I was recently at an event and the topic of business growth came up. How do you grow your business?
There are only three ways to grow your business. You can either generate more patients or clients. You can generate more revenue per patient or client. You can increase the number of times you see a patient or client. That’s it.
Increasing the Number of Patients
One way to grow your business is to increase the number of new patients in your office. This number is directly related to the new patient marketing efforts that you are putting forth. This includes the efforts you are putting in to your online and offline visibility, the amount of consistent education that you are delivering and the amount of trust and goodwill that you are earning.
New patients are the lifeblood of any clinic. Over time, your patient load will decrease with patient falloff. In the online marketing world this is called churn. It’s important to keep this number low, but that is not always possible (depending upon your practice). So, it’s crucial that your focus remains crystal clear that your new patient numbers must continue to grow.
This number, the NPA (new patient average) provides you with a way to track the number of new patients over a period of time.
Increasing the Revenue Per Patient
The next way to grow your practice is by increasing the services that you provide per patient. Now, hear me clearly. I am not recommending that you provide unnecessary services to patients. However, I am merely stating that one of the three ways to grow any business is to increase the per customer dollar average.
In the retail world, this would be like asking you if you want to upgrade your carwash to include the full package (the underbody flush and the special soap). Another example is when they offer you insurance when you buy your new electronics. These are examples of increasing the ‘cart value’.
This is different for providers. If a patient needs a service, if a patient requires a service…provide that service and charge for it. Don’t be unethical. But, if you believe that a patient will be helped by providing them with a service or product that you offer…I believe it may be unethical if you do not provide it.
This number is the PVDA (patient visit dollar average) or the average visit charge per patient. This is a number that you must know. However, I am more interested in the PVCA (patient visit collection average). The PVCA is more important because it provides you with how much you actually are paid per visit as opposed to how much you charge. Big difference.
To grow this area, you must work on educating your patients about the various services that you offer. Many don’t know the different services that you offer and you don’t even know it.
Increasing the Visit Numbers
The final way to grow a business is by increasing the number of times a customer visits you.
In the retail world, a restaurant my provide you with a loyalty program. They want you to come in on a more frequent basis to increase the amount of times you spend money with them.
In the health and wellness world, this means the total number of visits a patient has over a period of time – PVA (patient visit average). This can be calculated by the month or year. Another option is to consider a lifetime visit average.
To grow through this method, you must focus on follow up and loyalty with the patient. Follow up can include email, newsletters, direct mail, etc. The focus of this should be to keep you, the expert, top of mind with patients. When the patient needs care, they follow up with you.
It also requires that you have established a loyalty with them. When you treat your patients with care and compassion, you’ll generate loyalty. As long as you can maintain (or increase) loyalty with patients, they will return to you again and again.
Now, take this info and use it to grow your practice.
Get to work! ?
