Post Updated [September 12, 2022]
We know that ensuring your client has an amazing experience working with you is likely always something top of mind! That’s why we had Claire Cooper-Bodtke, Practice Implementation Expert, join us to share how you can create a remarkable client experience. In the video below, she walks you through a client journey map and shares tangible, simple strategies to help you elevate your client’s experience, ultimately allowing you to serve them at the highest level.
As part of the client journey, Claire shares the importance of pre-educational content in setting your client up for success. This is content shared with your client before you start working together that addresses common questions and sets the stage for how you will be working together.
In Practice Better, you can add your own client portal welcome video that your client will see upon first entering the portal. This is a great opportunity to outline what they can expect when working with you and address frequently asked questions.
Customizing your session confirmation email is also an easy way to let clients know what to expect and share additional pertinent information.
If you are utilizing Practice Better’s programs, consider adding a welcome module that your client has access to as soon as they sign up. Here you can share your pre-educational content in text format, as well as include any videos, documents, forms, or tasks.
Each month, our Business Success Coaches, host an interactive BBC YouTube Live, bridging together expert advice and Practice Better technology. Take a moment to watch the session with Claire below
Video Duration: 50 minutes
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified about our next YouTube Live event!
Claire Cooper-Bodtke is a Practice Implementation Expert who has been working in the functional medicine world for 15 years. She is passionate about creating systems that work!
Connect with Claire: medicava.com | @wearemedicava
Get your free Functional Tech Checklist here: Blueprint for Technology | Medicava
Jen:
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Practice Better's Better Business Conversations. My name is Jen Miller. I am a business success coach with Practice Better. I am joined by the amazing Claire Cooper. Claire is going to be talking to us today all about creating an amazing remarkable client experience. Welcome Claire.
Claire:
Hi everybody. It's so good to be here.
Jen:
For anyone who is new to Claire, Claire is a consultant. She has been working in the functional medicine world for 15 years and her passion is to create systems that work. We're really excited to learn from you today, Claire.
Claire:
Thank you. I am excited to share.
Jen:
I'll let you take it away, Claire, if you'd like.
Claire:
Sounds good. One of the best things about working with Practice Better and most of the systems that I work with in general is that the clients or the customers are so passionate about not just functional medicine, but private medicine. What we're finding in this world is that 15 years ago, it was such a stretch for people to go from conventional to almost this cash pay type of a world and we didn't have the technology that we have today. We had a few things like a CRM, a customer relationship management system, or we definitely had EMRs, right? But we didn't have these really high touchpoint integrative types of systems that allowed for a remarkable client experience. The reason why I say that is because I've been trained through the Ritz-Carlton Gold Standard through customer service, really that's ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. It's this whole idea around expecting what the customer wants before they ask for it.
Claire:
I think now what we've created in this either functional or integrative or cash pay sort of healthcare environment is just that. We have created a transactional relationship where the customer expects something from us. I talk to people a lot about “what kind of a system do I need and why do I need it? “Should I get this one over this one? Or do I need 10 or 15 or five systems?” The answer to that is everybody's different. There's no one size fits all model. There is no unicorn software that answers every single thing you want it to do, and that's for a reason. A lot of these software companies get into business to really be good at something, not okay at everything. For example, Practice Better, their support system is amazing. When they have enhancements that come out, they're really listening to their customers and the needs of what they want, but so are other people.
Claire:
I encourage you, if you got anything from this, if there's a feature that you want in the software that you are using, ask for it. Either it's currently on their roadmap or it's something they're thinking about doing, and you may not be the only one who needs that feature. I highly recommend that you use your customer service for that feature and then ask for it. Most likely they're going to put it in there for you. To be in this world of technology and create a remarkable experience, you can't be afraid of technology. You can't get scared every time you open up the system and think, oh, I haven't done that training yet, or I didn't watch that video, or I'm not sure about that piece of it. I don't know whether I want to use that or not. The easier way is to really lay out and create that blueprint of what you want out of your piece of technology ahead of time. And then everything just falls into place. It just happens organically for you, because you start answering questions based on your list of needs.
