Being a healthcare provider means juggling two critical roles: delivering exceptional patient care and maintaining a healthy bottom line. It is both challenging and rewarding to balance the two, but being able to do so results in a high Patient Lifetime Value (LTV).
So what is LTV in a healthcare context? Well, it’s the total value a patient brings to your practice throughout their entire engagement with you. When you recognize that your most profitable patient is the one you already have, that’s when you understand that sustainable growth isn’t just about the constant hustle of new patient acquisition.
But chances are, you’re overestimating the quality of your engagement with your patients. Many patients still report communication gaps resulting to unsatisfactory experiences. Use of medical jargon that patients don’t fully understand, appointments that feel rushed, or even poor follow-up are just a few. These result in U.S. average patient attrition rates to be around 17%.
If you’re here it’s most likely because you’re looking for ways to flip the script! Discover the five essential customer service strategies that will improve your patient retention and boost your patient lifetime value.
What is Patient Lifetime Value (LTV) in healthcare?
Before we get to the patient retention strategies, let’s go over this in more detail:
Patient Lifetime Value is the total revenue a single patient is expected to generate for your healthcare practice. Technically, it’s the cumulative financial value that the patient can bring over months, years, or even decades. And there’s a formula for forecasting it:
LTV = Value per visit × Number of visits per year × Duration of patient relationship (in years)
What does each element represent?
- Value per visit: This includes all revenue streams from a patient encounter. We’re talking about professional fees, ancillary services (lab tests, imaging (like X-rays or MRIs), procedures performed in-office, and other additional services/products dispensed (medical supplies, medications, supplements, or other health-related products).
- Number of visits per year: How often does your patient come back annually? This will vary depending on various factors, but the usual suspects include:
- the patient’s health status: those with a chronic condition require regular monitoring, so they will have a higher number of visits per year versus a healthy individual who only comes in for annual check-ups
- age: for instance, infants have a higher frequency of visits due to regular check-ups and vaccinations (average Americans visit the doctor four times a year, while babies visit about nine times a year)
- type of medical services needed: for example, some patients need primary care while others need specialty care.
- Duration of patient relationship (in years): Predicting how long a patient will remain with your practice is the million-dollar question. This is the trickiest component in the equation. Factors influencing include, but are not limited to: patient satisfaction and experience, patient’s trust in your expertise, and accessibility.
So, here’s an example. Let’s do the math for a typical patient who:
- Comes in for 2 visits per year (could be a check-up and a sick visit).
- Each visit, on average, generates $150 in revenue for the practice (including fees and maybe a basic lab test).
- Stays with the practice for an estimated 5 years.
Let’s plug in these numbers in the formula: LTV= $150×2×5
Patient lifetime value = $1500
This means that a typical patient like this is expected to bring in $1500 in revenue to your practice during their five-year stay as a patient.
How this estimate guides long-term revenue planning
Understanding and calculating patient lifetime value transforms how you approach your entire practice management. Here’s how:
- Marketing and acquisition cost analysis: Knowing the average LTV of your patients helps you determine how much you can profitably spend on acquiring new patients. If the cost to acquire a new patient exceeds their projected LTV, your acquisition strategy is unsustainable.
- Budgeting: Want a more accurate picture of your potential revenue generated by your existing patient base? Calculate the LTV. Determine the average revenue per patient to calculate metrics like gross margin and patient lifetime value—which are crucial for strategic planning, financing discussions, and investment decisions.
- Healthcare customer service improvement: The ROI calculation becomes straightforward. If improved customer service extends the average relationship of your patients, this justifies investments in strategies that contribute to increased patient lifetime value.
- Identifying high-value patient segments: All patients are valuable. Yet there are those patient segments with the highest average LTV. If you know them after the calculation, you can strategically tailor your efforts to better serve them and further strengthen your patient retention rate.
The real drivers behind increasing patient lifetime value: Trust and consistent communication
Here’s a healthcare-specific insight most practices miss: while clinical outcomes are important, data shows that nearly 60% of patients would be willing to switch doctors due to broken communication experiences.
LTV formula is your quantitative framework, but your healthcare customer service is the true anchor of patient lifetime value. The way your CS team supports your patients builds the trust needed for long-term relationship and their consistent communication nurtures it. When patients trust both your clinical judgment and your practice’s ability to deliver a seamless experience, they will:
- Return for follow-ups and future care through consistent communication, including text messages
- Seek a wider range of services within your practice
- Refer family and friends
Fostering a positive relationship with patients is crucial as it enhances patient loyalty and satisfaction, leading to repeat visits and long-term connections.
5 communication strategies to increase patient LTV
The math is simple. It’s 7x more expensive to acquire a new patient than to keep an existing one. So, we’ll deep dive into five healthcare customer service strategies to increase patient retention and their corresponding patient lifetime value.
1. Communicate proactively
In healthcare, silence doesn’t mean satisfaction. More often, it means disconnection. Proactive communication means you’re not waiting for patients to ask questions, miss appointments, or leave negative feedback. It means showing up early—not when something’s wrong or when it’s time to pay a bill.
