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Clinics and practitioners spend a huge amount of time, effort and money attracting new clients and yet retention is often misunderstood, seen as unimportant or, because it involves asking some tricky questions, just ignored.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Is this short sighted or a good use of time?
Oh yes so short sighted! ! Invesp, conducted a survey and although not in our industry, the numbers still illustrate how a 100% focus on client acquisition is shortsighted:
Acquiring a new customer is five times as expensive as retaining an existing customer. So you’re spending five times more money to get each client £ in the till.
The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%. WOW! This stat blew me away, focusing on acquisition only is missing a huge opportunity.
"Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25-95%." And who doesn’t want increased profits.
Keeping your practice busy depends not only on delivering a memorable client experience and delivering results, but also on patients being satisfied with the care and service they receive. Patients will rate you on their entire experience in your practice, from that initial welcome as they walk in the door to your aftercare and post treatment follow up.
Do you have a retention issue?
It is critical that you monitor and understand your retention, so what % of your clients have been to you before. 60% is an average worth aiming for (of course you can always go higher!).
Who hasn’t returned?
Start thinking about the different groups these lapsed clients fall into, there could be a group who have been in for a consultation but haven’t bought anything, there could be people who were previously loyal but have suddenly stopped coming in (These guys need a phone call ASAP), or people who have come in once and never returned. All of these groups will need a different approach and strategy. Spend half an hour brainstorm all the different segments
Why haven’t they returned?
Next up, you need to work out why the people in the above brainstormed segments haven’t come back. This can be hard and you may find out some things you’d rather not know but you need to find out what has happened for these people. You need to look at whether you need to change things in your business from a process or staffing perspective (or any other).
Ways in which you can find out why they haven’t been back?
For people who have had a consult (recently) and have never followed up: call them, email them, ask for feedback directly, say that you are trying to improve your service and would love their valuable perspective.
For previously loyal clients who stopped suddenly - a personalized call from management goes a long way to show you care.
Set up post appointment survey / feedback forms to create a continuous feedback loop - how can you improve the experience?
Text messages - a simple yes / no question if they were happy with their appointment, follow up with any nos.
Never underestimate the power of the personal. Pick up that phone and talk to people. It could be awkward conversation so make sure you handle in a sensitive manner, things that could come up: unhappy with treatment but didn’t say anything, have moved, had a bad experience with you, felt they were treated badly, have chosen to go with someone else, money issues etc - the list is endless but all great client insight, all of this qualitative information is so valuable and can really help you improve your business - be all ears and take all this feedback on board - By the way, DO NOT get defensive! Do not justify any bad feedback, listen, learn and be contrite.
You could even add in an incentive to make people more willing to give you their time - complimentary mini treatments (which gives the massive bonus of getting them back into clinic!)
Putting the learnings into practise:
Change is difficult and implementing change with teams can be really tough, especially if the feedback has been hard to hear. Be clear on why you’re making the changes and what the benefits are of this and how much it can contribute to the bottom line. And lastly, don't forget the power of asking, ask your clients if things have improved, involve them, they'll certainly give it to you straight!