Improve Your Clients' Experience And Optimize Your Health Clinic's Retention Rates

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Running a successful health clinic depends on your ability to retain clients so you can maintain a steady work load. Relying on drop-in and one-time clients tends to result in an unstable workflow that can negatively affect your expected profit margins. The key to retaining clients is ensuring that their experience while dealing with your clinic is a positive one from beginning to end.

Making your clients happy from the get-go helps ensure that they'll become regular patients – and there is a good chance that many of them will provide your clinic with free advertising in the form of word-of-mouth recommendations. Here are a few things you can do to improve your clients' experience and therefore optimize your clinic's retention rates as time goes on:

Implement Patient Experience Surveys

One of the best ways to make sure that the experience your clients have in your care is positive is to distribute patient experience surveys upon check-out. Surveys can help you gain information about things such as how patients feel about interacting with your staff, how long they tend to wait before being seen by a nurse or doctor, and how easy or complicated the admission process is. You can then use this information to make adjustments to your business processes and possibly even implement new policies that will improve client relations and expand relations between your patients and staff.

It's important to keep your surveys short and to the point so your patients aren't overwhelmed with the task. Consider having your staff ask clients to fill the surveys out before leaving for the day in order to maximize the number of responses that you get. You can also send your surveys out electronically through email to save some time and paper. If you plan to send the surveys home with patients or send them out online, you can increase response numbers by offering a small discount for their next service if they bring their survey back with them or return it electronically before their next scheduled appointment. For more online options, visit websites like opinion meter.com.

Use Color to Enhance the Environment

Another effective way to increase your patients' experience while visiting your clinic is to give the place an update with a few coats of paint. Because color has an impact on the moods and emotions of people, you'll find that you can turn your clinic into a comforting and inviting environment that your clients will feel good about returning to whenever they're in need of health care services. Consider creating a color scheme using two or three of the following options:

• Help lower blood pressure rates and create a calm, relaxing environment with the help of blue.
• Invoke some cheer and encourage a joyful mood using one or more shades of yellow.
• Bring some essence of the outdoors and create a stress-free atmosphere by implementing hues of green.
• Infuse some energy and excitement into the space by painting a wall or two with a dark shade of orange.

You don't have to paint all of your clinic's walls with bright colors in order to have an intended effect on your patients. Instead, focus on using the colors as enhancements and highlights by painting window frames and creating trim on neutral-colored walls. You can also introduce meaningful color enhancements with the use of curtains, throw pillows, artwork, area rugs, and furniture upholstery.

The methods and techniques outline here should make your clients feel welcome as soon as they walk in the door and make them feel cared about when they leave. This is sure to enhance their perception of your clinic, so they will be more likely to think of you whenever a need for healthcare comes up. 

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7 December 2015