Beyond Hormones, The Business of Wellness
Running a hormone or wellness clinic is rewarding — but let’s be honest, it can also feel overwhelming. That’s where Beyond Hormones: The Business of Wellness comes in.
Hosted by Jody Layne, co-founder of Accelerated Medical Practices, this podcast is here to help providers build thriving, profitable practices without losing sight of why they started. With over a decade of experience in marketing, sales, and business development — and after working with hundreds of clinics — Jody brings both expertise and encouragement to every episode.
You’ll hear candid conversations with clinic owners who’ve been in your shoes, expert interviews with professionals who share tools and wisdom to help your practice grow, and Jody’s own insights from years of working behind the scenes in the hormone industry.
If you’re ready to feel more confident, more supported, and a little less alone on the journey of business ownership, you’re in the right place.
Beyond Hormones, The Business of Wellness
Ep# 54 - The "E" in POWER: How to Engineer a Patient Experience That Actually Keeps People Coming Back
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What's the difference between a clinic patients tolerate and one they actually talk about? It comes down to experience — and whether you're creating it intentionally or just hoping it happens on its own.
In this episode of Beyond Hormones, the Business of Wellness, host Jody continues the POWER Framework series with a deep dive into the E: Experience. This isn't a conversation about being nice to patients — it's a strategic breakdown of how to engineer a patient experience that builds retention, generates five-star reviews, and sets your clinic apart in a crowded market.
Jody breaks the experience pillar into two distinct phases: building the internal staff standards that create consistency and confidence across your team, and layering in those "wow moments" — the unexpected gestures that turn a satisfied patient into a loyal advocate.
Whether you're a solo practitioner or managing a growing team, this episode gives you a clear, actionable framework you can start building from this week.
Topics covered:
- Why great people aren't enough — and why documented standards are the missing link
- The franchise mindset: what McDonald's can teach your hormone clinic
- How to handle upset patients in a way that protects your staff AND your culture
- Phase one: what to include in your patient experience SOP
- Phase two: the "wow moment" strategy — low-cost, high-impact ideas your competitors aren't doing
- Why patient photos, personal notes in the EMR, and check-in calls are more powerful than you think
- Patient appreciation: how to celebrate your community without making it a sales pitch
- Your action plan: how to implement this in two steps, starting this month
I hope you enjoy this one! If you want help figuring out your Experience Encounters - hit me up! Email me at jody@acceleratedmedicalpractices.com
This podcast is powered by Accelerated Medical Practices, where we believe hormone and wellness care should be both life-changing and profitable. If you own or run a clinic and are interested in being a guest on the show, please complete the form here and let's connect! Or email Jody at Jody@AcceleratedMedicalPractices.com.
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Welcome to Beyond Hormones, the Business of Wellness, the podcast for hormone and functional medicine providers who want a thriving, predictably profitable practice, and maybe a little less stress along the way. Hi, I'm your host, Jody Lane, and I've worked with lots of clinics in marketing, sales, and business development, and I have seen what works and what doesn't. And here's what I believe hormone and wellness care should be available to everyone who wants it. And while providers know the medicine, many struggle with the business side of their cash practice. And that's where I come in. See, this podcast is here to share real strategies, real stories, things you can implement in your practice right away. So I am so glad you're here. Come on, let's go. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Beyond Hormones, the Business of Wellness podcast. I am your host, Jodi, and today we are continuing our deep dive into the Power Framework, which is the five-pillar business system that we teach here at Accelerative Medical Practices. Now, if you've been following along with the other episodes, we've already unpacked positioning, operations, and workforce. And today we're gonna get into E, which is experience. And I have to tell you, this one's a little bit close to my heart because I think that it is the one pillar that separates clinics who are just surviving to ones that are thriving. All right, let's get into it. Now, here's something that I want you to think about just for a second. You see, I cannot think of a single clinic owner, not one, who would tell me that their goal is for patients to have a mediocre experience, right? I mean, do you think that? Of course not. Every single one of us believes that our patients deserve an amazing experience. So the question isn't whether you want an experience that's great. The question is, are you intentionally creating it? And that's the gap. And it's a big one. See, most clinic owners assume that if they hire good people with good attitudes, the experience will take care of itself. And listen, good people are a huge part of this process. I'm not downplaying that at all. But if you are leaving the patient experience entirely up to the individual personalities and judgment calls of your staff, you're going to get an inconsistent experience. And inconsistency can often be the enemy of trust. So