THE PATIENT JOURNEY

Botulinum Toxin Club director Dr Harry Singh discusses the eight phases of the patient journey which, when implemented, will lead to more new business, increased retention of patients and create ‘fans’ of your clinic.

Thereare eight phases to the patient journey and in each of these phases, we need to excel and make the unremarkable remarkable. Each phase is as critical as the others; clinics fail when they solely focus on delivering outstanding care and pay less attention to what the patient feels and experiences before and post-treatment.

Let’s look at the eight phases of the patient journey individually:

1. A SSESS

At this phase, the patient will be deciding if they want to do business with you. They will be researching you via numerous channels, such as recommendations, search engines, review websites and social media.

How can you, at this phase, make yourself the best choice for them? The focus here is to meet them where they are. This is where ‘educational’ based marketing comes into its own, but this educational content needs to address their needs, so we will be talking/writing about the problems they want to solve. The patient understands their problem but is unaware of the best solution and most websites or promotional material talk about services and solutions. Take it back a step and talk about the problems and conditions you can solve for the patient. Make them see that you can help them achieve their goals and desires.

2. A DMIT

In this phase, the patient has decided you are the best solution to their problem and believes you can solve their condition. How you handle their enquiries is critical during this phase, whether it be by email, phone, walk-in or messaging on social media.

If you can master the following three aspects that the patient will be thinking about during this phase, then you will have a patient for life:

Know -How have you built up credibility with the patient? Like -What connections of similarity do you have with the patient? Trust -What social proof is available for the patient to see?

3. A FFIRM

The patient has made their appointment and there is a chance of buyer’s remorse creeping in. This is when they will be questioning whether they have made the right choice or not. We want to reaffirm that their decision is the best one for them, via a series of positive high-energy communications.

Make the unremarkable remarkable. You could send a congratulations/welcome letter/card either digitally or in the post.

The patient is taking a risk (in their minds) as you are a new provider for them. If you assume more risk than they are taking, they won’t back out of any recommendations. This is where a strong, reliable guarantee works wonders. There are three types of guarantees: product guarantee, service/experience guarantee, and results guarantee. Choose one of these and broadcast it everywhere.

4. ACTIVATE

In this phase, you are delivering the service. Managing patients’ expectations is critical in this phase and time must be spent asking questions and finding this information.

Questions will include: What are they hoping to achieve? Is it reasonable and can we deliver the results they want? What are their expectations? Are they realistic regarding the results they want? What is their timescale? When do they want the results by? Why have they chosen to address their concerns now? Have they got a major function, wedding anniversary, or birthday party coming up very soon? Treatment shouldn’t occur too close to a major event as the results may not be optimal and they could have potential side effects, as noted above. Do they have a budget in mind? If so, can the results be delivered within it? If they have had treatment previously from another practitioner, why have they changed? There are two reasons for this. Firstly, we want to know who they have seen. If it is someone respected locally that delivers outstanding results, then alarm bells will start ringing – if they are not happy with them, then they will have the same problem with their next clinician. Secondly, you want to avoid repeating the same mistakes the previous practitioner made, such as if they were rushed, if it hurt, if costs were not explained, if no review appointment was offered, etc.

Deliver energy, enthusiasm, engagement, emotion, and excitement at the start and during their visit to the clinic.

5. ACCLIMATE

Here the patient is experiencing your systems, the follow-up and what happens immediately after the visit: -Does the patient receive any post-treatment instructions verbally and digitally? -Are there any post-treatment calls to see how the patient is doing? -What out-of-hours service is available and is this communicated to the patients?

6. ACCOMPLISH

The patient achieves the result they wanted and accomplishes their initial goals.

This phase is subdivided into two parts:

1. The first is about the patient and looking at it from the patient’s point of view. We want to celebrate the result and reinforce the positive feelings they are experiencing. This could be as simple as a positive comment, or a gift, like flowers or chocolates.

2. The second is in relation to you. You can take advantage of this positive mood by asking for testimonials, reviews, and referrals.

7. ADOPT

How do you make the patient feel special after they have paid you? How do you bring them into your culture? How do you make them part of an exclusive community?

There are two ways I do this. Firstly, my patients are asked if they are happy to be added to our monthly educational newsletter. This is a simple way to keep Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA) and make patients feel part of our community.

Secondly, I hold monthly VIP Dinners for either top spenders and/or top referrers. A meal is booked at a local restaurant, and everything is paid for by us. It allows us to form deep relationships with our patients in an informal setting.

8. ADVOCATE

If you have followed all the above, this will lead naturally to the patient becoming your fan.

We know the power of word-of-mouth referrals and we want to lead and encourage our patients to refer others to us.

There are simple rules I live by that will encourage referrals from existing patients.

Rule 1 – If you deliver what the patients expect, they will return as regular patients. Rule 2 – If you deliver less than what the patient expects, they will go elsewhere. Rule 3 – If you deliver more than what the patient expects, they will return, and tell their family and friends about your service.

Before we looked at a systemised new referral process, it goes without saying that you need to have excellent clinical skills in facial aesthetics as a starting point. You need to deliver the ‘wow’ service, achieve exceptional results, and leave the patient in a better place than they started from. All this combined with culture and environment will transfer to referrals.

Once you have created the right environment, you need a systemic strategy to gain referrals. This is the strategy I use, broken down into four steps: 1. Name the system 2. What are the rewards? 3. Education – how will your patients find out about it? 4. Tracking – is it working?

IN CONCLUSION

Brainstorm with your team and devise a plan on how you can incorporate the eight phases of the patient journey. For each phase, there are six ways you can communicate: in person, by email, mail, phone, video, and by gift. You would not necessarily use all six, but vary the methods of communication for each phase.