2015-09-01
Tips For Finding Out How Satisfied Your PT Patients Really Are

Tips For Finding Out How Satisfied Your PT Patients Really Are

Tips For Finding Out How Satisfied Your PT Patients Really Are

As a physical therapist, it is essential that you offer the best possible level of service to every single one of your patients. We are living in a society where patients are taking a far more proactive approach to their own health and they are demanding better access to information and have much higher expectations of the care they receive. Nobody wants to feel like just another patient, they want a personal experience. With the popularity of social media it is easier than ever before for your patients to share their experiences with others both good and bad which can impact your reputation as a physical therapy provider. That is why it is so important to get a handle on how satisfied your patients are with the treatment they are receiving.

Let's Look at Patient Loyalty

When your patients are satisfied with the care that they receive, they are going to remain loyal to your physical therapy clinic in the long term. They are also more likely to recommend you to their friends who are also looking for a physical therapist. If you are conducting any sort of patient survey or encouraging patients to fill out feedback cards than one of the questions on there should always be some variation of 'would you recommend us to a friend?'. You can also examine how many repeat customers you have in order to gauge how loyal your patients actually are.

The Net Promoter Score

One of the most well established methods of quantifying the overall customer satisfaction for a brand (in this case your clinic is the brand) is the Net Promoter Score. The score is based on whether or not a customer would recommend you to others on a scale of 1 to 10. The scale is split into 3 categories :

  • Promoters (Those who answer 9 or 10)

  • Passives (Those who answer 7 or 8)

  • Detractors (Those who answer 0 through 6).


The final Net Promoter Score is calculated by taking the percentage of your patients who are promoters and subtracting the percentage of detractors. The resulting Net Promoter Score gives you a good benchmark to work on improving. The closer to 100 your Net Promoter Score, the more satisfied your patients are overall.

Examining Your Customer Service Metrics

It isn't all about the actual treatment that your physical therapy patients are receiving. The level of customer service they experience is also very important. There are a couple of customer service metrics that you can look at to see just how good your customer service record really is. The first metric you should be recording and examining is your response time. When a patient gets in touch with you regarding a problem or a concern, they expect you to respond in a timely manner. If you do not meet their expectations then you are going to see a considerable drop in patient satisfaction levels. Look at how long it takes you to answer calls and emails from your patients and ask yourself if you can improve on that. Studies suggest that most people feel that 24 hours is an acceptable time frame for an email response. Similarly, you will want to track the time that it takes you to resolve these problems once you have been made aware of them.

PatientSites.com can help you to manage your patient list more effectively in order to enhance their experience with your clinic. Discover how by requesting your free 15 minute demonstration today.