Did you know that the acupuncture industry in the United States is valued around $664 million? Approximately 3 million adults receive acupuncture treatment each year and that number continues to grow as more people turn to holistic healthcare and alternative medicines.
How can your acupuncture practice attract and retain clients in this growing market? Your marketing strategy is essential to your enduring success and sustainable growth as a holistic practice – acquiring new patients is as valuable as retaining current clients, and everyone benefits from an effective marketing strategy. However, this can be a challenging endeavor and you might be looking for some holistic practice marketing tips.
In this article, we’ll cover the budgeting basics of a marketing strategy and review best practices for some important marketing elements, such as your social media and website. Keep reading to learn more marketing tips!
How Much Should You Budget for Marketing Your Acupuncture Practice?
Before you do anything with your acupuncture practice, you probably ask yourself a variety of questions regarding cost: how much something will cost, how can you be sure it’s worth it, how much effort will it take you to execute, etc. are all valid questions to have. Marketing efforts are no exception, of course, and this is the foundation for any discussion about marketing tips.
If you’re looking to maintain the current size of your acupuncture practice, it’s recommended that you spend about 5% of your gross revenue on marketing. On the other hand, if you’re looking to expand and scale your practice, then you’d want to spend between 7% and 15% of your gross revenue.
For example, if your gross revenue is $5,000 per month then you should put aside $250 for marketing initiatives. Of course, marketing budgets can change over time and other factors come into play, so these numbers are all relative to your particular acupuncture practice and short- or long-term goals.
Holistic Marketing Tips #1: Calculate Your Customer’s Lifetime Value for Deeper Marketing Budgeting Insight
If you want to dive a little deeper into how much you should expect to budget for marketing your acupuncture practice, let’s talk about a customer’s lifetime value.
This metric, abbreviated to CLV, estimates the financial gains your practice earns from each patient and is the ace up your sleeve when it comes to marketing your practice. The formula is simple and can apply to almost any healthcare or service field:
Average Annual Value x Relationship Years + Patient Referral Value
= Customer Lifetime Value
For example, if you have a client who visits your acupuncture practice once a month and each visit costs $100, then the total revenue generated from that one client is $1,200 over the course of that year. Factor in a 20% profit margin and your Average Annual Value of that client is then $240.
Let’s say this same client continues to visit your practice for 5 years before moving to another state, then the CLV would calculate out to this:
AAV ($240) x Relationship (5 years) = $1,200
When you start consistently tracking this metric at your acupuncture practice, you can better leverage marketing tips and strategies that are appropriately budgeted in order to reduce costs and boost your profits. For example, if you know that an average CLV at your acupuncture practice is about $500, then you wouldn’t want to exceed that figure for your marketing budget.
After all, knowledge is power–when you know what to financially anticipate from a typical patient over the course of their relationship with your practice, you can make better informed decisions about how you engage with them via marketing.
Holistic Marketing Tips #2: Leverage Social Media Accounts to Create Community
If creating a social media account for your acupuncture practice seems frivolous or intimidating, we understand. However, if you have a business – in any industry – then it behooves you to tap into social media for marketing purposes and there are plenty of statistics to back it up:
- According to 90% of marketers, their social media marketing efforts have increased the exposure of their business, and 75% say they’ve increased traffic
- 71% of consumers who have had a good social media experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others
- 74% of consumers share video content from brands on social media
- 80% of social marketers say their key strategy is to increase engagement across social channels
- There are more than 50 million small businesses using Facebook Pages to connect with customers
Don’t worry about trying to go viral or trying to fit into a niche that doesn’t feel authentic to you and your practice – instead, focus on putting out content that you care about and that reflects your acupuncture practice. For example, you could do a series where you briefly explain pressure points one at a time and how each one affects the body.
Or if you have a cat at your practice, you can make a video about a day in the life of an acupuncture practice cat. The content you produce for social media doesn’t have to be serious, it can be fun! There is magic in the mundane of your industry that people who aren’t in it might not know about, so don’t be afraid to try new ideas.
Social media is a great way to build rapport with your audience and further illustrate who you are and what your practice stands for so be sure to include it in your marketing strategy.
Holistic Marketing Tips #3: Update and Expand Your Practice’s Website
With so many free, easy-to-use, and customizable website resources on the internet, there’s no reason why your acupuncture practice doesn’t have a professional website. Potential clients can find your site when searching for acupuncturists in your area and existing clients can stay up to date on your practice so it’s a win-win. Plus, a nice website can help distinguish you from the competition!
In addition to ensuring that your site is optimized for mobile users, which is a feature in most DIY website building platforms, consider including the following on your acupuncture practice’s website:
- A section that outlines your background and the values that guide your practice
- Your mission statement
- Contact information, hours of operation, location details, and more
- A place for announcements or specials
- Social media links
- A blog where you demonstrate your expertise and interests through engaging articles
- Link to leave a review on Google and other rating sites
- And more!
Personalizing your site will help clients, both new and existing, learn more about you; building that relationship is critical to long-term success!
Holistic Marketing Tips #4: Partner with a Medical Billing Firm
Does the thought of coming up with creative social media content overwhelm you because who has the time? Are you already swamped with mountains of paperwork that hardly seem to go away even after you spend hours each week tackling it? Would you say that treating patients is the best part of your job, yet it seems that you spend the least amount of time with them?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you should partner with a medical billing firm!
How does this relate to marketing your acupuncture practice? When your time is consumed by the tedious and complicated medical coding and billing process, it leaves little time for much else. By letting a trusted firm, like Holistic Billing Services, handle the medical billing burden, your time, energy, and creativity is freed up to focus more on what matters most: your patients.
