Creating the perfect patient reactivation email

*Article updated Monday, September 23, 2017.

For optometrists, ophthalmologists, and most small businesses, repeat patients are the most reliable, profitable, and stable source of income. Yet many practices don’t make much of an effort to reactivate patients, and so are left to wonder: where did all my former patients go?

Why recall is important

Patient reactivation is an incredibly important part of setting your practice up for success, and understanding why patients stay and why they leave is crucial to being able to increase retention and create the perfect patient reactivation email that convinces people to return.

If you have patients you haven’t seen in awhile, but you still have their emails, don’t fret – those patients are actually a great opportunity for you to send a patient reactivation email to bring them back to your practice.

Send automatic recall messages with Demandforce

Demandforce offers pre-built reactivation emails and the ability to send to a targeted list of patients. You can even set up automatic recall messages to send when you want them, based on a patient’s last recall date.

So how do you create the perfect patient reactivation email?

Understand the why

First, let’s take a moment to understand why some patients disappear. Some of the most common reasons are:

  • Relocation
  • Job change
  • Loss of a job
  • They are not getting the same value or perceived benefits
  • Loss of interest
  • They’ve found a better fit
  • They had a bad experience
  • You are just out of sight, out of mind

For a few of these reasons, you won’t be able to reactivate a patient, regardless of the email you send.

Yet for all the others, you might be surprised at how many you’ll bring back with one simple email.

Craft a personal message

When you decide to send a reactivation email, remember this: your readers have a limited attention span when it comes to reading emails (consider how many emails arrive in your inbox a day…), so avoid adding in too much copy. So what do you include? Here are some ideas:

  • Address a reason why they might have dropped off the radar and remind them that they’re due to come in
  • Offer a discount to return – such as a free take-home kit, package deals
  • Remind them of the benefits of routine appointments
  • Remember to add a Call-to-Action
  • Provide an immediate and easy way to request an appointment – Demandforce provides online appointment scheduling options, check them out here.

Set up an automated recall communication timeline

Approaching reactivation in different ways, over a set period of time, can be the most effective in bringing back patients.

So instead of writing one long email, and sending it once – consider instead writing up to six shorter emails, and setting them to automatically send at a set timeframe from the last communication a patient has had with your practice.

With Demandforce, you can automatically send email, text, and voice recall reminders, anywhere from 2 weeks to 26 weeks after they are set to come in to your practice.

For more on recall, and why it’s important to the growth of your business, visit us at demandforce.com. Want to speak with us about what we offer, or see a demo? Call us today at (888) 272-7821.

Learn more about how Demandforce can reactivate your patient database

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