Any time your patient volume goes up, it’s a good feeling!
And many clinics are feeling that now as vaccines increase consumer confidence…
…But how often have you experienced an uptrend only to watch it drop in the following weeks & months?
That’s a rollercoaster nobody wants to ride.
Thankfully…
There are some key actions you can take as an owner or a marketer that will allow you to leverage the temporary success of an uptrend, avoid sudden volume drops, and even turn it into a consistent new normal!
Let’s take a look at how your clinic can make the most of this post-pandemic economy:
5 Little-known Rules To Keep Uptrends Going, Avoid “Patient Volume Rollercoasters,” And Guarantee Your New Normal Is A Success
The first thing to know is there are 2 different stages of uptrends your clinic could experience.
The steps you take are different for each, so start here:
The 2 Stages of Uptrends (and which you are in)
Are you experiencing recovery? Or is it improvement?
The actions you take MUST be different in each stage or your uptrend could come crashing down again.
Here’s how to tell:
Recovery is when you experienced a dip but now things are going back in the direction of normal. You’re not at normal yet but you’re in better shape than you have been recently.
- How to turn recovery into improvement:
- Cash flow is crucially important. Keep cash cycles short and coming in.
- Marketing outflow generates new patient inflow. Invest in your marketing.
- Leverage your past patient list. Make calls, emails, texts, and opportunities to check in to see how they are doing.
- Work on communication outflow actions– like extra reports to physicians and calls to past patients–while working on your long-term marketing strategy.
- Leverage current patients to generate online reviews by asking for them in the clinic.
Recovery is like a patient who is regaining mobility after surgery–but who isn’t back to normal yet!
Improvement is an uptrend that actually exceeds normal several months or weeks in a row.
- How to keep improvement steady/going up:
- Keep successful marketing actions in while carefully adding new actions.
- Don’t throttle back on your marketing! This is the most common mistake owners make when business is good.
- Find ways to meet new demands – new staff, space additions, or being creative with your schedule. Just DON’T STOP MARKETING!
- Make sure your marketing budget keeps pace with your gross revenue. Your marketing budget should be around 8% of your gross revenue.
- Re-invest in your practice’s ability to generate new revenue.
Improvement is like a patient who now has less pain and more mobility than they had before surgery!
The Common Thread: Don’t Coast When Volume Trends Up!
Taking your foot off the gas will lead to patient volume crashing right back down again in the next 3-8 weeks.
Get off the rollercoaster!
Put yourself in the driver’s seat and invest steadily more into what’s working to ensure your long-term success.