How to increase patient referrals?

Patient referrals are one of the most successful ways to attract more business. But, many healthcare marketers ignore referral marketing altogether. Whether you have a referral program in place or not, your medical practice has new patients coming in via word of mouth marketing. The following referral marketing strategies will help you increase referrals for your medical practice.

1. Make sure the timing is right: As with every healthcare marketing strategy, timing is critical when it comes to asking patients for referrals. Make sure to find the right moments when your patients are most likely to oblige you with a referral. You need to engage your patients when they are feeling the most satisfied with your services. That’s when you can channel that satisfaction into positive action.

2. Offer incentives for referrals: Not every patient wants incentives in return for referrals. Your most loyal patients will refer you simply because they feel you are the best. However, without offering incentives, you’ll be relying on the generosity of your patients. Adding rewards and incentives into the mix will help you get their attention, and offering the right incentives will encourage referrals on a much higher level.

3. Provide unmatched patient experiences: If you want to get your patients raving about your services, you have to work on enhancing their experiences with your brand. Go above and beyond, not just by exceeding your patients’ service expectations, but also by proving to be an indispensable and trustworthy resource for them. The case will then be made why your patients should tell their network about the excellent service you offer.