Tag Archives: driven

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
SCHEDULE NOW

 

Capacity Constraints: Hidden Practice Barriers

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Fixing the weakest links.

Your practice should flow smooth, fast, and uninterrupted, like a clear mountain stream.

Most offices, unfortunately, have hidden dams that slow or even block the flows within their office. This limits growth and increases stress.

For example, I have often seen the front desk so clogged with paperwork that new and active patients were inadvertently discouraged from coming in.

Every department and function of your practice is vulnerable to innocuously seeming events that add friction that choke production. Interruptions in the billing department, poor note-keeping systems for doctors, too many therapies to choose from, insufficient space, staff unclear of their goals, staff driven into apathy by being micromanaged… there are many potential opportunities for roadblocks.

Generating more new patients to increase your patient volume is usually a good idea. But often, the increase in volume is short lived because the office had too many hidden log jams and wasn’t set up for the higher patient volume. Even the doctors, while saying they want more new patients, can become fatigued by the end of the day and privately look forward to lighter days.

There are several remedies for these clogged flows.

First, clear up the goals and outcomes of each department. For example, the goal of the front desk is not “completed paperwork.” (A “Fully Scheduled Day” would be better!)

Second, you can review and refine the flow of patients into, through, and out of your practice. Draw a patient flow chart. Start with your new patients. List the sequence of actions your new patient goes through on their first day at your office. Later, you can do this for their second and third day. You can later work out a flow chart for reactivated patients, re-injured patients, and different types of cases.

Then, you and your team can rehearse the entire sequence to see what is missing or what needs to be eliminated.

I cover this in The Goal Driven Business:

Broken flow patterns that remain invisible “clog up” the system and slow down everyone’s best efforts to produce valuable outcomes and excellent service. These are bottlenecks. Discovering and eradicating them is a significant function of the Goal Achievement Process.

In his 1984 book, The Goal, Eliyahu Goldratt introduced what has come to be known as the “Theory of Constraints.” By making a chart outlining the flow of your customers, for example, you’ll better identify “leaks” or constraints which lessen your ability to achieve high quality and quantity customer outcomes.

As Goldratt states, “Since the strength of the chain is determined by the weakest link, then the first step to improve an organization must be to identify the weakest link.”

Every three months or so, do a “walk-through” with your entire team, where someone takes on the role of customer. This rehearsal will bring to light many duplicated or omitted functions. You’d be surprised to discover that many of the tasks you assume are done for your customer are actually skipped or poorly linked in. Sometimes you find tasks from decades ago, that no longer apply, are still being done.

Be an engineer to your goals and discover the constraints holding your office back, and remove them.

Be…… A Goalineer!

Ed

PS For those of you who have purchased my book, The Goal Driven Business, you are welcome to schedule a no-charge consultation to see how you can remove your bottlenecks and achieve your goals. SCHEDULE NOW

If you haven’t purchased the book yet, please do so here.  BUY THE BOOK

Health Screenings in 2022

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This past weekend, outside our local grocery store, the Village (what they call a suburban town out here) closed off the main street and had an art fair. So I took a few minutes to look around before I headed home with my organic veggies!

There were maybe 30-40 10×10 tents with various artists displaying their works. The day was hot, and I was in a hurry. Suddenly, I stopped when I saw an old familiar sight, one that I hadn’t seen for a few years. There it was-a chiropractic health screening booth.

That’s right… s c r e e n I n g s!

The signs said, “Spinal Health Screening” with the name of the corporate chiropractic company which now has offices in a few states in the Midwest and in WA, according to their website.

Now, for the most part, I like screenings and, if done right, recommend them. I would not be overstating the fact that we have personally participated in hundreds of screenings in hundreds of venues over the years. (I still have a couple of PVC Posture Analyzers in my garage.) We have personally trained well over 50 “Screening Technicians” and hundreds more in seminars and via our marketing manuals. We used screenings when we opened up our 24 offices here in Wisconsin.

Now that people are less in fear of being murdered by one another for carrying the COVID, outdoor events are resurfacing.

Here is a short list of benefits of screenings:

  1. Generate new patients.
  2. Reactivate former patients.
  3. Create new external referrals sources
  4. Create goodwill and good publicity. (We won an award for our booth at a county fair once which was pictured in the local paper.)
  5. Meet people in your community.