The friendly experts at HBS have decades of experience and are eager to help you succeed! Contact us today to get started building a custom solution that suits your acupuncture practice needs and goals.
They’re called first impressions for a reason: you seldom get a second chance to make a positive, lasting impression.
In the age of healthcare consumerism where patients can shop around for the best value and patient experience, it’s more important than ever that your holistic practice delivers a great first impression. One of the foundational steps for this is managing your front desk.
From the greeting used when answering the phone to how well your receptionist is able to answer questions a client might have, there are a handful of qualities about the front desk’s role that impact overall patient satisfaction and the patient experience.
We’ll cover these qualities, how to manage the patient experience, and why all of this matters to your reputation in this article. Keep reading to learn more!
What Is the Patient Experience?
The patient experience is a general umbrella term for everything that your patient might interact with over the course of receiving care from your practice.
This includes:
- Your marketing efforts and overall brand awareness (your name, slogan, etc.)
- Website, social media accounts
- Online reviews
- The location of your practice
- Front desk experience
- Your practice’s mission
- Types of awareness accepted
- Appearance of your practice
- And more!
Understanding that the patient experience is more than just interacting face-to-face with your patients is the first step to improving and elevating their experience.
Another important step is recognizing that the patient experience doesn’t end when the patient leaves your practice after their appointment; it’s a continuous cycle with a multitude of touchpoints that can impact their satisfaction with your practice and thus your overall reputation.
Your Front Desk and the Patient Experience
One key area of the patient experience is their engagement with your holistic practice’s front desk. This is where patients will call to ask questions about your practice, schedule appointments, and more!
Your receptionist, whether it’s you or a staff member, is the liaison for your practice–that includes connecting patient to provider, practice to community, contacting payers for reimbursement, and so many other parties related to your practice.
That’s why providing a stellar front desk experience to your patients is vital to your short-term and long-term success. If patients are constantly having to call back or chase after getting answers from your receptionist, then it doesn’t bode well for your reputation. But if your front desk staffer is on the ball and offers cheerful help, then patients will feel more connected to your practice.
Our Top Tips for Managing Your Practice’s Front Desk
Now that we’ve covered all that is entailed in the patient experience and the impact of your front desk on overall patient satisfaction, let’s dive into a few top tips:
Keep an Orderly, Organized Appearance
This tip applies to just about every room in your practice that patients might go to–including the bathroom. But this is especially important for your front desk. If your front desk looks cluttered with sticky notes everywhere and empty coffee cups by the keyboard, then you won’t be making a great impression on patients.
On the other hand, if your front desk is organized and includes some patient education materials, like helpful brochures or more information about your practice, then you’ll make a winning impression! Your practice is responsible for sensitive patient and payment information, so it’s best to appear professional and organized as such.
Establish an Enthusiastic Phone Greeting
When you call a business, would you enjoy just getting a bland “Hello” or a distant “How can I help you?” when the business answers? Didn’t think so! The same goes for your patients; keep a cheerful tone, speak clearly, and consider including some of the following in your phone greeting:
- Your receptionist’s name
- Your holistic practice’s name
- Your practice’s slogan
- A quick snippet of your mission statement
- Asking for the name of the caller to personalize the conversation
These details will help distinguish you from the competition and quickly build rapport with patients, whether new or returning.
Keep FAQ Answers Handy
At some point, you’ll realize what questions are most frequently asked by patients. To save time and make the most of a phone call, keep these responses handy! This might include:
- What types of insurance you accept
- Office hours
- Directions on how to get to your practice
- Phone numbers to provide to patients who need to contact another department or medical agency
By establishing yourself as a resource for your patients, you’ll instill trust in them–that’s a huge win for delivering a great patient experience!
Partner with Holistic Billing Services to Deliver an Optimal Patient Experience!
Providing your patients, whether new or returning, with an excellent experience takes consistent time and effort. There are so many factors to consider that make or break a patient’s impression of your practice that sometimes it can feel overwhelming to handle your behind-the-scenes tasks, like medical billing.
If you’re passionate about providing an optimal patient experience and tired of excessive paperwork and confusing regulations, then partner with Holistic Billing Services to boost your revenue cycle! Our friendly experts have decades of medical billing experience and can’t wait to help your holistic practice thrive.
Contact us today to build a solution customized to your needs!
Do you know the value of your holistic practice’s online reputation? Research shows that 63% of patients choose one provider over another based on a strong online presence – that’s a major win for those who capitalize on these opportunities.
As patients leverage the internet to discover and research different holistic providers, appealing to your online audience is more important than ever, even if you’re not currently accepting new patients.
Let’s dive into a cornerstone of your practice’s online reputation: your website.
Why Does Your Holistic Practice Need a Website?
A website demonstrates authority and validates your presence, both online and your physical existence within your community. Your practice’s website is where you can further drive patient engagement, distinguish yourself from the competition, and empower patients to learn more about you. It’s a tremendous resource to leverage!
How Does Your Website Impact Your Online Reputation?
The truth is that your online reputation is being shaped whether you’re managing it or not, so it behooves you and your practice to steer the digital ship. Your website is your comprehensive path into the digital buzz around your practice and can help communicate important information to your patients and those shopping around for the best care.
You always want to put your best foot forward, right? Creating and maintaining your holistic practice’s website is a surefire way to do that. Since the possibilities are endless, there are countless ideas and methods to use when crafting your site, but the most important thing is to put forth your best representation of who you are and what your practice strives to do.
5 Things to Feature on Your Holistic Practice Website
Your options are nearly limitless, but here’s where we recommend you start with including on your practice’s site:
Mission Statement, Guiding Principles, and Other Foundational Writings
Your holistic practice’s mission statement is a core piece of writing that should absolutely be featured on your website. But why stop there? Consider including a section or page that features your practice’s foundational writings so that patients can reference them. This will help distinguish you from the competition and shape a meaningful online reputation.
