By the time a patient walks in your front door, you’ve already invested significant time, money, and resources to get them there. You’ve overcome the battle for mind-share and attention and effectively persuaded this individual to trust you, rather than choosing an OTC device or another provider or big box retailer. To optimize this investment, you want to reinforce their decision to choose your practice and help them move forward in their decision to improve hearing health. This means using your practice environment to focus patients on their hearing health and educate and engage them so they are active participants throughout the entire appointment. You want to keep them focused on positive emotional triggers and the benefits of hearing health and use every second they are in the practice intentionally. 

Let’s start at the beginning of the patient’s experience in the practice. They open the door and the first thing they see is your reception area. The reception area is much more than just a place for patients to wait or check-in for their appointment;  it is the window to your clinic’s soul. You have, on average, only seven seconds to make your first impression. And believe me, first impressions are important. In these moments patients begin to either doubt or trust you and your team. There’s a great quote from Maya Angelou that goes, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you’ve said. I’ve learned that they’ll forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.” That’s the key. Your reception area provides you the opportunity to make your patients feel appreciated, valued, and respected.

So, how do you intentionally create an engaging reception area? First, you want to understand what your patients see. You want to maximize the investments you’ve made to get your phone to ring and capitalize on those moments in the waiting room. Even if it’s for a few minutes, that is precious, powerful time that you have to engage and interact with your patients while they wait. 

Click HERE to Download our Whitepaper, How to Use your Waiting Area to Engage, Educate & Inspire your Patients.