How does your medical practice currently keep track of patient data? Are you still using a combination of spreadsheets, paper forms, saved email confirmations, physical filing cabinets and even sticky notes to manage critical business documentation and customer information? If so, it might be time to consider upgrading to a more efficient, streamlined solution that can handle your existing patient volume and future growth.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is designed to help medical practices like yours organize, track, and analyze all patient interactions and patient data in a single, centralized location. Implementing a CRM solution in your practice can revolutionize the way you manage patient relationships, improve administrative efficiency, and prepare your business for future growth.
But how do you know if a CRM is the right solution for your medical practice? Keep reading to learn five signs your business is in desperate need of a CRM solution.
1. Your Data Is…..Everywhere
How many different places do you store patient data, medical records, and patient communication records? If a patient needs service, do you waste valuable time searching through multiple spreadsheets, emails, and paper files to find the information you need? And how do you know for sure that the spreadsheet you’re viewing is the most up-to-date documentation?
A CRM resolves the issues listed above by organizing and storing all your patient data in a single, centralized location. With a structured CRM, you only need to look one place to retrieve a patient’s medication information, upload a new X-ray report, verify an upcoming appointment, or change outdated contact information, among other things. A robust CRM platform helps eliminate administrative inefficiencies, reduce data accuracy errors, prevent loss of data, and prevent double entries.
2. You’re Fielding Patient Complaints About Service and Communications
When you don’t have an orderly system to communicate with patients and track patient interactions, your customer service suffers. Patients quickly become frustrated when they end up speaking to multiple people about the same problem, repeating the same information multiple times, or not receiving answers to queries due to communications slipping through the cracks.
With a CRM, your customer service team can spend less time fielding complaints and more time communicating proactively with patients. CRM software provides your team with a complete view of your patients in a single location. You’ll have access to previous interaction notes, a history of appointments and activities with your practice, preferred communication methods, and all the data you need to give your patients the individual attention they deserve.
3. Your Team Is Wasting Time on Manual Tasks
Just because your team is always busy doesn’t mean they’re effective. Do you know how much time your staff members, service reps, and sales reps are spending manually inputting patient data, searching for patient data, accidentally creating duplicate entries, and updating and reformatting outdated spreadsheets?
A CRM platform automates administrative work and data entry so that your team members can spend less time on paperwork and repetitive duties. CRMs document and organize patient information in a single, centralized location that’s updated in real-time as new information is added. Automation frees up your team to focus on more important things like delivering patient care and building relationships with patients.
4. You’re Struggling to Analyze the Data You Have
When your patient data is stored in multiple places, analyzing and reporting on the information relevant to your business is either impossible or a tedious, time-consuming, and manual process. A CRM platform centralizes all your data in one place and automates the reporting process. You can easily collect in-depth reports on patient demographics, behaviors and habits, common care preferences, churn rates, retention rates, new patient growth, and more. Your CRM helps you gain more insight into the effectiveness of your current processes, methods, and customer service. Your practice can use these insights to guide future growth strategies and marketing efforts.
5. Your Current Business Model Isn’t Scalable
Perhaps your current customer management solution using spreadsheets, emails, and fragmented systems is fine for now, but it’s not sustainable in the long term. As your medical practice continues to grow, you’re bound to encounter more manual errors, duplicate data entry, lost communications, disorganized patient communications, and time wasted on repetitive tasks.
Flexible CRM solutions grow alongside your business. A robust CRM allows you to integrate third-party apps for critical business operations (like accounting, e-documents, and lead tracking), sync sales data, marketing data, and patient management data in a single platform, and automate tedious administrative and patient outreach tasks. All your data will remain centralized and up-to-date in a single location, simplifying processes like adding new patients and hiring new employees.
Contact NewGen Marketing to Get Started With a CRM
At NewGen Marketing, our team uses Salesforce Health Cloud CRM to help medical practices manage all their patient interactions, outreach, and care processes in one place. Salesforce Health Cloud is the comprehensive CRM solution your health care company needs to improve patient acquisition, management, engagement, and retention. If you’re interested in implementing Health Cloud in your business, or migrating legacy systems over to a centralized Health Cloud platform, call NewGen Marketing today for a free consultation.