Having a full schedule of appointments at your clinic can be one of the most rewarding feelings as a health and wellness coach or practitioner, especially when you see clients finally making healthy changes in their lives and becoming healthier every day.
It is critical to maintaining relationships with current patients. It is also crucial to expand your practice and attract new patients. Of course, there are conventional techniques for reaching this, such as branding and referral schemes, but there is much more you can do. It’s not always easy to fill up your schedule, though, so here are ten ways you can increase your clinic appointments.
1. Define your target group
2. Create appointment funnels
3. Optimize your website with photos
4. Optimize your call to action
5. Use Social Proof to increase appointments
6. Use social media to attract new customers
7. Use exciting and inspirational quotes
8. Write an article and share it on different platforms
9. Use your competitors to help you
10. Use the “Invisible Salesman.”
If you put these tips into action, you can discover that increasing your clinic appointments is simple.
1. Define your target group
Define your target group carefully and determine whether your service or product will be a good fit for them.
Does their schedule work with yours?
Knowing who you’re catering to and what they want is essential to increase your clinic appointments. Do some research if you aren’t sure who your client base is yet!
Talk to patients about why they chose you and ask them what features of your practice would make it more convenient for them.
If you still can’t identify specific customer demographics, keep taking detailed notes on past patients; perhaps patterns will emerge over time that can help steer pricing decisions, services offered, location/hours/days of operation, etc.
Working with people who are a good fit for your business helps increase your clinic appointments!
2. Create appointment funnels
Schedule follow-up calls and appointments when you know your potential client will be most receptive. Once they’re in, get them signed up for your newsletter or additional resources that they might find helpful.
Targeted list building and relationship marketing will help you increase your clinic appointments and revenue from existing clients.
Work closely with a copywriter to create these funnels; they’ll be able to help you develop high-quality, compelling messages that close sales at an increased rate.
Invite readers to opt-in: Having an extensive email database is like having money in your pocket. The more addresses, lists, and information you have on file, it is easy to contact patients directly.
Plus, when you do want them back in your clinic, it’s much easier to invite them rather than chase after people who may not want anything else from you right now but still think of you fondly as their old family doctor.
Keep dates current: There are numerous reasons why patients may miss or postpone their appointments – including simple confusion over scheduling details.
3. Optimize your website with photos
You can optimize your clinic’s online presence by using your website. Adding more photos and videos of your practice and staff can help new patients get a sense of what they’re getting into, as well as where they should go if they have any questions.
Making it easier for potential patients to contact you via email or phone can help boost in-person appointments, too.
You may also want to consider adding testimonials from satisfied clients or hosting open houses where interested parties can stop by and learn more about your clinic.
4. Optimize your call to action
It may sound elementary, but one of the best ways to increase your clinic appointments is through optimizing your call-to-action.
A clear, concise, and compelling call-to-action helps guide a visitor’s decision on whether or not they should contact you immediately.
Call-to-actions can vary from provider to provider, depending on their focus.
For example –
An Aesthetic dermatologist may want a patient with concerns about aging skin to visit their website and book a consultation at their practice immediately.
5. Use Social Proof to increase appointments.
One of the easiest and most impactful ways to increase your clinic appointments is leveraging social proof.
WiserNotify is the most significant Social Proof tool for increasing clinic appointments. This means sharing information about your practice, such as:
- Number of clients or staff members
- Your educational background
- Case studies of work you’ve done in therapy.
Over time, you’ll likely get a sense of what makes people want to schedule an appointment with you.
WiserNotify will help you like the best Social proof tool to show notifications or Pop-ups like,
- Numbers of appointment
- Numbers of successful operations or recovery numbers
- The extraordinary facility from the staff
- Discount offers for particular diagnosis check-ups
- Honest Patient review for clinic, staff, and treatment of Doctor
For example, clients might react well when they hear how many great reviews you have on the clinic or clinic facilities found success from coming in for therapy sessions. This is an example of social proof that can attract new customers and help boost your online reputation!
Related: 50+ real examples of social proof
6. Use social media to attract new customers.
We all know social media has exploded over recent years, but few people harness its power. Businesses that have figured out how to use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for maximum effectiveness have been rewarded with massive increases in traffic and clients.
Getting more attention on social media is also relatively easy compared to other advertising methods. This may be where you should start when looking for ways to increase your clinic appointments.
7. Use exciting and inspirational quotes.
When we feel good about ourselves, we are more likely to get in front of a mirror. Create daily quotes or inspirational memes on Instagram and pin them on your clinic’s Pinterest account.
For example,
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for what has been lost but to rejoice for what remains. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson.
People want to know about it and share it with their friends who can also benefit from it.
Posting inspiring quotes will make your patients love you because they think you care.
Also, when people share their experiences with friends, they often go back to you for other services because they got over what kept them away before it’s called establishing social proof! You can do that by showing how many people have recommended coming to see you.
But remember:
- Keep these posts short and simple;
- Use no more than 5-6 words max per quote if possible (otherwise, people won’t read all of it).
- Write everything as one single sentence so people can easily re-share it too!
8. Write an article and share it on different platforms.
The first step to increasing your clinic appointments is making sure your customers and potential customers can find you. In other words, make sure they know you exist.
Start by researching industry associations and local professional organizations that cater specifically to your target market.
You might also consider attending related events or conferences where you have a chance to meet new people who may be interested in what you have to offer.
Be ready with an elevator pitch describing what your business does (be sure it’s short, powerful, and direct).
If all goes well, expect sales leads due to these endeavors.
9. Use your competitors to help you.
If you have a competitor in your area, you may not be getting as many appointments with patients.
By finding out exactly what your competitor does that’s different from you, consider how you can use those same tactics to help increase your clinic appointments for yourself.
For example,
If your competitor offers evening or weekend hours, but yours doesn’t start offering them as well.
If they send reminders via text and email to current clients who are overdue for an appointment and offer appointment times that work better for their clients’ schedules (such as morning slots rather than afternoon ones), start doing those things too.
10. Use the “Invisible Salesman.”
If you want to increase your clinic appointments, you first need to identify how many appointments per day you would like your business to run.
You can determine how many patients you can see in a given day by following what I call The Invisible Salesman.
The Invisible Salesman is an imaginary salesperson who goes door-to-door selling products and services.
He can see exactly how much time he spends at each house he visits, knows where people spend their money, and what kind of response he gets.
It doesn’t matter if your patient resides in an apartment or a house. What matters is that they have an appointment with their Doctor on their calendar.
So visit them at home and figure out when they will most likely be available!
Conclusion
The idea of increasing your number of appointments can be a bit confusing because most people equate appointment numbers with revenue. It doesn’t always work that way. Sure, booking more clients means more revenue for you, but not necessarily.
If your business model is such that you charge per service or offer a monthly retainer fee, having too many clients can mean losing money each month by not optimizing your schedule and making it harder for you to provide excellent service to everyone. So make sure when you increase your clinic appointments, it’s done in a way that adds value while still bringing in revenue. If you get it right, everyone wins. More patients get fantastic service, and they pay more than they would have without your expert help, and so do you!