About Us
Everyone loves a good origin story; share yours with the world on your holistic practice’s website! Potential patients in the research phase will connect well with learning more about you, how you got started, and what drives you – and current patients will build a deeper connection to your practice, too. Your “About Us” page is a core element of shaping your practice’s online reputation.
Links to Social Media Accounts or Other Platforms
If your holistic practice isn’t utilizing at least one social media platform, then you could be missing connections with a multitude of patients. Your practice’s website and social media accounts are perfect complements to each other which means you should link them together when possible. Point website visitors to your social media accounts and vice versa to further affirm your practice’s online reputation.
Contact Us, Location Details, Hours of Operation
Your patients finding you online is awesome, but at some point, they’ll need to visit your practice in-person. Be sure to include pertinent details to make this happen, including contact information, location details, hours of operation, and more.
Blogs or Articles Relevant to Your Specialty and Interests
Sharing your thoughts on new developments within your specialty, writing a response to other thought leaders in the industry, spreading the news about upcoming events and why they matter to you are just a few things you can write about for a blog on your website. You don’t have to be a great writer to get started – just taking a few minutes to write can help you further connect with your patients and start a conversation with them!
Want More Time to Refine Your Online Reputation? Partner with Holistic Billing Services!
We know all too well that a huge burden for holistic practices is the medical coding and billing process. It’s cumbersome, complicated, and can lead to a multitude of issues with your revenue cycle if not properly managed. None of these features bode well for your goals of developing a website and distinguished online reputation.
That’s where the friendly, knowledgeable experts at Holistic Billing Services come in! We have decades of experience and expertise in your specialty, so rest assured that we know how to handle your revenue cycle. Ditch the mountain of paperwork and frustration with rejected claims – we’ve got it all covered!
Let us take on the burden of medical billing so you can focus on what matters most: your patients.
Did you know that the US chiropractic industry is worth around $15 billion? Chiropractors treat approximately 35 million Americans annually and that figure is only growing as people continue to turn towards holistic treatments to help their ailments.
If you’re wondering how your chiropractic practice can attract new patients while retaining current ones, then your marketing strategy is one of the core features of your operations to evaluate and refine.
From leveraging word of mouth referrals to encouraging your patients to leave reviews, we’ll dive into a few top marketing tips for chiropractors that can help promote your practice in a sustainable manner.
Keep reading to learn more!
How Much Should You Budget for Advertising Your Chiropractic Practice?
One of the immediate questions you likely have for any facet of your practice is about cost: how much something will cost, how can you be sure it’s worth it, how much effort will it take you to execute, etc. are all valid queries. Marketing efforts are no exception, of course.
It’s recommended that you spend around 5% of your gross revenue on marketing efforts if you want to maintain your practice and somewhere between 7% and 15% of your gross revenue if you’re wanting to expand and scale your practice.
For example, if your gross revenue is $10,000 per month then you should put aside $500 for marketing initiatives. Of course, marketing budgets can change over time and other factors come into play, so these numbers are all relative to your particular practice and goals.
What Is a Customer’s Lifetime Value + How Does It Impact Your Marketing Efforts?
Your patients are how you keep the doors open–or rather, the profits you garner from delivering great chiropractic care to them are how you keep the doors open. But how can you estimate the financial gains your practice will earn from each patient?
That’s where knowing a customer’s lifetime value is the ace up your sleeve. Abbreviated as CLV, this formula helps you anticipate the total financial worth of a patient at your chiropractic office. This math can be applied to any industry and is especially helpful to those working in the healthcare and service fields.
A customer’s lifetime value can be calculated in the following way:
Average Annual Value x Relationship Years + Patient Referral Value
= Customer Lifetime Value
Let’s put this into practice and say you have a patient who visits your chiropractic practice once a month and each visit costs $100. The total revenue generated is $1,200 and you factor in a 20% profit margin, so the Average Annual Value of that patient is $240.
Let’s say this patient continues to visit your practice for 5 years before moving to another state; the math would shake out to this:
AAV ($240) x Relationship (5 years) = $1,200
When you start consistently tracking this metric at your chiropractic practice, you can leverage marketing tactics and strategies around pricing, sales, patient referrals, patient retention, and more in order to reduce costs and boost your profits.
After all, knowledge is power–when you know what to financially anticipate from a typical patient over the course of their relationship with your practice, you can make better informed decisions about how you engage them.
For example, if you know that an average CLV at your chiropractic practice is about $500, then you wouldn’t want to exceed that figure for your marketing budget.
Take a Crack at These Marketing Tips for Chiropractic Practices
Ready to revamp or ramp up your marketing efforts to maintain or scale your chiropractic office? Check out these marketing tips:
Keep Your Website Updated and Accessible for Mobile Users
Everything and everyone are online these days, so it’s imperative that your practice has a solid website that looks professional. Potential patients will find your website while searching for chiropractors to check out, so having a nice website that reflects you and your practice can help distinguish you from the competition.
In addition to ensuring that your site is optimized for mobile users, which is a feature in most DIY website building platforms, consider including the following:
- A section that outlines your background and the values that guide your practice
- Your mission statement
- Contact information, hours of operation, location details, and more
- A place for announcements or specials
- Social media links
- A blog where you demonstrate your expertise and interests through engaging articles
- Link to leave a review on Google and other rating sites
- And more!
Personalizing your site will help clients, both new and existing, learn more about you; building that relationship is critical to long-term success!
