The biggest hole in most home care companies’ marketing strategies is the plan of how to retain past customers who have been on service and were satisfied. You can pour your entire marketing budget, time, and initiative into going after new business, but if you haven’t cultivated your past customers, you definitely have a hole in your marketing bucket.
*Consider some of these general marketing facts:
1. Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers.
2. A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%.
3. A 5% reduction in customer defection rate can increase profits by 25-125%, depending on the industry.
4. The customer profitability rate tends to increase over the life of a retained customer.
* “Leading on the Edge of Chaos”, Emmett C. Murphy and Mark A. Murphy
Now consider some facts specific to the home health industry:
1. A 2009 CMS study revealed 1 in 5 Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital within the first 30 days of discharge from home health services. Depending on the diagnosis, average chronic disease patients are readmitted and discharged from hospitalization an average of more than four times. Are you recapturing all these referrals?
2. In recent studies on readmissions of Medicare patients to home health, less than 20% could effectively state their previous health care provider’s agency name. This same study found nearly half of these referrals could remember the first name of a nurse or therapist involved in their care. Simply put, these patients were exposed to the names more often, therefore recollection was greatly increased.
Home health companies are required to clear Medicare payer numbers through the “Medicare common file” to make certain the patient isn’t under service with another agency. If you track your discharged patients through this method, I’m afraid you will find that 6 months to a year later, a shocking percentage of your satisfied discharged customers have now become your competition’s new customers.
Why people choose one agency over another is a challenge to determine. One surefire truth is that if they can’t remember your agency’s name at the point of a discharge, all the marketing, customer service, and care you did for this customer has been for nothing. The number one reason they should have chosen your agency is past satisfaction.
They are not going to receive the same care, and you are not going to receive the referral, all because they couldn’t verbalize a preference when asked at discharge.
Finally, it is the responsibility of home health agencies to give superior services to their patients. I am certain your discharge surveys confirm patient satisfaction. However, if your readmission rates are not equal to these satisfaction rates, the missing piece of the puzzle is exposure.
This huge hole in your marketing bucket can be avoided with a turn-key, cost-effective Patient Loyalty Program.
For more discussion or free samples of this proven strategy, simply contact one of my sales coaches at TAG Home Care Marketing for a FREE 30-minute coaching call. Click this link www.HomeCareCoachingCall.com or call 866-232-6477.
Working to grow your referrals,
Adam
a.k.a. – Home Care Referral-Man
