I fit Nancy with her first set of hearing aids. She said it changed her life. This was in 2015, just a year after I had launched my practice. We got her to full prescription and verified that she was wearing them consistently and satisfied with her results. Then, we recommended she come back every six months for a clean and check, and once a year for a hearing test.
For the first 18 months, she came back consistently. During this time, our practice was getting busy and I didn't even realize that we fell out of touch with Nancy. She never came in again. In 2018, I built out an automated database outreach system and turned it on for the first time. A couple months later, Nancy replied to an automated message from our system that offered her the opportunity to come try out new hearing technology:
"I appreciate everything you did for me, but my hearing aids stopped working last year and I got an ad from another practice. I bought new hearing aids from them about 6 months ago." Ouch... Nancy wasn't the only patient we lost to competitors during this time. Here's what we thought: "We're doing a great job for our patients! We're changing their lives with high-quality hearing care, and including long-term service so they always have support."
Here's what our patients thought: "They do a great job, and I'm glad I bought my hearing aids from them. But I haven't heard from them in a long time, and I haven't gotten around to going back in for another appointment. I'm not sure if I would have to pay, and I'm getting ads about new hearing aids all the time...maybe I'll go check those out to see if I could be hearing better."
The Moral of the Story
The patient experience doesn't end at the hearing aid fitting...it starts there. From that point forward, it's our responsibility to: Educate on communication strategies Proactively schedule maintenance visits Offer opportunities for deeper support Invite their friends and family to value-add events ...and generally stay in touch. Problem is, if you have a growing database, this is nearly impossible to do manually.
Make Follow-Up a System
Patient lifecycle campaigns can make that outreach more consistent. These are multi-channel (email, direct mail, text, phone) outreach systems that let you stay top-of-mind with your patients constantly, with less repetitive manual work.
