Category Archives: Patient Retention

Call Your Mom

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mom with little boy and girl eating breakfast

Women, in general, see healthcare providers including chiropractors, more than men do. (The ratio is about 60% women and 40% men.)*

This week, hand each person in your office a flower and ask them to give it to their mom, or a mom. And if they are a mother, give them two. You could make a deal with your local florist and in return, post a sign on the flower vase stating where the flowers came from. Always try to create alliances with local businesses!

And, call your mom. I know, not all of us can. So, thank the moms you do know.

They take care of us and our future.

Here’s to moms!

Ed

*https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/complementary-alternative-or-integrative-health-whats-in-a-name

Another post on moms! https://www.goaldriven.com/post/call-your-mom

Do You Have a New Patient Log in Your Chiropractic or Healthcare Practice?

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two women sitting at a desk discussing new patientsLaying the foundation for an enduring patient relationship

FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT!

I had advised a chiropractic office we had been working with for over a year to implement a new patient onboarding checklist. For one reason or another, this procedure just couldn’t be applied.

The chiropractic doctor wisely took our Goal Driven Practice MBA program with his practice manager last fall. They completed the program in December, and since then, I have been keeping track of their results. In almost all aspects, including key performance indicators, the practice has improved: collections, visits, new patients, and harmony!

The office seems to have come alive calmly and professionally.

While the practice has improved for many reasons, it has also put in place, finally, a new patient onboarding checklist I have been encouraging them to use. (I think I am happier about this than I am about all the other wonderful outcomes they are achieving!)

THE CHIROPRACTIC NEW PATIENT LOG

There are many reasons to improve the quality of the first 3-5 days of your patient’s care. Some studies prove it, but you don’t need studies (see references below.) You have your own experiences that verify the importance of first impressions. Any time you go to a new restaurant or retail business, how you feel about your visit will determine how quickly you return – if you ever do.

You know this, and so does your staff. But, like with any set of procedures, they will erode! I call this Procedural Atrophy. I cover this in my book, The Goal Driven Business (Page 159).

Procedural atrophy starts without notice. It’s not deliberate, but little actions start dropping out here and there. You substitute rote and automatic responses that replace thoughtful and lively communication. After a while, you wonder why your patient retention is low (patient visits per new patient).

A strong solution is to create a New Patient Log. (Email me, and I will send you a sample.) The first column has the patient’s name. Subsequent columns are for specific actions to take on each NP over the first 1-6 days.

The front desk can keep the log up to date. The doctors review it at the weekly meeting or even at the morning meetings. This is a form of case management to ensure all new patients (and returning patients) are receiving the care they need. I recommend the log be kept on a hard copy sheet, even on a clipboard. Digital is OK, as long as it is kept up to date and reviewed regularly in a group.

Here are some items that can be put on the New Patient Log:

Check and date when each of the following are done.

  1. Provide a warm welcome.
  2. Report of Findings.
  3. Treatment plan.
  4. Patient financial consultation and orientation.
  5. Multiple appointment card.
  6. Scheduled to Progress Exam. (Or longer)
  7. Take home reference pack: written report of findings, family care coupon, a treat!
  8. First adjustment call.
  9. If referred by patient, who the patient was. (This is so you can thank the patient with a card or gift.)
  10. Additional testing. (E.G., on Day 5 orthotics scan)
  11. Scheduled for patient orientation class. (Remember those!)
  12. Follow-up education emails.

Of course, ensuring these actions are done is just the first step. The next step is to see that they are done skillfully and with a friendly and engaged attitude. Rehearsing the steps on the New Patient Log every two or three months can help keep the onboarding system in tune and groovy!

Keep it fun — and help your patients achieve their goals,

Ed

Email me for a sample New Patient Log ed @ pmaworks.com

Cool References:

A study by Abrahamsson et al. (2017) found that patients who received clear information and education about their treatment plan had higher levels of adherence and satisfaction with their care. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00083.x

Deyo et al. (2018) demonstrated that patients who received follow-up communication after their initial appointment were more likely to adhere to their treatment plan and report better outcomes. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.2015.95.2.e1

A systematic review by Ganguli et al. (2016) highlighted the importance of addressing patients’ concerns and questions in improving treatment plan adherence and overall patient satisfaction. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.1130

Spikmans et al. (2003) found that patients who received take-home materials and regular communication from their healthcare provider had higher levels of treatment plan adherence compared to those who did not. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-277X.2003.00435.x

Consequences of poor onboarding practices:

A study by DiMatteo (2004) found that patients who did not receive adequate education or support from their healthcare provider had lower levels of treatment plan adherence, leading to poorer health outcomes. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.mlr.0000114908.90348.f9

Lacy et al. (2004) reported that patients who experienced poor communication or a lack of warmth from their healthcare provider were more likely to miss appointments and not follow through with their care. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.123

A review by Martin et al. (2005) concluded that patients who did not feel engaged or supported by their healthcare provider had higher rates of treatment plan non-adherence and were more likely to seek care elsewhere. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1661624/

Schectman et al. (2005) found that patients who did not receive clear information about the costs and financial options associated with their treatment plan were more likely to delay or forgo necessary care. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-008-0747-1

—————————————————-

If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals,
there are reasons — many of which are hidden from you.
Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.

the goal driven business by edward petty

 

 

The Goal Driven Business
By Edward Petty

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Health Never Takes a Holiday

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fitness santas

Let the parties begin!

It’s beginning to look a lot like that special time of year. That very busy time of year with parties, food, traveling, shopping, cooking, and extra tasks.

A wonderful time of year. BUT…, please remind your patients that

Health Never Takes a Holiday!

They shouldn’t stop brushing their teeth, taking showers, or taking a pause from their yoga classes! These are all health activities that are just as important as their health program with you.

Yes, it’s OK to have an extra slice of pumpkin pie, stay up a bit later wrapping presents, or have a few drinks with an old acquittance, but encourage your patients to stick with THEIR health program.

Stopping and then starting again is tough. You lose your gains and momentum… so it is easier to just keep the ball rolling.

You can make a poster to help you remind your patients to keep working on their health. It also reminds you and your staff to keep your patients on track. Add something to your newsletter or a whiteboard with your Table Talk.

And in the spirit of the Season, you can click below to download free customizable sample posters for your patients. (We have many posters and patient scripts for our clients.)

Keep your patients Goal Driven to improve their health for a happier future!

Then, keep calm and party on!

Ed

Link to Posters- Health Never Takes a Holiday

Case Management for Better Service and Retention

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Start Each Day with Service First

Do you want a fast, simple and very effective procedure that

  • Improves patient retention
  • Improves patient referrals
  • Improves patient service
  • Improves team coordination and morale.

Beginning Each Day With Service Goals for Each Patient

Too often, we start our days by first looking at the appointment book when the patients are already waiting for us. The staff may not know what special needs each patient has, or they may have been told something by a patient that should be passed on to the treating chiropractor.

A brief review of each patient can help coordinate patient services with the entire team.

Case Management Meeting Procedure

Meet with your team about 20 minutes before you see the first patient each morning. Review the patients individually that are coming in that day. You may not need to go over every patient, especially if you have a full book.

