Create Patients for Life

In Part 2  of this series on…

How To Systematically Build A Multimillion Dollar Clinic That Is Highly Sellable . . . Working Way Less…

we discussed how to Increase Referrals.

In Success Key Part 3, we’ll tackle Creating Patients for Life.

When I speak to health professionals, I always ask, “How many of your patients will have reoccurring issues after you successfully work with them?” The answer is almost always 80–90%. If that is true, then it is important to have systems in place that support them over time.

Think about it: A dentist can successfully clean your teeth and correct an issue in PART of your mouth but failing to go back and see them will clearly create quality of life issues, right?

Getting “patients” to become “lifetime patients” involves having 3 systems in place. Yes, I use that term “systems” a lot because without “locking in behavior” any positive results will surely fade with time.

• System 1 – The 1^st Client Visit: Top clinics consistently have extremely high conversion rates from the initial patient visit to memberships or personal training plans that involve 12, 24, or even 50+ sessions. Skillfully getting patients to understand the process required to help correct years of likely poor habits by them is important to success.

The Critical 3: What I have observed is that clinics that have a low percentage of patients that make it past the 3^rd session earn significantly less than those that have a higher percentage . . . and I am talking about 2–5 times more income.

Here is a simple homework assignment, one where the outcome will likely will surprise you. Evaluate where your patients fall out. What is the percentage that stop after one session? Three sessions? Four to seven? Etc. This will help you pinpoint where you have issues that you can correct.

A weak 1^st Patient Visit Process will kill average patient visits in its tracks.

• System 2 – The Patient Consistency: Getting the commitment by the patient at the intake is one thing; getting them to keep the commitment is quite another.

What I consistently observe is patients stop coming for care due to three primary reasons (and I don’t buy into the argument that it is the “money”):

1. They feel better.
2. They feel worse.
3. They plateau and notice no improvement.

Each of these can lead to patients stopping. Therefore, having a system of process to address each of these reasons is critical. This can involve, among other things, timely emails and quick assessments each visit to spot these issues. Failure to spot these three in clients will result in significantly fewer average patient visits.

• System 3 – The Long-Term Program: Once again, you likely know about this and even have something in place, but if it is not systematic, the conversion rate from the initial training plan to long term will be far less than it should, and the consistency of clients staying for long term will underperform as well.

To create this, you need systems and the right environment, community, and encouragement in place to make “long term” an almost automatic for patients, even when they are getting offers from other facilities or have friends encouraging them to make a change.

Focus on these three systems and watch your average patient conversion and retention increase.

Stay tuned for part 4 where we’ll conclude the series with How to Lock In Results.

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