Get Engaged with Your Community
Engaging with your community can take form in a multitude of ways, ranging from hosting an open house to sponsoring a little league team or offering discounts for first responders and veterans. Whatever you’re passionate about, see if there’s an existing event or organization you can connect with–or start your own initiative to spread the word! This demonstrates your care for those in your community and helps raise awareness of your practice and values.
Don’t Ignore Social Media Platforms
Just about anything can go viral these days–why not a montage of your crunchiest chiropractic cracks? Or maybe you have a charming parakeet in your waiting room that the internet would love to meet. Regardless of the potential to go viral, utilizing social media platforms is a no-brainer to connect with your patients and keep them informed of what you have going on each month.
Wish You Had More Time to Get Creative with Marketing Strategies? Partner with Holistic Billing Services!
Marketing efforts can take creativity to ideate, time to execute, and energy to maintain and track–if you’re swamped with your medical billing and coding processes, then you already don’t have the bandwidth to pursue this important component of your practice!
Your friendly experts here at Holistic Billing Services completely understand where you’re coming from, and we have the experience you need to support your revenue cycle. From accurate coding and prompt submission of claims to answering your questions and keeping up with healthcare legislation, we’re here to help you succeed!
One of language’s inherent qualities is the capacity to have more than one way of saying the same thing—or at least, what might be perceived as the same thing. There seems to be another way of phrasing something in countless cases, which can be helpful for connecting the dots between ideas or it can result in the feeling that you can’t quite find the right word you’re thinking of.
Holistic medicine is no exception, especially when it comes to the connection between your practice, your patients, and the general public who may or may not know a lot about the intricacies of holistic medicine.
That’s why it’s helpful to take a step back to see how people might be referring to holistic medicine, such as integrative medicine or functional medicine, and then dive into the various terminologies to see where they overlap and where they differ.
In this article, we’ll break down a few popular terms for holistic medicine and discuss why it’s relevant that your practice is aware of them, too.
How Is Integrative Medicine Defined?
Let’s begin with answering the question: what is integrative medicine and how is it defined?
According to the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, integrative medicine is defined as “healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person, including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship between practitioner and patient, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapies.”
They’ve further defined 8 principles of integrative medicine, including points like:
- Patient and practitioner are partners in the healthcare journey
- Medicine and treatments are grounded in evidence that proves their effectiveness
- Natural and less invasive interventions should be used when appropriate and when proven to be effective
- And more!
Integrative medicine differs from holistic medicine because it involves a global approach to healing, including Western techniques and Eastern medicines.
What Is Functional Medicine?
Integrative medicine is often interchangeably referred to as functional medicine—but this isn’t entirely accurate.
Whereas integrative medicine strives to leverage any kind of medicine, treatment, technique, etc. to help the patient on their wellness journey, functional medicine aims to address the root cause of illness by enabling optimal functions of the body and organs.
The Institute for Functional Medicine explains that “the precise manifestation of each cause [of disease] depends on the individual’s genes, environment, and lifestyle, and only treatments that address the right cause will have lasting benefit beyond symptom suppression.”
Functional medicine differs from integrative medicine in terms of approach; where integrative medicine seeks to utilize a variety of methods and techniques from around the world and different traditions, functional medicine starts with a deep dive into the patient’s individual make-up.
Other Terms for Holistic Medicine & What They Mean
Let’s dive into a few other common terms related to holistic medicine and what they mean:
- Homeopathic medicine: This is a particular approach to healing that utilizes plants and minerals to help the body heal itself; there aren’t any regulated certificates or official trainings for homeopathy and this genre garners doubt and skepticism regarding how effective it is
- Alternative medicine: This is a catch-all term that relates to anything beyond the traditional Western medicine approach, methods, techniques, etc.
- Naturopathic medicine: An ND is a medical license that uses natural substances to balance a patient’s internal chemistry; NDs are considered primary care physicians, although not every state supports this medical degree
Why It’s Important to Know How to Define Various Terms for Holistic Medicine
Patient education efforts are always a good idea and can take shape in countless ways; one way is to help define various terminologies for your patients to learn more about holistic medicine.
Articulating the various terms that people might refer to your practice can help them realize the intricacies and multiple facets of the work that you do, which leads to a deeper appreciation and can encourage more dialogue between you and your patients, your patients and the general public.
Gaining an awareness and better understanding of the different phrasings people might have for your practice is also beneficial on the marketing front.
For example, people in your community might be looking for “integrative medicine” on the internet instead of “holistic medicine”. By knowing this and learning more about your potential clients, you can target those keywords if they resonate with your practice, or, at the very least, you can provide educational material explaining what other terms mean.
Putting yourself in the potential client’s shoes can help you understand their thought process, connect with them in a more meaningful way, and build better relationships.
What’s In Holistic Billing Services’ Name? More Time and Energy for Your Holistic Practice
We know that operating a successful, impactful holistic practice requires a plethora of skill sets, time, creativity, and more. You have to wear many hats, which can get overwhelming and result in mounting frustrations and impatience.
But what choice do you have? When it comes to the medical billing and coding process, the burden doesn’t have to fall on your shoulders alone. That’s where Holistic Billing Services is the ace up your sleeve!
With our friendly experts by your side, you’ll enjoy an optimized revenue cycle, accurate claim submissions, prompt payment, and most importantly, more time and energy for your holistic practice.
Have you ever wondered if your holistic practice needs a mission statement? Do you feel intimidated about writing one or are worried it’ll sound too generic? Fear not, we’ve got you covered.
Mission statements are a foundational element of your holistic practice’s business operations and help communicate an important message to your clients, both present and potential. This compounds to foster patient loyalty and boost your overall healthcare revenue cycle!