Discuss each patient and what the goal of their next visit should be. Do they need therapy or rehab procedures? What kind? Is it time for their progress exam? Did they voice a concern to a team member that you need to know about? Do they need another financial consultation or educational materials? Should they bring in their spouse?

You can also discuss new patients – what do we know about them? Are they a friend of Rihanna or Marge Simpson? Do they live in the high-rent part of town or in a trailer down by the river? Are we all looking forward to meeting them?

More Than Case Management – Keeping It Fun.

Aside from case management, the morning meeting helps get the day started. Everyone can see how each other is doing, say Hi, and be on deck all set for the day.

I have seen chiropractic offices do short exercises (practice what you preach!), such as a plank or wall sit exercise.

I have seen jokes told. For example, everyone is assigned a spot on the Bad Dad Joke Rotation. One joke per day. The most joke for the week (the best one) gets free lemon and beet juice!

You can set reasonable goals for the day – new patients, visits, case completions, etc.

You can add a motivational quotation or review the mission or a core value.

I have personally seen this applied in many offices. Often, the primary chiropractor would get to the morning meeting first, and anyone who came in late was duly noted!! One office did this procedure in the morning and then again before the afternoon crowd came in after lunch.

Assign this as a procedure to your manager, case manager, or front desk coordinator. But make sure you support it 100%.

I have seen case management meetings work for a few months and then, like many procedures, fall by the wayside.

It only works if it is done.

In the end, everything we do is to help each patient reach their goal of better health, and this is the ultimate goal of case management meetings.

Over to you!

Carpe Posturum! (Sieze the Future)

Ed

The Value of Creating a Practice Community

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Where everybody knows everybody else’s name

Do your patients consider your practice so cool that they want to hang out with you more?

Do they come in early just to soak in the vibes and chat with other patients?

Do you have a practice club?

There are sizable benefits to creating and sustaining your own practice community. The fact is you probably loosely have one already. It is a rich resource that, if better organized and cultivated, can improve patient retention and referrals.

People want to be part of something larger than themselves. This includes belonging to a group whose values they share. Edward Deci, Ph.D., says it is an intrinsic, innate motivation we all have.

A practice club, or organized community relations program, strengthens your connection with each patient. But in addition, it builds relationships between your patients and even non-patients who are supportive of your practice.

I grew up in a small farm town. We had a very busy barbershop. It was always full of men, smoking cigarettes and talking to the barbers – and each other – about the comings and goings of our small town. I think my dad dropped in at least every other day. The barbershop had created its own interactive and slightly exclusive club.

As a more organized example, the motorcycle company Harley-Davidson established the Harley Owners Group, nicknamed HOG. You must own a Harley motorcycle to belong, and then you are eligible to attend many events the company sponsors and receive discounts on all its products. I know a few HOG members, and they are loyal to the brand and share a bond with each other. And they are active, servicing their bikes and using Harley products.

Organizing Your Community

You can sponsor your own “rallies” and probably have. Patients attend, see you and your staff outside the office, and get a chance to talk. But even more, they can connect with other patients. This is how your practice network strengthens.

You can better organize your community by delegating someone to be your Community Services Coordinator for a few hours every month. They would plan and implement various events, with everyone on staff would participating.

In addition, they could start an online club, such as a private Facebook Group. Your patients would be invited to join, as well as local businesses who share your values.

In my experience, most community-building efforts rarely amount to much because there is no one in charge to keep the group energized. Events are “one and done,” with little follow-up. This contributes to the Practice Roller Coaster effect. They do work at generating referrals and improving retention, for a while, but the energy created ebbs away.

Authentic newsletters, events, phone calls, a social media group, success stories, and special bonuses help keep the community humming along.

Network Effects

Network Effects is an economic term. It simply means that the more people use a company’s product or service, the more valuable it becomes. The larger your network becomes, the better the service improves. And the better your services improve, the larger your network becomes.

It is momentum related. Think of a flywheel or pushing a car with a dead battery. (ugh). Once you get it going, the going gets easier.

From my favorite HOG advertisement:

“It’s a free country. Live like it.
Screw it, let’s ride.”

And also,

Seize your future,

Ed

Want to improve your community building? Schedule a call and we can look at options. To schedule, go here.

In the Sierra’s

Just Gabbing

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I was once hired by a dental clinic years ago. Numbers had been headed the wrong way (down). Visiting the office, I discovered that no one talked to one another. This was the doctor’s policy. The staff didn’t talk to each other, or to the doctor, and the doctors only talked with the patients. Patient communication was limited, short, and almost brusk.

For about 3 months, I worked with the staff and two doctors to get them together and communicate. No marketing, no policies, no strategies… just gabbing. They got to know each other better. They also discussed issues in the office and started having ideas for improving things.

Also…stats went up!

The doctor was not happy and accused me of not working, just talking! Despite my urging, he didn’t manage by the numbers, just by some old-school idea of working on an assembly line where no one was allowed to talk.

The work ethic of the Industrial Age was that you “clock in,” leave your life behind you, work like a machine for 8 hours, and then “clock out.” You worked at a machine as a machine.

But people aren’t machines.

Minor confusions and then disagreements can accumulate in any relationship. Imagined or real offenses occur. It does in any family, for example. Relationships stiffen when this happens, like a hose in winter with summer’s water frozen.

Relations can be warm and friendly or deteriorate to a cool façade. The internal relationship within the office team ultimately affects both the quality and quantity of the clinic’s performance.

Relationships can be difficult, no doubt. People are complicated, and life is constantly throwing each one of us different curve balls. This is why relationships need regular maintenance. Your family relationships, for example, require time for communication and working things out when there are differences. Planning vacations, reviewing budgets, children’s school and sports activities, and much more takes work.

The same goes with your office family.

A practice is a network of relationships that is created and sustained through communication and service.

I have used this definition for years. I am sure there are other definitions, but this has worked.

This definition applies to your patients. Give them great service, engage in meaningful and empathic communication. They will get better, and they will stay with you longer.

This definition also applies to generating new patients: Expand your network. Get people to know you and how your services can help them.

But this definition also applies to your staff: create and maintain a great relationship with your teammates – and support them.

You must schedule time each week for each other. Staff meetings, training sessions, marketing meetings, lunches, one on one meetings, square dancing (good exercise!) – whatever the venue, make the time to communicate and support each other. This simple act with your staff will help you provide the best service and outcomes to your patients. And help you reach and stay at full capacity.

Keep dancing and …Seize your Future,

Ed

If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals, there are reasons — many of which are hidden from you.

Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.

Take a Stand: Define and Promote Your Brand

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Using your brand to generate more patients, increase retention, and recruit top talent!

Promoting your brand has not been an important or even viable method of marketing for most chiropractors.

But that is no longer true.

Brand marketing needs to be part of your marketing mix. I will tell you why, but first, let’s define our terms:

Brand marketing is different from direct response marketing. Brand marketing focuses on generating awareness of your office, while direct response aims to generate new customers.

A smaller business with limited resources must focus on direct marketing rather than brand marketing. This is especially important when you begin.