Here are 5 essential ingredients to help you achieve these benefits:

  1. Friendly. Whoever is in the booth should be friendly, casual, and having fun. Therefore,
  2. Short shifts. It should not be an endurance contest—a few hours at most. Get in, greet people, talk with them, screen the interested few, and get out.
  3. Training and positive experience. If you have a non-doctor in the booth, for Pete’s sake, train them. Ideally, they could be a staff member who already knows the excellent outcomes you produce and can easily recommend you.
  4. Be interested in people. Are they in pain? Have they seen a chiropractor, acupuncturist, P.T., M.D. for their issue? Where do they work? What do they think of the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball club’s chances this season?
  5. Unserious. As B.J. Palmer said in Rule #9, “Don’t take yourself too damn seriously.” (to get a copy of Rule #9)

Get out there with your people… they need you!

Ed

PS BY the way, just curious… please reply if you would like a short webinar on what we have seen works best for screenings.

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Here in the United States, July 4th is a date we celebrate each year, commemorating the independence as colonies from Great Britain.

And I can’t help but see a parallel between those hardy souls in the American colonies that wanted their freedom and, well, you! Chiropractors and their teams.

To colonize means to “take control of a people or area, especially as an extension of state power… to take or make use of (something) without authority or right.” (Merriam-Webster)

It could be said that the profession of medicine has been colonized by a few corporate interests. Same has been happening with other professions and industries. A few large corporations own and control more and more businesses that were once independent.

But for the most part, chiropractic as a profession has remained independent.

It hasn’t been easy, what with the AMA and Pharma coming after you, as was disclosed in the Wilk’s trail. (That was just a speed bump for them!) But Team Chiropractic has won its independence and freedom due to the courage of those who have come before you.

And it also comes from your continuing courage today.

So, this Fourth is also about your independence and your continued efforts to do the BEST for your patients and your communities.

Celebrate this!

Yes, it is just another day at the office. But this weekend, have an extra cool drink and recognize your leadership and courage in standing up for the true health of your patients and your community.

Stay free, and help others do the same.

Ed

Those Numbers: Do You Manage by Emotions or by Goals?

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scoreboard for statistics

It’s Monday morning. The staff is getting the office ready for the new day. And while doing so, they are wondering… “How is the boss’s mood going to be today?”

They are taking their cues on how the day will transpire based upon, at least in part, your emotional state.

Your team, as well, will often be tempted to manage their roles in the office emotionally, based on the circumstances in their personal lives.

There is nothing wrong with positive emotion. Emotion is a feeling “a mental reaction subjectively experienced” (Merriam-Webster). Some are more positive than others, such as joy, delight, cheerfulness, and others are more negative, such as anger, grief, and fear.

But emotion is reactive. Setting your sights and working for goals is proactive.

Your Scoreboard

Your practice numbers show you if you are headed towards your goals or away from them.

They can predict what needs to be done to improve your business and achieve your goals. They also keep everyone on your team informed on the status of the practice and included in its management.

There is a right and wrong way to use your numbers to help you achieve your goals.

There is, in fact, an entire methodology on how to use statistics to improve business performance.

Large companies use analytics to manage and improve their production in formal processes such as Kaizen, Six Sigma, and Total Quality Management.

In the Goal Driven System, we use a simplified version called GAP, the Goals Achievement Process, which works just fine.

At the beginning of each month:

  1. Review. Review your key numbers monthly at staff meetings. (This can also be done weekly to check on your progress.)
  2. Notice and support. Notice where the numbers went up. Then, plan a couple of action steps to support the areas that went up.
  3. Notice and fix. Notice where the numbers went down. Then, plan a few action steps to fix the areas that were down.

Remember that numbers by themselves are nothing. They are symptoms or representations of the quality and quantity of your outcomes. Don’t get so caught up with the “stats” that you lose sight of what the numbers represent. Expecting the numbers to improve without confronting and enhancing the factors causing the numbers is at best ineffective and, at worst, can be abusive.

But numbers can assist you and each team member to stay focused on the goals: your office mission, its values, and its outcomes.

In a Goal Driven office, your team takes its cues from the office scoreboard.
There is an art and a method to capture, display, read your statistics and apply what they tell you. This is not adequately taught to most doctors in business – or to employees. Yet managing by numbers is a fast and very effective method to keep your business improving.

We are creating a short training course to remedy this called Goal Driven Analytics for the Chiropractic Practice. Subscribers to this newsletter (you!) will be the first to hear about it.

In the meantime, stay true to your goals, and use your scoreboard to help you do so.

Seize the Future

Ed

The SPARKLING Practice and How to Achieve It: Synergy is the Key

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We just awarded a two-doctor chiropractic office employee the SPARKLE award for outstanding service to patients and team members for 21 years of service.

Why a SPARKLE award? Well, that was the term most frequently used to describe this team member.

