Increase patient loyalty in healthcare by optimizing the digital patient experience

Despite the hectic pace of today’s independent practices, many healthcare providers are still dealing with unfilled calendars. You only have to look at patient attitudes to understand why. In a post-pandemic culture of high-tech, one-click convenience, patient loyalty isn’t something that can be taken for granted.

More and more, patient loyalty is coming into the forefront for today’s medical providers. The most successful practices are always looking at how to build customer loyalty in healthcare, repeatedly asking the question: how do you increase patient loyalty? Time and again, the answer lies in a positive healthcare experience.

A recent patient experience survey by Tebra found that 73% of people would leave a practice due to a poor experience there. More than any form of marketing — indeed, more than any other factor — a good patient experience can be the difference between high patient loyalty and the decision to leave one healthcare provider for another.

So if you own or manage a healthcare practice, what steps can you take to foster high patient engagement? Read on as we examine the key drivers for patient loyalty. In addition, explore our tips for ensuring a fully scheduled, thriving practice with the strongest possible patient experience.

The word “loyalty” gets a lot of play in traditional loyalty programs in direct-to-consumer industries. It brings to mind familiar systems of points and rewards connected to frequency and transactions, like buy-10-get-one-free. But patient loyalty in a healthcare practice is unique — different than in almost any other sector — in that it can create and foster relationships over the entire span of someone’s life.

Even as providers are feeling the pressure of slim profit margins and diminishing hours in which to see patients, it’s essential that no one is made to feel like a number along their healthcare journey. To keep patients coming back, it’s vital that providers seek and develop lifelong relationships with them rather than putting the focus on frequency. When we discuss loyalty in healthcare, what’s at stake is a sense of active listening, thoughtful policies, and personalized patient care.

Patient loyalty is driven first and foremost by meaningful relationships. People are drawn to practices that feel value-based rather than volume-based. They want places where they can access quality care while feeling appreciated, heard, and understood. 

At the same time, busy patients are also seeking more convenient experiences: everything from self-service scheduling to quick availability to easy digital payments. Notably, a 2023 Tebra survey showed that what 61.7% of patients wanted most from their providers was available appointments when they needed them. 

Patient loyalty is strongly tied to these key factors:

As providers work to keep up with patients’ evolving health experience expectations, all these factors need to be treated as fundamentals for every practice. A recent study asserts that "patient loyalty can be directly influenced by the quality of digital services and the security of digital systems both directly and through patient satisfaction."

Difficulty retaining patients isn’t just worrying about your healthcare practice’s finances. When it comes to fostering loyalty, the benefits of patient engagement go much further — both for you as a provider and for your patients themselves.

Having highly engaged patients can lead to:

For providers and patients alike, the importance of stable, lifelong patient relationships can’t be overstated. When a healthcare provider succeeds at patient retention, the patient experience can carry on uninterrupted, medical records are less likely to be fractionalized, and less time is wasted filling in the gaps between different sources of care.

In turn, your happy patients will go on to share their positive experiences with others, not only with other potential patients but also with referring physicians, who will be more likely to refer more patients to you.

Of course, negative comments should be addressed whenever possible. Practices must continually evaluate what factors are driving or hindering patient loyalty and patient satisfaction, defining a clear vision for patient care and practice growth.

So, how do you increase patient loyalty and engagement? A key area to invest in (and probably the easiest place to begin) is digital patient engagement and convenience.

People prefer self-scheduling rather than communicating with your practice: today’s patients think of booking a health appointment as another on-demand, digital experience, just like a banking transaction or a restaurant reservation.

Your staff also benefits from self-service tools since they’re left with more time to spend on patient assistance. Helpful areas to automate include:

While you can’t add more hours to your day, you can use automation to improve the quality of the time you spend time with your patients. The single biggest time-saver for independent medical practices is automating in as many areas as possible, and you should be using it to your advantage.

Delivering a seamless, personalized experience for your patients and promoting patient education begins with you. Here are 5 key areas that will inspire patient loyalty toward your practice.

Studies show that a centralized, curated digital healthcare experience is extremely appealing to today’s patients. Increasingly, patients are turning to their patient portals as a preferred resource, with patient logins rising 17% from 2020 to 2021, according to a 2022 practice operations report by MGMA.

The moment a new patient comes under your care, they should be directed to a digital home base or dashboard: a convenient, easy-to-use interface that puts all the details of their care at their fingertips. Design a dashboard that includes:

Some practices may want to consider a digital library: a place to steer patients toward accurate clinical information and walk them through what to do when an issue arises. FAQs are particularly helpful and minimize unnecessary phone calls.

Regular, engaging communications — beyond just appointment confirmations and reminders — go a long way in fostering patient engagement. Consider:

To make sure your communications aren’t interpreted as solicitations by your patients, always tread that fine line between letting them know about relevant services or updates and pushing purchases or services they don’t want or need.

Learning about your patients’ individual needs isn’t a one-and-done undertaking but an ongoing process. Conduct post-visit surveys (automated, ideally) to gain important insights about patient satisfaction and what your practice can improve upon.

Understanding your patients’ concerns is the first step towards managing them. And keep in mind that data is an extremely powerful tool that can further help you personally engage with your patients.

Gather and update patient data in order to:

Additionally, do your part to keep your patients’ overall record updated when coordinating care with other doctors, practices, and hospitals, including:

Find a way to show your patients that they’re valued by you and your team, especially in moments when some extra support will go a long way. Consider these kinds of considerate gestures:

Improved community health is a group effort. Your patients’ mental and physical healthcare journey can only deepen when it extends to other like-minded organizations and businesses in your community. Consider getting involved in seasonal or special events and aligning your practice with strategic partners, such as:

Whether it’s coming together for a good cause or hosting a social media costume contest at Halloween, get your practice involved in initiatives that people will appreciate and remember.

The most successful medical practices are those that change with evolving patient expectations. By offering streamlined, efficient services across the patient journey, personalizing your communications, optimizing with digital technology wherever possible, and giving your practice a memorable presence in the community, you’re laying the foundation for high patient loyalty and a superb patient experience.