Once your practice is maturing, your patients know you. You are the brand. You probably don’t plan on growing the business any further so there doesn’t seem to be any real need to promote your brand in the community.

But now there is.

More competition for patients

Franchise health companies are stepping up their activities. For example, the Joint Chiropractic, which filed with the SEC for around $35 million 10 years ago, and is a public traded company, acquired an additional 7.5 million in funding just two years ago. Their website says they have more than 600 locations, and I have seen their marketing activities in Wisconsin.

Physical therapy franchises are spreading, such as FYZICAL. According to its website, it has grown to more than 448 locations in 7 years as of 2021. In addition, acupuncture franchises, massage franchises, and dental franchises are on the rise.

Competition for Qualified Employees

You can also see increased competition if you have been recruiting doctors, providers, or support personnel lately. Job seekers can acquire a startling amount of information about you and what it is like for employees to work with you. They are interested in your culture, benefits, and values – which are all part of your brand.

What Makes You Different and Better

It could be said that your brand is: what makes you stand apart — and better – from all the comparable alternatives.

It is your Unique Selling Proposition.

A well-defined and promoted brand will help you:

  • Generate pride and loyalty in your patient base
  • Encourage more patient referrals
  • Improve team morale
  • Generate referrals from external referral sources
  • Improve marketing recruitment efforts for top employee talent

How to Define Your Brand

Once again, it all goes back to goals. (Doesn’t everything?)

What is the mission of your office? What are its values? What are its valuable outcomes?

This Is a Distillation Of Your Story: why you are a doctor, why you are in business, and what brings you joy daily?

Answer this for yourself, and then ask your staff:

What makes us special?

Survey a few of your patients: what makes us special from other providers? Why did you choose us?

Your brand showcases all this into an identity that people can know, like, and trust.

It can be somewhat symbolized with a logo and tag line, like the Nike “shoosh,” and the tag line: “Just Do It.” It can be represented in your newsletters, your office decor and cleanliness, the appearance of you and your team, and in all aspects of your promotions on social media.

But primarily, it must be demonstrated each day by you and your team living up to your values, your commitment to your mission, and providing world-class service and outcomes.

The world is moving faster, and we all have to work to stay ahead. And if we do it right, not only will it be rewarding but also fun.

Carpe Posterum (Seize the Future)

Ed

Need help with your branding strategy? Schedule a call and let’s have look at the best strategic options
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Your Best Business Investment: Did you make First Adjustment Calls?

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When was the last time you called your patient after their first adjustment?

We’ve advised this for years, and it is one of the many items on our Marketing Checklists. The procedure was simple: the staff handed the doctors a slip of paper with the names and numbers of patients who had their first adjustment that day. Then, on the way home, the doctor would give the patient a call to see how they were doing. I remember hearing from the staff that the patients loved getting a call from their doctor and felt it was an extra effort to ensure their well-being personally.

I was reminded of this when my wife, Barbara, took a phone call from the MD from whom she recently received a light skin surgery. She was impressed and delighted. (“Wow,” she said after the call. “I think I’ll call to schedule more surgeries this month!” She’s funny!)

But we live in a world where we are becoming more insulated from each other. We almost interact as much with Artificial Intelligence, electronics, and automation as with live people. Automation runs our shopping, our money, and our communication, even much of our medical care.

I just read a report this week that Google suspended an engineer from work who said that an AI program at Google was now sentient (conscious). He said that he had “startling talks” with a chatbot program.* And never mind the masking, social distancing, and lockdowns which I am sure we haven’t seen the last of.

It seems that honest, caring, and genuine interest from a live person, especially from someone who knows us, are vanishing human qualities.

And this is the niche where you and your team are uniquely qualified to own.
As entrepreneurs, we focus on business matters – we look at our scoreboard, analyze the numbers, and review our accounts receivable. We look at how we can grow our business and improve the bottom line. And all that is fine and part of our job.

But all the numbers, the paperwork, all the administration and marketing are for nothing if the personal connection you have with each patient is absent.

And this is what makes your service exceptional – the quality of connection you and your team have with each patient. The genuine interest in and authentic care for each patient, and the outcomes you deliver, are the heart and soul of your business.

Improving this is the best investment you can make for long-term success.

Carpe Posterum (Sieze the Future)

Ed

(Yahoo News)

Improve Patient Retention Through Gamification

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winner running through the finish line

It all comes back to goals – helping patients achieve theirs.

Last week I discussed improving patient retention through excellent onboarding.

Onboarding is a 21st Century term meaning, in this case, those actions you take with a new patient to introduce and orient them to their new service. The analogy would be a new passenger coming “on board” a new boat. (The link to this article is below.)

The other activity I mentioned that can improve patient retention is also a 21st term: “Gamification.”

Merriam Webster says gamification is: “the process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation.” The concept is not new, but it has become a science and is integrated into all video games. I cover this in detail in my book, The Goal Driven Business, which I recommend you purchase and use. (Link below.)

Games are native to our species. Even to puppies, as you see them rolling over each other. Kids love to play with their parents, and as they get older, with other kids, and then enjoy organized sports. The Olympic games began, according to one source, in 776 BCE. We love our games, and perhaps, we need them.

Awards

A game poses a challenge where you can overcome barriers and demonstrate your grit. If you win –hurray! Winning is the prize, but sometimes you also receive an award.

In ancient Greece, winners received an olive wreath as a crown. In modern Olympics, the winners receive bronze, silver, and gold medals. In some martial arts, as you advance in your skills, you are awarded different colored belts. When you graduate from college, you receive a nice certificate you can hang on your wall to impress your relatives! (sarcasm)

Your patient has accepted a challenge, along with you and the entire clinic team, to achieve certain health goals. So why not acknowledge or even reward the patient for completing specific benchmarks along the way?

Years ago, I recall some offices would have a special short ceremony for their patients once they completed their program of care. First, the staff would help the patient don a black robe used in graduation ceremonies and a graduation cap (mortarboard) and tassel. Then, they would take a polaroid snapshot (a brand of camera that produced instant hard copy photos) with the doctor and the patient in their graduation garb, give a copy to the patient and attach another to a bulletin board. I have even seen this in a hospital setting, just without the robe!

In Your Practice

Gamification can be applied in your office in many ways.

For example, after completing their 6th visit, the front desk could award patients a silver star sticker. After the 12th visit, they are awarded a gold star stuck to a coffee mug with the office name and logo. Finally, after completing their care program, the patient could receive a diamond star attached to an office t-shirt.

Gamification aims to keep everyone engaged in the “game” of achieving health goals.

One approach to bringing this about is to have a team meeting and go over this idea. Encourage unbridled creativity! Use the best ideas that make the most sense and run the program for three months on a trial basis. Set goals (and awards) for the team for percentages of patients completing their programs.

All these are examples of gamification. But even a “Glad you made it today Mrs. Jones. Good to see you and your daughter” is a kind of an award. Unfortunately, in life, we are rarely recognized for our accomplishments – and mostly for our errors.

So, compliment your patients for their courage to improve their health. It is a big deal and a major accomplishment that they even show up, let alone follow through with their care.

