Improve Patient Experience with Simple Moments of Delight
Infusing delight into your practice is more than just lifting your clients’ spirits. It’s a strategic business decision and one of the simplest ways to improve your overall client experience. Why? Because delighted clients don’t just come back, they tell other people they should come, too. The more delightful the patient experience, the louder they shout it from the rooftops! And you begin building the kind of patient loyalty that grows a practice naturally.
Why delight matters in client care
Let’s start with some wisdom from Jane’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Ali Taylor. According to her, a referral happens when there’s a noticeable difference between a client’s experience in healthcare elsewhere versus their current experience with you. If their previous experience was negative, and then you offer them a positive one, they’ll really feel the difference tenfold. We call this the “experience gap.”
If you can fill that experience gap with a memorable patient experience, more than what they’ve experienced elsewhere, you’re going to have clients or patients who want to tell people about that. Bam! Word-of-mouth referral.
Three simple ways to create a moment of delight for clients
You can create a memorable patient or client experience by:
- Making a previously frustrating experience feel smooth
- Adding something unexpected to a dull or routine procedure
- Personalizing an interaction with something specific to your client.
Want to create a delightful patient experience in your own business? You can start by mapping out your client journey, from the moment a potential client hears about you, all the way through to booking an appointment, receiving care, paying you, and (hopefully) rebooking. Each of these patient touchpoints comes with an opportunity to go above and beyond with client experience.
Do Well Therapy’s Client Experience Manager, Chiara Martini (right), creating a warm, welcoming moment at the front desk.
Look outside your industry for inspiration
A good tip is to look for inspiration outside of your industry. Restaurants and hotels are a great place to start, because they’re all about creating an exceptional customer experience. So, the next time you head out for a nice dinner or a weekend getaway, keep an eye out for small gestures and memorable moments that make you smile.
👀 If you’re curious how other clinics infuse comfort and personality into their spaces, I explored this in a recent newsletter on bringing joy into your clinic space. It includes some lovely, practical examples from a real counselling and wellness clinic.
If I can convince you of one thing, let it be this: delight is not a frill or a nice-to-have. It’s an essential component of business today. I challenge you to stretch your imagination and think about how to add delight and improve client experiences in your clinic. Does a task like filling out forms really have to feel mundane? Can the front desk double as a site for fun and play? What can you do to make a boring experience feel more exciting and increase patient engagement?
When you begin to see delight as a vital part of every small task in your day, you’ll start discovering opportunities to elevate the patient experience everywhere you look.
See how the Jane community is delighting their patients
We have treats at the front — no receptionist, so this makes it like a warm welcome. They love the Hi-Chews! — Francine Eastwood
We have a snack bar for kids, a coffee bar for parents, an ongoing puzzle in the waiting room, and a sound machine that the kids can choose sounds from while they wait for their appointment. We provide educational therapy (therapy for kids with disabilities) and disability evaluations (ADHD, autism, etc.). — Amanda Lepore
Actual photo of snack bar from Amanda Lepore
Any time a patient mentions an upcoming event, we add it as a ‘task’ the week before. That week, we send them a good luck postcard. Patients have loved it. — Camille Ronesi
I always offer my clients tea or water before we begin. — Janine Cole
I was sending out personal postcards that I made art on. Clients love that! Obviously, keeping track of what they like most and bringing out their fav essential oil next time, they feel heard. — Jennifer Malo
One thing we have done in the office is give young kids chiropractic stickers after their appointments. They love them, and on follow-up appointments, they are looking for them again in the spot we keep them. So much joy for so little cost, time, and effort! — Dr. Brad Murray
📖 This article was originally published in volume 4 of Front Desk magazine and has been modified and updated.