Claire:
I'm going to take you through a customer journey map really, of where that customer starts with you and then how we work them through all the way, and then how technology can be used to enhance that experience. Because it's really important that when you are implementing a piece of software technology, cloud-based subscription, whatever you want to call it, you're using it the right way and you're using it to create better health outcomes. That is what I do this for. When I was introduced, I mean, really Jen, she really nailed it. I'm passionate about systems, but it's really for the patient, it's for the client. It's for the end of the day for you the healer to not have to worry about all the logistics of the business, but just get to create a better health outcome for the client or the patient. That's it.
Claire:
And so getting there and using these things to leverage you will end up resulting in a positive health outcome for your client. If we start with that first journey, which is really what I call contemplation. Contemplation to me is I'm thinking I might maybe at some point want to work with X practitioner, right? We know that people are not sitting around Googling functional medicine, or if they are, they're probably a very good steward of their own health. But more than likely, they're sitting in front of the computer going, "I need help. I need somebody but I don't know what they are yet because I haven't really experienced that type of care." So the first thing we want to do is you would have a website, that's a given nowadays, you need to have that online business card. You need to have that online presence. I will say that there are dollars that are spent in the beginning of creating your business and there are times where you need to be really cognizant of how much you spend and in certain places.
Claire:
I wouldn't try to do a website on your own. I used to tell people to do that. What I've now seen is that you're going to spend too much time spinning wheels and trying to learn a piece of technology that you will never use again once you finish your website. Invest the dollars, create a budget for yourself of what you want to spend, and hire a company or hire a consultant within a company to create a nice stellar usable website. Now part of that contemplation is also what we use in the industry is a call to action. What do you want them to do when they're contemplating working with you? That's the next step of the journey map, which is that decision, the decision for them to want to work with you and how they get in.
Claire:
They are going to commit to working with you by doing one thing, which is clicking on a button that you may have created called "Ready to work with me?" or "Free 15 minute consultation." I recommend that on that link, if you're using Practice Better, you attach the form known as a readiness assessment. And if you have questions about what the type of questions you should ask in a readiness assessment are, you can ask myself or you can ask the team. They do have some of those templates available for you. But what we're really doing is trying to identify if this prospective client is ready and willing to invest time and money into the type of care that is necessary for them to work with you. Now, once they've made that decision to work with you from your website, it needs to sync back, right?
Claire:
This is that systems approach that I'm talking about the whole time. Does it then lead them to book time with you? Does that also sync to your calendar so that you then get notified and it's blocking time off? Are you using those features that are in the software you have purchased to really make it come full circle? Now the next part of your website is going to be testimonials. I get asked this question all the time, “why do I need a testimonial?” Or, “is this a good one?” Do not put a testimonial on your website just to do it. I also recommend not just putting something that's very trite like, "Oh, Elizabeth is great," or "She's really fun to work with." No. There's not very many testimonials you're ever going to find, if any, that are negative, right? Nobody's going to put a negative testimonial up.
Claire:
What works better and what's more impactful is for you to create an experience for your client before they even see you. Telling a story. What if we told Elizabeth's story about how she started off? Set the stage for how she was before she came to see you, what she felt while she was working with you, and then how it was for her afterwards. When you create that storyline for your prospective client, they get the insight into how it is to work with you without actually having to experience it themselves. Testimonials versus stories, I recommend going in the storybook world. Then if we move a little bit further away from the website, because now you sort of understand that. I think if you work with a marketing person, you can get a lot more out of a website. I'm just giving you those high level, big touch points that you need to have when you're trying to create that experience.
Claire:
But if you move past the website, let's say now I am trying to decide whether or not working with you is going to be good for me. I'm still online, but I may not be on your website. I may now have just typed in your name or typed in your practice name and everything is going to come up. If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend you to either pause this video or while you're listening to me talk, open up a new tab. In the Google search bar, type in your name. Your NPI number is public. Your information is public. You are on multiple HealthGrades, ZocDoc, RateMDs, WebMD, Doximity, the list is endless. I have a full list that you can actually get for free after this, if you want to, but you need to go through and claim those directory listings.