After all, games are fun. So, let the games begin!

Ed

Link to Onboarding Article

Link to The Goal Driven Business

Improve Patient Retention Through Onboarding and Gamification

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It all comes back to goals – helping patients achieve theirs.

Onboarding and Gamification. Now there are a couple of terms you didn’t hear way back in the last century of practice management.

While these terms are new, what they define have been used for years. I do think they more clearly express very useful procedures that can help fill up a practice and help more patients achieve their goals of better health.

Let’s take a look at each:

Onboarding

Onboarding refers to the process of bringing a new employee, or in this case, a new patient, “on board,” as on a boat. According to Merriam Webster, “companies want to onboard their clients and customers too—to get them fully fluent in their products and services, so that they can get the most out of them.”

Onboarding a new patient would include all the basic procedures you do over the first few days of care, including consultation, history, exam, imaging, financial arrangements, and explanation of the application of first services.

There are probably 8-10 essential actions you can take with every new patient, or returning patient, that will make their experience so exceptional that they eagerly continue with their care. However, like most offices, when you are busy, you may take a few shortcuts and only do the bare minimum of procedures to get by, vowing to complete them later.

But later rarely comes. Staff turnover, new regulations, and other disruptions all discard the best laid patient service procedures. Finally, only the very minimal is done.

I call this “Procedural Atrophy.” It happens. It is a “thing.” It happens to all of us. This is why checklists are so valuable. They remind us of all the steps that should be taken to produce the best outcome possible.

For many years, we have integrated a checklist for new patients on our New Patient Log.

When a new patient comes in for their first appointment, their name is manually written on a sheet. At each step along the way, the sheet is checked off as completed. This helps ensure that no step is missed in the onboarding process.

In some offices, we have even added columns for future visits, such as Progress Exam, Progress Report, Completed Care Program. We have then assigned a team member, usually someone in the therapy department, the role of Case Completion Coordinator. Their goal is to coordinate services to help ensure that each patient gets the care they want and need and completes their program. We also assign the Case Completion Coordinator statistics to help them monitor their effectiveness.

Retention is helping your patients achieve their goals of better health. The same would apply to any type of service business.

It is all about goals, yours and especially theirs.

I’d like to keep these newsletters as brief as possible, so next week we will cover how Gamification is yet another tool to help your patients achieve their health goals.

In the meantime, seek your future and stay true to your goals.

Ed

P.S. Reply to this email With Please send me the New Patient Log and Checklist if you would like a customizable Word copy of a sample New Patient Log and Checklist

PSS ALSO, get the Goal Driven Business plus 10 practice building tools –HERE!

Relationship Marketing: Build and sustain your practice through relationship marketing

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You are in the relationship business.

People see you for a result – but they stay with you because of the relationship.

There are many different definitions of relationship marketing – marketing isn’t codified like CPT®! (That is maybe a good thing!)

Last week I talked about direct response marketing and indirect or brand marketing. Relationship marketing stems from direct response. It emphasizes retention and patient and customer satisfaction.

Relationship marketing works. It helps with patient retention and patient referrals. It also helps generate referrals from external sources.

But what is it, and how do you improve it? 

What is a Relationship?

A relationship is a connection that you have with another person. It is based, ultimately, on communication. Therefore, the quality of that communication determines the quality of the relationship.

Good communication, one that creates a good relationship, centers around understanding. As Stephen Covey advises, Seek first to understand, and then to get understood. Understanding is fundamental for good communication.

The relationship between you and your patient depends on results, of course. But to get results requires understanding the patient. Seeking to understand the patient – showing them a genuine interest in their condition and life – is not only needed from a clinical point of view, but it is vital for good communication and developing the relationship.

How to Improve Patient Communication

Patient Care can be an overused, even over-advertised term. But care is founded first on interest in and concern about the other person.

This means not just going through your script (yuck!) or your checklist with the patient, which may help keep you on track. It means do you understand them, or how and why they came to you? Are you interested?

But how do you do this after the 10,000th patient comes in to the office?

By being a real person who is interested. For example, a patient comes in and wears a green hat. You wonder about the green hat, so you ask them about it. “Hi. I can’t help but notice that you are wearing a green hat. It looks…stunning! Any special occasion?”

A checklist can help you communicate important information, but it can’t take the place of a real live person. It can’t make a relationship. You are not a robot, and neither is your patient.

Be appropriate and respectful, but mostly, be authentic.

This creates trust because your customer sees that you are interested in them as a unique person, not the 10,000th customer. And they see you as a real person, not just a busy professional trying to be interested but really faking it.

I am sure that you have experienced employees in other businesses trying to be interested in you but merely following a script. A bank teller asks me: “Have plans for the weekend?” I am nice back, but I know that she is just doing what her MBA executives in some office far away think she should say.

So, honest and interested communication, added with services and results, will create a strong relationship between you and your patient.

Outside of Your Practice

But relationship marketing goes beyond just your office.

Your patients know people. They can help you get to know their family, friends, and business associates.

You can create relationships with other professional practices, businesses, and organizations. I have seen many examples where a relationship was created between the doctor and an outside entity that resulted in many new patients.

Some examples:

  • YMCA’s and commercial gyms whose owners and managers were also patients.
  • Dentists who didn’t treat TMJ.
  • MD’s who didn’t want to deal with patients with back pain.
  • Ballet company that wanted to keep their dancers in shape.
  • High school coaches who wanted to see their athletes do their best.
  • Motels who needed a “house” medical doctor, dentist, and chiropractor.
  • Autobody shops that took care of injured cars and sent injured passengers to the chiropractor.
  • R. managers at companies who referred employees.

And this is vital: the relationship must be between you and another person associated with the outside entity. You are always dealing, first, with one person.

I have used this definition for years, and it still holds true:

A practice is a network of relationships
 that is created and maintained through service and communication.

There are specific barriers to implementing relationship marketing, and you will run into them. I want to keep this article short, so I will refer you to my book below, which addresses the barriers and how to avoid them or bust through them.

But regardless, just communicating more with more interest will bring in more new patients and keep the ones you have longer.

Communicate more and with interest.

And…

Seize the Future (That is where your goals are!)

 Ed

Link to the Goal Driven Business Book

Link to the Video Supplement to Relationship Marketing

Health Never Takes a Holiday

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fitness santas
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. (Benjamin Franklin)

You know this. So do your patients and staff.

But maintaining, and even improving your health must be a priority.

Health IS wealth.

So, encourage your patients to stick to their treatment and health programs through the next couple of months.

Enjoy the season and family and friends. This too is part of health. But the New Year is coming, and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

You can use posters, such as those attached, to remind yourself and your patients that… Health Never Takes a Holiday.

Be merry and keep smiling!

Ed

Sample PDF posters:
Poster for Nov/Dec
Poster for any holiday

Customizable posters on Word for active PM&A clients can be found on your PMAmembers site. (You will need your login to enter this site. Please contact Linda@pmaworks.com if you need assistance.)

https://pmamembers.com/december-special-promotions/

GENERAL MARKETING STRATEGY — December 2020

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marketing for prefessionals Time to prepare for the New Year’s marketing.