Writing a mission statement doesn’t have to be mission impossible for your holistic practice. Let’s dive into the components of a mission statement, why your practice needs one, and how to put it all together.
Why Is a Mission Statement Important?
A mission statement articulates why your practice exists in the first place; unlike other types of business writing, such as a Statement of Purpose or Vision Summary, the mission statement reveals the values of the business and should have an inspiring tone of voice.
Mission statements can be displayed and promoted in a plethora of ways, including:
- Reception area or waiting room
- Exam room
- Brochures and pamphlets
- Newsletters
- Stationary
- Website
- Blogs
- And more!
In addition to being a valuable piece of writing, your holistic practice’s mission statement is important for the following reasons:
Increases Patient Engagement
When patients understand the core reason for your holistic practice’s operations, they’re more likely to engage on a deeper level with your practice. Patient engagement is huge for your healthcare revenue cycle in terms of patient satisfaction, client retention, and word of mouth marketing.
Stands Out from the Competition
Anything, within reason, that your practice can do to distinguish itself from the competition is probably a good idea: crafting a succinct and compelling mission statement is one such manner to go about this! A little creativity and sincerity can go a long way to helping your practice stand out from the competition and make your operations more memorable.
Helps Your Patients Connect with the Core of Your Practice
Patients will have their own perceptions and expectations about your holistic practice from your online reputation, word of mouth recommendations, and other sources of information that don’t include your actual practice space. Reading your meaningful mission statement can help shape their perception and build a better relationship between your practice and your patients.
Core Components of a Mission Statement
Now that we’ve outlined the importance of a mission statement for your holistic practice and how you can leverage this piece of writing to promote your practice, let’s dig into the core components of a mission statement.
Brevity
Perhaps you’ve heard of the phrasing “Be brief, be bright, be gone” to illustrate the mantra for effective communication; the same applies here for your mission statement. It shouldn’t be more than about 100 words or a few sentences, which means you’ll want to refine it from a rambling story to a clear, concise piece of writing.
Philosophy of Care
Your holistic practice exists to deliver quality care to members of your community, of course, but how can you express this in phrasing that is relevant, compelling, and authentic to your operations? Brainstorm with your staff or even pick the brains of your patients to see how your practice manifests its philosophy of care in daily operations.
Guiding Principles
What are the core tenets and values that guide your holistic practice’s operations? Highlight a couple of them in your mission statement so that your patients gain a clearer understanding of your principles.
A Healthy Dose of Inspiration
Your mission statement’s mission is to inform and inspire all who read it, including yourself, your other staff members, and your target audience. As such, it’s important to utilize an inspiring tone when writing and to captivate the reader with an authentic message that reflects your practice.
How to Write a Mission Statement for Your Holistic Practice in 3 Steps
As we said earlier, writing a mission statement doesn’t have to be mission impossible: it doesn’t need to take days or weeks to put it together, just a little bit of creativity.
You can write your holistic practice’s mission statement in three easy steps:
- Define your practice’s purpose: articulate what your practice does to serve your patients and the community
- Describe your practice’s goals and objectives: briefly highlight what sets your practice into motion and guides your operations
- Be specific and brief: avoid using filler words or industry jargon that will distract your reader from your mission statement
Your mission statement can be effectively leveraged in a myriad of ways, ranging from your website presence to posting it in your office and including it in marketing efforts. This piece of writing is essential for connecting with your audience and distinguishing yourself from the competition in your area.
Another important reminder is that your mission statement can evolve over time. For example, perhaps you add another specialty to your practice, or you initiate a relationship treating the veterans in your community; these elements can and should be reflected in your mission statement!
Partner with Holistic Billing Services to Streamline Your Operations!
Wish you could spend more time refining the various pieces of writing you need for your holistic practice? Do you often find yourself swamped with medical billing problems, rejected insurance claims, and generally at a loss for updated billing regulations?
Partner with the experts at Holistic Billing Services to take the burden of billing off your shoulders and empower you to focus more energy, creativity, and time into your practice. We’ve got experience in your specialty, and we can’t wait to see you optimize your operations! Your success is our success and we’re here with you for every step of your healthcare revenue cycle.
In this day and age, nearly everything lives on the internet and it’s no secret that it’s an essential component of life, both personal and professional. The internet is an endless source of information and can positively or negatively impact your holistic practice, depending on your practice’s online reputation.
As potential clients turn to the internet to conduct research on holistic practices in their area, a phenomenon known as healthcare consumerism in which people shop around for the best care for their budget, it’s vital that your holistic practice is effectively managing its online presence and reputation.
Keep reading to learn more about the importance of your holistic practice’s presence and website plus tips for managing your online reputation!
Why Your Holistic Practice’s Online Reputation Is Important
The holistic care market is a $37 billion business, which means that general awareness and demand for holistic and alternative treatments is flourishing. How will your holistic practice attract, engage, and retain these prospective clients? Your online presence and reputation certainly play a major role here.
Let’s first break down what your online reputation includes:
- Your holistic practice’s website
- Reviews, both positive and negative
- Blog articles that your practice publishes
- Press coverage
- And more!
Research shows that 63% of patients choose one provider over another based on a strong online presence. Since patients are leveraging the internet to research holistic practices well before they ever show up to your office, appealing to them via your online presence is critical, even if you’re not trying to attract new patients.
Patients will likely form their perception of your holistic practice based on your online presence, or lack thereof, so it behooves you to shape and refine your online reputation to the best of your ability.