today, I want to break this down into two phases. And both of them are absolutely actionable for you no matter where you are in your clinic journey. All right, phase one is all about your staff and the standards you set for how they interact with patients. Now, if you listen to the workforce, you know how important I think staff is. But think about this. If you walk into a McDonald's in Texas and then you walk into a McDonald's in New Jersey, you're going to get the exact same hamburger, the same interaction at the counter, the same experience. Why? Because someone somewhere sat down and wrote out exactly how many dollops of ketchup go on the burger, how many wipes of mayonnaise, how the cashier hands back the change. It's all documented. Nothing is left to chance. Now, I am not suggesting that your clinic should feel like a fast food chain, not at all. But what I am saying is that behind the warmth and the personality of your team should be a framework, a set of expectations that everyone who works for you is trained to uphold. What are those things? Well, there are things like messages are responded to within 24 hours. And if you can't fully resolve something within 24 hours, there's at least a minimum of an acknowledgement sent. Something that says, Hey, I got your message, I'm on it. And everyone does the same thing. That one thing alone could change how a patient feels about you. But it's also things like every time a patient walks through the door, they are greeted by name, not just hi there or wait one second. Because that kind of recognition, that's the beginning of an incredible experience. And when you document these expectations in a standard operating procedure, and yes, I am absolutely recommending that you build one of these if you don't have one, a couple of really powerful things happen. First, your staff knows exactly what's expected of them. And I want to tell you something that might surprise you. Even your most naturally customer service-oriented team members appreciate having this written down. Because on a really hard day, on a slammed Tuesday where the phones are going crazy and the portal's blowing up, knowing the rules takes the mental load off. They don't have to decide what they think the right thing is, they just do the right thing. And then, second, and this one is big, it creates consistency across your entire team, not just your all-star players, everyone. Now, let's talk about something that doesn't get talked about enough. And that is upset patients. Now, when I was at the clinic in Orlando, my boss had a rule that I absolutely loved. He said, in this clinic, the patient is not always right. I will stand by my team when a patient is upset or yelling until I get to the bottom of what's actually happening. How many bosses do you know do that? And then he would go on to say, if we need to improve something, we will, but I'm not going to allow a patient to treat my staff without kindness. Now, I can't tell you how much that mattered to the team because it meant that the staff knew that they were trusted. They knew they had backup. And when your staff feels that kind of security, they have a tendency to show up a little differently. They show up for your patients. Now, here's the nuance. Sometimes patients do have a legitimate complaint. And we absolutely need to hear it, even if it's not legitimate, and we have to respond to it. But sometimes, and you know this is true, a patient is just having a bad day and they're taking it out on the next available person who happens to be your front desk or your medical assistant. And finding that balance between advocating for your patient and protecting your team, that is leadership. That is part of building a great patient experience, even if it doesn't look like it from the outside. All right, let's move on to phase two, because this is where things get really fun. Phase two is about intentionally engineering moments that make a patient go, wow, this place is different. Because here's the thing: your patients already expect to be greeted warmly. They expect appointment reminders, they expect kindness. Those are the baselines, those are the table stakes. But what I'm talking about in phase two are things nobody expects. It's the things that made people pick up the phone or write a five-star Google review just because they can't believe how good it felt to be a patient at your clinic. Let me give you a few of my favorites. Now, this one is so easy and yet truly impactful. Put a picture of each patient in the chart in your EMR. Go ahead. Most EMRs have this functionality, so that when a patient walks through the door, your front desk can look at the picture, then look at the face and greet them by name before they even had a chance to say, I have an appointment. That is a little mini wow moment. Now, same concept. If a patient mentions something personal during their visit, a new grandchild who was just born, a 50th anniversary party that's coming up, a vacation they're planting, they've been planning, document it. Put it in the notes section of their chart. And when they come back in, ask, so how was your trip? How did the party go? Look, we're all human, we're all busy. We all know we have a lot on our plate. But when somebody remembers the details about your life, I mean, like really remembers, that's impressive. And it's also a differentiator. Here's another one. We did this at our clinic and it was a wild success. It was called Patient Appreciation Week. Now it was once a month, we would do something special just for those patients that happened to come in during that week. We had healthy snacks. Sometimes we made it themed and we had a little gift. I remember one week we did teeny tiny notebooks