In this blog post, we’ll look at how chiropractors can better manage multichannel communication.
Multichannel communication for chiropractors is essential in this day and age. Chances are your practice is already communicating with patients on multiple channels like phone, email, website chat, in person, social media and more. But are you managing these communication channels as best you can?
Let’s look at an example of how a patient might communicate with your practice. Let’s say John Doe is a patient of yours. He might come to your website to check out your services, submit a website chat asking about hours, then he may call in to ask about scheduling an appointment, and maybe after his appointment he’ll email to schedule his next appointment. Are John Doe’s communications all visible in one place or do you have to go into different systems to view them? If you can answer this question with they’re all in one place, then good for you! But if not, then you might want to streamline your communications.
Streamlining your communications to being able to track all patient communications from one platform will help provide context for your staff. If a staff member can go to John Doe’s record and see all of his communications in a log, then they can provide a higher level of service.
Now, let’s look at a few tips for better managing multichannel communication.
Make sure you’re available on many channels
In order to be able to communicate on multiple channels, your practice has to be available on those channels. Let’s look at some of the most common channels:
- In person - This channel is largely appropriate for current patients who are coming into the practice for their appointments, but it can also include people walking in to inquire about services. Does your practice have a front desk person ready to greet people?
- Phone - Phone is still used by many people to call in and ask about services, find out hours, make appointments or update information. But many practices don’t do a great job tracking call data and reviewing analytics. Is your practice tracking call stats like volume, duration and missed vs answered rates? Also, do you have a way to listen to recordings?
- Email - Email has emerged as a popular communication channel in the past decade. How does your practice utilize email? Do you send operational emails like appointment confirmations and reminders? Do you send out promotional email campaigns sharing special offers with your contact list? Do you send out an email newsletter keeping your patients in the know of what’s going on with your practice?
- Social media - Social media is definitely gaining traction. One of the most important social media channels for chiropractors to be on is Facebook. Does your practice have a Facebook page where people can reach out to you via Messenger?
- Website forms - Website forms are a more old school way for a person to contact your practice via your website. Do you at least have a contact form? What other forms does your website have?
- Website chat - A more modern way to communicate with people on your website is to get a website chat feature set up. Website chat provides a way for people to pose their questions to your practice while browsing around on your website.
Train your staff
It’s not enough to be on channels, but your staff also needs to be trained. Here are some of the areas where chiropractic staff can be trained:
- Scripts - For in-person and phone inquiries that may happen on a recurring basis, it’s not a bad idea to have some simple scripts in place. It could be anything ranging from explaining your services to discussing your billing to diffusing an upset patient.
- How to use systems - Make sure your staff knows how to use all of the systems you have in place for communication. This is another good reason to consolidate your systems, so you have less to train your staff on. But for each system you use make sure your staff knows how to use it.
- Communicate expectations - Communicate well with your staff to let them know your expectations of them. Here are some common expectations that doctors have:
- Reduce the number of missed phone calls
- Log notes for each phone call
- Encourage your staff to ask for reviews
- Respond to all communications within one business day
Staff training as it relates to communication doesn’t have to be super formal or time consuming, but it should take place and be refreshed on a regular basis.
Invest in a software solution
The final tip for better managing multichannel communication is to invest in a system that is designed to handle multichannel communication. Investing in a solution can pay back dividends. Here are some of the main benefits of investing in a solution:
- It consolidates systems - no need to manage multiple systems. This means managing multiple bills, logins and training for different systems.
- It streamlines processes and saves time - no need to check 7 different systems, if you have a multichannel communication platform, then you can just check one system.
- It can give you a comprehensive view of a patient - a good multichannel communication tool will log all patient communications on a contact record. You can check a contact record to see the calls, emails, texts, form fills, website chats, online reviews and Facebook messages all in one place.
- It will help your staff provide better service - being able to spend less time bouncing between systems while also seeing a complete picture of contact communications in one place will help your staff provide the best service possible.
- It can save you money - investing in the right solution can save you money in a few ways. It can save your staff time and as the old adage goes time is money. It can also save actual money upfront because oftentimes having a mix of many different systems will add up to higher price than consolidating that functionality in one system.
If you’re interested in investing in a chiropractic multichannel communication system, ask us about our new chiropractic CRM platform that has robust multichannel communication functionality including:
- Phone calls
- Phone call tracking
- Phone call recording
- Phone call analytics
- One-to-one emails
- Marketing emails
- Text messaging
- Chat widget
- Online forms
- Facebook Messenger integration
- And more
As always, I hope this blog post was helpful. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions you might have around your multichannel communication strategy. Send us an email at support@chirohosting.com.
