How to Get More New Patients from Existing Patient Referrals

Every physician wants to get new patients easily and affordably, without a lot of effort. Getting new patients via referrals from existing patients is a relatively low-effort way to generate more money from your practice. People like to give referrals to service providers that they are very pleased with. And people to tend to interact with other people who are much like them. So it stands to reason that your best patients will refer other excellent patients.

However, you need to be aware that people are even more eager to warn people off if they ever receive sub-par service from anyone in your practice. So practicing excellent “customer service” is always important. This may seem oversimplified, but assuming that your patients are happy and satisfied, the only thing you really need to do to get more referrals is to ask for them. Most of us do this on occasion, but rarely on a regular basis. However, if referral requests are done consistently, you can experience easy and continuous growth in your patient base and corresponding revenue.

The key is to not only ask for referrals, but implement a system so that the asking is built-in to your processes, so it happens every time, without fail. Otherwise, if referrals requests are sporadic, they won’t have the overall positive impact that they could if you asked on a regular basis, via a system. Very few medical practices have system in place for referrals, because they are unaware of the idea, or if aware, are not sure how to carry it out in practice. Most physician’s offices have excellent systems for almost every other aspect of patient management, but not for marketing, and patient referrals is an important component of an overall physician marketing strategy. Consistency cannot be overemphasized.

There are two things to consider when it comes to increasing revenue via patient referrals. The first is the timing of the referral request. You need to identify a point in your new patient “indoctrination” at which your patients have received excellent care, and they are in a general upbeat mood and receptive to your request. You don’t want to ask prior to a second or third visit because in most cases the patient will not have had enough significant interaction with your practice to come to a strong conclusion about the overall quality of your care. If you interact with your patients on a consistent schedule this is much easier. Patients who only come in for treatment on an unpredictable schedule are more difficult to approach for this, but it can be done.

The second consideration is the method of format of the request. This is best done by expressing the desire for a referral face to face, but the patient will not want to provide information on the spot because, well, it puts them “on the spot”. It is best to verbally mention how much referrals are appreciated, and then follow up on the request with a physical mailing to their home address. It is best to offer the patient a reward for their referral to show your appreciation. Everyone likes rewards, and your patients are no exception. This will require a small marketing investment on your part, but it will be money well spent.

If you perform elective or cosmetic services, your single best tool will to offer gift certificates or some other form of discount for future services in exchange for the referrals. They key is to provide the gift certificate to the patient as a “thank you”, and provide a second and possibly a third gift certificate to the people they will be referring. The key here is to make sure the gift certificates have an expiration date, usually within 60 days, so that all parties are encouraged to act quickly on the offer. Otherwise they may set it aside and lose track or forget, but a deadline will help them take action. You should follow up with a postcard or not by mail if the gift certificates haven’t been redeemed within thirty days. These mailings should be systematized using CRM software or outsourced using done for you services such as Send Out Cards.

If you provide services that are not elective in nature and which are normally billed to insurance, then you will have to get a little more creative. Instead of gift certificates, it is best to send either hand written thank you notes that contain a referral request, and enclose a token gift.

So few physicians take the time to follow up with thank you notes that the recipient will be pleasantly surprised, and if they have had a positive experience with you, they will be inclined to send new patients to your door.

I have heard cases of a single happy patient referring up to 14 new patients, but they usually won’t do it unless you ask! It may take some time to fine-tune your request process, but once you request referrals on a regular, systematic basis, you will start to see a steady stream of new patients referred by existing patients, and you’ll enjoy an increase in income from it, so begin today!