Get More Patient Visits and Make Life Easier on Your Staff
Running your own physical therapy practice is extremely rewarding, but also challenging. Caring about patients is only part of the business. You have to hire the right staff. Build a profitable business. And to do all of that, you have to consistently attract patients. Physical therapy marketing technology can help.
The name of the game is no longer about physician referrals. Nowadays, people are searching for healthcare services online. It’s the perfect time to establish your online presence and use the power of physical therapy marketing to grow your practice.
Make marketing technology work for you. Leverage automation to improve your processes, so your team can spend less time on activities like following up with leads, and focus more time on delivering the best possible customer experience.
In this article, we are going to see how marketing technology can impact your business, and why you should embrace technology to increase your staff’s efficiency.
Identifying the Right Technology for You
Technology simplified our life, and keeps simplifying it with each passing day. What once took lots of people and inefficient processes can now be automated. Automatic systems aren’t prone to error—unlike humans—and free up people to work on higher value tasks.
You have likely had both good and bad experiences implementing new technologies in your practice. Learning a new system takes effort, and some are overly complex and time-consuming. One good rule-of-thumb for avoiding this problem is to identify technology that is designed specifically with the physical therapy practice in mind. These technologies have the best chance of integrating seamlessly with your existing processes and operations.
So what can technology do for your practice?
5 Benefits of Using Marketing Technology in Your Physical Therapy Practice
There are 5 main benefits to using marketing technology to increase your business’ efficiency:
You attract more patients
Technology simplifies the customer’s decision making process. If I have some sort of pain and I’m unsure if I should bother getting it checked out, the last thing I want to do is call 4 different practices to figure things out.
But if I regularly see educational advertisements from your practice about my condition, then I know to think of your practice when I’m in pain. I will think of you as the authority on the subject, and look up your practice when in need.
Relying on a single channel—be it referrals or ads—is risky. You never know when it will stop working. But with technology, you’ll build up multiple acquisition channels.
Make it easy for people to find you and get an appointment, and you’ll notice that your practice will grow on autopilot.
2) You convert more leads into paying patients
Nobody likes calling a physical therapy practice and finding a busy landline. People are used to setting up appointments online, where they can see a range of available hours. That way, they don’t have to plan their day around the visit but can pick a time that works best for them.
Plus, calling comes with other inefficiencies. Your front-desk operators could make mistakes when writing down customer information, or the call could drop at any moment. These moments are extremely frustrating for all parts, but technology like two-way texting can help you avoid them. A study conducted by Avochato showed that across all generations over two-thirds (69 percent) of respondents would prefer an unfamiliar company to contact them via text rather than a phone call. Research shows that 3 out of 4 consumers actually get frustrated when they can’t text a business back.
Imagine what could be possible with technology like an automatic messaging system. For example, a patient could call you, find a busy line, and get a text that suggests visiting your site to schedule an appointment. These types of process improvements can go a long way in helping get more patients in the door.
3. You can centralize lead and customer data
What we’ve seen from businesses all over the country, is that most are quite disorganized. They have customer data scattered through emails, drawers, and Excel sheets. That’s fine when you’re just getting started, but it gets confusing real quick.
This is particularly important in physical therapy marketing because your messaging determines how well your ad campaigns will perform. And it’s impossible to get the messaging right without in-depth knowledge of your customers.
But with technology, you can centralize your data in a single hub. No more wasting time and energy combing through your records to find your customers’ information. With Patient Demand Software, you can see all your leads with actionable guidance on who to follow up with and when. Your front desk will be grateful for this.
4) You gain a better understanding of what’s working and what’s not
Phone calls and traditional flyers have a huge weakness. They don’t give you any data on their effectiveness. Digital marketing solutions like ads and patient demand platforms solve this issue by giving you ROI intelligence and metrics tracking. Clear insights into marketing and staff performance allow you to ditch the spreadsheets and see the performance of your marketing efforts all in one place.
5) You improve employee satisfaction and make it easier to hire
Aside from preventing mistakes, your front desk operators have more intellectually stimulating tasks to do. Starting at spreadsheets all day is mind-numbing and time-consuming. It’s also a low-value activity that lowers their productivity.
Is your front desk spending most of their time on the phone booking appointments? That could easily be improved with technology.
Use QR codes to get people to book appointments from you. Redirect people to your website when you can have online forms to automate data collection. Automate Insurance eligibility verification.
All of these activities are performed by front desks of inefficient practices. But with a little investment in the right technologies, you can get computers to perform then. This will lift a huge weight off your front desk’s shoulders.
Since these people are the face of your practice, you want them to always be in top shape.
By automating processes, you free up lots of time that your staff can spend on more fruitful activities. They’ll also be more satisfied with their work because you’ll have lifted them from tasks that nobody enjoys doing.
The Big Picture: Why Technology Matters
Implementing a solid physical therapy marketing strategy will make your practice thrive. You’ll be able to open more offices, add more clinicians, and improve your practice value. There is something special about seeing your business grow.
You’re not only improving your patients’ lives, but you’ll also make your employees’ lives better. Everybody wins.
Technology, if used well, will drastically grow your practice. You can improve your services, attract more people who can benefit from your services, and streamline your processes. But, the key phrase is “if used well.” You need everyone who works in your practice to understand the advantage of using technology, and must be trained accordingly.
For physical therapy practices, technology can be looked at as a tool to improve your patients’ lives. If your patients are satisfied, they’ll gladly suggest your clinic to their peers, and become your best marketers.
It’s an investment for the future. Technology will turn your clinic into a sustainable business that grows on autopilot.
Are you interested in giving your business the boost it deserves? Request a demo today, and see how Patient Demand Software can help you make your practice thrive.
