As competition becomes fiercer in this growing specialty, the cost of acquiring new patients has risen dramatically. Since it is much cheaper to get existing patients to come back to you, it makes a lot of sense to set up patient retention schemes to try to keep your existing patients.
Many clinics have such patient retention schemes, but they often involve special deals and offers for existing patients. They find themselves stuck in a price war, fearing that if they raise their prices, their patients will go elsewhere. When you are in such a price war, your business may survive for many years, but it will not thrive. It will be hard work and seem like a constant struggle, and I’m sure that it is not the reason you went into business in the first place.
In my experience, there are three ways to beat your competition: be cheaper, better or different. If you don’t want to be cheaper, then you have to be better than or different to your competitors…
