Why a Waitlist Management Strategy Is Important To Keep Future Patients Engaged
When a patient makes the leap to leave their traditional primary care practice and join your membership-based practice, they’re motivated, hopeful, and full of excitement.
But what happens when they get put on a waiting list?
They know there are countless benefits of choosing a DPC or concierge practice — the waiting list practically proves it. But at the same time, they can feel a bit left out in the cold. Sorry, the club’s too busy. You have to wait in line.
As concierge and DPC practices have become more popular and more successful, waiting lists have grown. Now, practices are having to figure out strategies for waiting list management so they don’t lose the stream of prospective patients they spent their time, energy, and money to attract.
Developing a good strategy for waiting list management will help maintain the original excitement that motivated your waitlisters to sign up in the first place. It will keep them engaged and looking forward to membership.
There’s no one right way to approach waiting list management. Because it’s a relatively recent need for many concierge and DPC physicians, there’s a lot of room for new ideas and collaborative learning. In this post, we’ll simply discuss some basic principles to help you get started.
The Challenge of Waiting Lists
For a successful membership-based practice, the waitlist is often a necessary tool. However, when a prospective member is placed on a waitlist, they may take it as a signal that you don’t have time for them.
If the waiting period is six months, but they “only” have to wait four months for an appointment with their usual doctor, they can start to doubt their decision to leave their traditional practice.
Of course, we know the wait is worth it. Once they’re onboarded and integrated into your patient panel, their waiting days are over. And they’ll have an unprecedented level of patient care.
So the challenge here is how to communicate all of that to your waitlisters. How do you clearly convey all the benefits of joining your practice in a way that keeps them engaged and excited — and willing to ride out the wait?
Why Waiting List Management Should Be a Priority
Good communication between a physician and patient facilitates trust and confidence, and it can begin with waiting list management.
Effective waiting list management keeps prospective members warm and nurtured, motivating them to stick around until a spot opens up. It drives the success of your practice by creating a consistent, reliable stream of patients. You don’t have to simply hope that they eventually join the practice; you know they will, because you invested in keeping them engaged.
Dependable and predictable patient flow makes every aspect of running your practice easier.
For example, hiring new staff feels like an exciting step forward, rather than an inconvenient growing pain. You’re free to justify and even celebrate new expenses to improve patient care, office ambiance, and more, because you know you have the revenue to support it.
Treat Your Waiting List Like Your Waiting Room
When prospective members join your waitlist, the goal is to make them feel as nurtured and cared for as the patient sitting in your waiting room.
This is a great mindset shift that can really help in approaching waiting list management. You wouldn’t walk past a patient in your waiting room without acknowledging them, and you wouldn’t want them sitting there with nothing educational or entertaining to read.
You can approach your waiting list in much the same way.
An essential part of waiting list management is creating consistent, valuable content that speaks directly to your target demographic and communicates the unique value you provide and your approach to patient care.
For example, if many of your waitlisters are senior-level executives, you know your target demographic likely is busy and stressed, travels frequently, has a couple of kids, and struggles with making time for exercise and healthy eating. You can tailor waiting list emails, blog posts, social media, or podcasts to provide value for this demographic in their general areas of highest concern.
When they see how much value you provide before they even join your practice, they’ll develop confidence and trust in the value you’ll provide once they’re members.
But you don’t have to do everything all at once. To choose the best approach, consider the tools you have in your toolbox. Do you have a blog on your website? How hard would it be to set one up? What social media channels do you use? Are you comfortable in front of a camera or microphone?
Also consider, how does your waiting list demographic prefer to consume information? Do they like email newsletters? Do they prefer audio? Social media? Or do they prefer to read meatier content, like blog posts?
Know Your Audience
An important piece of the puzzle when developing your content marketing plan is learning all you can about your target demographic. To determine your waitlist target demographic, collect some basic information about them when they sign up. Then, you can tailor your approach to get them the content they care about in the way they’ll consume it.
Don’t underestimate the value of adding personal touches to your plan. Waitlisters will feel more connected to you and your practice if you reach out with a personal note that includes something specific about them and their experience.
