47 ways to strengthen patient relationships during covid-19Keeping in touch and making patients feel safe and cared for is more important now than ever. When you work to strengthen patient relationships, they notice.

It’s definitely not time to stop marketing—because, after all, marketing is simply another way to strengthen patient relationships! 

Whether you’ve moved to telemedicine or you’re still having in-office visits, here are our suggestions for how to provide comfort, smiles and confidence during this stressful time.

Here are 46 ways to strengthen patient relationships during COVID-19:

Creative ways to engage:

  1. Create an obstacle course with sidewalk chalk for your patients’ kids outside the office.
  2. Start a patient parade with weekly drive-by swag giveaways (using swag you already have).
  3. Call your patients! Let them hear from you and know you care.
  4. Have we made coloring sheets for your practice? Now’s the time to use them. We can make them downloadable for you, so you can show off your patients’ work. 
  5. Participate in the online hunts (where people put teddy bears, eggs, etc. in their windows so kids can be driven around to find them).
  6. Make simple educational videos for your patients. (Send them to us and we will edit, optimize, and make sure your practice looks great.)
  7. Create simple videos to greet new patients who had to be rescheduled.

Social Media Ideas to Strengthen Patient Relationships:

  1. Take and share pictures of you doing virtual consults or telemedicine with your patients! 
  2. Give Away DoorDash, Amazon, Instacart or Starbucks gift cards, or Disney+ subscriptions. 
  3. Give a shout out to doctors, first responders and healthcare workers. 
  4. Ask questions that patients can respond to about their time inside: What have you read this week? How are you moving your body? What new skill are you learning? 
  5. Answer FAQs. Offer a question/answer session in Instagram stories.
  6. Share suggestions for crafts, exercise, recipes, TV shows!
  7. Be a go-to resource: Share top tips and show your expertise.  
  8. Create a hashtag and have people draw something specific on their sidewalk, take pictures and post to social media.
  9. Show a picture and ask for the best caption. Winner gets a prize!
  10. If you’re doing virtual team building, share videos or pics with your followers. 
  11. Share funny or inspiring YouTube videos (i.e. Wash Your Hands with Baby Shark) 
  12. Use themed hashtags that align with your values (i.e. #FindTheJoy) 
  13. Share “How to talk to your child about COVID”  
  14. Share pre-recorded Q&A videos from doctors.
  15. Create and share video updates from doctors (like this or these). 
  16. Show how-to videos for fixing or cleaning braces (like these).
  17. Promote free virtual tours (state parks, museums, and national parks).
  18. Share and ask for pet pictures! 
  19. Share pictures of team members and their families doing at home activities.
  20. Message to Your Patients: “We are here for you.”
  21. Participate in the #WashYourHandsChallenge
  22. Lip sync your favorite song for your patients! Encourage them to do the same.
  23. Create an At Home Spirit Week.
  24. Recognize a patient of the week. 
  25. Post a childhood photo of a team member (like Throwback Thursday) and first correct guess gets a gift card.
  26. Disney Smiles: Post a block of 12 smiles from animated Disney characters and ask followers to guess. 

To keep up with referring providers:

  1. Create a portal for your referring providers to make referring easier.
  2. Send cards.
  3. Call and check in on your colleagues.  
  4. Mail referral gifts

To keep your team engaged:

  1. Host a virtual happy hour on Zoom.
  2. Send gift cards (like DoorDash) with a note. 
  3. Send cards: I really miss seeing your face!

To maximize your tools:

  1. If you don’t have one, implement a customer service chat feature on your website.
  2. Remind patients about patient portal access / communication / bill pay online.

If you’re offering telemedicine:

  1. Put out a press release on virtual appointments/check-ins. 
  2. Utilize paid search campaigns on Google and Social Media. (We did an analysis, and amidst COVID-19, there are still thousands of searches each month for the services.) 
  3. Encourage converting to HIPAA compliant online forms.
  4. Suggest virtual appointment check-in software.

Need a creative partner who can help strengthen patient relationships and implement all the above and support you during this difficult time? Your team at Virginia Creative Group is here to get things done. Let’s talk.