How To Increase Your Therapy Practice Retention Rates

How To Increase Your Therapy Practice Retention Rates

Where therapy practices are concerned, great customer service is essential to persuade clients to revisit and to keep retention rates at a high level. Assure clients that you are the best therapy practice for them at the initial visit, demonstrating that you provide services in a confidential and safe environment.

Once you have achieved a successful first encounter with a client, you can build loyalty, encourage repeat visits and reduce no shows in the next steps. This blog post outlines some of the best ways you can increase your therapy practice retention rates.

Ensure You Make A Good First Impression

Step one is to make a good first impression, welcoming new clients with a friendly face and tone of voice. If clients are enquiring about your practice or attempting to schedule an appointment, they may get tired of talking to an answering machine and look elsewhere, so make sure you limit automated calls where possible and don’t make clients wait for a return call.

Making a good first impression also applies to the appearance of your office. Create a warm and welcoming environment, for example, by having a soft and cosy couch to help new clients feel at home, or certificates and diplomas in your office which will relay that sense of trust the client should have with their therapist.

Send A Welcoming Letter To New Clients

Once a new client has scheduled their first appointment, sending them a welcoming letter is a great way to solidify your relationship with them, as well as acting as a reminder for their session. You can also ensure both you and your client are organized for future appointments by sending appointment reminders, for example, through email or text.

The welcoming letter should reiterate your telephone conversation and should reassure them that they have made the right choice of therapy practice. You may also include a small introduction giving them more information about your practice and your additional contact information.

Opt For Electronic Forms As Opposed To Paper Forms

Make the best use of the client’s time and ask them to fill out intake forms online before their visit. This is not only much faster than asking them to fill out paper forms before their appointment, but also reduces paperwork and improves record keeping for your practice.

It also keeps everything running smoothly and saves other patients having their appointments delayed as a result of time-consuming paperwork completed by hand.

Allow Your Clients To Define The Conversation

Building rapport is a powerful technique used by therapists and is essential to the success of any practice. You should start by greeting your clients warmly at their first session, and continue as you mean to go on with future sessions.

Encourage clients to share their reasons for visiting your practice and allow them to take the reins with conversation topics, ensuring you don’t interrupt, but instead using eye contact and head gestures to show you are paying attention. The most important thing is to demonstrate that you are listening and that you understand their problems.

Provide Clients With Materials To Help Them Along Their Way

To help clients to see their situation more clearly, you can offer them educational materials after their visit. These may come in the form of physical booklets or brochures, or alternatively, you can create online materials, such as podcasts and videos on your company website.

Offering clients additional materials gives clients more value for money, as well as improving your relevance and making you more accessible to a wider range of clients, since your existing clients can recommend specific podcasts, or show them a helpful brochure they have read, for example.

Make Your Practice Stick In The Mind Of Clients

Provide clients with incentives to return to your practice for follow-up sessions and recommend friends or family to you. This may include offering them a discount on their next appointment, or a reduced price when they book multiple sessions at once.

You can go the extra mile to make clients feel special by sending them greetings cards or gifts on special dates, reminding them that they are always your top priority.

How do you increase retention rates at your therapy practice? Share your thoughts with us below or tweet us @yocalenetwork