Claire:
Everything should be up to date, your email address, your website, your phone number, information about the services that you offer should all be as up to date and connectable as possible. What happens is practitioners forget that this information is available. If you are just focusing on your social media like Instagram or even Facebook, that's great, but you may have forgotten about LinkedIn or like I said, Doximity. These professional directory listings that are available for people where your information does pop up. So go through and take a look at that. That's what I call online reputation management. That is one half of a two-sided reputation management system. Because the other side is now what your clients can do on those sites. Not only are you able to claim those directory listings for people to find you, but customers, clients and patients can also go there and post reviews. And the internet lives forever.
Claire:
You cannot go back and take down these reviews without fighting. Meaning, if you have a really good case like, this was never a person of mine, that's the wrong practitioner, that's the wrong practice. I never saw this person. You might be able to get it taken down, but nine times out of 10, Yelp, Google, like I said, Doximity, any of those real medical directory listings, they're not going to take reviews down. That's why it's imperative that you manage your online reputation and ask for reviews. It's okay for you to say, "Hey, did you enjoy your time with me today? That's great. I would love it if you could hop on over to Google for me and just post a quick review, that way other people will know how your experience was with me." Those are okay to ask. I promise. There's a way that you can do it without sounding salesy or markety.
Claire:
Again, if you have questions about how to script these types of things, I'm happy to help you. But it's important that we understand that that online reputation is important from every aspect, your website, to those medical directory listings and into your online reviews. Now if we know somebody has contemplated working with you, they've made a decision to work with you. Now that's the biggest part, right? We're going to activate them, get them into your practice, your business, your consulting firm, your coaching practice, whatever you call it, we're going to get them in. It's important that when they make that decision to work with you, they are set up for success. Specifically, one of the ways that you can set somebody up for success is that readiness assessment I talked about, right? Asking the right questions and having them self-select into working with you.
Claire:
The next one is going to be pre-educational content. I wish that these are the times where I could go back to speaking live to people, because this was the question I ask all the time and I would say, raise your hand. We can't do that now. But if we could do a show of hands for people that would rather work with somebody who is educated and empowered versus somebody who has a lot of questions. Well, the entire room usually raises their hand to educated, because working with an educated patient or educated customer takes a lot of the pressure off of you as a practitioner. In addition to that, you've probably said the same thing 10 or 20 times that week. If you have said it more than once, it might be a good idea to write it down and give it to people before they work with you. For example, what is functional medicine?
Claire:
If somebody just found you online because they landed on you for a specific symptom reason or they were referred to you, but they really don't understand what root cause medicine is. Why don't you leverage your programs inside of your software and get information in front of them ahead of time with maybe a little video or a course about what is functional medicine? What is it like working with a functional practitioner? What can you expect from our visit? Right? The other thing I will say is there is a specific feature in Practice Better that I have found extremely helpful. I don't know if it's a hidden gem or what, but it's the ability for you to put your custom welcome video in your portal. There is a place where you can actually record your own video just like this, “Hey, welcome to my practice.” And place that video into the portal so that when somebody logs in for the very first time, they're getting to see you. You get to tell them how to use the portal.
Claire:
What do you want them to be doing? How consistently are you going to be checking in with them? How much of that is on them to do? Again, setting them up for success will continuously impact the experience over time. You will get what you want out of them. They will have an expectation and know what to get out of you. The next piece of setting somebody up for success once they've made a decision is using your welcome email. If you haven't already, you know that you can customize welcome emails in a lot of different softwares, and that's for a reason. It's because when I have made the decision to pay you, which we haven't talked about, but I highly recommend that you are either getting a deposit or some sort of monetary transaction upfront if someone is booking a consultation with you, not a free consult, but an actual visit with you, right?
Claire:
You should create that where they do have some skin in the game financially. Then when they book that, they're getting a welcome email. That welcome email, make sure your links work if you're sending them somewhere else. Make sure there's no typos. Make sure your signature line and your picture are there. Make sure you're telling them, again, exactly what to expect from this visit. If you want them to do something, have them do it, which is so simple but also really impactful to your client. If you haven't already gone through as a prospective patient in your own system by testing it, I recommend that you do that. What happens when I book a session? What happens when I want to work with you? What do those emails look like that come to me? What does the subject line say? Those are all really important things for you to know, because if you're using templates, sometimes I found that practitioners make the mistake of really forgetting to check every piece and part of that template.
