It makes sense that most urgent cares today place a strong emphasis on acquiring new patients, and dedicate a majority of their urgent care marketing resources to doing so. But among your arsenal of urgent care marketing techniques, have you also considered the importance of nurturing relationships with repeat patients? All too often this is overlooked, despite it being an important factor in urgent care financial health.
But how do you foster loyalty? The truth is, patients are far more likely to stick around, make referrals, and return again and again when they feel valued, well cared for, and happy with their overall patient experience.
These days, investing in the patient experience — with an emphasis on effective communications — is a must for improving patient retention and securing financial success for your urgent care business.
The Undervalued Asset: Patient Retention in Urgent Care
By improving communication and engagement with repeat patients, urgent care clinics can significantly increase the Lifetime Value (LTV) of each patient.
To calculate LTV: Revenue per visit X Annual visits X years with clinic = patient LTV
Acquiring new patients is important, but when they return again and again, this encourages a steady and healthy stream of revenue for your urgent care. Of course predictable income isn’t the only thing you get from these return patients — they can also spread positive word-of-mouth about your clinic to their friends, family, and colleagues, helping you attract new patients.
What is Patient Retention for Urgent Care?
Patient retention in urgent care clinics is when patients return after previously visiting your clinic. The average clinic loses about 10-30% of patients every year. Over 5 years, about 50% of patients will move on to another provider. You can use these metrics as a baseline to track your own clinic's retention rate. As well as track how often patients decide to return to your clinic.
Analyzing Patient Retention Challenges
While patient retention is enormously valuable, it can also be extremely challenging to cultivate. Especially in today’s climate where patients are empowered with endless options and ultimately want simple, easy, and direct access to quality care. Often, when an urgent care has trouble retaining patients, it’s linked back to problems with the patient experience. For example, if patients regularly have long wait times this could cause poor reviews,
Many urgent cares excel at delivering high quality care, but when it comes to engaging patients through the entire patient journey, making patients feel valued, and improving the overall patient experience, urgent cares could do better.
One of the leading mistakes among urgent care marketing teams who struggle with patient retention is inadequate engagement and follow-up with patients. Patients are more likely to remain loyal to a brand when they have a positive experience, but if you’re not communicating with patients regularly and cultivating a meaningful relationship that encourages them to return, they might take their business elsewhere.
Digital communications solutions like text messaging patients can be particularly effective as you look to ramp up your communications strategy to encourage patient loyalty. Some urgent care centers are under the impression that they don’t have the time or resources to regularly communicate with patients. But by incorporating pre-built messaging campaigns designed specifically for the urgent care setting, you can followup with patients without taking a toll on team resources and time.
Urgent Care Marketing Ideas: Patient Retention Strategies
As you look to build patient loyalty and establish long-term relationships with new and existing patients, consider integrating a cross-channel patient communications strategy that includes, text messaging, email, social media, your website, and more. This will help you establish brand awareness and instill trust in your brand among patients.
The easier it is for patients to schedule appointments and access the care they’re looking for, the more likely they are to become loyal patients and recommend your business to others. Your communications strategy is an integral component in facilitating a streamlined experience at all points of the patient journey. For example, consider using SMS messaging to improve transparency and communications at all points along the patient journey. You can use texting to follow-up with patients, encourage them to make appointments, communicate paperless check-in options, send lab result notifications, offer updates on wait times, allow them to check their place on waitlists, offer ways to rebook appointments, and more.
Success Stories in Patient Retention
York Hospital, which sits just over the New Hampshire border in Maine, offers a great example of the success that can be achieved when a healthcare system focuses on the patient experience. he hospital system has been able to streamline operations, reduce costs, and attract and retain patients across all of its walk-in clinics.
York Hospital’s partnership with Solv, allows patients to easily view appointment availability and book appointments at all of the hospital’s walk-in centers. This helps the hospital system attract local patients and seasonal tourists in search of same-day care. Additionally, they have lowered door-to-door time to an average of 53 minutes, increased patient volume at each walk-in clinic by 25 patients per month, increased the number of positive patient reviews, all helping them improve overall patient loyalty.
“Solv helps us attract new patients and track those patients' behaviors,” said Dina Dellapasqua, administrator of walk-in services at York Hospital. “This is important because we are committed to providing a positive first encounter, ultimately encouraging these new patients to continue any future care within the York Hospital system.”
Key Takeaways
Establishing patient loyalty — and securing the steady stream of revenue that accompanies a vast base of repeat patients — is nearly impossible without prioritizing patient loyalty in your communications strategy. And this is absolutely something to fold into your urgent care marketing strategy this year. Fostering patient loyalty can be challenging in today’s healthcare climate where consumers are presented with endless choices, but upleveling your urgent care marketing strategy with digital communications solutions like text messaging can help streamline and expand your approach to patient engagement without straining your resources.
Discover more strategies to connect with your patients and enhance their lifetime value
