ASK ALEX

“How can I complete an annual survey of my patient base?”

As we come towards the end of 2023, an annual survey should be something that every clinic owner is considering. It’s a task to carry out at the end of the year or at the start of a new one. It allows you to formulate a strategy to take your business forward in the following year.

Most Aesthetic Medicine readers are familiar with the NHS friends and family test (FFT), rating the experience from very good to very poor, and allowing for comments, but for your business, you can take it further. Understanding what other aesthetic concerns patients have might allows you to invest in expanding your treatment range. Knowing if their budget for aesthetic treatments is likely to increase or decrease allows you to adjust your business strategy accordingly.

Keep your questions balanced between closed and open. Asking patients to rate services, state the treatments they have had and whether they would recommend you to friends and family are examples of closed questions which give specific answers, for which you can use multiple choice. Open-ended questions, such as asking them to describe their experience, concerns and challenges, can sometimes be where the most valuable insight comes from, so make sure to include these too.

There are pros and cons to incentivising people to fill in your annual survey, such as with a small gift or discount. You might get more responses, but an unconscious bias could lead to people leaving better feedback, or untruthful feedback, to get the incentive. This is something you need to consider.

Keeping feedback anonymous is standard practice and lets you get more unfiltered insights, but you may wish to be able to follow up with each patient to get more; in that case, let patients leave their names if they wish to be followed up with.

Once you’ve created your survey and decided on the messages, you need to consider distribution. Where will you promote your survey? How long will it be open for? Sending it out digitally via email, text or social media is obvious, but having physical copies in-clinic will give patients in the waiting area something to do if they wish. This also means that older patients who aren’t ‘online’ aren’t excluded from your data set.

Then, you get to review your findings. It might help to review this information with a peer or business professional, to get the most out of your takeaways. Tailoring your marketing strategy and your client journey to your patient’s needs will increase patient retention. Show and tell your patients how their valuable feedback is improving your practice, by demonstrating the actions taken in the content you put out.

As a bonus, quantitative (numbers and percentage-based) data is great for marketing across your website, social media, and print. It’s also a standout piece of evidence of the service you provide, which is perfect if you are considering entering any industry or business awards. Gathering this well ahead of time helps with entry deadlines. Once you’ve completed this kind of surveying, you’ve got benchmarks for next year to compete and improve against.

By actively listening to your patients and using their insights to refine your services and marketing strategies, you’ll create a win-win situation — improved patient satisfaction and a thriving clinic. Start the year right by understanding your patients better with an annual survey.

ALEX BUGG

Alex Bugg works for Web Marketing Clinic, a familyrun digital agency, which specialises in medical aesthetics. The business builds websites and delivers marketing campaigns for doctors, nurses, dentists, distributors and brands. Contact her at: alex@webmarketingclinic.co.uk or follow her on Instagram: @webmarketingclinic