NEW YORK—As the experts at EyeCarePro point out, it’s a great feeling to see a new patient come through your practice’s doors. And a great deal of time and effort goes into attracting more patients to expand your patient base. But sometimes it’s important to keep in mind the importance of maintaining existing repeat practice revenue by fostering patient loyalty. As EyeCarePro points out in a new report, cultivating patient loyalty and keeping those patients coming back requires time and effort.

1. Build Your Patient Personas and Do Your Research. EyeCarePro writes, “Start any serious marketing initiative with building patient personas. Once you’ve identified the type of patients you want to continue coming to your practice, start doing your research about how and where to best reach out to them, what kind of offers and communications will keep bringing them back, and what factors might cause them to go somewhere else for their eyecare. Don’t be afraid to offer incentives such as gift cards and raffle tickets, where allowed and appropriate, to encourage patients to participate.”

2. Make Eyecare as Convenient as Possible. “The easier you can make it for patients to come into your practice, the more likely they are to continue to do so. Your website is a big part of that equation. Make sure that your site is easy to navigate on mobile devices and tablets.”

3. Streamline the Patient Experience. “Where possible, you should look for places to streamline the process of taking each patient through their whole appointment, from intake to exam to optical (if necessary) and on through post-appointment billing and instruction.”

4. Be Transparent With Your Insurance and Billing. “A well-trained staff is the best line of defense. Make sure that your front-office staff is well-versed in the various insurances that your practice accepts, and that issues of billing are addressed at the beginning of the appointment when possible. For ease of reference, signage can also be put up around the office outlining the cost of some of the more common exams and tests your practice does for patients.”

EyeCarePro, which helps thousands of independent ECPs with digital and practice marketing, offers a range of Pro Tips, specific tactics and related resources to help ECPs navigate these important tasks. A link to this page here explains many of these tips, with links to other related advice and posts as well.