As a clinic owner, you want to be doing everything you can to optimise your clinic’s processes and leave your patients happy to spread the word about their satisfaction with your services and their overall experience with you. One way many clinics have taken a proactive approach to building this rapport is with a welcome pack – but does a welcome pack really add value to your practice, especially given the patient acquisition costs already spent getting that new patient into your clinic? Here’s a look into whether new patient welcome packs are really worth it, and what high-performing clinics are including in their welcome packs.

Welcome Packs: Do They Help Your Clinic?

The short answer is yes. Imagine visiting a certain clinic for the very first time after a quick Google search or choosing it for its proximity to your home, not being very familiar with the exact services offered by that specific health profession, and not knowing anything that separates the clinic from other clinics of the same profession around the area. While your appointment and in-clinic experience will be important, it may not answer all of your questions – or you may miss out on a great deal of information about the other services that the clinic offers. 

A good example is dental clinics that offer other maxillofacial services such as botox injections. You’ll know all about the cause of your toothache after your appointment, but you may have potentially missed out on learning all about their involvement in these other maxillofacial services, something that could be of great interest or convenience to you or other family members or friends. 

General ways that having a welcome pack can support your clinic to grow include:

• Creating a positive first impression: giving new patients a welcome pack can create a positive first impression and make them feel valued and appreciated. This can go a long way in building trust and loyalty, showing that you go above and beyond to be considerate of your patients and invest in them.
• Encouraging patient retention: when patients receive a welcome pack, it increases their likelihood to feel connected to the clinic, meaning they’re less likely to switch to a different provider, even with a house move to a nearby suburb. This can help to improve patient retention rates and increase revenue for the clinic.
• Building brand awareness: welcome packs can include items such as branded pens, fridge magnets, notepads, and other promotional materials that can help to build brand awareness and attract new patients. Often some of these materials can provide easy access to sharing your details with others, or can be easily spotted by others inside your home depending on their usefulness and integration.
• Increasing patient satisfaction: by providing new patients with information about the clinic’s services, policies, and procedures, they are more likely to have a positive experience and feel satisfied with their care.
• Promoting patient education: welcome packs present a great opportunity to include educational materials such as brochures or flyers about your service range, what separates your clinic and business from others, common health conditions, preventive care, and healthy lifestyle habits. This can help to promote patient education to support their outcomes, help them grow familiar with your service range, and further empower patients to take an active role in their health.
• Providing an opportunity for upselling: welcome packs can also be used as an opportunity to offer new patients information about promotions on additional services or products that may be relevant to them and that they can keep in mind for family and friends. This can help to increase revenue for the clinic.

Welcome Pack: What To Include

Your welcome pack will vary greatly depending on the type of health service you offer and your brand identity. Examples we’ve seen in welcome packs include:

• Welcome information or note
• Any visual aspects from your patient’s appointment (e.g. printed x-rays of their teeth, printed colour foot pressure plate analysis) – these are often items that may be interesting to the patient or their family members
• Helpful items e.g. massage ball, theraband, water bottle
• Product samples e.g. toothpaste, heating gel
• Information about their specific problem or condition
• Information about your other services, including any special offers, discounts or other vouchers
• Information from business partners that can help add value to patients
• Information on any referral bonuses
• Download information to any apps your clinic uses, e.g. HealthNow

Start with some basics and gain feedback from your team and patients about what you find to be the most valuable inclusions, and what can be added, removed or replaced.

Welcome Pack: What’s An Ideal Budget?

While some clinics choose to dedicate a certain percentage of an initial appointment fee (e.g. 15%), it may be more valuable to evaluate the cost you’re currently running to acquire new patients and base it on this amount, given the goal is to help with word of mouth referrals as well as repeat business.

Don’t Forget To Get To The Heart Of Your Business

Finally, it’s important to use your welcome pack to really show who you are as a business, and what sets you apart, while highlighting your benefits. It can be as simple as letting your patients know that you offer HealthNow as a payment option for Buy Now Pay Later, employer aid payments, and health savers wallet payments. With HealthNow having a goal of improved healthcare access for all to lead to better health outcomes, showing intentional partnerships with such organisations working towards a good and meaningful cause can help illustrate your own values, vision or mission.