"Repetition makes reputation, and reputation makes customers." -Elizabeth Arden
When you treat people a certain way repeatedly, whether in business relationships or otherwise, they come to expect that treatment. Good or bad, this expectation becomes your reputation.
This is why business gurus will tell you that your business's reputation reflects your ability to consistently provide value and that an organization's reputation is the cornerstone of its long-term success.
What kind of reputation does your clinic have? Maybe you have a hunch based on off-the-cuff remarks or from a survey you distributed last year. But, without a standard metric and an ongoing process for measuring client happiness, it's almost impossible to say with any degree of certainty. And that, my friends, is where a Net Promoter Score Program can help.
Research by Bain & Company (one of the most prestigious business consultancy firms globally) shows the Net Promoter Score leaders outgrow their competitors in most industries – by an average of 2.5 times!
Research by Bain & Company shows the Net Promoter Score leaders outgrow their competitors in most industries – by an average of 2.5 times!
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If you're not already familiar with Net Promoter Score (NPS), here's a quick summary of how it works. You ask your patients two standard questions:
- "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our clinic to a friends or family member?"
- “What is the main reason for your score?"
Patient responses are then categorized into three groups:
- "Promoters" (loyal) score 9 or 10;
- "Passives" (satisfied, but not loyal) score 7 or 8; and
- "Detractors" (dissatisfied) score 0 to 6.
To calculate your NPS, simply take the percentage of Promoters and subtract the percentage of Detractors:
NPS = % Promoters - % Detractors
(Tip: The average NPS score for rehabilitation therapy practices is 84).
About 5 years ago, I randomly walked into a Club Monaco store underdressed and unprepared to spend a nickel on new clothing.
While I was browsing their jewelry assortment, a sales associate approached me. She encouraged me to try on the bracelet I had my eye on. Before I could say no, she had already put the bracelet on my wrist. She was friendly and disarming in her approach, and she put me at ease. Then she took the time to get to know my colour preferences and asked me where my style inspiration came from. At the time it was actually Robin Wright's character from House of Cards, Claire Underwood.
The next thing I knew, I was walking out of the changing room in business attire hand-selected just for me and fit for Mrs. Underwood.
Needless to say, I left the store with three full bags that afternoon. To this day, it was the best retail and customer service experience I have ever witnessed.
This sales rep nailed every aspect of the client experience, from Discovery to Evaluation, Purchase, and Use/Experience, to develop a bond with their brand. In transactional (or POS) business models, nailing these phases of the client experience will almost always guarantee you've earned a happy client and likely a loyal repeat customer.
But there's a 7th and final phase of the client experience that Club Monaco and most businesses miss entirely that is equally applicable to the patient experience. And it's a huge lost opportunity for scaling your clinic —mobilizing brand advocacy. I never heard from Club Monaco personally after I left that day. Their company will never know they made me feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman walking out of their shop, and neither will the rest of the world. Little did they know I would have enthusiastically written a glowing review and spread the word to my circle of family and friends given the right communication forum.
The lesson here: Delight your clients and they will be delighted to advocate for you. So, make sure you give them a way to advocate for you! This is a powerful strategy for building your reputation faster and spreading the love for your brand virally and why so many industry leaders are turning to Net Promoter Score programs to grow their business.
1. Generate Patient Referrals & Boost Online Reviews
A well-executed Net Promoter Score (NPS) program would have enabled Club Monaco to turn happy clients (promoters like me) into brand evangelists. Promoters are actively telling you they would recommend you. This is a prime opportunity to direct patients to your clinic’s Google or Yelp review page to share their valuable feedback and advocacy with others. It's also timely to incentivize them to refer to your clinic. Studies show 88% of people trust recommendations from their friends and family's over advice from a business or other channel (Source: www.nielsen.com)
Tip: Send an NPS survey immediately after an important stage in their Patient Experience (like after their first visit), and you will be more likely to receive their feedback. Timing is of the essence.
2. Increase Patient Retention Through Proactive Care
Knowledge is power. You can now identify clients that have little or no intention of returning for another visit. The best part is you can now (leverage this knowledge to) proactively formulate a strategy to bring them back. Perhaps all it takes is an acknowledgement of their feedback or enticing them with a small incentive. The greatest value here is derived from opening the lines of communication to learn and refine your Patient Experience. Asking and, furthermore, actioning their feedback shows your clinic cares about the well-being of its patients and values improving the quality of its services. That in and of itself can leave a lasting positive impression.
3. Measure & Improve Your Clinic's Reputation
Remember, the average NPS score for rehabilitation therapy practices is 84. With that you can now see how your clinic stacks up to others in your industry and best of all, you can measure your progress over time. An improvement shows your efforts and dollars have been invested in the right places.
4. Learn & Optimize Your Patient Experience with Valuable Feedback
Bill Gates said, "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." Your passives and detractors are incredibly valuable. Pay close attention to the answers given to the follow-up question, "What would it take for us to earn a higher score?" You will start to notice trends very quickly.
Let this feedback help identify which areas of your clinic need more TLC and which ones are working well.
There are many NPS applications designed to facilitate your NPS program and make the whole process much easier! But a simple (and free to start!) JotForm like we use at Juvonno does the trick.
The right clinic software will have tools available to track your feedback and customer satisfaction scores. At Juvonno, our email and text communication feature, JComm allows you to automate NPS surveys that are triggered at the desired point in the patient journey.
Top-performing clinics don't leave their Patient Experience up to chance. They're using a proven strategy. When you develop processes for short-cycle, closed-loop feedback, learning, recovery, and action with your clients, you get results. A Net Promoter Score (NPS) program is a framework for this, and the building blocks are in your hands.