But before we leave 2020, here are a few tips to help you round out this crazy year and lay the groundwork for a fresh, New 2021.

For December, work “internally” with your existing network, including your active and inactive patients and your external referral sources. But prepare for external marketing for the New Year now.

INTERNAL

The Team – Your First Line of Marketing
Every member of your office is a marketer – everyone sells health. 2020 has been one heck of a year. Why not acknowledge your staff as Health Hero’s with a pin, a certificate, or plaque, perhaps with a bonus if there are any funds available? You all deserve many “thank you’s.”

Holiday Cards and Letters to your Patients
Send cards and letters to both active and inactive patients. Recognize their good efforts to improve their health during this peculiar year and tell them that you look forward to helping them and their family stay healthy in 2021.

Health Never Takes a Holiday
Post a sign in your office in December that “Health Never Takes a Holiday” and schedule patients through December to January. We have a customizable poster on our Member’s site, and sample posters here.

Keep the Conversation Going.
Send out regular emails to patients. Email is more effective than social media, according to many studies, but social media has its place too. Assign email and social media posting to someone. A simple four-paragraph informal health tip from the doctor shows that you care and help improve your patient’s health. It is better that your patients hear from you than from the local chain store pharmacist.

Poinsettia Giveaway
Some offices have done well by giving away free poinsettias, or another holiday plant, one per family. Include a gift certificate with the plant for family members or friends. (See Member’s site for gift card samples.) Make a special arrangement with your local florist for a discount.

Patient Education
Now, more than ever, provide health tips for your patients to combat the heavy advertising of COVID-related reports. Stress is amplified by a lack of knowledge. Good education can help lessen the fear and help keep your patients stay healthier and happier. Plus, educated patients remain with you longer and refer more. There are many approaches that work, including: table talk, newsletters, whiteboards with “Patient Education Prompters,” and short five-minute weekly video health tips. The more you teach, the more you reach.

Donation Drives
Holiday time always brings an increased demand for helping those less fortunate. Within your office set up a collection area for any of the following programs and promote it in your newsletter. There are also other times of the year where donations are welcomed and needed. These can be scheduled throughout the year. Here are some sample donations:

  • Coats for Kids
  • Food for Families
  • Toys for Tots
  • Blood Drive
  • School Supplies
  • Animal Shelter $25 in exchange for first day services.

Also, you can support drives at local churches or gyms. EG “Free first-day services for every donation a member of YMCA makes to the homeless fund.”

Giving Tree/Angel Tree
The Giving Tree/Angel Tree Project is a great way to bring community awareness to your office. It is a simple project that can assist your patients to help others where they might not otherwise have the opportunity to do so.

EXTERNAL

Show Appreciation to External Referral Sources
Send a Holiday Card to any business or individual outside of your office who referred a patient to you or helped you with your marketing. Make sure you include a card of thanks and perhaps a fruit basket or other small gift. Let them know that you are looking forward to another year working together for better health.

Internet
Review your website with your Internet company. Set up a consultation with someone to review how well it is drawing new visitors. Make plans for improving traffic and conversion for the first three months of 2021.

Sample Plan for Special Events
January. Video series about improving the immune system: 10 Proven Shortcuts to Improving Your Immune System: 15-minute video every Friday. Include guest providers. PROMOTE these.
February. Valentines. Have a Heart gift certificate. Donation Drives.
March. Saint Patrick’s Day – Leprechaun Appreciation Day – A special kid’s day.
April. Earth Day. Community Clean-up Drive. Include external alliances to help.

100’s More Marketing Ideas
For 100’s more marketing ideas that have worked, if you are active with PM&A, go to our Member’s site, www.pmamembers.com. If not, we still have many effective marketing procedures right here on this blog.

Meet with Your Consultant
All offices are different. Some need fast action direct marketing — others benefit most from long term development of their external network. Meet with your consultant to make plans for the first part of 2021.

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

In over thirty years of marketing practices, I have found the following two factors to be the most important:

Someone to Coordinate
It is essential that you delegate someone to coordinate your marketing as a project manager. Too often, marketing does not get done because, well, no one person is responsible. This is a major cause of the Practice Roller Coaster. While your entire office and everyone in it, staff and doctors, have marketing roles, one person aside from the doctor needs to ensure each project and procedure is implemented.

Goals and Attitude
Commitment to your goals and the right attitude undercuts everything. How strong is your desire to fulfill the mission of your office? Does the WHY? of your business enliven you each day, and are you happy about it? (Yahoo! Can’t wait to get to the office to see my next patient!!)

Of all the projects and procedures mentioned and the hundreds not mentioned, your drive to your goals and your attitude about achieving them is the most fundamental component to marketing success. Work and improve on this each day.

Ed Petty

Bonus Article: Health Tips from Mercola.com

Momentary Affluence — or Is the Tide Turning for True Health?

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Over the last few months, we have noticed that offices have continued to grow – some even breaking their previous records!

Why is this?

I have heard from doctors and office managers that patients may be hesitant to visit medical offices and prefer seeing chiropractors, acupuncturists, and other health-oriented offices instead. Are they just afraid of the COVID at medical centers, or are they truly seeking to improve their health and immune systems?

What have you heard?

I am going to guess that your practice is filling back up as well.  What should you do to augment your growth, sustain it, and even increase it?

RETENTION AND REFERRALS

You want to think about retention and then generating more referrals – from patients and from community members. Consider the following:

  1. First, don’t take this growth for granted. Each patient is unique and special and important. Provide world-class service and deliver world-class outcomes. In the end, this will ALWAYS be your #1 marketing tool.
  2. Educate. I can’t stress this enough. Please… Inform While You Perform. Factual information is one of the reasons patients see you. You are independent. Your strings are not pulled by Merck, Pfizer, or WHO. You can refer patients to information on your services, on Vitamin D, Zinc, and yes, Quercetin. They can trust you for the unedited and unspun truth about health.
  3. Communicate. Newsletters, workshops via Zoom, or in the office, outdoor events (staying in compliance with local ordinances – as you see fit!) – keep the conversation going. Maintain and improve the relationship with your patients.
  4. Capacity. Do you need another provider? Another team member? Don’t overextend yourself, but also, don’t stand in the way of your growth.
  5. Partner with other providers and businesses. Medical doctors are discovering that health solutions they have for COVID are being suppressed. The braver ones are speaking up. Doctors of all kinds, now more than ever, can share the same goal and help each other overcome similar challenges. Businesses as well, want practical solutions for their employees.
  6. Make a List. Make a list of patient retention and referral generation procedures that have worked for you and review them often. In upcoming newsletters, we will brush off some lists from our old Marketing Manager Systemsm that has hundreds of marketing procedures. You know many of them, but it always helps to be reminded!

You can also take your marketing a step further…

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU SELL, IT IS WHAT YOU STAND FOR

As a more aggressive approach, you may want to be more vocal in promoting better health in all its aspects, from what we eat, breathe, to the kind of health care we seek.  In this regard you could take on the role of Health Rebel, or even Health Outlaw!

