It is challenging to grow a business in the current economy, but you can do some specific things for medical practices. You may get more patients by choosing the right location, improving your marketing and branding efforts, and making great use of technology.
There are many ways to grow your medical practice, and we’ll explore them all in the following article.
1. Location, location, location
When you move your medical practice to a different area, you can stand out more. The area may have different demographics than the other areas you were in before and give you different types of patients. Also, depending on the city or town you are moving into, there may be less competition than other places you’ve looked at, which could also land you some good business.
For example, dentists who move into dental offices in luxury apartment buildings tend to succeed more because the people who live there have more money and are often making a lifestyle change. They may not be as invested in the community as they would if they were settled into a house or condo. Some new medical practices don’t find any clients after six months of being open.
Although your goal is to always grow your practice, this isn’t always going to happen overnight, so you will need to make the most of what you’ve got during those first few months. You will need to advertise and let people know that you are now in the area.
2. Marketing and branding
In this day and age, you can’t just set up a medical office and expect people to trickle in. You have to promote yourself as a business on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram. You must also post flyers around the neighborhood where you are located, send emails directly to patients who have asked for more information about your practice, talk about it at local events, etc. Also, put signs out front of your building so that people driving by can see them as they pass by. This will increase visibility for your new location.
3. Technology
You need all the technology you can get when you’re trying to grow your practice because it helps with efficiency and marketing efforts, especially if all of those efforts are made in an organized way. For example, you can use medical software to keep track of your appointments so that you don’t double book yourself. That way, there are no scheduling issues, and patients get seen when they want to be seen. Also, on the marketing end, platforms like SmartPages allow you to advertise online at the top of search engines like Google, which is another excellent place for people to see your name. There are different ways that technology can help grow your practice—make sure it’s effective and useful before deciding one route is better than another.
4. Promotions
In addition to new technology, people are always on the lookout for a deal, and they love promos and coupons. If you’re not offering specific discounts on your website, patients will go to one of your competitors for their business instead. You need to be active in promoting your medical practice so that not only do you get more patients, but those patients keep coming back as well. There’s nothing better than having someone as a customer as long as possible.
5. Healthy competition
In this day and age, there are many options for the consumer. They have a lot of freedom to take their business wherever they want. That being said, if you want to get more patients in your door, you need to know what the other medical practices around you are doing to provide a better service. If someone is going somewhere else because it’s closer or has free coffee in the waiting room, then your practice should at least have something similar or better to capture some of their clientele.
6. Your staff
Over time, employees will leave, and new ones will come in. It’s important that every employee who works in your office is well and feels like part of the team. The more cohesive your staff is, the better they will be at providing excellent customer service, and you will have a higher retention rate of patients. This will also mean that existing patients feel comfortable coming back to see their familiar faces and may even refer friends and family members who need medical care.
If you are looking for new ways to grow your medical practice, many strategies can help. Whether it’s branding and marketing efforts or smartly utilizing the latest technology, making sure all of these initiatives work together will make growing your business easier—and more likely.