You won’t outcompete your fellow physician or a competing virtual clinic on cost or technology, but you can beat them with your service. Focus on customer service!
Looking at Babylon’s recent demise, they stole a large chunk of the virtual market from competitors, but in the end, their customer service couldn’t retain their US Medicaid patients.
Proper bedside manner is necessary, but you don’t have to bend over backward for patients. However, they must know that you care – you won’t be pushed around, but you won’t dismiss them no matter how irrational they seem.
Bad Reviews Are Powerful
I’m fortunate to have a significant presence on the Google Local Guides scene, where my reviews always come to the top and are upvoted. This makes me a great asset or a major risk to a business.
After an A/C debacle in Long Beach, I recently took to Google Reviews and shared my experience. The business owner of this large A/C company sprung into action only to fall flat on his face because he didn’t have the customer service skills to do right by his clients.
Savvy clients will read all negative reviews. If the majority of it is about admin and logistics, they won’t care much and will still move forward with that physician.
A negative review, such as when the physician dismisses the patient, yells at them, is rude, or doesn’t call back, that’s really tough to recover from.
Good Reviews = Free Marketing
Good reviews are important, and you need to ask for them. The people at Medical Justice are the kings of this game, and with their incredibly fair pricing, it’s an asset to anyone with a private practice.
If your name and brand are easily discoverable online, any mention of you will easily lead back to your website. All the brands I have are unique, with a good online presence.
If someone says that their health has been better because of me and they appreciate that I’m caring, kind, and patient, that’s the best advertising you can get. No Google Ad will beat this.
Don’t Wait for a Negative Review
To focus on customer service, it’s necessary to be vigilant. It’s a good idea to solicit feedback halfway through any patient interaction. After the first visit and just randomly checking in with the patient can help you determine if they are perhaps dissatisfied with something.
I was hoping that my cholesterol would be perfect by now! I’ve done everything right and you told me it would go down with the medicaiton.
This is an easy one to address before it gets out of hand.
I’m sorry that I didn’t explain this better and I hear your frustration because your numbers aren’t where you thought they would be by now.
The important thing to consider here is that there was some improvement and the steps you have taken will decrease your risk drastically even if the numbers don’t show it. We always want to do what’s healthy and prioritize that action over anything that a lab might show us.
Let’s have you come in tomorrow and I want to sit down and really dive into the numbers together – would that be okay with you? Is there anything I can do right now that might help you out?
And I genuinely appreciate you sharing your frustation with me. I know it’s not easy. I hope that you know that it’s important to me that we communicate well and that you feel heard.
Reach out to Negative Reviewers
Someone may call your office and get the voicemail, and it’ll upset them enough to leave you a 1-star review. This isn’t your ideal client; other readers of these reviews will understand that.
But if a patient you know had a really bad fallout with you, it would be worthwhile to reach out to them to talk about their experience.
Tell them you appreciate their feedback and take ownership over the parts you did wrong, but also let them know what your intention was and how you helped them. Address their concerns without being defensive.
And finish by saying:
If after our conversation you feel any different about your online review I would greatly appreciate it if you could edit it. If you still think it’s fair I totally understand.
My goal is to attract patients to my practice and help them. Your feedback helped realize what I can do better and I want that to be something people can see online.
Practice Your Customer Rating Skills
It’s normal to write a 1-star review online when you have a terrible and frustrating experience. But don’t worry; once you cool down, you can return and be more thoughtful.
I write great reviews on Google, which is why I’m nearly at level 10 as a guide. It has helped me understand both sides – the customer and the business owner.
When writing an online review, address all factors that are important to you, your expectations, what you probably did wrong, where the business let you down, and what they could do better.
This is helpful because to focus on customer service, you’ll have to learn the facets of a good customer experience.