Your unique selling principle (USP) should include your noble purposes that sets you apart from comparable alternatives.  Consumers are looking for businesses that take responsibility for social and environmental issues. And, according to several studies*, this is especially true for the younger generation – Generation X – those born in the 1990s. Speaking out for better health in your community and against toxic pollutants, for example, is not only a noble purpose but – if genuine, has practical marketing benefits.

There really are two sides in our health culture – one for optimal natural health of the planet and of our bodies, and the other as advertised by corporations.

Your community is bombarded with thousands of advertising messages each day, many of them promoting drugs and COVID hysteria fears.  Advertising is a form of population control, which is an advanced science, and which may be used increasingly to motivate your community to consume more vaccines, including for COVID.  Yale University, as reported by Mercola, is testing advertising messages to shame, embarrass, anger, and otherwise motivate people to take the vaccines.

And the campaign has already started. According to USA today, it is patriotic to get vaccinated.

And it is not just the push for vaccines. Corporate medicine has been discrediting natural health remedies, including chiropractic, nutritional supplements, and certain medical practices such as chelation for years.  And outside of health care, we can see advertisements for the cancer-causing Roundup (with glyphosate), “foods” with toxic ingredients (e.g. aspartame), and the suppression of information about mercury, hexavalent chromium (as in the movie Erin Brockovich), and other toxins currently in our drinking water.

This is really your time. This is a contest for health independence from corporate tyrants that have set up laws to escape liability for their actions.  But those of you in the chiropractic profession are used to the fray. Now, you are not alone. Other doctors are also experiencing suppression and personal and professional retaliation and are joining the fight.

The sales of organic food and supplements continue to increase. And based upon your practice returning to pre-COVID levels, the tide just may be shifting towards true health.

But only with all of our help.

Helping you to help more people,

 

Ed Petty, and all of us at Petty, Michel, and Associates

Chiropractic Patient Reactivation Program and Sample Postcard

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We recommend offering a special promotion to patients who have not been active for 6 months or more.

The links below will take you to a couple of articles describing procedures that can be used to encourage less active patients to come in to see you.

The Reactivation Program has a number of sample letters and a sample postcard and the Reactivation Card is a sample post card that can also be customized for your email newsletter.

Sample Reactivation Postcard – Sample postcard layout and instructions on how to customize your postcard.  Information can also be used for email notification.

Reactivation Program An article on the importance of regular reactivation program.

Best Wishes for your New Year!

Phyllis Frase to Speak at the Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin Fall Summit on Referrals and Retention

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p-frase-hs2

Welcome back to Wisconsin Phyllis!

We are excited to have Phyllis returning to Wisconsin to join us at the Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin Fall Summit.

The Fall Summit will be held October 21st through the 23rd at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells.

Are you and your team registered?  If not you will want to as Phyllis will be presenting to doctors and staff all day Friday.  She will be covering the following topic:  

“The Secrets of Referrals and Retention”

What’s the secret? The pixie dust? The magic potion to creating patients that stay pay and refer for a lifetime?

In this class you will walk away with what makes a patient pay and value their chiropractic care. This interactive class will help you create great customer service and learn easy, solid systems and procedures that will take your practice to the next level.  Included is low stress, low cost marketing ideas that you can implement on Monday morning.

For more information on Phyllis visit: Our Experts

To register for the CSW Fall Summit visit: CSW Fall Summit 2016

 

Your Perennial Waiting List Chiropractic Practice: Like Daffodils, Your Patients Keep Coming Back

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petty michel and associates on creating a full office

Daffodils from Linda’s back yard in Wisconsin, 2016

Spring is finally with us and the flowers and trees are beginning to bloom up here in the northern Midwest.

What is amazing to me is that I start seeing flowers pop up where I must have planted them, or someone did, a few years past. Pop, pop… a daffodil here and tulip there, some lilies and Astors and I don’t know what! Who planted these?

Growing, developing, and sustaining a chiropractic practice corresponds in many ways to the laws of nature or the laws of a farm. What makes these plants bloom are many things – the warmer weather, some biological clock, water, of course, and sunlight. Maybe some organic fertilizer now and then.

They also have something else. Something that has allowed them to weather the snow and the cold and the storms so that they are here now… waving to us in the still cool of early spring.

A few years ago I wrote an article about roots and patient retention. I know… seems like an odd comparison, but it’s not really. The thing with roots is that they are not seen and not always appreciated. I made the analogy of having a good root system in your practice – which would be the loyalty your patients have with you. I discussed methods to create and improve this relationship in the article, Chiropractic Root System

I just reviewed the article and realized that I omitted a key component in creating great patient loyalty, patient retention, and patient referrals. It is actually pretty obvious and something I see in the offices I visit.

But first, let me include here some survey information from the 2010 Customer Experience Impact Report (CEI) for North America by Rightnow Technologies* that will help make my point.(My underlines and bolds.)

“WORD OF MOUTH IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
Consumers aren’t only demonstrating their power with their wallets, but they are influencing those around them as well. Whether a consumer has a positive or negative experience, their friends, family, colleagues and networks are sure to hear about it and what they are saying carries weight.

Customer service is the most influential thing a company can do to increase customer advocacy.

55% (up from 53% in 2009) of consumers recommend a company because of its customer service, compared to products at 49% and price at 42%.

But those who have issues are also voicing their opinions and it can have a severe impact on a company’s reputation and ultimately bottom line.

Imagine the result of 66% of a company’s frustrated customers on a mission to discourage others from buying from that company. Consumers aren’t just complaining when something goes wrong, they are determined to have their presence felt by the company at fault:

  • 79% of consumers that had a negative experience with a company told others about it
  • 97% used word of mouth as their preferred method to share their experience

WHAT MAKES A GREAT EXPERIENCE?
Consumer expectations continue to rise, but their requests are reasonable and within reach. Put simply, consumers want easily accessible, accurate information to make well informed buying decisions. And they want to be respected, treated well, and have their issues resolved in a timely fashion.

Of those who decided to stop doing business with an organization,

  • 73% was a reaction to rude staff
  • 51% reacted to unknowledgeable staff
  • 55% were because of issues that weren’t resolved in a timely manner.”

Finally, it all comes down to this:

“WHEN YOU HAVE A BAD EXPERIENCE, YOU DON’T GO BACK.
This has been a mainstay result from the Customer Experience Impact Report (CEI). The fifth annual report cited that 82% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company as a result of a negative experience.”

So, it is not “time” or “money” as the primary reason patients drop out of care. Simply put – their experience was not AWEsome enough!

This is why Google Reviews or any legitimate review has such a strong impact on referrals. It is Word of Mouth marketing.

But how do you create it? Is there some fancy form or new procedure? A Dx code perhaps? Well, there are forms and procedures, but these are 20th on the list. The first 19 have to do with excellent communication and service. Communication that is genuine and caring.

In the article about increasing patient retention and the root system, I do give a few ideas on how to improve your service and, in turn, retention and referrals. But… so apparent to me now, I left something out!

Time and time again, where I see an office struggling to get new patients… I also notice a low morale office.