with gratitude quotes on it that we got from Dollar Store. It was nothing extravagant, but the patient didn't know it was coming. So they walked in and they were just like, oh my gosh, something there for them. A small, unexpected gesture. And those moments stick. How about appreciation events once a year? Not a sales event. This is not a time to pitch your new services. It's just a little party to genuinely say thank you for being a part of our family. It's another incredible way to deepen that loyalty. How about this? A phone call two or three days after a treatment, especially something like a pellet insertion, just to check in and make sure that everything went well. That's extraordinary these days in healthcare. Patients are not used to that. That call from your clinic will mean more than you could ever know. All right, here's another one. How about a handwritten card on the anniversary of when they started treatment with you? Not an email, but a card, because nobody sends cards anymore, and that's exactly why it works. Now, I want you to remember that none of these things are going to make your patients lose their mind in the moment. You're probably not even going to get any recognition and definitely no standing ovation. But here is what you will get: retention, loyalty, reviews, referrals. Because when somebody feels genuinely cared for, they don't leave. Even if they could save 50 bucks a year someplace else, they're not going to leave somewhere that makes them feel this way. And in our growing industry, where trust is everything and new hormone clinics are popping up everywhere, and new patients are researching you on Google before they ever pick up the phone. Those five-star reviews, those comments are gold. All right, here's some homework for you. And I mean it. This is doable homework. This week I want you to sit down with a very small cross-section of your team. An MA, someone at the front desk, maybe someone from your sales team if you have one. Get a variety of perspectives in the room. And if you're a solo operator right now, that's totally okay. Just do this on your own. Brainstorm. Write down every single wow moment you can think of. Don't edit yourself, just pour it all out onto the paper. Then pick your top two, just two, and go implement those this month. That's it. Two things. And then next month, go back to the list and pick two more and implement those. And that's how you build a patient experience culture over time. Not a one giant leap where it feels completely overwhelming, but in an intentional, stackable steps. Now, the phase one piece, building out your staff's SOPs for patient experience standards, I am not going to sugarcoat it, guys. That is not a quick weekend project. That's a real initiative that's going to take some focused time and attention. But here's what I can tell you it is 100% worth it. Because when your team knows what's expected, when patients consistently feel cared for, when your culture and your experience reinforce each other, that is when clinics stop feeling like a job and start feeling like something that you have built and that you're genuinely proud of. And it's one less thing you have to worry about. Look, I have very vivid memories of day-to-day clinic life when my day was going great. I was happy, I was feeling good, doing my work, and then bam, I was stopped by a phone call from an upset patient who had a legitimate complaint. That was followed up by a conversation with the staff member that was annoyed because, in their world, they did nothing wrong. And me in the middle, feeling like I was micromanaging my staff member and trying so hard to appease and accommodate this upset patient. And my day was ruined. But once we had our experience expectations documented and listed, we had far fewer days like that. And if you own or work in a clinic right now, I'm sure you can relate to everything I've just said. Trust me, do this work and you won't have days like that nearly as often. Well, I hope that you've enjoyed this little snippet into the pillar of experience. And if you want support building any of what we just discussed, then we are here for you over here at Accelerated Medical Practices. Go find us on accelerated medical practices.com. Or if you want, email me directly at Jody J O D Y at Accelerated Medical Practices.com. I would love to chat with you on how you can do this in your clinic so you can have a lot less days of being referee and managing everyone's emotions, which completely drains you of yours. All right. Thank you so much for your time and spending it with me today. If this episode gave you even one thing you're going to go do, that makes my day. And if you want, go share it with a colleague who needs to hear it too. And, you know, if you enjoyed this, please leave a review. I would truly appreciate that, and it helps the show more than you know. Thank you so much for being with me here today at the Business of Wellness Podcast. Go do something great today. Thank you for listening to Beyond Hormones, the Business of Wellness. I hope that you're walking away with fresh ideas and real strategies you can use to grow your practice with profit and purpose. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow the show so you never miss a conversation. And if something you heard today resonated with you, do me a favor, share this episode with a friend or a colleague. It's one of the best ways you can support the show, and it might be exactly what they need to hear right now. If you want even more tools and support, go ahead and head over to accelerated medical practices.com. Until next time, keep doing the work that matters. Your patients need you, and I am cheering you along every step of the way.