The clinic owner said: “She has dedicated almost 21 years (7,440 days!) of her professional (& personal, let’s be honest) life to our practice & the pulse of our family and pediatric practice. Over those years we have walked many of life’s journeys together, and she has formed meaningful connections with our patients. We have shared laughter (SO MUCH laughter!), tears and everything in between. She has changed many lives in her nearly 21 years.”

sparkle award for teammateWhile she indeed does “sparkle,” so does the entire practice. And the sparkle of this office is a byproduct of its synergy.

I even feature their practice as a positive example in my book, the Goal Driven Business.

The owner, the doctors, and the staff are all committed to the goal of providing the best service possible to each patient. But their goals also include supporting each other.

According to Merriam Webster: ” ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,’ expresses the basic meaning of synergy.”

In his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey refers to synergy as Habit #6.

“Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s a process…”

Much of the Goal Driven Business draws upon Covey’s work as I have seen his concepts help create a business that runs at full capacity smoothly.

His preceding two habits particularly apply:

  • Habit 4. Think win-win.
  • Habit 5: Seek to understand first, then get understood.

This chiropractic practice has formal communication systems, but they also communicate abundantly informally. And each team member has the goal of helping each other and the patients “win.”

In the end, it all goes back to goals. It always does. The owner keeps the goals, including the mission and core values, at the forefront of the team each week. Further, she sets an example by living these goals professionally and personally.

And as a result, staff are happy, patients are happy, and the office runs at full capacity, profitably and smoothly.

You can generate synergy in your office by improving communication and focus on win-win goals for the patient and for each other.

And make your practice SPARKLE!

Ed

PS. For help in creating a synergistic and sparkling practice, contact us!

Call Your Mom: The most important person in your practice

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mom, mother, daughter, hugging, petty, michel, goal, driven, love“Call your mom!”

When we dropped off our son at college as a freshman that late summer day years ago, I told him: “Call your mom!”

And he did, but not often enough.

The fact that moms are extraordinary is an understatement. They are not ordinary people.

Motherhood just isn’t giving birth or the nine months before — if that wasn’t miraculous enough. It isn’t just the diaper months, the nursing, the crying, or the “terrible twos.” It goes on through all the stages of their child’s life – preteen angst at discovering their identity, infatuation break-ups, finding their social tribe, and all the challenges growing up leads us through.

Mother is always there.

And motherhood never ends. As long as she lives, our mothers are there throughout our lives.

Motherhood is a magical cape that certain women wear, your mom, for instance, that at one time protected you and at another helped you fly. Often without your gratitude.

Yea, dads are around too, often in the background. But moms are the first line of comfort and care, someone who loves you more than themselves.

And if moms are so vital in our lives, they are too in our practices.

Always show special gratitude to the mothers in your office.

This Sunday, May 8, is Mother’s Day. Do something special for all the mothers in your practice. Not as a gimmick but as a sincere act of gratitude and respect. Some offices give a flower to every mother that comes in on Friday or the days before. You can always provide some organic chocolates, a scented soap, or tea.

Yes, there is a marketing aspect to this, but excellent customer service is marketing. In most cases, women see doctors more than men, and mothers are often more dominant in determining and advocating for better health in families. (1,2) They are probably your better patients, and your better referral sources as well.

What if you don’t know if they have children? Well, first of all, you should. You are creating relationships with your patients. But if you don’t know, you can always politely ask them – and you will get to know them even better and strengthen your relationship.

For those who are not mothers, give them a flower to give to their mother. Then, have them post the photo on social media, and you can reward them with something.

So, Call Your Mother, and do something special for all the mothers in your life.

Ed

1. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6602a12.htm
2. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-men-dont-go-to-the-doctor_n_5759c267e4b00f97fba7aa3e

Chester Wilk Was Not to Be Bullied

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A chiropractor that stood up for chiropractic.

chester wilk: a chiropractor that stood up for chiropractic

THIS IS A SPECIAL NOTE OF THANKS and a tribute to Chester Wilk, D.C., who passed away just a few days ago.

Dr. Wilk was the Wilk in Wilk versus AMA, the case where a federal judge ruled in 1987, based upon evidence, that the American Medical Association had been attempting to “contain and eliminate” the chiropractic profession.

Dr. Wilk and four other chiropractors first filed the suit in 1976. Doggedly pushing it along, Dr. Wilk, colleagues, and attorneys had to keep fighting even after the ruling against the AMA. From Wolinsky’s book, Contain and Eliminate:

“Wilk had earned a reputation as a street fighter. In 1974, he’d written a book of his own, Chiropractic Speaks Out: A Reply to Medical Propaganda, Bigotry, and Ignorance. In it, Wilk made a case for the validity of chiropractic based on scientific research, and he attacked the AMA for trying to stop chiropractic education and block insurance and Medicare reimbursement for chiropractic services. “Chiropractic is not a cure-all, but neither is medicine,” Wilk said.”