Claire:
If it's not specific to what you want them to know, it begins to erode the experience every time. So again, link checking, fact checking your contact information and setting them up for success on what to expect with that visit. It's just really important for you to have that in your welcome email. The next part of that customer journey is going to be assimilation. Once we get somebody to assimilate into our practice, we really should have already done a lot of that legwork. I mean, if you think about it, between the website and the online reputation and the pre-education and the welcome email, this person should be pretty ready, pretty ready to know what's about to hit them. What's about to hit them is a whole list of things they now have to do, right? It is now their responsibility to complete your intake forms, sign all of your agreements, sign financial policies, and read information.
Claire:
We are expecting a lot from them and there's a lot of information that has to happen. If you don't have a system that has forms management and you're trying to do this on paper and send it to them and then they have to fill it out and scan it back and try to get it back to you, please stop yourself. Get a system that does this online. Practice Better is one of the best in the industries for this because you can create your own custom intake forms. If you want a template, great, they've got several templates in there you can use. But if not, and you ask very specific questions, use the custom builder, create the dropdowns, use conditional flows, ask questions that matter to people. If they choose that they're female, ask questions about the female reproductive system. If they click that they're male, show male. Don't have both. Use the page breaks to create flow so that people don't feel like they're taking 600 questions in one sheet. Categorize things, use headings, make sure to create intake forms that allow your client or patient to get through that systematically and give you all the information that you need.
Claire:
Now from that on the back end, it's important for you to understand too that there is a feature within Practice Better called mapping. It's a great feature. If you haven't used it before, please take some time to either contact support or just go into the help desk. They have a wonderful knowledge base around it. Mapping the information onto the patient or client note is really helpful because it alleviates some of the stressors around the admin side of when you have to get that information back from the client. Creating custom intake forms, using the forms and waivers online for them to digitally sign and using that mapping feature will make a world of difference in the client experience. Because one of the expectations around when they're filling this out is that someone's going to take the time to read it, right? They took two hours filling it out.
Claire:
They're going to expect that you sat there and read every single line word for word. So if you can map some of that information directly into a note, you don't have to do the double work of reading it and then copy and pasting it back into your note as well. Assimilating people in, getting them to understand why they are there, what they're going to be getting out of it. Then having a clean process of onboarding just creates that whole flow so that when they come in to see you, you are prepared, they are prepared. You execute and then you can create those action plans moving forward. I know we're covering a lot of information, but the other piece of assimilation is ongoing touch points. I bought your stuff. I love what you do. I came in for my initial consultation. You listened to me, you were great. I loved working with you. Then you infobesity, threw all this information at me, and now I've got to go home and try to figure out how to get through it.
Claire:
I'm freaking out and I don't understand. I am now paralyzed because I don't even know where to start. That's about 99% of your clients, by the way. If you haven't really thought of it from that side, it's tough. It's second nature for you to understand how to interpret an organics acids test. It is not second nature for your clients to understand what any three of those words meant, except for maybe test, right? They don't know what there's wrong with them. They have a very small educational level when it comes to just anatomy and physiology to begin with, so try to peel back from the high level terminology. Try to speak to them a little bit more on a kindergarten level, try to get down to their level and use touch points along the way to snackable bite the information out to them without them feeling like they have to swallow the entire ocean after a two hour intake with you.
Claire:
What I mean by that is to use journals. Use your messaging. Use the programs. After somebody meets with you, it's just as important to have pre-educational content as it is to have post-educational content. You can have program specific information that is geared to, if you told somebody to go on an elimination diet, for example. Why don't you build out a program with three or four courses around what is an elimination diet? Why do I have you on this? Setting yourself up for success, elimination diet recipes, or grocery shopping. All the things that you know that would've been great for you to have going through one, they want it too. Creating ongoing touchpoints are the most crucial piece to assimilating somebody within your practice. There are in essence too, there are tasks that are in Practice Better and other systems too.
