How to get more physiotherapy patients and keep them coming back

You opened your practice in the spring. On Mondays and Thursday afternoons the diary is full, but on Tuesday morning you have three empty slots in a row and on Friday at midday another two. Every gap is a session you do not get paid for and half an hour checking your phone in case someone gets in touch.

Working out how to get more physiotherapy patients has less to do with an advertising budget than most people think. Nearly all of them arrive by one of four routes: someone recommends you, another professional refers them, they find you on Google or they come back because they already know you. This guide covers what to do on each route, in what order, and which rules to respect so that winning patients does not get you into trouble with Google, the law or your colegio.

Where physiotherapy patients come from

Before you spend time or money, find out where your current patients came from. Ask "how did you hear about us?" at the first visit and write the answer in their record. If your practice software has a field for it, even better, because you can count the answers later. After two or three months you will have a fairly clear picture. Perhaps nearly everyone arrives through a recommendation and Google hardly sends you anyone, or the other way round.

In a physiotherapy practice, patients usually come through these channels:

• recommendations from happy patients, the good old word of mouth;
• referrals from doctors, orthopaedic surgeons, podiatrists, midwives or coaches;
• Google, above all the listing that shows up on the map when someone searches for "physio near me";
• agreements with clubs, gyms, pilates studios or local businesses;
• former patients who come back with a new injury, or the same one.

You do not have to tackle them all at once. Start with the two that bring you the most patients and with the one that is cheapest to improve, which is usually your Google listing.

Your Google Business Profile, the first place people look

Someone with a stiff, painful back on a Tuesday night does not search for "physiotherapy" in general. They type "physio near me" or "physiotherapist in Gràcia" into their phone, look at the map and call or book from there. That listing is your Google Business Profile, and setting one up is free.

Google's help page with tips to improve your local ranking explains that map results depend mainly on three things: relevance, meaning how well your profile matches what the person is searching for; distance; and prominence, which measures how well known the practice is and takes into account, among other things, the websites that link to you and your reviews. It also makes clear that this ranking cannot be bought.

Fill it in as if it were your reception desk

A half-finished profile loses patients without you ever noticing. Go through these points:

• the real name of the practice, the same as on the door. Google's guidelines do not allow extra words in the name ("Pérez Physio, the best physiotherapist in Valencia") and the profile can be suspended for it;
• the right category, for example "Physiotherapist", and the services you really offer: pelvic floor, sports physiotherapy, dry needling, rehabilitation after surgery and so on;
• your opening hours, including August and bank holidays. Someone who turns up to find the shutters down will not trust your listing again;
• real photos of the front of the building, so people find you first time, and of the treatment room and couches. If a patient appears in a photo, only with their written permission;
• the link to book an appointment. Google lets you add booking links to the profile, so patients can choose a time without calling you;
• if you only do home visits, remove the address and set the area you cover. If you have a practice and also do home visits, you can show both.

Post updates every now and then

From the profile you can publish short posts with a photo: summer opening hours, a new service or a back care workshop for people who sit at a desk all day. You do not need to post every week. One post a month is enough to show anyone who finds you that the practice is open and someone is looking after it.

Google reviews: how to ask for them within the rules

Google reviews count twice: they help you show up on the map and they are the first thing a stranger reads about you. The best moment to ask is at discharge, when the patient feels better and thanks you. Ask in person and then send the link by WhatsApp. Google gives you a link and a QR code for requesting reviews, and you can print the QR code and leave it at reception.

Google's rules for content on Maps ban two fairly common habits:

• offering something in return for a review, whether a discount, a free session or a gift;
• asking only happy patients for reviews, or discouraging someone who wants to leave a bad one.

Ask everyone in the same way and reply to every review, negative ones included. When you reply, say thank you or explain what you can in general terms, without giving any detail about the injury or the treatment, even if the patient mentioned them in the review. Professional confidentiality applies online too, and people reading your reviews pay close attention to how you answer the bad ones.

A simple website with online booking

Many people decide to book in the evening, on the sofa, when the pain will not let them get comfortable. If they have to ring you at nine the next morning to get a slot, there is a good chance they will end up at another practice that lets them choose a time on their phone. Online booking covers that moment: the patient sees your free slots, picks one and the request reaches you.