An email is great, but in the digital age of crowded inboxes and spam folders, sending a card or note through the mail can feel much more heartfelt. This could be a birthday or anniversary card or a simple note that you’re thinking of them.
That doesn’t mean email won’t be a key piece of your marketing plan. Staying in touch through email is one of the best ways to keep waitlisters interested and engaged.
It’s All About the Emails
When it comes to waiting list management, an email marketing tool like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or HubSpot is a practice’s best friend. Email marketing services allow you to set up a customized, automated welcome email series that sends to waitlisters as soon as they join your waiting list.
Including information about your practice in each email will keep prospective members excited about joining, and sprinkling in targeted resources will show that you understand their specific concerns. You might share a great TED Talk or write an original article about managing stress, for example.
An email series is an opportunity to set expectations, ensuring people are ready for the full experience of your practice once they make it off the waitlist. It’s also a good practice to keep prospective patients updated on their spot on your waiting list, and if possible, provide an estimated date when they’ll move to the top of the list. Our bias, though, is to under promise and over deliver.
As you develop your plan, remind yourself that your practice is worth the wait, and be sure to communicate this feeling in every email you send.
Start With a Welcome Email
Sending a welcome email as soon as someone joins your waiting list makes the recipient feel like they’ve been chosen for something exciting. They’ll be assured of your responsiveness and reminded of why they wanted to join.
This email can also prompt waitlisters to fill out any pre-registration forms, which will help you with future communications and content development.
Keep Them Warm With a Waiting List Email Series
To continue managing your waiting list, you can plan a series of emails to deliver value and information that keeps them engaged and excited about all you have to offer.
For example, you can send a message about your practice’s philosophy on patient care and explain why you chose membership-based medicine. You can talk about all the benefits your members receive and build their excitement around your model of care.
You can also introduce your physicians and other staff in a waiting list email series. When you talk about their experience and background and add pictures of their smiling, friendly faces, your prospective members will start to feel like they already know the team before ever arriving in the office.
Chances are many prospective members have the same frequently asked questions. Instead of waiting for them to ask, you can bring this information to them through your email series. A simple list of FAQs targeted toward your waitlist demographic can be a very effective waiting list management technique — and don’t be afraid to trickle these out over several more personable emails versus one cold, mundane pdf list of FAQs.
Beyond the Emails
You don’t have to limit yourself to emails. If you have the capacity for it, blog articles and posts across multiple social media channels can be an effective part of waiting list management. You can share original content, or you can simply pass along outside resources your members will find valuable.
The great thing is, you can repurpose content from one type of media for use in another type of media. For example, details from your most recent blog post can make a great LinkedIn post targeted toward the patients you want to attract. Or, a compilation of some of your most popular social media posts can make a great piece for your email series.
Sprinkling tips and advice throughout your content — valuable information they can use right now to start improving their health — shows you’re committed to the health and wellness of prospective patients. There’s little that’s more attractive or that builds more trust than free expert advice.
You can even move beyond the digital space and meet with waitlisters in person, such as with an open house or community event.
What Works for Your Waiting List?
There are so many ways to develop your waiting list management strategy and connect with prospective members. The tactics you choose should fit with your style and feel right for your practice and for the waitlist demographic. If you’re not sure, try out a few strategies and see what works best.
We want to hear from you. What waiting list management strategies have you tried? Which have worked best? What roadblocks have you encountered? Take a minute to share your experience and insight with the rest of the ROAMD community.
Dr. Scott Pope serves as the Chief Growth Officer at In Scope Ventures, a growth consulting firm focused on early stage healthcare companies. Scott is passionate about healthcare entrepreneurship and has been involved in various advocacy efforts to promote innovation in the industry.
Scott earned his PharmD from Ohio Northern University, where he participated in Habitat for Humanity, Phi Mu Delta, Order of Omega, and NCAA basketball. After graduating from ONU, Scott completed a pharmacy residency at Cone Health, followed by a specialty residency in infectious diseases, internal medicine, and academics at Campbell University and Duke University Medical Center.
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