Claire:
You can get a lot of this information in a lot of systems. Tasking yourself to remember to do something or tasking your client to do something counts as a touchpoint. Picking up the telephone and calling your client is the best touchpoint. Emails are great. Messages are great. Newsletters are great. Facebook lives are great. Videos are great. The telephone is the greatest. I know you're all sitting there thinking, I don't have time. I don't have the time to call. There's no way I can call. What you do is you set up the patient or client and yourself for a successful phone call. Pick up the phone. Hi, may I please speak with Julie? Hi Julie. It's Claire. I have a patient coming in about 10 minutes, but I wanted to make sure I touched base with you on X.
Claire:
Now you've already told them you have 10 minutes. Around the six-seven minute mark, you can start to wrap up the conversation. Now, you may not have a client coming in in 10 minutes, but at least you're able to get yourself off of that call. The reason why I say that is because I know that your clients try to get ongoing care over the phone or free care. They try to get a lot more out of you than you want to give them. Make sure to just manage your time wisely and set yourself up and them for a good phone call. Those are ongoing touch points. That's really assimilating somebody in, making sure they understand that you are going to continue to work with them. You're going to be there to hold their hand throughout the journey, and that they're going to continue to get return of investment, which leads me to the last piece, which is advocacy. Who doesn't love referrals? 98% of your practices are built by referrals anyway so you should all very much love referrals.
Claire:
You should ask when you do any kind of marketing, “if you or a loved one or you or someone you know might be interested in this.” There's a reason why they say it on television. There's a reason why they say it on the radio. It's because when you're listening to other stories, you may click into your mind and go, oh, well, that was that other thing that somebody told me about that is good for you. Then you become my advocate. You become my evangelist of the practice. Well, you tell me. If somebody had a negative experience versus a positive experience, are they more likely to talk about you? They're more likely to talk about the negative experience so we don't want that. We want them to have the positive experience so that they then become your advocate and understand how to use your practice. Then later on when something does arise, that's when they talk about you. If you understand that, what I'm saying is, if something negative happens, they're going to say it right away.
Claire:
When something positive happens, they're going to remember it long term. Continue to just reinforce in your mind that a positive client experience is going to be the best way for you to continue to get advocacy for your practice. In addition to that, when somebody pays money for a service, that to them is an investment. We know they're investing in their health. But even though we've been around for a long time now, it's still kind of a modern phenomena that we are buying healthcare, right? Or we're buying health for ourselves. When somebody enters into that transactional relationship and that investment is there, they are going to want a return on that investment. They are going to want to look back and say, huh? I got a lot out of that. Right? The easiest way for you to prove ROI, return of investment, is by health outcomes and tracking.
Claire:
If you are not currently tracking things from the minute they start with you, you're doing yourself a disservice. Because when people get better, they forgot they felt sick. They actually learn to live with these things like chronic headaches or pain or migraines or rheumatoid arthritis. They learn to live with that issue, so when you alleviate it from them, the body doesn't hold pain sensors, pain memories. They're not going to go, oh yeah, now I don't have a headache every day. Oh yeah, now I can use the bathroom every day. Those things aren't running through their mind. They just become normal to them now. You have to remind somebody, well, six months ago, when you came to see me, you had chronic migraines. You weren't able to use the restroom. You were covered in rashes. Oh yeah, now thank you so much. I forgot that I was like that. You're the best. Thank you so much for doing that.
Claire:
The way you're going to track that is inside your software. You're going to use the my Symptom Checker. You're going to use your intake forms. You're going to leverage ongoing follow up assessments with them. You're probably going to track through labs. You're probably going to use diagnostic tools. You're probably going to use their vital signs. These are things that you know of already, but I promise you, shedding light on them or giving them a physical artifact of that information once either halfway through, I recommend if they're doing a year program, at the very least halfway through, if not quarterly check ins. You need to show them where they were, where they are now, and then where they can be in the future. That customer journey map, taking somebody from contemplation, which is your website and your online reputation through decision making, which is setting them up for success, educational videos.