The low morale may not be obvious. In fact, studies show that the majority of employees (70%) are really not engaged in their work, but simply go through the motions.** This is so common that blasé, disinterested employees or time crunched, rote professionals seem to be the cultural norm.

But I routinely interview staff and work with office managers and hear THEIR side of the story, at least part of it.

If a team member is disgruntled, disaffected, discouraged, or in any way “dis”, the quality of service they provide to the patient will be affected. Let’s put it another way: if your team is anything BUT happy and cheerful and truly looking forward to their day with YOU and the patients, you have a problem.

There are many studies that show the cause and effect of employee morale and customer service. But I have personally observed it many times myself.

The offices with the HIGHEST patient retention and most patient referrals are the ones where the support team and doctor, or doctors, have a great relationship with each other. In fact, aside from the now and then stress points, you could say that they truly like and admire each other and respect each other’s good work.

Adding to this, these offices also have dedicated a continuous effort for training and education. Webinars, seminars, internal trainings, coaching (Hi there!), and books – one of the most overlooked training tool.

Now, what hampers all this is the stress of running a business. Doctors like to “doctor.” Chiropractic, or whatever good care you provide, does not fail. Doctors can always improve, and should, but it is usually the support organization that finally jams up on itself like railroad cars banging into each other, or even jackknifing.

As many of you know, I am working on a practice CEO training program. After a certain point of practice growth, it becomes difficult to continue to grow the business as a doctor. There is just too much to do. This is why you now need to learn and implement some fast flow procedures as a CEO, procedures which are very different from a doctor.

The CEO is a leader. John Maxwell*** lists five levels of leadership. At the first level people will follow you because they have to. At the second level they follow you because they actually like you! You have a relationship with them. At the third level they see that you get real results for the organization. Fourth… you are helping them become leaders! The last level is many orders of magnitude above the others… they follow you because of what you represent. Think of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, etc.

Practical Steps to Take to Improve Morale, Customer Service, Patient Retention and Referrals:

  1. Improve your communication with your team. That’s it. If it is good enough for your patients and for your family and friends, it is also good enough for your team members. As the doctor, of course, you are very busy. You are here for the patients and we are here for you.  But… as the CEO, you are here for us. Please listen to us, help us get better at helping you and the patient. Schedule time to do this each month with your veteran team members. A few minutes in the office, or even a lunch now and then.  It will pay off! And besides, it is only the decent thing to do.
  2. Plan events or projects to improve everyone’s competence. Schedule the team for training and coaching (Hi, again!) …or have them propose learning activities. Help them become leaders. Help them become expert. Lots of study and training and coaching.

As this happens, a lighthearted sense of pride and confidence will grow in your office. Synergy will improve. Staff will be engaged with the patients more and the patients themselves will also become part of the synergy.

Your practice will become well-nourished and strong, like perennial plants and trees that flower each spring.

Your patients will keep coming back.

#   #   #

Learn to look after your staff first — and the rest will follow.Customer service can make or break a business. If you treat your staff well, they will be happy. Happy staff are proud staff, and proud staff deliver excellent customer service, which drives business success.  – Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Companies)

=====================

Chiropractic Root System and Patient Retention

  *Rightnow Technologies. Download the report here. http://media.stellaservice.com/public/pdf/Customer_Experience_Impact_North_America.pdf

**http://www.gallup.com/poll/181289/majority-employees-not-engaged-despite-gains-2014.aspx

*** John Maxwell, The 5 Levels of Leadership

The Marketing Flywheel versus the “Paleo” Practice

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If you are like many chiropractors, other doctors and professionals, you are wasting potential revenue and don’t even realize it.

Before I tell you how this happens, let me give you a definition that I have been using for years that has helped many offices.

Definition of a Practice

A practice is a network of relationships that is created and sustained through communication and service.

OK. Keep that definition in mind.

Now, here is how you can lose extra income and create extra work for yourself and your team: You start out spending a great deal of time and effort on generating new patients and then on processing them. You get to know the new patients and hear their stories. You empathize with them, ask them questions, and examine them. You explain what you have found about their condition and worked out what you see as their best option for treatment.

During their first few visits you are sensitive to how they are responding to your care and so continue to communicate with them. You put all this work into your new patient in order to help them follow your treatment plan and get better.

But as the patient improves and their frequency of visits decrease, your focus on them lessens. Your attention gravitates to the new patients.

When the patient has moved through your care plan, they often just drift back out into their community with an inadequate lifeline back to your office.

You have invested in, and created, a great relationship with your patient. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to stay in communication with them? They know you and like you and your team — shouldn’t you keep the connection alive and active? Just because their health condition has improved, don’t you still have approaches to help them become healthier and happier?

They have family and friends that can use your help now. They also belong to businesses and other groups that could use your help. Why let this relationship atrophy? Why not secure that lost income as well?

The Other “Paleo” Practice

In some sense, the business is constantly starting and stopping. It is nomadic. This is the other “Paleo” practice: each day when the sun comes up across the plains, you are out hunting for and gathering new patients. This may be good for a diet, but not if you want a low stress practice. Wouldn’t it be better to create a business where existing long time patients would routinely stop by for care and refer their family and friends? This would save you a lot of effort, money, and stress, wouldn’t it?

The Practice Flywheel

A practice should be supported by business systems.

These systems are like an engine. An engine has starts and stops, but it also has a flywheel. The flywheel is a heavy wheel that, once it begins to spin, continues to do so with much less effort than it took to get it going.

A good practice is supported by a business flywheel, or a number of flywheels as there are different sub-engines in the business.

For internal marketing, the flywheel is the conversation that you first began. You want to keep it going and going. After you get it spinning in high gear, it takes little effort to keep it humming along.

How Do You Do This?

You put in place a system of constant communication with your patients when they are NOT in the office through e-newsletters, hard copy newsletters, notes and cards, Facebook, and any other medium available. And of course, there is also personally seeing them at events in your community – county fair, grocery store, restaurant, salon or barber shop, etc. You want to keep the conversation going.

A very effective method is through electronic newsletters. Done right, and they usually aren’t, these newsletters can improve the numbers in your office.

We have tested this and found that the offices that do have personalized newsletters to their patients have more returning patients, more referrals, and more wellness visits as a result. Hence, more revenue and less stress about generating new patients.

See link below for a procedural article on what we have found that seems to work best for e-newsletters. Your customized e-newsletter can fuel your Facebook page, website, hard copy newsletter, and other mediums. We have worked out a relatively simple and very cost effective system that offices are using now to make this work.

Keep in mind that if your patients are not in listening to you, they will be listening to someone. For example, there are about 80 ads for drugs every hour on television (http://www.topmastersinhealthcare.com/drugged-america/) and this statistic is more than ten years old. It has been estimated that each of us are bombarded with about 2,000 advertising impressions per day. How many of these ads influence your patients toward unhealthful products or services?

Customized newsletters, and the cascading communications that they can feed, cost little but they help to keep the patient flywheel – and the communication – going. And in so doing, the patient wins, the community wins, and so does your business.
-Edward Petty

Publishing Your Newsletter – Does your mailing bottleneck when it comes to time to do the monthly newsletter Follow our easy steps to get your newsletter out “simple and fast”.

