How to turn your happy patients into your brand advocates?

"A proper service is worth a thousand referrals". In the world we live now, people crave decent services, but unfortunately, only some can manage to get them. Yes, we are surrounded by brands but only a countable few of them provide the service that the customers pay for and deserve. However, the companies that extend quality services, now also have the opportunity to leverage their customers' good experiences to grow.

Customers play a crucial part in marketing strategies and initiatives. In fact, they act as powerful tools of marketing. A good service provided to a particular customer can return countless rewards to the company.

This is found tremendously effective in all of the various industries that are seen thriving now, which includes the healthcare industry. The healthcare sector sees and takes care of patients, or people who are distressed physically, mentally, or both. The patients are, therefore, forever in need of good services. These services sprawl across a number of different processes or departments that are there in the medical practices.

However, happy patients, who are satisfied with their services never fail to show their loyalty to the respective practice that has earlier taken care of them. These patients often become inclined to visit the same healthcare unit and are also ready to refer others too to do the same, thereby turning into brand advocates.

What are brand advocates?

Brand advocates is a term used to refer to such persons who advocate a brand or speak favorably of a particular brand. The brand advocates hugely help in the marketing of the brand due to their extensive involvement in the word-of-mouth marketing of the brand. These brand advocates play a massive role in the overall marketing of the brand too because research states that the brand advocates are 83% more likely to share information about a particular brand than the average interet users. Besides, survey results claim that 54% of the advocates view sharing information as a form of relaxation.

Turning the customers into brand advocates is not a matter of days or weeks. Building brand advocates often take even more than that. However, it is also true that these brand advocates never fail to delight the brands and its owners, which includes the healthcare brands, medical units and practices.

Advantages of brand advocates!

Brand advocates help brands grow in all aspects that includes in popularity, revenue, number of customers it sees, and more. The patient advocates in the healthcare industry, have even more benefits for the providers.

Research says that 74% of the patients regard word of mouth marketing is a dominant factor that influences the purchasing decisions. This word of mouth marketing is greatly empowered by the patient brand advocates if they are provided the right care. Some of the prominent ups of brand advocates are:

• They help bring in low-cost means of marketing

• Brand advocates enhance marketing initiatives

• They bring in credibility

• Happy patients are often retained longer

• They help in attracting more patients

• Brand advocates multiply revenue of practices

• They help in widening the reach of the brand

• Brand advocates help measure the brand performance and increase it

• They help in organic marketing

How to create brand advocates?

The patients are not brand advocates right from the first place, and neither they turn out to be happy patients always and for every medical practice that operates. There are nunerous factors that are at work while caring for the patients and all of them must be in order to make patients happy so that they ultimately turn out to be brand advocates for a particular medical practice or healthcare unit.

If you are also associated with a healthcare unit or practice and you want to turn your patients into happy patients or brand advocates, then here are some effective strategies that you can follow to do so:

• Extend digtal experience to the patients - The patients are going online at a rapid pace, so much so that over 59% of the patients of the GenY group would even switch their providers if thy are not satisfied with the same. With this, it is important for the medical practices also to extend proper digital experiences to them. With improved medical office solutions, GrowPratice is offering the practices the best ways to embrace the digital solutions and extend the same to their patients.

• Turn the medical staffs/employees into brand ambassadors - The medical staff should first be happy, which would in turn, help them behave well and take care of the patients. This will further ensure they are satisfied and happy with optimum services.

• Enforce transparency - Over 65% of the patients think that the transparency of the cost of the healthcare services play a crucial role in influencing the patient experiences.

• Personalise the patient experiences - Personalised experiences is something that every patient want. This can be even more easy with GrowPractice's completely customised patient workflows.

• Introduce patient referral programs - Patient referal programs would simply delight the patients and would also help them gain significantly out of the referrals they do. Such referral programs can thus, bolster the marketing of the medical units and practices.

• Ask for patient feedback and reviews - Patient feedbacks and reviews cannot simply be missed out if you are looking to boost brand awareness and revenues. The patient feedbacks and reviews that the providers receive, help them gain insight into the patients' minds, and use the important insights and feedback received from the patients to grow their business both online and offline.

• Engage patients throughout the patients' journey - Patient engagement is of foremost importance for the medical providers operating in the healthcare industry. The engagement of the patients should always be monitored by medical staff, managers and practices, and improved. Such engagements can be further benefited by keeping the patients always in the loop, offering them effective reminders, engaging them with trending social media strategies, and more. GrowPractice has figured out smart and efficient two-way texting process that will help the patients stay informed and updated, thereby increasing their engagement and help them be brand advocates.

These are some simple strategies that can help the practices turn into brand advocates. When it comes to happy patients, they often turn out to be brand advocates for medical units and practices. However, even these patients need to be properly dealt with, and ensured that they are brand advocates.

How to create happy patients brand advocates?

They are the happy patients who eventually turn into brand advocates for medical units or practices. Now, if you have happy patients, whom you need to convert into brand advocates for your medical practice or healthcare unit, then here are some simply tips that you can follow:

Stay informed of the happy patients

Staying aware of the happy patients or the patients who are satisfied with the service your provide is something that should be done right at the first go. Knowing the patients who are happy should only be helping your practice further with advocating your brand. relationship is what the medical practices need. This becomes all the more crucial when it comes to happy patients, who are satisfied with the medical services they have received.

Ask feedback from them

Asking feedback and reviews from the patients who are happy with their services is crucial for the medical services. It is this step that will help them further verify whether they are truly happy and would be willing to refer your practice or reveal their satisfaction formally.

Pitch them for the referrals

If you find your happy patients, then you need not wait any long from pitching them for referrals. With the trend of patient referal programs that is on, referal bonus is what you can offer your happy patients in return of the word-of-mouth marketing you receive.

Create and distribute them fit content

Happy patients always need receive content that is meaningful, which the practices need to distribute them from time to time to keep them aware and help them pass the same to others as well. So, never miss out on the opportunity of distributing relevant content to the happy patients, which will bring you more patients who cannot stay from being attracted with the services. The distribution of content can be done via reminders, by using social media and more.

Extend them excellent services

A medical practice should never compromise on the quality of service it offers and more so when it comes to happy patients. This is because happy patients don't necessarily stay happy all the time. In fact, they can be disappointed even with the slightest sign of bad service. Nevertheless, maintaining a proper service for the happy patients would help them stay happy, and also would in turn, help them emerge as decent brand advocates.

Offer them discounted rates and other facilities

Offer discounts to your happy patients. This would make them happier, and help them look forward to even put a good word for your service. Offering discounts and numerous other benefits also work hugely in case of all patients and customers for the healthcare industry and beyond it.

Turning happy patients into brand advocates have never been easier than it is now. This s because GrowPractice is here to help all the medical practices that operate in this present era.

How is GrowPractice turning happy patients into amazing brand advocates?

GrowPractice is one of the most reputed medical office software providers that provides improved medical office, patient management and practice management software and systems, which ensures both the patients and the medical practices stay satisfied. Here are some additions that GrowPractice can bring to your practices:

• Easy medical software

• Smooth and secure services

• Software that are integratable

• Scalable software and systems

• Improved patient engagament software

• Efficient medical office software and products

• Customisable patient workflow

• Online patient appointments, check-ins and intakes

• Accurate billing software

• HIPAA-compliant solutions

• Easy payment facilities

• Improved patient satisfaction

• Advanced patient feedback and survey

So, what are you waiting for? Choose GrowPractice and turn your patients happy, and make them brand advocates at the flick of your fingers.