Claire:
Activation, which is going to be forms management, assimilation, which is your ongoing templates, and then advocacy, which is your health outcomes and tracking. If you can land yourself in that customer journey, and then you figure out what software do I need to answer all of those questions, there's so much more. We only have a little bit of time. I don't want to talk to you guys for a day and a half. But whatever you can answer in those categories, then you will have a stellar, remarkable experience for your client. And so I invite all of you, if you have any questions about what I went through, or you need to slow this video down, rewind it, go back, or you'd like a copy of the customer journey map, please let me know. You can also visit the website, the link below that I think Jen's going to put in here for us that will take you to a downloadable tech guide that you can get from me, and a link to my calendar.
Claire:
Thank you again so much. I hope this hasn't been too much information, but I know that it's really important for you all to understand your client. It's the reason why we're all here. It's the reason why I do what I do and why I'm so passionate about functional healthcare is because I just want more people to get well and to experience what you all have taken so long to learn and invested so much of your time and money into. Let's create better health outcomes and let's use technology to get us there.
Jen:
Wow, Claire, that was amazing. Thank you so much. It blows my mind how the client experience starts so much further before you start to actually work with the client. I think that's maybe something that can be overlooked, but it's so important to focus as you've shared those efforts on maybe it's your website or it's that pre-educational content, the welcome email. I mean, all of that really adds up in these building blocks to creating that amazing experience and setting your client up for success. I'd love to know because you shared some amazing different ways they can do that. If a practitioner is out there and they're like, oh my gosh, I haven't implemented any of this. Where should they start? What would be the first thing you would recommend they do that could have the most value add to the client experience before they start working with them?
Claire:
Gosh, Google yourself, just put your name into Google. You will be amazed at the things that you're like, oh, I didn't know, in 2002, I did that. And those claim those directory listings. It doesn't just help with reputation, it helps with search engine optimization. A lot of times people spend a lot of money with marketing companies and I'm not going to say yes or no on that, but there are a lot of things you can do on your own for free to increase your visibility I would say online. That would be the first thing before you even touch anything else, just go Google yourself.
Jen:
Yeah. For sure. I love that because I think maybe some practitioners might feel a little intimidated to do that. Or they're like, oh my gosh, what am I going to find? But as you've shared, I think that's such a powerful piece of the puzzle, because like you were saying at the beginning, the client is going to be on Google searching how they can get help. And if they're coming across these different directories, you want to have that claim, so I love that.
Claire:
Well, honestly, the thing that I get stuck on is that my practitioners will spend all this money. And then even the marketing companies sometimes don't understand that ZocDoc, RateMDs, HealthGrades, WebMD, vitals.com, they actually get ranked higher. You cannot pay enough money to rank higher than they do. Because they already have your NPI information and because they already have it, it's free. It is free for you to go in and click claim this listing, update it with your picture, your phone number, your website, all of the beautiful things that you do, right? How they can get in touch with you, that's what the directory is there for. You don't want them to go there and see that you used to work at this other conventional hospital with their phone number and a blank avatar photo. I even sometimes have clients who go on and they go, oh my gosh, it's still connected to my old company. I left that practice six years ago. Well, they don't know that. They don't update that stuff. You need to be a steward of your own reputation online.
Claire:
Also, don't get scared. If you see it or you're, I don't know how to say this to people because everybody takes it personally, and I do too. If you see something online, you're like, oh, what did I do? But try not to take it too personally. It may be they had a bad day or they're also very sick. We deal with people who do have a lot of ongoing health issues, so just take that into consideration. But setting people up for success also helps in your reviews because there's nothing worse than you getting a negative review about, oh, she didn't tell me that it was going to cost this much money. And then I went in and that's when she told me how much it was. No, as transparent as you can be to people nowadays, they're doing a lot of their own research online anyway, so just give it to them. Give them what they need and then get the right people in the door for you.
Jen:
Yeah. I love that Claire. And it is a point of consideration for practitioners is, when do I share my pricing? But I love that idea of just that transparency piece. So yeah, where and when would you recommend that they share their pricing to create the best client experience?