The website does not need to be big. This is enough:

• a home page that says in one sentence what you treat and where you are;
• one page for each service you really offer, with what people should know before the first session;
• who you are, with your colegio membership number and the name of your colegio;
• how to get there, your opening hours and a clearly visible button to book an appointment.

That button can lead to online scheduling for physiotherapists that only shows your free slots. Put the same link on your Google profile, in your WhatsApp Business profile and in the bio of your social media accounts, and patients can book while you are treating someone else.

Referrals from doctors, coaches and other professionals

An orthopaedic surgeon who trusts your work can send you patients for years. The same goes for doctors, podiatrists, dentists who treat jaw joint problems, midwives who see women after childbirth and coaches, who spot injuries before anyone else. Referrals build up slowly, but these patients arrive trusting you from day one.

To get them thinking of you:

1. Pick a few professionals who match what you treat. If you do pelvic floor work, midwives and gynaecologists; if you do sports physiotherapy, clubs and coaches.
2. Introduce yourself in person, with a one-page sheet explaining what you treat, how you work and how they can refer someone to you.
3. When they refer a patient, and always with that patient's permission, tell them how the treatment went in a short report. People who refer patients like to know what happened to the person they sent you.
4. Offer something useful: a talk on injury prevention for the club's coaches or an afternoon answering questions at the gym.

Patient retention: getting patients to finish treatment and come back

Winning a new patient takes time and sometimes money. Getting back someone who already trusted you costs far less, and that is also the person who will recommend you later. That is why physiotherapy patient retention is part of getting patients in the first place.

Make sure they turn up

A missed session is a slot nobody fills and a treatment that drags on. A WhatsApp reminder the day before prevents a lot of no-shows, especially if the patient can confirm or cancel with one tap and you find out in time to give the slot to someone else.

A treatment plan the patient understands

Some patients stop coming as soon as it hurts less, even though half the treatment is still to do. At the first visit, explain how many sessions you expect, how often and what they will need to do at home. Book the sessions as a series from the start, for example twice a week for a month. If the treatment is long, a session pack helps the patient get organised and gives you an idea of what your diary will look like over the coming weeks.

Win back inactive patients

Once a month, check who has not been in for two months or more and has no appointment booked. These are inactive patients: some got better, some moved away and some simply forgot to book the next session. A personal message along the lines of "Hi, how is that knee doing? If it starts bothering you again, I have a free slot on Thursday afternoon" is sometimes all it takes to bring them back.

Mind the law, though. Article 21 of the LSSI (in Spanish), Spain's e-commerce act, bans sending advertising by email or an equivalent electronic channel, and WhatsApp counts as one, to anyone who has not asked for it or agreed to it. There is an exception for people who were already your patients: you can write to them about services similar to the ones they used, as long as you give them a simple, free way to say they do not want any more messages, both when you collect their details and in every message. In practice, ask on the registration form whether they want to receive this kind of message, and end each one with a line such as "if you would rather I did not write to you about this, just tell me and I will stop".

Let them recommend you

Recommendations come naturally when patients understand what you have done for them and feel the difference. It helps a lot to write a short summary at the end of each session with their home exercises: they read it again, show it to someone and, when a colleague complains about their back, they know who to send them to. At discharge you can say it without any fuss: "If you know anyone with a similar problem, you know where to find me".

Social media: a little, done well

Social media and short videos help people get to know you before they book. If you are short of time, spend it on your Google profile and on referrals first, and leave social media for later. When you start, pick one network and post at a steady pace: a back exercise explained in thirty seconds, the answer to a question patients often ask you or what a first visit with you is like. The same content works for the updates on your Google profile.

The Spanish code of ethics for physiotherapy asks that what you publish online and on social media is evidence-based and done with professionalism, honesty and caution. It also treats offensive criticism of other physiotherapists as a breach of ethics, and doing it on social media makes it worse. And do not post photos or videos in which a patient can be recognised without their express consent, preferably in writing.