“The case was finally settled in January 1992. The amount of the settlement is under court seal. The settlement went toward attorney fees for Wilk et al., plus additional funds went to support a center for disabled children run by a chiropractor in Kentucky and the chiropractic schools with a request from the National Chiropractic Antitrust Committee led by Dr. Chester Wilk, which raised funds for the suit, that the colleges earmark the windfall for research. Not all did.” (Wolinsky)

I had the honor of having lunch with Dr. Wilk and his wife many years ago in Chicago. Later, in 1996, we both presented at a seminar hosted by Petty, Michel, and Associates to doctors and staff here in Milwaukee.

He was not flamboyant and seemed unassuming, but to me, he had a steely commitment to chiropractic, and I could see that he was not someone to be bullied.

Were it not for Dr. Wilk, and many others that worked with him to defend the profession of chiropractic from the illegal acts of the American Medical Association, you might not be where you are now.

The story about the Wilk’s case is a lesson for us all and an example well set.

And whether you are a chiropractor, work in the chiropractic field, work in any health field, or pursue healthy solutions for yourself and your family, no one or no organization has any right to suppress health information from you.

Dr. Wilk was not to be bullied or silenced, and neither should any of us. He stuck to his goals through thick and thin.

Please take a moment to pay your respects to this humble man and how we can continue his work.

Seize the Future!

Ed

PS links:

Dr. Chester Wilks Book: Medicine, Monopolies, and Malice
https://www.amazon.com/Medicine-Monopolies-Malice-Chester-Wilk/dp/0895296470

Wolinsky book: Contain and Eliminate
https://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/o2.php?f_id=34

More info about Dr. Chester Wilk https://chiro.org/Wilk/

Dr. Chester Wilk at Petty, Michel and Associates seminar discussing the Wilks vs AMA trail in 1996

Mr. Ed Petty at Petty, Michel, and Associates seminar discussing practice development.

How to Hire the Best in 2022

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Again, its all about the goals.

On occasion, you may need to hire a new team member. We always help our clients with hiring and “onboarding” new employees on our major consulting programs.

We have been hearing a lot about millennials not wanting to work, people don’t want to work, and it’s hard to find good employees.

I don’t buy it. We have been hiring great employees.

You must understand and appreciate the seismic changes that have been occurring in society. The workplace is not what it used to be.

The Assembly Line

I discuss this a great deal in my book, The Goal Driven Business.

The Industrial Age needed an industrial mindset for a workforce. As a worker, you were a cog on the assembly line. You checked out of your life when you punched in and checked back in when you punched out. Not much was required from you…except your brawn and obedience. It was a machine world and required mechanist minds and behavior. The employee worked just as hard so they wouldn’t get fired, and the employer would pay just as little so that the employee wouldn’t quit.

We have long since passed the Industrial Age, but our work culture hasn’t changed that much. The worker at the sandwich shop asks you what you want on your lunch sandwich, the cashier totals your groceries, and the therapy tech at the hospital follows their checklist.

But a reckoning has been on its way for some time.

And that time is now.

Many factors have culminated in today’s “hiring crisis.” It is a perfect wave, of sorts.

OK Boomers

But let’s first dismiss the judgments from the “OK Boomers.”(“OK boomer” is a catchphrase and Internet meme often used by Gen Z to dismiss or mock attitudes typically associated with baby boomers.” Wiki.)

Older generations have always viewed younger generations as flighty, fickle, and poorly motivated workers. I am one of the hardest workers I know, but my dad didn’t think so when I was stumbling around after college trying to find something to sink my teeth in.

While the youthful uncertainties of work may not have changed, there has still been a dramatic shift in our culture.

Financial Changes

Millennials are in debt the way no other generation ever considered. Today’s average college tuition is 31x more than it was in 1969. (1. Yahoo) Total student loan debt is 1.75 trillion. (For comparison, the U.S. Budget in 2020 was 6.6 trillion) with the average borrower owing $29,000.

We have been in an inflationary spiral, with housing leading the way. Generally, the cost of living is rising. The increase in the Consumer Price Index for March is equivalent to an annualized rate of 15.4%, the largest 12-month increase in 40 years. (2)

So, finance is a factor—a big one.

Goals, Values, and Meaningful Work

In 2015 Gallup, surveyed over 80,000 working adults. The majority (51 percent) of employees were unengaged at work, while another 17 percent were actively disengaged, for a total of 68 percent not engaged. That means that nearly 2/3rds of the workforce were dissatisfied with their jobs and ready to make a change.(3)

COVID 19 sent a shockwave throughout the work-a-day world. It jarred employees out of their jobs and they were now free to pursue something more in line with their new values and purposes.

