel special and in turn marketing your Medical Centre
8. Have a logo that is consistent on the front of your building, on your business cards and on invoices
9. Have a website – yes, get with the times and have a website and whilst you are at it – let us book our appointment with you online – afterall, I can book flights, my dogs grooming, a facial, a massage – all online – and for some reason, Medical Centres just haven’t gotten with the times and done the same
10. Teach your staff to service your patients better – make the experience one to remember because you give both good news and bad news and their comfort and trust is imperative. Try epoch Australia in Sydney – they are great at coaching staff how to communicate better.

I have been hung up on, left on hold and told that I couldn’t have an appointment for days from Medical Centres and to be totally honest, I don’t know how they survive.

In the real corporate world of the service industry, you would have to close shop if you did this – so why do we let Medical Centres get away with it. Please Medical Centres, read this : 10 Ways To Improve Your Patient Experience – and do one item at a time.

If you have experienced any of the above – then please make comment!