One Saturday night, earlier this year, my partner and I made the startling realization that we had nothing for dinner.
We checked the fridge, the freezer, and the cupboards, but there was nothing.
We were doomed!
Then it dawned on us—it’s 2023 and technology exists.
So I pulled out my phone, opened Deliveroo, and we ordered an assortment of delicious snacks and ingredients. We were saved!
Or so we thought…
Our order never arrived, and when I contacted Deliveroo’s support to report the issue, I was immediately trapped in a loop of automated responses. And instead of helping, they jus repeatedly insisted that I had, in fact, received my order.
It was gone 11pm on a Saturday night, and I was on my phone being gaslighted by a bloody robot.
So we just ordered a pizza, and uninstalled Deliveroo.
Now, there are two morals to this story:
- Deliveroo has made an enemy for life (I will never forgive, and I will never forget)
- It only takes one bad interaction for a company to lose a customer
This is why, as a clinic, it’s vital to provide the best patient journey possible. Both to impress your customers and get an advantage over your competitors.
Want to explore how Pabau Patient Journey Software can elevate your patient experience? Schedule your free demo now and discover the possibilities!
What is the Patient Journey and why does it matter?
“We believe in leading the aesthetics sector and in order to do that we utilize technology to its maximum to facilitate a slick patient journey and enhance interaction with our client database”
- Dr Leah Totton—Co-owner of Dr Leah Cosmetic Clinics & winner of The Apprentice 2013
Before we delve into how you can improve your patient journey, it’s important to understand what it actually is.
The patient journey is the sequence of interactions a patient has with your clinic through the whole lifecycle of care.
This starts as soon as they make an appointment, and lasts all the way through to post-treatment and follow-up appointments. These interactions can vary in form, but will often include a combination of email, SMS, and in-person.
From the perspective of your patients, this journey should be as simple as possible, without missing out on key information. And from your perspective, it should include as little admin as possible, while providing the best possible customer service.
Patient Journey vs Patient Experience
“But mysterious blog writer person, isn’t that the same as patient experience?”
- You, probs
That’s a fair question, and there is definitely an overlap between patient journey and patient experience. But there is a difference.
Essentially, the patient experience is how your customer feels about their whole experience with your clinic. Including how satisfied they are with the care they receive.
This includes things like quality of care, interactions with staff and healthcare providers, and their physical and emotional comfort throughout the process.
The patient journey is part of this experience, but it’s more focused on the points of communication and interaction between you and the patient.
To put it another way, the patient experience is like a vacation, the patient journey is your itinerary of flights, transfers, hotels, etc.
Sure, your trip to Australia was OK overall, but you’d have enjoyed it a lot more without the poisonous snake in your room, or the luggage being sent to the wrong Newcastle.
How to improve the Patient Journey
There are improvements to be made at every stage of your patient journey, which together creates an elite experience for your customers.
But you’re not making these improvements by yourself. No no!
With the right Patient Journey Software like Pabau, you have all the tools you need to make these improvements, and then some.
Let’s get into it…
Online scheduling
“I was getting really busy in my clinic, and I just didn’t have time to then come back home, chase deposits, and sort out booking people in”
- Camille Armstrong—Owner of Secret Enhancements
The first step in any patient journey is appointment booking. It’s a crucial part of the process, and a bad first impression can be catastrophic.
Luckily, it’s also an easy step to get right.
Using Pabau’s online booking features, you can add a customized booking widget to your existing website. You configure which services are available, prices, charges, etc, and we do the rest.
This makes your booking system available 24/7, so your patients can book appointments any time they like.
You can also set it up to take bookings directly from your Facebook or Instagram page, and give them the option to make group bookings.
And as soon as a client books an appointment, their details are automatically imported into Pabau for you to access wherever you are.
It’s easy for them, and even easier for you!
Pre-appointment
Once an appointment is booked, you will need to send pre-treatment emails. Which will likely vary depending on the treatment they’ve booked.
This can be an arduous task, making sure you send the right info, forms, etc to the right patients.
Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just customize templates to automatically send to the right people?
We agree! Which is why Pabau includes automated pre-treatment emails that can be separately configured depending on the treatment.
So anytime a patient schedules a treatment, they automatically get the right info, and links to the right forms. And once they’ve completed the forms, the data is automatically added to their client record.
The other key pre-appointment step is actually making sure they turn up!
It easily happens—you book an appointment with all the confidence you’ll remember when it is. But when the day gets here, you get distracted binge-watching whole seasons of The Great British Baking Show, and it completely slips your mind!
We’ve all been there, right?
RIGHT?!?
But by using automated appointment reminders, you’ll be able to avoid these kinds of mishaps. In fact, by implementing email and SMS reminders, you’ll reduce no-shows by up to 40%.
They can catch up on their cooking shows after their treatment.
Treatment
Speaking of which, the day of treatment is a huge part of the patient experience, so it’s crucial to make the journey as smooth as possible. For the patient and for you!
For example, you can capture the patients life-changing transformation by capturing before and after photos on your phone, and uploading them straight to Pabau. We even give you stencils to perfectly line up the shots.
You can also add treatment notes directly to the patients’ records, from either your phone or computer.
Once the treatment is complete, you want the invoice and payment process to be as quick and painless as possible. Our point of service (POS) tool does exactly that.
You can generate invoices and take payments, all from Pabau. And once everything has gone through, it all gets stored against the patient record.
Post-appointment
Once the treatment is done and the client has paid, you’re finished, right?
WRONG!!!
There’s still plenty to do, and several more opportunities to wow your customers with your patient journey.
You’ll need to send post-appointment emails, with aftercare guidance for the patients and accompanying documentation.
Just like the pre-appointment emails, these can be customized to be specific to the service or treatment they received. This demonstrates both professionalism and attention to detail.
If your patient had a good experience with your clinic, you’ll also want them to leave a review. The feedback is great for improving and refining your patient experience, but it’s also great for marketing your clinic.
You can set Pabau up to automatically email the patient, asking them to leave you a review. This gives you the best chance of building up a solid list of reviews for other potential customers to read.
Repeat bookings
More importantly, if they’re happy with their treatment, they’ll hopefully want to come back for more.
So why not pre-empt this by inviting them to make repeat bookings?
You can configure the email to match the recommended frequency of the treatment, and it’s really easy for existing clients to schedule repeat bookings.
This not only makes it easier for your customers, improving their patient journey, but it can also increase your repeat revenue by up to 55%.
Not bad, considering Pabau does all the hard work for you!
The experience they deserve
“I would highly recommend Pabau to other clinic’s because if you want an easy life, then this is the only client management software to use”
- Roxanne Merchant—Head of Operations at Juvea Medical
All of these things translate into one thing—giving your customers the best possible experience.
It’s the experience your customers deserve, with a great patient journey at the heart of it all.
That’s why it’s baked into the DNA of Pabau, and why it’s so important to get it right for your clinic.
