Most doctors would love to have a steady stream of new patients to serve. Here are four strategies to start creating radical patient referrals.
1. Get out on the streets.
Engaging with your community is an excellent opportunity to create referrals. Teach a class or network with groups that allow you to demonstrate your talents and build credibility as a practitioner. Regularly create opportunities to present yourself as an expert through speaking engagements or being a guest on a local podcast. Potential patients will likely be in the audience.
2. Share valuable information.
First, prospective patients need to be able to find you online. A clean website with your profile, practice information and contact form is an essential part of attracting new patients. Next, it is crucial that you are creating and sharing valuable information through a blog or e-book on your website. This gives potential patients a chance to get to know and trust you. Make sure that the articles you create are written in a patient-friendly language, are well branded with your practice information and easy to share. Ask readers to share them with other people in their life. During your appointments, ask current patients if they read your recent article and if they know anyone who would benefit from reading it.
3. Simply ask.
You aren’t likely to get what you don’t ask for. Let your ideal patients know that you appreciate serving them and would love to meet other patients like them. Have referral cards in your treatment rooms that make it easy to share your information and services. Train your staff to ask about the significant people in your patients’ lives and invite them to make an appointment. Any time a patient has listed or spoken about a family member, make it a point to ask them about bringing this family member to your office. Make asking for referrals an intentional part of your day.
4. Use your transformation stories.
We all have patients who are extremely satisfied with our treatment and their results. Turn those successes into radical patient referrals. Here is the formula we use for creating referrals that get a response.
Outline for Creating Radical Patient Referrals:
Start with the acronym PERSON – Patient, Experience, Resolution, Success, Offer, Next.
- PATIENT – Describe the problem your patient or client faced.
- EXPERIENCE – Describe that client’s feelings, pains or consequences surrounding the problem.
- RESOLUTION – Describe clearly and concisely how you helped them.
- SUCCESS – What did/does your client say about their experience with you?
- OFFER – What do you want the person reading this to do next?
- NEXT – What is the reader’s call-to-action?
Sample:
Amy is a 48-year old perimenopausal female suffering from hot flashes, fatigue, weight gain, joint pain, and high blood pressure. Amy came to our office exhausted, frustrated, and desperate for a solution. We started Amy on the SHAPE ReClaimed program to reduce inflammation and supplemented with natural hormone replacement therapy to alleviate her symptoms. Here is what Amy had to say about her results:
“I can’t believe that I finally found a solution! After three years of feeling hopeless and miserable, I finally have my life back! I have lost 25 pounds, I sleep through the night, and my hot flashes and joint pain are gone. If it wasn’t for you and your team, I think I would have gone crazy. Thank you so much for giving me my life back!”
If you know someone who is suffering like Amy was, please let them know we are here to help. Forward this email to them or send us their name and email address, and we promise to take good care of them by reaching out.
Attracting more referrals starts with adding value to people’s lives and exceeding their expectations. Nothing creates more referrals than a satisfied customer.
If you need help creating radical referrals for your practice, contact us for a free consultation.
