Utilizing strategic marketing strategies can help attract new patients to your optometric practice. However, one of the most effective, and cost-efficient ways to attract new patients to your practice is by leveraging word of mouth referrals from your existing patients. According to Kissmetrics, the average small business gets 60% of its business from referrals. And according to this article on business2community.com, 82% of Americans seek recommendations from friends and family when considering a purchase. But how can you get your patients to talk about your practice?
Below are ways to encourage patients to promote your practice to their peers.
How To Get Your Patient To Promote Your Optometric Practice
Ask
Perhaps the most obvious way to get your patients to promote your practice is to ask them. After you and your staff have administered quality care to the patient, or in a follow-up email, you can thank the patient for coming by and ask them if they would refer any friends or colleagues to your optometric practice.
Make it Easy
Whether you provide links in your newsletters, place ads on your website, or use photos in your optical shop that your patients can post to social media, you have to make it easy for your patients to refer friends and family to your practice. If you make it easy for your patients to make a referral or leave a review, then they are more likely to follow through.
Follow-up
If a new patient comes in from a referral, be sure to reach out to the patient that referred them to say thank you. Regardless of how easy you make it for your patients to promote your practice, you should follow-up and thank your patient when they go out of their way to say something positive about your practice. Try sending a personalized, hand-written note to thank the patient for recommending your practice. Doing so not only shows that you appreciate the effort that went into making the referral, but it also will encourage the patient to continue to promote your practice.
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