What the code of ethics says about advertising

Registered physiotherapists in Spain must follow the Code of Ethics of Spanish Physiotherapy (in Spanish), published by the General Council of Physiotherapy Associations. Its chapter on advertising sets the limits for physiotherapy marketing:

• advertising must be informative, truthful and easy to understand, without suggesting in a misleading or exaggerated way any qualities that have not been proven;
• adverts must include your professional details, your membership number and your colegio;
• you have to adapt it to your region's rules on health advertising;
• attracting patients with advertising based on the price of sessions goes against the code, so forget about "first session free" or "half-price session" posters;
• you can only advertise techniques for which you have the necessary training and accreditation.

And if you used to work at another clinic, the code asks you not to go after its patients. You can treat anyone who seeks you out of their own accord, but you should not chase them.

A 90-day plan to fill your diary

All of the above fits into three months if you take it step by step:

1. In the first week, complete your Google profile, add the booking link and start asking every new patient how they heard about you.
2. During the first month, ask every patient you discharge for a review and reply to the ones that come in.
3. Also in the first month, make a list of five local professionals who match what you treat and go and see them.
4. Every month, go through your inactive patients and message the ones it makes sense to contact.
5. In the third month, count where your new patients came from and check your statistics to see which days and times are still quiet. Put the next quarter's effort into the channel that brought you the most.

My Fisio Agenda: booking, reminders and inactive patients in one place

My Fisio Agenda is software for physiotherapists made in Spain, and several of the things in this guide are already built in:

• a booking link showing your free slots, which you can put on your website, your Google profile or WhatsApp. The patient picks a time, messages you on WhatsApp with the text already written, and the appointment is booked once you confirm it;
• manual WhatsApp reminders from your own phone, unlimited, and automatic ones 24 hours before with buttons to confirm or cancel. If someone cancels, the slot becomes free again in your diary;
• the "How did they find us" field in every patient record;
• the list of inactive patients, those with no session for two months or more and nothing booked, sorted from the longest absence to the shortest, with a button to open their WhatsApp chat;
• series of sessions, session packs and a summary for the patient, who reads it in "My Space" alongside their appointments and documents;
• statistics on sessions and income, including by day of the week, to see which slots are hardest to fill.

There is no minimum contract: Semilla costs €4.99 a month (up to 15 patients), Junior €19.99 with unlimited patients and Senior €29.99, plus VAT. If you run a clinic, there are plans for teams of up to 5, 10 or 15 physios with everyone's diary in real time. You can try it free for 1 month, no card needed, with your real patients.

Frequently asked questions about getting more physiotherapy patients

What physios who want a fuller diary ask us most often.

Where do I start if I want more physiotherapy patients?

Start by finding out where your current patients come from: ask at the first visit how they heard about you and note it in their record. Then complete your Google Business Profile, add the booking link and ask the patients you discharge for a review. Once that is done, visit the local professionals who could refer patients to you.

Can I offer a discount in return for a Google review?

No. Google's rules ban offering payments, discounts or free services in return for posting reviews, and also asking only happy customers for them. Ask all your patients for a review in the same way and reply to every one, without giving details of the injury or the treatment.

Can I advertise my practice with offers like "first session free"?

The Code of Ethics of Spanish Physiotherapy considers it contrary to professional ethics to attract patients with advertising based on the price of sessions. Your advertising should be informative and truthful, include your membership number and your colegio, and follow the health advertising rules of your region.

Can I message patients on WhatsApp who have not been in for a while?

Yes, with care. Spain's LSSI allows commercial messages to former clients about services similar to the ones they used, as long as every message gives them a simple, free way to say they do not want any more. For anyone who has never been your patient, only if they have asked for it or agreed to it.

Do I need a website if I already have a Google Business Profile?

It is not compulsory, but it helps: the profile can link to it, it explains what you treat in more detail and it is the natural place for your membership number, your services and the booking button. If you have no time to build one, at least start with an online booking link and add it to your profile.

How do I know which channel brings me the most patients?

Ask every patient at the first visit how they heard about you and note it in their record. After a few months, count the answers and compare them with what each channel cost you in time and money. In My Fisio Agenda the patient record already has a "How did they find us" field.

How much does software that helps fill my diary cost?

My Fisio Agenda costs €4.99 a month on the Semilla plan, €19.99 on Junior and €29.99 on Senior, plus VAT and with no minimum contract. Every plan includes the booking link, WhatsApp reminders and the inactive patients list, and you can try it free for 1 month, no card needed.