Offering A Better Patient Experience Will Help You Succeed
In the second episode of our series on larger rehab companies, Paul details one of your best competitive advantages over them if they enter your market.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of the Martin Rehab M&A Advisory. I'm Paul Martin. I am the founder and president of Martin Healthcare Advisors. And today what we want to talk about is moving to episode two of our the what we can learn from the big companies in our markets. You know, every market has these companies that have grown privately from one clinic to five clinics to 10 clinics to 15 to 20 25. And there are some privately held companies across the United States with 100 plus clinics.
And so in the first episode, we looked at what are some of the traits of those owners as to how and why they are able to stimulate so much growth in their companies. Today, what I want to talk to you about, and we've titled this one, how to beat the Titans, and how to win with worldclass patient experience. You know, if you think about it, you don't have as many clinics as they do. You don't have as many therapists as they do. You may not have as expensive equipment as they do.
But the way you can win is with the ultimate patient experience. It's where everything happens in this industry right at the patient therapist level and that experience that the patient has. So again let's look at the competition. How do we identify this competition? Well first of all you know this is a misnomer. Just because they are big does not mean that their care is subpar or average. In fact, in many cases, they are opposite of that. And so, the key to how you can compete with these companies is to create a superior patient experience.
And we're not just talking about outcomes. Outcomes are absolutely imperative and we measure them and they're very important. But what I'm talking about here is a memorable care journey for your patients. And we are going to beat them like this. You don't defend them. You attack them. You take their game and you shove it right back in their face. The team that is finally willing to do this is the team that has a chance to put them down. And so, just like the USA Tah hockey team, when they finally [snorts] beat the Russians, we're gonna attack the competition.
We're going to excel where it counts at that level of patient experience. And I really believe to do this, you have to make an investment in patient experience in order to outperform these companies. And an investment means time and sometimes money. So how do we invest in patient experience again beyond outcomes? Well, you know, we have to create promoters of your service, right? So, we need every single patient to be a promoter. And I would ask if you've utilized a promoter score, a scorecard that patients will fill out with success.
We have seen and our clients use that with great success. We find especially promoter score is important for your patients if someone is actually following up. If they see a real high promoter score, they're following up with that. If they see a real low promoter score, they're following up with that. And that gives kind of this ripple effect of patience. Increase referrals when it comes from patience is ultimate referral strategy and growth strategy. [sighs] You know as we look at these tests and measurements you really want to implement whether it's a promoter score but there has to be some kind of satisfaction grading system.
And what this will do is it will provide a continuous feedback loop to you as the owner, to your marketing representatives, to your staff. It's this continuous feedback loop in order to learn how we can enhance the care experience. If we don't hear directly from our patients what their experience is, it's not what we dream and we believe it is. We have to find out from the patient. So in improving patient care experience, okay, again it's that experience that we go through, it's what we call the patient journey, okay, I think every single step in this patient experience matters.
So the key is to break it out step by step. And as we're building what I'm going to call the greatest patient experience on earth, we need to get staff feedback. Make them a part of building this journey for your patients. That's the only way they will buy into it. And you will be amazed when you ask them open-ended questions on different aspects. So, we guide them. But when you ask those open-ended questions, they have a lot of ideas that they've heard from other companies they may have worked with, what they've heard from other companies they may just be in contact with their shopping, etc.
So, we want to map out each step of that patient journey and then look at okay, here's where it is today. How can we now enhance it? And it's really from that first contact with the patient to the post followup treatment. So, Post treatment follow-up is also extremely important. And again, the process of building your patient care experience. Again, we're going to call it the worldclass patient care experience. This could take weeks or months to complete, but continue to take small bites at each stage. Continue a ret a routine of meeting on this, getting information, putting it into a framework, into a blueprint.
And this will pay huge dividends for you. And by the way, if you are one of those big titans in the market and you're watching this is also something you can do as well. Now again, we're talking today to some of the more locally focused clinics who are trying to beat with trying to compete with the big titans and but keep in mind you can also benefit from this. So as I look at this, what are some of those key areas? If we could break it out into four or five major categories, what are those key areas for enhancement?
First and foremost is the first impression, that first call, that first walk-in. What does that look like? I will tell you, I was recently took my dog to the vet. And the first my first impression when I walked in with my dog that was going to have major surgery, the front desk person looked at me and she said, "Um, we're going to give you your we're going to work through your invoice first and then we'll talk to you and we'll probably bring you back after that." That was how she greeted me.
I mean that's a you know on way of the other side but that first impression is so important. There needs to be a warm welcoming environment whether it's on the phone or it's in person at the clinic and that needs to be efficient needs to be a friendly reception. It should you know be choreographed. Doesn't mean everybody has to say the same thing but there's a tone to that really matters. You want to make sure with your therapist that the treatment that they're providing to their patient is personalized, obviously tailored to the patient and making sure that the patient has the opportunity to get involved in the goal setting.
I was a therapist. I treated patients. I know it's easy to get into that routine of here's where we're going to take you. It's easier. It's faster. Here's where we're going to take you. Here are the steps. Here's where we're going to get you to. Get them involved in that patient in that patient progressions and I think the patient will really benefit from that and feel like it's a better experience. And the next is that commitment that your therapist will make to the patient and then the therapist asking for that commitment back.
I'm going to give you the best care that you've ever received. I'm going to give you everything that I have, but I'm gonna ask you, Mr. Patient or Mrs. Patient to make sure that you give me that same commitment in showing up for your treatments and doing all your home care, home prescribed exercises and following up, etc., etc. And then we work through what I call communication excellence. And you know, not everybody, you know, just because you're a physical therapist does not mean that you have clear empathetic communication.
Remember, most patients are coming to us because they have pain. There has to be some empathy. That's what I felt when I walked into the vet. I walked in carrying my dog that you really couldn't walk at this point and there was no empathy whatsoever. And it makes a huge difference. And then again, continuing to update that communication excellence in all areas of your clinics. And then finally, what do we do post visit care? You know, are there follow-ups and messages that our therapists are sending out after that first visit or if a patient doesn't show up or after their last visit?
We want to make sure that we're very accessible and that we are supportive of those patients. It's certainly a time in our field that we can leverage technology to do some of this, but still there's nothing like that personal one-on-one feedback as well as you know the look that you get in your eye when you are engaged with that patient. Don't expect that staff will be able to just do this. There will need to be training and empowerment to empower them. And then to not only deliver care that gives performance expectations, you know, from the care that they're delivering, but also from the patient experience.
There's there's two sides of this. There's there's a parallel. And I think that the care that we're providing, what we're actually doing with the patient is equally as important as to how we are managing and communicating with that patient. Look, you guys, look, change is difficult. It always is. But I can tell you right now, if you today start mapping this out, and give us a call if we can be helpful with this. But make this a high priority, whether you're a one clinic company, a five, a 10, a 15, or a 20, or you're one of those 80 to 100 plus, invest in that patient experience today.
Create that blueprint for success. Again, if you'd like to talk about this any further, I would love to have a conversation with you. Just click below and let's talk. Have a great day.
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