The right patient experience builds loyalty
By Sharon Daniels

To paraphrase poet Maya Angelou, customers may forget what a company says and does, but they won't forget how that company made them feel.

The same applies to the chiropractic experience, because patients are customers. And that's something you and your staff should never forget.

Organizations — including chiropractic practices — that listen and respond to the way their customers feel earn long-term loyalty.

Your patients have many choices. Not only can they choose among chiropractors, some may also feel they opt for massage or physical therapy instead of chiropractic, or go to an osteopathic physician who does manipulation.

As commoditization narrows the gap between competing products and services, customers are making more of their decisions based on how they feel about what they buy, and how the company treats them. The same decision-making "logic" applies to patient care.

Clearly, the risk of disappointing customers is serious. Just consider the following statistics:

• Ninety-one percent of unhappy customers won't buy again from the company that displeased them;

• Dissatisfied customers tell 10 to 16 people about their negative service experiences;

• It costs about five times as much to attract a new customer as it does to retain an existing one; and

• Of customers who switch to a competitor, up to 80 percent say that they were satisfied with the provider they left, which is perhaps the most surprising.

The lesson to be learned from these facts? You need to do more than satisfy patients — you need to make them feel good about their experience in your clinic. Customers who feel they are treated well demonstrate loyalty by resisting offers from the competition, recommending you to others, and working with you to resolve negative experiences.

Four fundamental keys can help you get your arms around the service experience and earn patient loyalty.

1. Patient loyalty is earned through a series of defining moments. A defining moment occurs any time a customer forms an impression about an organization.

Successful organizations identify and map all the defining moments in a typical customer experience to determine how to make more of them positive and anticipate/avoid negative experiences. Remember that your patients are individuals, with unique needs that must be met.

2. Patients judge each defining moment based on specific service expectations. All customers (including patients) value the same service qualities in their inter-actions: seamless, trustworthy, attentive, and resourceful.

Delivering on these four expectations is essential to creating positive defining moments.

3. Customers experience each defining moment in three dimensions. These are the human, business, and hidden dimensions.

To help create positive defining moments, you must meet the needs of the patient quickly and completely, while also addressing the person's basic human needs for respect, understanding, and individual attention.

Carefully design processes and policies hidden from patients that affect the service interaction.

4. Creating positive defining moments builds a culture of service. Even though the services that you offer each patient may vary, success depends on finding a way for every patient to experience the service brand consistently. The behaviors to be used with patients (your external customers) are identical to those for employees (who are, in a sense, your internal customers).

Customers demonstrate their loyalty through retention, referrals, reputation, and revenue. By internalizing these keys to customer loyalty, you can build deeper, more profitable customer relationships, which in turn drives business results.

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal (www.achieveglobal.com), a provider of research-based learning solutions that aid clients in developing leaders and acquiring, growing, and retaining profitable customer relationships. She can be reached through her Web site or by phoning 813-259-0345.