Claire:
That's a great question. I think pricing should be done over the telephone. I think it should be done during your 15 minute consultation. I think that letting people know in the readiness assessment, there's a range. So one of the questions that I have people ask is, are you ready and willing to invest between $200 and $800 or $400 and $4,000? Whatever your range is, right? If we were to find a natural solution to your healthcare issue. We word it very specifically because now they have to start thinking, oh gosh, if this person can get me well, is it worth four grand to me? Because what's the price of health? I don't know that until I'm sick, right? Unless I'm super sick or have something going on, you can't put a price tag on my healthcare. But you as a practitioner, you should already know your prices. By the way, everybody listening to this, if you have not sat down and know your worth, that's a whole other conversation.
Claire:
But the first thing you should do is write down how much money you have currently spent on your education, number one. Number two, how much money are you currently spending on your business? Now, I will say sometimes my practitioners fall down a rabbit hole with that. Then they actually sometimes have used that as a conversation with people and been like, well, I've got to pay for my office. No. That's the cost of doing business, people. We don't need to talk about that. But what you do say is, as a thought leader, as somebody who has been in the business now for this long, or I have this much education, you are an interpreter of information and you are an expert in your field. Know your prices, know your numbers, give them away only after somebody has said they would commit to you time and money.
Jen:
I love that point because it brings together the systems piece and the client experience piece. That's just one of many examples you gave, but to be able to use that assessment form to ask that type of question, that's going to set them up for success too. And so using that, having the right technology in place to be able to give them a form like that really easily, it benefits so many avenues so I love that.
Claire:
It does. And then they just come to you. Then you click on it in Practice Better and it says, this person has filled out your form. Then you can view it and you can annotate it. And while you're on the telephone talking to them, you're making your note. It just makes sense. This is one of the reasons why I love your software so much because it speaks my love language. When I tell people what to do, my first thought is make the note while you're talking to them. And then the feature is there. Or let's pre-educate somebody. Did you use programs? And they're like, well, what are those? And then we get to open up programs. They're like, I didn't even know this was here. I would say the next thing is to also take maybe 15 minutes one day and just really look through all of the features that you purchased with your plan with Practice Better because there are some really, really integral pieces in the plus plan. Not just programs, but just everything that they get out of there. I know this for a fact, but 80% of the features in a piece of software are not used, 80, 80%. That means that people are probably just using it for scheduling and billing and have no idea of all the other things that could be there to create a better client experience.
Jen:
Yeah. That makes sense, Claire. For sure. When you were talking about both the pre-educational and post-educational content, I loved that because I think both are so important. When they are looking at that type of content, what would you say is one of the best formats to share that in? Because I know you mentioned maybe email or video content and maybe there's something different for everyone in their practice, but what would you recommend on format for that type of content?
Claire:
You just have to speak to everyone's language. We're all different learners. Some are auditory, some are tactile. I think you just have to hit all the buttons. One thing I will say that's really impactful for people is if I'm watching a video that you then reiterate that text or you have captions. Because most people are now just going to watch this video, maybe sometimes where they probably shouldn't be watching a video and they're going to just use the captions. So use the YouTube feature if you're using YouTube videos of close captioning to get that text on there. But then pull out some of your hot buttons and put that as the text that you want them to get out of it. Because if I didn't watch the video, I'm going to have to grab it in text. Then finally, a tangible product, something that you are attaching to that they can print, download right on, have in my hand. As much as we love technology in the digital age, I don't care, we are always going to have paper. That's just part of what we do. We also love writing and checking things off. Then there is a final piece that you can't really do in a lot of software but you can do in yours, which is tasking homework.
Claire:
In post-educational content, if you give somebody homework, they love it. It's like giving a two year old a schedule or a guideline. We crave that. We want that. We miss that. And if you're not already in school or you stopped going to school, you want somebody to... Also, if you're going to assign homework, please grade it, please read it. Don't just give somebody stuff and then it lives in the abyss of the world. That is a surefire way to erode client experience is not following up. We talked about all the ways that you can increase it. I have a whole nother presentation on ways that you could destroy it. But one of those is not following up. If somebody sent you a lead or a referral or they put a journal entry in and asked you a question and you didn't look at it, and people are very dismissive now. They're paying for a service. Just get them to use all the things.