5 Tips for Managing Your Online Reputation
Obviously, the ideal is that every external entity views your holistic practice as an effective, high-quality place to receive treatments, but crafting this reputation isn’t easy. Let’s dig into some of our top tips for managing your practice’s online reputation:
Build a Professional-Looking Website & Optimize It for Mobile Users
The first step to managing your online presence is to have one. Your holistic practice needs a website just as any other business needs one! With so many user-friendly, no-coding-needed website building resources available like Wix or Squarespace, there’s no reason to not have a website for your holistic practice.
These do-it-yourself tools often feature an automatic version optimized for mobile users, but it’s worth noting to make sure that your site looks good on a desktop or cell phone.
Request Honest Reviews from Patients
Word of mouth marketing plays an instrumental role in influencing which businesses people patronize; in fact, 86% of customers rely on word-of-mouth recommendations and online reviews.
As such, it’s good to solicit feedback from your patients both via patient satisfaction surveys and honest online reviews. If your patients seem hesitant to leave a review because they’re worried the process is too tedious or inconvenient, then you can do a brief tutorial of how quick and easy it is to leave one.
If you’re not sure how to ask patients to rate you, here are a few suggestions:
- Hand a card to the patient with the URLs listed for key consumer rating sites and ask them to rate you
- Add a clickable link for key sites to your email signature and website
- Keep a tablet at the front desk and ask patients to post a review before leaving your office
Gaining feedback from your patients is a win-win because it validates your holistic practice’s efforts and builds the relationship between your practice and your patients. Be sure to try out different methods for requesting reviews to see which ones work best for your patients.
Upon Receiving Reviews, Engage with Them
A great step to take upon receiving reviews or questions online is to engage with them. It’s as simple as thanking someone for taking the time to leave a positive review, answering a posted question and encouraging the author to contact your office, or addressing a negative review with an apology and steps to resolve the issue, if relevant.
Your patients took the time to leave a review; it’s a good rule of thumb to respond and thank them for it!
Fill Out Every Online Profile Available for Your Business
With so many places for patients to research holistic practices, it’s beneficial to fill out and promote more than one online profile available to your business. This might include:
- Yelp!
- Bing
- Better Business Bureau
- And more!
Don’t forget to check out any local organizations or resources available to register your holistic practice’s website. Routinely keeping these profiles current can help more people discover your practice and learn about your services.
Stay Consistent in Your Online Branding
Last but not least, another top tip is to stay consistent in your online branding across all platforms. Maintaining your voice, no matter the platform, demonstrates authority, authenticity, and leaves a memorable impression in the reader’s mind. Whether it’s including your slogan or mission statement whenever relevant, or another manner for staying consistent in your online branding, it’s great to help readers learn more about your holistic practice.
Let Holistic Billing Services Handle the Medical Billing Burden!
If you’re feeling too burned out or overloaded with medical billing and coding processes, issues, or legislative updates to put creative and consistent effort into your online reputation, then let Holistic Billing Services step in!
Our friendly experts are knowledgeable in your specialty and can immediately boost your healthcare revenue cycle by handling your medical billing and coding processes. Plus, we operate as an extension of your practice, so you know that your success is our success!
Contact us today so you can focus on what matters most: your patients.
Take a minute to reflect on your holistic practice’s current marketing strategy; where are your efforts being directed? How frequently do you check in on the performance of your marketing efforts? How can you tell if they’re effective or if they need refining?
Marketing is an essential element of nearly every business or organization, of course, but the number of metrics at your fingertips can be overwhelming. Or, if you haven’t invested a lot of energy into your marketing strategy, then you might be unsure where to start or how to approach it.
In this article, we’ll tackle how marketing impacts your holistic practice and which metrics to track for success.
How Does Marketing Impact Your Holistic Practice?
Marketing entails a whole host of efforts and initiatives that impact your practice in a few manners:
Attract New Patients
Your patients won’t know you exist without some type of marketing strategy. Whether that’s word of mouth from current clients, search results advertisements, setting up a table at a local event, or something else, your holistic practice needs to market itself in order to make your community aware of your services.
Plus, if your marketing efforts are the first time a future client has ever heard of you, you’re able to make a great impression and lead with your best foot forward!
Keep Patients Informed of New Initiatives
Marketing is also great for your current clients to retain them and inform them of any new initiatives that you’re developing. For example, you might be moving to a bigger location and bringing on another practitioner. You can make a great marketing campaign around this, which is both engaging and informative!
This is important to take into consideration when building out your marketing strategy ideas because retaining a client is cheaper than attracting a new one; be sure your branding speaks to your current clients and keeps them in the loop with your practice.
Build Your Reputation
Beyond attracting and retaining your clients, marketing is how you build and refine your holistic practice’s reputation. Do you have decades of experience within your community? Do you make a point of volunteering in your community? Cater specifically to veterans in your area? Whatever makes your practice special is what you should convey in your marketing efforts.
This helps build rapport with clients, both current and potential, and establishes your practice in your community.
Marketing Metrics: What to Track
Now that we’ve addressed how marketing can be a powerful tool to leverage and have a significant impact on your holistic practice, let’s look into three key marketing metrics to track along the way:
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
This metric calculates the total amount spent on a marketing campaign and divides it by the number of leads your holistic practice got as a result:
Cost of Campaign / Number of Leads = Cost Per Lead
For example, if you spent $1000 on a campaign and you got 50 leads from it, then the cost per lead would be $20. On the other hand, if you spent $1000 but only received 10 leads, then the CPL is $100.
It’s important to note that the only way you can effectively calculate this metric is if you know the specific origin of a new lead. That’s why it’s helpful to ask your new leads how they heard about you; did they see an advertisement on social media? Hear about you from a friend? Tracking these origins is great to know where new leads are coming from.
