5 Side Effects of Poor Patient Service

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5 Side Effects of Poor Patient Service
Patient service is arguably the most critical
aspect of your medical practice to get
right. Outstanding patient service can overcome
poor marketing, but it is incredibly difficult
(and expensive) to replace poor patient service
with even the most exceptional, delightful
healthcare marketing. Inbound marketing is
patient-focused and inherently aids patient
service, but that does not mean medical practices
who use it cant be guilty of bad service
experiences. Top Side Effects of Poor Patient
Service 1 A damaged online reputation 2 Leads do
not convert 3 Your patients lifetime value drops
4 You lose skilled staff 5 You enter a
profit-sucking cycle Of course, good patient
service is often up for interpretation. It is
reasonable for small mistakes to happen or to
encounter patients who are difficult to deal
with. Often there are little bumps in the road,
which do not constitute lousy patient service.
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• However, the following situations are usually
  considered unacceptable
• Long wait times and response times
• Poor attention to detail
• Medical practice reps with lack of experience and
  knowledge
• Unprofessional and impersonal interactions
• Medical practices that are guilty of these
  inferior patient service traits often face
  negative consequences many of which are
  impossible to overcome and can lead to the
  medical practices failure.
• But the good news is that even the worst patient
  service practices can be fixed without causing
  any significant damage to your healthcare brand,
  assuming you take swift action.

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Lets discuss five dangerous side effects of
inadequate patient service and what healthcare
marketers can do to reverse their negative
impact 1. A Damaged Online Reputation Your
healthcare brands online reputation is
incredibly valuable, and it is not something you
want to damage or lose control of. However,
especially in this digital age, your online
reputation is the first thing to take a hit when
you have several instances of unsatisfactory
patient service. Patients are quick to write
negative reviews online when they have a terrible
experience with a medical practice. In addition
to leaving critical reviews, patients vent their
frustrations on social networks for the entire
world to see. In a recent study, 95 percent of
respondents said they usually tell at least one
other person about a lousy service experience
with a brand, while 54 percent said they share it
with at least five different people. Now, in case
you think existing and potential patients are not
reading reviews or searching for discussions
about healthcare brands on social networks, the
same study found that 88 percent of respondents
have been influenced by reviews when making a
buying decision. This means a decrease in overall
sales, but more importantly, a significant
reduction in word-of-mouth marketing arguably
one of the most valuable marketing outlets a
brand can have. How Can You Minimize the
Damage? Have a crucial figure in your medical
practice reach out to those who have received
poor patient service to make changes.
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Responding publicly to bad reviews, accepting
responsibility for delivering a miserable
experience and informing the target audience that
you are making strides to resolve the issues can
do wonders for negative perspectives target
audience may have of your healthcare
brand. Always move this conversation to a
private discussion. Do not go back and forth
publicly because you might end up doing more
damage than good. After you have reached out to
the upset patient, resolve the problem
internally. Set a higher standard for patient
service and make it a top priority until it has
become a permanent fixture in your
operations. 2. Leads Do Not Convert Bad patient
service kills conversions. Although the term
patient service implies existing patients, all
interactions with potential patients can fall
into this category. Have you ever been ignored by
a brand? How frustrated were you? Now, imagine
what your prospects must be thinking when they
request some information and wait forever, or
when your staff is slow to respond. Patient
service departments have a negative perception
associated with them as a whole, so why not
surprise people with a positive
experience? Excellent patient service upfront
leaves an excellent first impression and gets
prospects excited about your medical
practice. How Can You Minimize the Damage? If
your medical practice staff doesnt use a CRM,
consider using one.
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• An effective CRM will help your staff respond to
  leads quickly, with the majority of the necessary
  information at their disposal, and enables you to
  keep track of every engagement that patients have
  had with your medical practice, in order to
  better serve them.
• Also, be sure to use an integrated approach that
  aligns healthcare marketing and patient volume
  goals. Having an integrated approach makes it
  easier for your marketers and patient service
  teams to deliver the best results.
• Your Patients Lifetime Value Drops
• By now, you are aware that acquiring new patients
  is more expensive than retaining existing ones.
  That is one of the many reasons why delivering
  excellent patient service is so important.
• Did you also know that 9 out of 10 people are
  willing to pay more to ensure an excellent
  service experience, and as many as 70 percent
  will continue to visit your brand if you resolve
  their complaints?
• While bad patient service can destroy your
  average patient lifetime value, putting more
  strain on your healthcare marketing budget to
  attract more patients, excellent patient service
  can save these relationships.
• How to Minimize the Damage?
• Develop a patient retention strategy that
  strengthens brand loyalty. Healthcare marketing
  can be used effectively to retain patients by
  providing
• Newsletters
• Webinars
• Informative videos and blogs
• FAQ pages

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• Discounted or free consultations
• Healthcare marketers often get caught up in
  focusing solely on patient acquisition when
  patient retention generally has a higher ROI.

4. You Lose Skilled Staff Bad patient service
has adverse side effects in all areas of medical
practice. Not only do you lose patients, but you
run the risk of losing your best employees.
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When your medical practice has a patient care
problem, your good employees are forced to pick
up the slack for average staff. This leads to
dissatisfaction from the employees you rely on
most. If your medical practice develops a bad
online reputation, your top performers may also
jump ship when they realize things are going
south. How to Minimize the Damage? Reward your
best employees and do not keep bad employees
around. Excellent patient service starts with a
unique organizational culture. When bad patient
service is frequent, your bad employees will not
feel incentivized to improve. However, a culture
where quick and professional patient service is
expected will set the bar higher for mediocre
employees. The positive side effect of a healthy
and encouraging organizational culture is that it
attracts trained employees and motivates them to
stick around, which improves all areas of your
practice, including patient care. 5. You Enter a
Profit-Sucking Cycle Bad patient service can
create a downward spiral for your profits. First,
your online reputation is damaged, and you start
losing new patients (especially from referrals),
then even your loyal patients begin to leave. At
this point, you are forced to either cut costs,
or do you double down on marketing to attract new
patients? If you cut costs, you still have to
improve your patient service through training,
which requires resources.
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On the other hand, trying to cover up for your
poor patient service with marketing might help
you attract new patients, but the problem will
only get worse with scale. How to Minimize the
Damage? Address problems with inadequate patient
service early and often. Conduct regular patient
surveys and monitor patient service KPIs. The
best way to address unsatisfactory patient
service is to prevent it, but the second-best way
is to get it fixed before it gets out of hand.
Front Desk Staff Training is the Prescription To
Alleviate the Side-Effects of Poor Patient Service
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Medical practice owners who stress the need to
make patients happy will succeed in building a
loyal patient base that results in higher
productivity, increased sales and a robust online
reputation. A notable service experience will
stick in the patients mind for a long time,
whether positive or negative. Poor patient
service will drive away patients, and they will
spread the negative word among family and
friends. Similarly, patients will remember a
positive service experience, which will keep them
coming back. To learn more about the front desk
staff customer service training and its impact on
patient experience, retention and practice
growth, contact the experts at Practice Builders.