How to turn Difficult Patients into Regular Customers

A difficult patient is every pharmacist or patent medicine vendor’s nightmare because they are often hard to handle. Many times, these patients seem determined to make things difficult for you and your team. It may be tempting to lash out at them or wish they never come back.

Although having a difficult patient can be a tough situation to deal with, it’s not a hopeless one because managing difficult patients is a lot easier than you think. With the right strategies, you can learn to manage patients who pose to be difficult and turn them into regular customers.

Before you give up on turning that difficult patient into a regular customer, try these:

1. Have the right mental attitude

Approach your patients with a positive mindset and expect things to work out. This would keep you calm no matter what happens and prevent you from lashing out when patients prove difficult.

2. Stay professional

When difficult patients raise their voices, don’t raise yours or reply angrily. Speak calmly in low tones, mastering your emotions. Know when to move from public areas to a private office to avoid creating a scene.

As you stay calm, watch your body language. Your body language (like your facial expressions or the way you gesticulate) may reveal your true feelings about a particular situation. As you stay calm, make sure that your nonverbal expressions are not saying the opposite.

Why is this important? Gretchen N Foley suggests that body language may account for between 60 to 65% of all communication. This means that you may make the situation better or worse, depending on what your patients can observe in your body language or nonverbal expressions.

Body language to watch out for:

• Facial expressions: Avoid frowning or looking uninterested. You don’t want to worsen the situation.
• Body posture: Sitting up straight, for example, may show that you’re paying attention to what’s going on.
• Gestures: Hand movement and other gestures convey different meanings to different people. When dealing with a difficult patient, it may be best to keep your hands where they can see them (not in your pockets or under the table) and minimize gesticulations.
• Eye movement — Maintain moderate eye contact as you listen and speak.

3. Listen to patients and understand them.

Listen to your patients. Listening to their words and observing their expressions will help you understand your difficult patient’s fears, concerns and issues. Listening to understand your patients keeps you calm and in control. This helps you solve the problem faster.

When you listen, you may find out that the difficult patient is upset because they had to wait for a while before you could attend to them. Sincerely apologize for the delays.

Statements like “I’m really sorry for keeping you waiting, Sir/Ma’am. You have my full attention now” can make things a lot better.

You can also ask questions to understand better before you respond to the situation. Asking questions shows care and tells the patient that you’re genuinely interested in finding a solution.

4. Is the patient really proving difficult?

Many times, your patients’ reactions are from something completely unrelated to you or your services. It may be transferred aggression or stress from work. Maybe they just had a bad day or are dealing with some personal issues. Maybe they are in chronic pain and it’s excruciating.

Before you tag a patient “difficult”, rule out those factors we just talked about.

In some cases, however, patients are actually difficult!

Here are the different types you may meet:

• The overcautious patients
• The aggressive patients
• The best deal-hunter patients

These are usually the difficult patients you’ll meet but you can still turn a good number of them into regular customers. It just depends on how you handle the situation. As we mentioned earlier, have the right attitude and stay calm. Never argue with them. Speak politely and address them respectfully. Ask them what they want. In the end, they will see you as a professional that understands them. When people feel heard and understood, they will come again.

5. Customize offers and solutions

There’s no one size fits all approach to handling difficult patients because people are wired differently. That’s why listening and understanding your patients is important. When you have pinpointed their problems, it’s time to proffer solutions. Since people are unique, providing customized offers and solutions is the surest way to show difficult patients that you truly paid attention. They would feel special and will come back for more ‘preferential’ treatment.

6. Ask for feedback

Asking regular customers for feedback about the products and services you provide can show you the areas you need to improve in your customer service. Granted, some patients might choose to complain each time you ask for feedback but it’s better to get negative feedback and improve than to get none at all and lose customers in the future. As you receive feedback, be sure to provide quick responses. This will strengthen customers’ faith in you and your services.

7. Connect with your patients

Connecting with patients is very beneficial to you and your business. It allows you to understand them on a deeper level, and offer them complete care they would be grateful for.

You can connect with your patients by:

• Taking time to introduce yourself
• Giving them care and attention
• Asking questions about their day
• Giving them the information they need
• Giving them room to ask questions

8. Educate your employees

Your employees are an important part of your business as they also have contact with patients. So, show them how to handle difficult patients without using provocative words. Teach them to use words like “Sorry”, “Thank you”, “Please” and “Kindly” frequently.

Closing thoughts

Difficult patients are not a lost cause. With these strategies we have carefully outlined, you can successfully manage difficult patients and turn them into loyal customers. To learn more about how to make your pharmacy or patent medicine business profitable and purchase all your pharmaceuticals at the best direct-from-manufacturer rates, visit www.remedial.health now.