Kelly Alhooie provides hands-on advice for creating lifelong customers by focusing on the patient/customer journey: the first contact (phone or walk-in), in-person cues (cleanliness, greeting), genuine personal care (checking in, responding to life events), and using follow-up automation and reward programs to maintain engagement. She emphasizes small, low-cost gestures (notes, calls, reward punches, before/after photos) and concrete examples (local coffee shops’ pet bones, punch-cards, clinic before/after photos) as ways to convert satisfied customers into loyal advocates.
Chapters
The Secrets of Building Loyal customers, part two. Okay, before my camera decided to shut off. So that being said, the secret thing is think about the patient and the journey of the patient. When the patient walks in, or maybe even the first time they call you, that is how the perception that they're going to get of your company. So whether or not you're virtual or in person, how you immediately even pick up that phone, is the initial reaction that they're going to have. Are you caring? Do you want to know everything? Are you concerned about their issue? What is it then? If you have an in person brick and mortar when they walk in, is the facility clean? That's going to be their initial reaction? Is it welcoming? Is someone greeting them? Are you going over and beyond to make sure, especially on their first visit and every visit following that, that they have the best experience? What I've seen work well is greeting the patient every single time that they walk in with a nice smile. And physically, like if you have an admin getting up and going over to them and saying, hey, so nice to see you and calling them by their name, that's how you have a loyal customer. The third thing is if something happens with your customer, like they have a miscarriage, they had someone die in their family, they had a new baby, like it doesn't always have to be bad. Are you sending them a gift? And if you don't have money for a gift, are you sending them a letter just to say, hey, I'm actually thinking about you? The fourth thing I would say that keeps a loyal customer is are you constantly checking in with them? Now you don't have to do this, you know, manually, you can automate this, but do you have something that's constantly checking in on them so that, that if they need something, they know that you are there to help? That's key. Are you actually doing that? Most of you guys are not, because you're like great. I mean, they just came in and like they're good and it's like, no, that, that's not it. You actually, it's the person that cares the most is what. Who actually wins. That's is the person that cares the most. And if you show that you care the most, you don't have to be the best. You win. Because when people feel that they are being taken care of because you got their back, whether or not it's answering a question, whether or not it's helping them with the super bill, whether or not it's, you know, taking, you know, allowing them to bring their family in and allowing their kids to be in the session. All that means that you care. Maybe you're rocking the baby as you're also doing an internal exam that means you care. Are you making sure that you're really checking in with him, like on a personal deep level and you're not just like checking the box? Yep. Got your range of motion. Great. Next thing, like, do you actually care? People can feel that. So when they walk in, are you genuinely excited to see them or you're like, hi, you next person, come on in. Or hey, I'm just showing up today. What's your energy like to them? And then also, I don't know, maybe this is like the fifth or sixth thing I've said. Is there a reward program that maybe you can give your customers to make them even more loyal? You know, when we go, we were just at these coffee shops and there's one called Bird Rock and there's one called Phil's Coffee here in La Jolla, California. And, and it's really interesting. There's two loyalty programs. There's one for my dog. I know, yes, they have that for your dog. And the human version, the dog version is bones. They have bones sitting on the counter in both the coffee shops. Now here's the thing. We went to this coffee shop that normally always has it fills and they didn't have bones. And I asked the lady behind the counter, she's the manager, and she said, well, I didn't get bones because I had to get an office chair and we didn't have the budget for the bones. Well, my dog is a loyal customer of Phil's Coffee because she gets bones no matter what. And she'll just drag us in there whether or not we're getting a coffee or not. That's a, that's a loyalty customer. But the, the lady was like, you know, we just didn't think that we could afford that this month because I had needed an office chair. Okay, well then you're not going to have loyalty customers just because that bone made a difference in my dog. Isn't that crazy? Comparatively, Bird Rock coffee shop always has bones for the dogs no matter what. So now my husband is like, we're only going to Bird Rock. Like, isn't that crazy? And then like, point wise, Phil's Coffee does not have a rewards program. Bird Rock actually does. So now my husband goes there and if he buys the ground up beans, I don't know, I don't drink coffee. So if he buys the ground up coffee, you actually get as they're grinding it up, you actually get a free coffee and you get reward points. So he's going to go and pick bird rock over Phil's coffee. And so do you guys have some kind of loyalty thing where? I can't tell. We also did this in my brick and mortar where we had those punches. Like, every time you come in, you get your card punched. I can't tell you how many people wanted to freaking get their hole punch in that card. Like, it made them come to the. It made them come to the clinic. And so each hole punch, they were so excited. Like, it was must have been a dopamine hit. They got another punch. Personally, those reward programs do not, like, motivate me, but I also am a different breed. My husband, it motivates him like no other. And it makes him actually want to go to the. To the store or whatever or to the thing to get the reward points. And so if you guys are like, how do I create more loyal customers when there's more and more practices popping up or more and more online stuff? Create a reward program that is going to motivate them to be like, I showed up today. Go me. And that is actually going to get people, some people, not all people, some people to be very motivated to see you next session or see you on the next visit or whatever it is. So just be reminded of that. And then I also say, last thing is like, honestly, little notes, like, you are freaking doing amazing today. Or, you know, the last thing I would say is pointing out that where they're at and then now, where they have become like. Or where they have gotten to the before and after is huge for clients. If you can point out that they were here and now that they're here, you're going to have a fan for life, because you have completely transformed their life. And they may have not realized it because sometimes when you're along the journey, you just don't realize it. But if you see your before and then you see your after and you're like, crap, that's how far I've come. Like, I just even forgot what I even look like or what my attitude was like or what I couldn't do. Like, all that makes a massive, massive difference. Like, I just had these before and after pictures of my face taken at my laser place, and I was like, oh, my gosh, that's how bad my face looked. And I knew it was bad, but, like, I just forgot because now my face looks 10 times better. It's not perfect, but it looks a lot better. And that, to me, was like, wow, I. I am obsessed with these people because they completely changed my life, because now I can show up and not have to put, like, loads and loads of makeup on my face just to freaking show up on camera. So that changed my life. That's life changing. And they just pointed it out to me just by a picture. So if you guys can take video of, like, before and after, or even just a picture before and after, that's huge. So if you want a patient for life, you must do these, like, seven or eight things that I mentioned to truly transform someone's life, and they will be the most loyal client to you ever. So hopefully this helps, guys, and take one of those and start implementing it.