Proactive communication is crucial for ensuring patients returning for follow-ups and future care, which is essential for the success of medical practices. What does this look like in practice?
- It’s sending that text support reminder 48 hours before an appointment, not just 2 hours before.
- It’s the follow-up call checking how they’re feeling after a procedure.
- It’s the educational updates about their condition or even just general wellness tips.
And when you communicate proactively (we’re talking regular, relevant messaging), here’s what you get: fewer no-shows, more follow-up appointments, or even more referrals (because great experiences get talked about).
2. Segment your patient base
If you’re still sending the same messages to every patient, you’re not communicating at all—you’re simply broadcasting. Newsflash: not all patients are the same. Someone who just got diagnosed with a chronic condition has different needs and concerns than someone coming in for a routine check-up. Your tech-savvy millennials might want text updates while your older patients might prefer phone calls.
Respecting patient privacy is crucial in segmenting the patient base. It involves valuing personal space, data, choices, and family relationships, which ultimately contributes to enhanced customer service and patient experiences.
So, segmentation isn’t just for marketing teams. Start collecting the right patient data. Beyond just medical history, track:
- Communication preferences (text, email, phone)
- Satisfaction scores from previous visits
- Response rates to different types of outreach
- Risk factors and preventive care needs
- Demographic information that impacts care decisions
When you tailor your outreach, it’s like you’re actually speaking directly to them. Segment smarter, and your communication instantly becomes more relevant. BTW, more relevant means more engaged patients driving up patient lifetime value.
3. Listen and learn from feedback
Collecting patient feedback is another essential strategy. Utilizing methods such as surveys and suggestion boxes to gather patient insights can significantly improve communication strategies, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.
A 10-minute survey, three days after the appointment? Nobody’s answering that except your most, most, most frustrated patients. Move away from long, clunky surveys that take forever to fill out. If you want to improve the patient experience, you need real-time, actionable feedback. Start simple: Make it a part of your healthcare customer service to send a quick message right after the visit that asks,
- “How did everything go today?”
- “Was anything confusing or unclear?”
- “Anything we can improve?”
Happy patients are crucial for fostering long-term relationships and generating positive referrals. Implementing positive patient feedback mechanisms, such as NPS surveys, can help identify satisfied patients who can contribute to word-of-mouth marketing and overall practice growth.
That’s it. No friction. No survey fatigue. Just a human touchpoint that invites honesty. If you’re consistently hearing the same complaint, fix it! If someone has a great suggestion, implement it! Seeing that their feedback is being acted upon creates trust and loyalty.
4. Offer cross-platform communication
People use multiple devices a day and expect seamless communication across all of them. If they schedule via text, get follow-ups by email, and then call with a question, and your team can’t connect those dots—that’s a broken experience. Implementing omnichannel customer service isn’t easy, but it’s not optional anymore either.
Utilizing a patient portal can significantly enhance cross-platform communication by providing secure digital access to medical records, allowing patients to view test results, request prescription refills, and stay engaged in their care.
Here are suggested cross-platform communication in your practice:
- Texting for appointment reminders and quick questions
- Secure messaging for medical questions
- Video calls for follow-ups that don’t require in-person visits
- Phone options for complex discussions
- Email for educational content and non-urgent updates
So, choose the channels that work for your healthcare customer service team and your patients, and then integrate them. The tech is there. The key is consistency and no communication silos where different departments don’t talk to each other.
5. Provide 24/7 access to information and support
Still operating on a strict 9-5 schedule? Healthcare customer service needs don’t start at 9 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Patients shouldn’t have to wait until morning to call your office and hope someone picks up. You’ve got to empower them with self-service options. With it, they can round-the-clock:
- Completely access medical records and test results
- Self-service appointment scheduling and rescheduling
- Secure messaging with response time guarantees
- Bill pay and insurance information
- Educational resources personalized to their conditions
One crucial aspect of these strategies is enhancing patient engagement through the use of patient portals. These digital platforms empower patients by giving them secure access to their medical records, allowing them to view test results and request prescription refills, which keeps them informed and involved in their healthcare.
Think customer service automation to save your staff from answering the same questions over and over. This is where AI chatbots shine—your 24/7 assistant to help patients get instant answers to after-hours inquiries. Use technology to fill in the gaps when your support team is offline. Another alternative is to outsource your customer service. That way, they can work behind the scenes while you focus on providing the best healthcare.
Turn communication into loyalty and long-term value
The core message is simple: better communication equals higher patient lifetime value. When healthcare customer service is intentional, consistent, and personalized, more than more appointments, you have better patient retention, stronger word-of-mouth marketing, and a smoother future growth.
In a market where every healthcare provider promises optimum care, what’s going to make you stand out? What’s going to make patients choose you and, more importantly, become raving fans who wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else? It’s not just the certificates on the wall. It’s the experience. Better communication is your competitive edge.
Grow your healthcare organization with expert communication support today. Try healthcare support outsourcing and partner with LTVplus. Our team helps turn conversations into loyalty with measurable, lasting value.