Newsletter Content –  9 suggested topics to include in your monthly newsletter to keep the conversation going.

Your Newsletter: CONTENT

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The purpose of your newsletter is to keep the conversation going. It is designed to sustain the relationship that you have started. It can even help create new relationships. It serves to remind the patient that you are there for them and can continue to help them.

Marketing IS communication. Nothing beats live two-way communication – in person or via the phone. But next to live communication, the personal letter is best. The letter is a tried and true form of communication.

A newsletter is NOT a brochure, or a pamphlet, or regurgitated “content.” It is a personal communication from you to someone else.  Too many newsletters are mass produced and have generic types of “content.” The one thing that is becoming more valuable in today’s world is authenticity. This is important because it creates trust – which is also scarce.  So, keep your newsletter personal, even “folksy” and your patients will feel that the real you is talking to the real them and will have a greater impact.

Components of a patient newsletter should include some the following:

1. Letter from the Clinic Director
A short letter to the patients from the Clinic Director anchors the newsletter. If you include nothing else, this is the most important part of your newsletter.

It can be short or long. Shorter is better, with only 4 or 5 paragraphs. A longer letter also works ONLY if it is compelling. A worthy story or rant against some injustice…these can work. If it expresses your VOICE, it will work.

Your letter should usually include some reference to you personally. For example: “Yesterday, when I was taking my kids to school, my youngest mentioned she was told that she needed to receive 43 vaccinations next week….”

You can include some health news, with statistics and cite a reference, or refer to an article in another part of the newsletter. You can include office news. Refer to a photo attached of the new carpet, painted wall, or gift from a patient.  New research, celebrities utilizing similar services, recent chiropractic success cases in the office, clinic expansion or renovation, new computer system, and personal adventures … all of these are good.

This can also be done via a short video as well.

Whatever you say, it should be delivered as if you are talking to just one person, perhaps the last patient you just saw.   End the letter by saying something like… “I look forward to seeing you soon.”

2. Health Tips
Information for a “Health Tips” column, such as “Health Sleep Habits for Kids” The topic should be consistent with the time of year (September – back to school month) or Community Education Program theme (Children’s Health). Dr. Mercola has built his empire with great health tips from his newsletter. If you are not a subscriber, I encourage you to look into it. (www.mercola.com)

3. Special Promotions
Information on any upcoming promotions, spinal care classes, community education lectures, or anything else of a special nature.

4. Staff News
Include any news about staff, such as a new baby, new staff, new staff promotion, continuing education or seminar attendance. Pictures please.

5. Doctor/Clinical News
Include news about doctors, such as new seminars attended, advanced training, specialties, new associates, new diagnostic or treatment equipment, etc.

6. Patient News
Any news that is appropriate about patients, such as patient of the month, patient success stories (include photograph of patient), patient news: “Joe Smith wins the lottery and enrolls at Palmer!” Ensure you have a signed release from any patients that you want to include information about. Some clinics like to include a copy of their “thank you for referring board.”

7. Community Education Calendar
List the dates, times, places, and other pertinent information about community events that you will be sponsoring during the next month or quarter.

8. Just for Fun
Begin a recipe column. Assign this to one of the staff as appropriate. For example, if your office manager’s name is Jean, have a column called “Jean’s Recipes”. Each month, Jean can feature a different recipe, including, for example, the doctor’s favorite special chili recipe. Recipes should be simple (or at least not take up too much space). “Jean” should make some comments about the recipe.

9. Cartoons and Jokes!
Newsletter CONTENT Checklist

Submitted in digital format (Via computer).  Bonus if you include photos or even a video.

  • Letter from the Clinic Director
  • Health Tips
  • Special Promotions Upcoming
  • Staff News
  • Doctor/Clinical News
  • Patient News
  • Community Education Calendar
  • Just for Fun
  • Cartoons and Jokes

 

Getting the Newsletter Out – Simple and Fast Steps

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There is a fast way to “keep the conversation going” with your patients, vendors, allies, and other people connected to your practice and business.

Use an email service.

It has simple templates in which you can paste the content you want. Later, with some easy editing, you can also print out the newsletter and have a hard copy for in office fliers or mailers. You can paste the content of your newsletter to your website and to your Facebook page.  You can even use short video clips.

The email service makes it easy. Smooth organization and delegation of the work makes it even easier.

Almost ANY communication is better than none. On a regular basis, get your newsletters out regardless of how neat or interesting they are. Quantity first, then improve the quality.

Here is a short outline of some of the steps you can use to get your newsletter out fast.

  1. Someone in Charge. Assign one person to be in charge of collecting the info. I call this person the “Sunshine Coordinator,” though you may want to call this person the “newsletter assistant,” or some other creative name. (Sunshine Assistant: the one who helps bring the sunshine of our office to your home.)
  2. Newsletter Content Assigned. Get different categories of the newsletter assigned. See the Content Checklist for ideas. Encourage photos of patients, staff, doctor, etc. Each person can take a section and be responsible for submitting quality content. However, they do not personally have to create the article. For example, whoever is in charge of testimonials can encourage any team member to solicit the testimonial from the patients. Not all sections need to be in each newsletter.
    • Content Letter from the doctor. (Could be a video.)
    • Recipe section. “Christina’s Cool Recipe’s”
    • Try to get a photo. Take a quote and make it into the title.
    • “Health Tips.” This is a practical section about health that the reader can use now. Sort of a home remedy section. Include citation to a study, a few tips on what to do for a condition. Always encourage them to call in for a no charge consultation. (This can also be a video.)
    • Upcoming promotional events
    • Office news, jokes, miscellaneous.
  1. Digital Content. Don’t hand in slips of paper or a photocopy. Make sure the content is sent to our Sunshine Assistant in Word or text format. Include photos and video as attachments.
  2. Set when the letter goes out and when all the content should be to the Sunshine Assistant –usually 1 week earlier.
  3. E-newsletter. Use a newsletter service. They are simple, not that expensive, and for many other reasons, just the best way to go. Constant Contact is easy to use. There is also Mail Chimp, and many others that are available.
  4. Publishing Steps.
    • Someone should be in charge of this on line service.
    • Pick a template.
    • Acquire and upload existing emails to get started.
    • Cut and paste text content in each block of the newsletter.
    • Have someone qualified to review readability and edit.
    • Regular uploading of new emails.
    • Posting important newsletter content on website blog.
    • Cross post info from website blog to Facebook.
    • Convert email newsletter to PDF handout for hardcopy newsletter for handouts, statement stuffers, and mailers as desired.
  5. Monthly. Some offices send out a short letter from the doctor two weeks after the main newsletter, along with upcoming notices on occasion. Generally, the more the better.
  6. Video. You will need to make your own YouTube Channel, or use another service to upload your video. There is special formatting for ideal optimization to keep in mind. Once posted, the video can be included in your newsletter, on your website, on Facebook, and on other Internet properties. It does take some extra work, but in the long run, it is worth it. Video is very powerful. Think of T.V. and how much it is used. With Video, you are creating your own TV station.