Jen:
Along those lines there, I'd love to know, is there the most common mistake that you see practitioners making with regards to the client experience? What would be the big highlighted in yellow like don't do this kind of thing?
Claire:
Don't give away your time for free, in any aspect. The time that you give away in a free consultation isn't time, it should be an evaluation. It should be you deciding whether or not this person is right to work with you. And don't be scared to say no. Don't be scared to hit a button. I say this all the time to people and they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, don't be scared to click. You're not going to break anything. If you break it, we'll fix it. Unless you hit restore factory settings on your WordPress website, which I do not recommend anybody do. Don't even find that button. But nine times out of 10, it's okay to click the button and see what happens next. If you put yourself in the shoes of your patient and ask yourself, what would they do? What are they going to experience?
Claire:
You will find those holes very quickly. I use a lot of analogies because I talk to a lot of practitioners. But I talked to somebody very recently and she goes, "Well, what's like the first thing that I should do?" I said, "Ask yourself what's it like to be a patient?" She goes, "Okay." She said, "They're going to go online. I got a website. But how are they going to call me?" I was like, "Exactly. Do you have a phone number?" "Well, I guess they could call my... " "No, they're not going to call your cellphone." It's like that type of mentality that you don't even realize. You have probably 80,000 decisions to make in building this business. So try to just knock a bunch of them off by asking yourself what the patient would do. That answers phone, billing, scheduling, intake forms, notes.
Jen:
I love that. I know when you mentioned Claire to create an avatar client or a test client, to actually go through your own process and your systems to see what it's going to be like. I mean, that seems like such an intuitive thing to do but many practitioners might not think about that. I think that's such a powerful step you're just mentioning to really highlight where the holes are in the client experience kind of thing.
Claire:
Yeah. Fill out your forms. Did you like doing it? Nope. Did your patient? Nope. Okay. How can I make this better? Like I said, did I put a category in there? Did I create a page break? Did I do something to make this experience not as bad as it could be, right? We all know, these are just the natures of what we got into as a business. But I will say too that there are features where people will go buy a software like a DocuSign or something, and that's great. Those are wonderful and I love them and they work, but they don't allow for people to just click a button somewhere and fill it out. So just again, be really cognizant if everything is clicking together. If you're sending a welcome email from Gmail and it has a link in it to go over here and then you've got to charge them over here, that starts to erode too. If they have to go to too many places, put their login into too many places, remember too many passwords, try to find softwares that already have these open integrations like Fullscript and Practice Better.
Claire:
Oh my gosh, you guys think it's easy for you as a practitioner, like light years easier for me as a client. It's all there. It's in my protocol. Then I click the button and then it's already in my Fullscript and then I don't have to worry about it. Then I auto-ship. You guys understand how much that improves your experience, right? It's tantamount. I'm just telling you right now, picking software that talks to each other is huge. Using companies like Zapier are huge. If you don't know what Zapier is, you can call me, but using things like that to really enhance everything is just going to make your life so much easier.
Jen:
Wow. Claire, thank you so much. I mean, everything you shared is so valuable. I know everyone listening in right now is just probably taking notes or they're going to want to pause and come back to this. I think what you really help do is just highlight that it's so important to put yourself in your client's shoes to say, how can I enhance that experience for them? Because even though it may seem like a really small minute aspect, it can really, like you said, erode the experience over time, so that's so important. Thank you so much. We always love having you come in and share with our community. If people are wanting to connect with you further and learn more about you, where should they go?
Claire:
They can go to Medicava, M-E-D-I-C-A-V-A.com/techblueprint. That's T-E-C-H blueprint. That will give you access to that free checklist. You can schedule a time with me. You can work with me from there and then we can move forward. I love what I do. Again, this is fun for me. People always say isn't technology scary, and to me, it's an art form. I don't know why. Maybe when I was little and trying to convince my parents to give me something for Christmas, I would create PowerPoint presentations. It started pretty young, but yeah, this is my love. Definitely reach out and I'm happy to help.
Jen:
Amazing, amazing. Well, thank you so much, Claire. Always a pleasure to chat with you. We'll see you soon. Okay.
Claire:
Thanks again.
Jen:
Thanks. Bye.
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