Are no-shows affecting your optometric practice? Providing your patient with the best care from check-in to check-out may be easier said than done. Working to give your patient an unforgettable experience will not only help decrease no-shows but may also lead to more positive online reviews.
If your practice is struggling to make a connection with your patients, consider trying some of these techniques for creating an unforgettable experience in your optometric practice.
Techniques For Strengthening The Patient Experience In Your Optometric Practice
Create A Welcoming Environment
One way you can provide your patients with an unforgettable experience is by creating a welcoming environment in your optometric practice. The goal in this is to make the patients feel comfortable as soon as they walk into your practice. One way to do this is to greet each patient with a smile when your patients enter; treating each one in a friendly, inviting manner. Another way to making your patient feel welcomed is to maintain a clean and inviting practice.
Decrease Wait Times
One of the biggest complaints from a patient is the wait time. If you can improve the wait time, then you can show your patients that you value their time and build upon a positive relationship in your optometric practice. To reduce the patient wait time, try to pull the patient’s insurance benefits before the exam and encourage the patient to fill out their paperwork through an online portal the day before.
Spend Quality Time With The Patient
Your patients have their choice in which eye care professional to go to. When they are in the exam chair, they want your focus to be on them, not on the computer screen. Instead of turning your back to your patient, use tablet-friendly, cloud-based optometry software to record a patient’s exam findings. Using a tablet for documentation will reduce the need to turn your back on the patient and will enable you to spend more quality time with the patient.
Improve Patient Communication
Effective communication is a vital factor in creating an unforgettable experience for your patients. Giving your patients multiple ways to communicate with you and your optometric practice staff can give you the edge that you need to keep your patients loyal to your practice. Using technology to improve communication can give you the ability to send recall messages to your patients through email, text messages, or phone calls depending on your patient’s preferred means of communication.
In addition to recall messages, effectively communicating insurance billing changes may help you avoid dealing with angry patients when discussing payment.
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Editor's Note: This blog was originally published on Dec. 21, 2017. It has been updated for relevance and richness of content on July 20, 2021.