Patient Acquisition Cost (PAC)
Patient acquisition cost provides you with the number of paying patients your holistic practice earns from a particular marketing campaign:
Cost of Campaign / Number of Paying Patients = Patient Acquisition Cost
This marketing metric helps you understand the more real, tangible cost of bringing in new revenue to your holistic practice. Following the same example, if 10 leads of the pool of 50 turns into actual paying clients, then the PAC is $100.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Figuring the ROI on a marketing campaign involves just a little more math and looks something like this:
Income Derived / Cost of Campaign X 100 = ROI
This first factor, the total income earned, involves you calculating the lifetime value of a patient. Let’s say each of the 10 new patients you acquired spends around $800 over the course of their relationship with your practice. That total amount would be $8,000.
$8,000 / $1,000 X 100 = 800%
This metric is helpful for monitoring the overall revenue generated from a particular marketing effort. This perspective is helpful for determining if a marketing campaign was “successful” depending on your holistic practice’s expectations or if something should be tweaked in the future.
Let Holistic Billing Services Streamline Your Healthcare Revenue Cycle!
Wish you had more time to spend refining your marketing efforts and engaging with the patients in your holistic practice? Find yourself overwhelmed and frustrated trying to figure out new billing regulations? Tired of dealing with rejected medical claims or medical coding inaccuracies that bring your healthcare revenue cycle to a stop? Partner with Holistic Billing Services to handle all your medical coding and billing needs!
Our team of experts has decades of experience and expertise in your specialty, so you know you’re in good hands. We know you just want to get back to what matters most: your patients. We’re eager to help, so contact us today!
Your holistic practice exists to deliver quality care to your community; no matter what specialty you offer, it’s crucial that your patients recognize, value, and return to your practice. After all, you won’t last long if you don’t attract patients!
But how can you go beyond simply making your patients aware of your practice and foster a long-term, genuine connection between you, your practice, and your community? How can you instill patient loyalty in a manner that is sincere and beneficial to the future of your practice?
Patient loyalty is a key component of your healthcare revenue cycle and this article strives to provide you with the context and measures to take in order to grow and nurture it within your practice. Keep reading to learn more!
How Does Patient Loyalty Impact Your Healthcare Revenue Cycle?
Let’s look at a few key statistics regarding customer loyalty that can apply to your holistic practice:
- 82% of companies agree that retention is cheaper than acquisition
- 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers
- Increasing customer retention by just 5% boosts profits by 25% to 95%
As with any business venture, minimizing churn and turnover results in a more stabilized, consistent revenue stream. It’s cheaper to keep the customer you already have than to attract a new customer to replace them.
This directly applies to your holistic practice and your overall healthcare revenue cycle! Putting in the effort and developing an enduring, profitable relationship with your patients leads to a better revenue cycle and empowers you to scale your business as more patients come your way. But how can you achieve genuine patient loyalty?
How to Instill Patient Loyalty in Your Holistic Practice
Patient loyalty can be nurtured in a variety of manners in addition to providing excellent holistic services! Consider these tips to further solidify the relationship between your practice, your patients, and your community:
Create and Maintain a Comfortable, Clean Environment
Nobody wants to enter a place of business that is disorganized, dusty, or cluttered—particularly not in a holistic environment where wellness, healing, and good energy are synonyms with your business. From the steps leading up to your practice to the waiting room, bathroom, and everything along the way, make an effort to reflect your holistic values in the environment of your practice.
This might include:
- Dusting shelves, decorations, ledges, etc once a week
- Burning incense
- Softly playing relaxing music
- Sanitizing high-touch points
- Keeping your waiting room clean and organized without making it crowded with furniture or other objects
- Maintaining a clean, sanitary bathroom for patients
- And more!
Setting the tone for your patients’ experience and delivering a fantastic first and lasting impression is a surefire way to get patients returning to your office again and again.
Be Professionally and Administratively Organized
Scrambling to find a patient’s misplaced file or having a desk littered with sticky notes doesn’t bode well for appearing to run your practice smoothly and efficiently. Your patients want to see that your office is professional and organized, meaning they can trust you to deliver a great experience in terms of treatment and administration.
From answering the phone in a clear, consistent manner to handling scheduling conflicts and following up with patients about any billing issues, your holistic practice needs to be on its game to demonstrate trust and loyalty.
Build Rapport with Your Patients and Create an Individualized Treatment Plan For Each of Them
If you and any team members appear cold or indifferent to a patient, that can leave a negative impression. Instead, make an effort to engage the patient in conversation and use their name in communication. Deploying active listening skills and exhibiting you have an interest in your patient—not their pocketbook—can help build patient loyalty, engagement, and overall satisfaction.
Taking this even further means creating an individualized treatment plan for each of your patients and maintaining a dialogue with them about it. While this might sound like common sense, and that’s great if it does, making the effort to inform each patient about their treatment plan, check in with them over time, and encourage questions are all great ways to nurture patient loyalty.
Leverage the Power of Social Media
Social media platforms can be the ace up your sleeve if you leverage them appropriately for your holistic practice. Use your accounts to post about:
- Upcoming events, like open houses or charity events
- Holidays or moments in history related to your practice’s specialty
- Polls to get patient feedback, such as which composer to play in the office next
- Encourage honest reviews
- Some personal, yet professional, information about you and your practice—for example, showing off your beloved pet so that patients can get to know you a little better
Social media doesn’t have to be overwhelming or feel superfluous if you build and facilitate engagement with your patients!
Leave Your Medical Billing Stress to the Experts at HBS!
Want to deepen the relationship between you, your practice, and your community but feel overwhelmed with the medical coding and billing process? Find yourself frequently fielding questions from patients regarding the status of their claims? Unsure if you should accept insurance, how to bill Medicare, and have other important questions relating to your healthcare revenue cycle?
