Marketing

Get 360-Degree Feedback from Patients

By Eric M. White, OD

Use a multi-pronged approach to track your patients’ level of satisfaction with your products and services. Then improve your practice based on this vital information.

Some doctors rely solely on patient satisfaction surveys delivered to patients via e-mail, and others may rely solely on face-to-face feedback while patients are in the office. However, I have found the best way to gauge the level of my patients’ satisfaction with our products and services isby using multiple methods. Here are some of the ways my practice keeps tabs on how patients feel about us.

Three-Pronged Approach

Iuse a three-pronged approachto get an overall sense of our patients’ needs. First, I e-mail my comprehensive exam patients at the end of the day to thank them for allowing me to be their doctor. I have a standard note I use, and Iadd one sentence to personalize it. Second, I ask patients to review us onYelp in the thank you note I send, and my staff asks them to review us during their office visit. We ask patients to Yelp a couple of times during the exam process. I like this because if they are not having a good experience we can immediately fix it before they leave–if at all possible. In addition, we send patients an e-mailed surveythrough Web System 3, a patient messaging service. My secretary and I read every survey. Third, we listen to our patients and talk to them.

Encourage Feedback from Patients Via Approachable Staff

I have always told my staff to talk to our patients as I do. If you make your patients feel like a friend or family member, they will talk honestly with you. I have always told my staff if there is a problem reported, to fix it no matter what. I instruct them to treat every patient like family. I instruct them: “Ask yourself, if this was your mother or brother, how would you resolve this problem?Then do it.”

Invest in Service to Facilitate Practice-Patient Communication

Websystem3 costs us between $99 and $120 a month depending on the services we use. The nice thing about Websystem3 is we have been able to use it for other things in addition to conducting surveys. For instance, we also use the system to send appointment reminders and e-newsletters. Patients love it because it allows them an easy way to communicate with us.

Gather Feedback Through Social Media

We use Eyecarepro for our social media. They monitor patient feedback coming into my Facebook page and web site. I have monthly meetings and reports sent to me that detail all of the feedback from patients gathered from my online presence. The e-mails I send to each exam patient asking them to Yelp me has resulted in off-the-charts Yelp and Google search listings. The payoff:Theseratings bring us several new patients per week, many of whom comment on my Yelp score. We had over 30 percent new patients last year mostly because of the social media interaction–including feedback soliciting and gathering–facilitated by Eyecarepro and tools like Yelp. We know that about 30 percent of patients find us through social media because we ask patients how they found our practice in our surveys and when they come in for an appointment.

Your Eyeglasses Capture Rate is a Form of Feedback

Track your capture rate closely. If patients are increasingly taking their eyeglasses prescriptions elsewhere, you know there is high dissatisfaction with your optical dispensary. Surveys and our other forms of feedback have told us that patients almost always leave due to dissatisfaction with pricing. To address that issue, and compete more effectively with corporate-owned eyecare outletslike Costco and Walmart, I contacted a local lab and came up with a value package. The value package is frame and lenses. The lenses are polycarbonate with A/R. They can get Transitions for a few dollars more. The frame and lenses have a two-year warranty. There are three tiers including single-vision, bifocal and progressive lenses. The patient has 12 men’s frames, 12 women’s frames and 12 children’s frames to choose from. The frames are not sent in, just the order. The lab supplies the frames. We call this the value package because we don’t offer it to everyone, but when somebody is worrying about cost, we do. At first I watched very closely for a drop in sale of non-value package eyeglasses, but we have not experienced such a drop, and we are showing an increase in our capture rate on all eyewear. Those who were going to go to Walmart or Costco are now staying and are happier with our customer service and products.

Doesn’t Take Much Time to Gather Feedback

The end-of-day e-mails to patients thanking them for visiting our office take no more than a half-hour per day. Checking surveys requires a few minutes here and there. All in all, the amount of time is nothing compared to the information I gather. This keeps me in touch with my patients’ needs and tells me how I’m doing. The time I spend helps me to keep my practice successful.

Constantly Evolve In Response to Feedback

Our office is always evolving. From selection of frames to the flow of the office, how we talk to patients, how I interact with patients, and how I prescribe and fit eyeglasses and contacts, we are constantly making adjustments to improve. My favorite thing that came out of listening to our patients needs is how I prescribe computer eyeglasses. I prescribe from the exam chair what my patient needs based on feedback about their vision. I ask them if they ever read or use a computer device outside. I then prescribe A/R and Transitions. I also prescribe digital progressives and Gunnar computer glasses. Altogether, sales of these products grossed our practice $250,000 last year. Overall last year, I grossed just under $1.8 million. I feel my success is due to my staff and I listening to our patients needs and going above and beyond. Patients have told us our exams are one of the best they have experienced anywhere. That’s because we listen to our patients and change accordingly.

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Eric M. White, OD, is the owner of Complete Family Vision Care in San Diego, Calif. Complete Family Vision Care was named 2013 Transitions Academy Practice of the Year. To contact Dr. White: Emwhiteod@aol.com.

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