Turn to the experts at Holistic Billing Services to effectively handle your medical billing and coding so that you can get back to what matters most: your patients. Our team of friendly professionals has experience in your expertise and we’re eager to help your practice thrive so you remain a cornerstone in your community!
Your patients and your healthcare revenue cycle are more connected than you might think. Attracting new patients and providing great holistic care are two essential components of your revenue, but what else can you do to ensure your revenue cycle continues moving smoothly? How can you deepen the relationship between your holistic practice and your community in a manner that is sincere and still profitable?
Developing patient education resources for your patients and initiating conversations can have a significant impact. You might already be taking these steps in the natural flow of your practice’s operations, but making them an intentional part of your patient interactions can lead to a better patient experience and revenue cycle.
Keep reading to learn more about the different types of patient education resources, the link between patient engagement and your holistic practice’s revenue cycle, and some tips for fostering this engagement in your practice!
Different Types of Patient Education Resources
Patient education resources come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be wholly custom to fit your specialty and your patients. Depending on what services you offer and what type of clients you have, your patient education materials can include one-on-one teaching, analogies, or any of the following tools:
- Brochures and other printed materials
- Podcasts
- YouTube videos
- Posters or charts
- Models or props
- And more!
The goal of patient education resources is to supplement the patient experience with opportunities to further learn and engage with their care. For example, a dermatology practice might have brochures explaining different skin conditions, perhaps one each for eczema or psoriasis, whereas an acupuncture practice might have posters that visually explain how the treatment works. It’s important to utilize the most appropriate medium of communication so your patient has the greatest chance of learning from your efforts.
The Link Between Patient Education, Patient Outcomes, and Your Healthcare Revenue Cycle
As the saying goes, knowledge is power. Patient education further builds rapport between your patient and your holistic practice, which leads to trust and a continued relationship. Increasing the patient lifetime value by attracting and retaining clients, naturally, helps your holistic practice’s overall healthcare revenue cycle. Plus, a client who is delighted by your services will spread the word about your practice and could lead to new patient relationships.
Patient education also leads to better patient outcomes as they learn more about their treatment and wellness plan. In fact, just 45 minutes of patient education can improve outcomes for patients with chronic diseases, according to a study in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. As patients gain a greater understanding of their conditions, the treatment that your holistic practice offers, and how to manage chronic conditions on their own, they become empowered and engaged in the process.
Delivering great care and equipping your patients with the tools they need to effectively engage with their healthcare journey demonstrates your practice’s dedication to their success—which leads to a better healthcare revenue cycle. Furthermore, providing resources relating to patient-payer relationships and how healthcare billing works can better inform your patients of their role within the revenue cycle.
3 Tips to Boost Your Revenue Cycle With Patient Education
Ready to further your patient education resources while boosting your revenue cycle? Check out these tips for each part of the patient’s journey with your holistic practice:
Initiate Clear Conversations About Payment Responsibility Prior to the Appointment
Your holistic practice’s reception desk plays an important role in the patient-practice relationship. This is where first and lasting impressions are formed, educating patients about their role in the healthcare revenue cycle takes place, and where patients should feel encouraged to ask questions.
The front desk is perfect for providing patients with information regarding co-pays, any insurance policies that are or aren’t accepted by your holistic practice, disseminating no-show policy papers, and more. It’s a great opportunity to welcome the patient into the practice and initiate clear conversations about payment responsibility.
Plus, if a returning patient has a balance remaining from a previous visit, this is a good time to gently but firmly bring it up and ask the patient for payment. Not verifying that the patient is in good standing—or not feeling confident in bringing it up—leads to a sluggish healthcare revenue cycle since you’re leaving money on the table.
Provide Patient Education Resources During the Visit
Your patients come to your practice for quality care and trust you and your staff to deliver on that. Along the way, it’s important to gauge how involved they are with what treatment plans you and other pertinent healthcare providers have coordinated for the patient.
Facilitating a conversation about why they’re at your practice, how your holistic services are contributing to a better quality of life, and encouraging them to ask questions along the way demonstrates a commitment to care. Plus, presenting a tangible education resource like a pamphlet or literature related to their wellness journey empowers them to do research on their own and ask questions as needed.
Your holistic practice’s revenue cycle benefits from returning patients who tell their loved ones about your practice and who value the time spent with your practice, making them less likely to be chronically absent from their appointments.
After the Appointment, Help Patients Navigate Their Bills and Gather Their Feedback Via Surveys
If your patient’s initial encounter with your practice’s reception desk entailed learning about their payment responsibilities, then the same reception desk after the appointment shouldn’t lead to any sticker shock. Staying proactive in conversations with your patients about their role in the healthcare revenue cycle boosts transparency in your practice and fosters trust between your patients and your practice.
Following the appointment, collect patient payment and their feedback via patient satisfaction surveys. Directly collecting payment, of course, benefits your revenue cycle by bringing in revenue to your practice. Gathering patient feedback is one more touchpoint for building rapport and reflects your practice’s commitment to providing an overall positive experience. With this information, you can make changes as needed to improve the patient experience!
Partner with Holistic Billing Services to Boost Your Healthcare Revenue Cycle!
Wish you had more time to engage your patients in conversation and develop patient education resources that suit them? Feel like you’re always swamped in medical coding and billing issues, rejected claims, and new legislative initiatives that impact healthcare billing?
Partner with Holistic Billing Services to streamline your healthcare revenue cycle and enjoy an immediate return on your investment with minimal inaccuracies, timely billing efforts, and a team of experts that’s always on top of new regulations. Our experts have experience in your specialty and we’re eager to help your practice focus on what matters most: your patients.
Contact us today!