One office we work with recently hired a C.N.A. who had quit their prior employment because they did not want to get the COVID jab. They felt that the medical approach they were forced to follow was not aligned with their own values and goals. As a result, they took a new position at a chiropractic office we work with and now happily feel part of their new family.

Indeed, a hiring company, states:

“A work environment that possesses organizational culture is driven by purpose and clear expectations. This motivates and inspires employees to be more engaged in their work duties and interactions with others.”

One of the major processes we work with the business owners is helping them and their teams delineate their own values that they aspire to each day. Positive team culture can be better created and maintained by regularly reviewing these values.

One very competent employee we recently helped hire for an office was so impressed with the Core Values on the office website that she knew this was her place. She has since joined the team and is a high producer.

Emphasize Your Goals and Mission

Employees want security. They are not necessarily looking to become wealthy, at least in the short term. You may need to review your pay scale for your team and make gradual adjustments in these inflationary times.

But we all have intrinsic goals, which include our values, and these take precedence. Work these out for your business and nurture them often. Stay true to them. In promoting for new staff, communicate your values and just how rewarding it is to work with your practice.

Become Stronger to Withstand Future Reckonings

I anticipate more “reckonings” and seismic shifts in the not-too-distant future that your business will have to weather and overcome. The world is changing quickly. The stronger you are, the better your chances of surviving and thriving.

  1. Read and apply my book, The Goal-Driven Business.
  2. You can also set up a no charge appointment to discuss how we can help strengthen your business and make it more profitable. Make an appointment for a no-charge call consultation here. LINK
  1. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-cost-college-jumped-incredible-122000732.html
  2. https://www.investopedia.com/inflation-jumps-again-in-march-2022-5225599
  3. https://news.gallup.com/poll/188144/employee-engagement-stagnant-2015.aspx

Insurance Key References

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Following is a list of links to various publications with helpful information on insurance filing guidelines and requirements.  At the bottom is a convenient downloadable document with all of this information listed.
~~

Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Treatment Guidelines DWD CH 81.04
https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/dwd/080_081/81

General. Except as set forth in par. (b) and s. DWD 81.04 (5), a health care provider may not direct the use of passive treatment modalities in a clinical setting as set forth in pars. (c) to (i) beyond 12 calendar weeks after any of the passive modalities in pars. (c) to (i) are initiated. There are no limitations on the use of passive treatment modalities by the patient at home. DWD 81.06(3)(a)

Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Tx Guidelines Departure from Guidelines / Exceptions
DWD 81.04(5) (5) Departure from guidelines. A health care provider’s departure from a guideline that limits the duration or type of treatment in this chapter may be appropriate in any of the following circumstances:

Wisconsin Unfair Claims Settlement Practices
Ins 6.11  Insurance claim settlement practices.https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/ins/6/11/3

Wisconsin Medicaid CMS1500 Claim Instructions
https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/forms/f0/f01234a.pdf
https://www.forwardhealth.wi.gov/kw/pdf/2008-89.pdf

Wisconsin Medicaid – New Requirements and Clarification of Chiropractic Services
https://www.forwardhealth.wi.gov/kw/pdf/2016-35.pdf

Documentation, SOI, 20 visit limit, exam clarification.
State of Wisconsin Insurance Equality
632.87(3) Wisconsin Insurance Equality Chiropractic

Medicare Supplement Mandated Benefits Wisconsin
https://oci.wi.gov/Documents/Consumers/PI-002.pdf
Medicare Supplement and Medicare SELECT policies cover the usual and customary expense for services provided by a chiropractor under the scope of the chiropractor’s license. This benefit is available even if Medicare does not cover the claim. The care must also meet the insurance company’s standards as medically necessary.

Wisconsin Provider Manual Anthem BCBS
https://www.anthem.com/docs/public/inline/PM_WI_00006.pdf

Wisconsin Anthem BCBS Commercial Reimbursement Policy
https://www.anthem.com/docs/public/inline/C-08010.pdf

Wisconsin Anthem BCBS Commercial Modifier Rules
https://www.anthem.com/docs/public/inline/Modifier_Rules_2021.pdf

Downloadable Reference Guide: Insurance Key References

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

The Missing Role in Your Practice

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The cause of almost all relationship difficulties is rooted in conflicting or ambiguous expectations around roles and goals. Stephen Covey

The reason many offices have a difficult time growing has to do with missing roles.

A role is the identity assumed to perform a series of tasks that produce a specified outcome.

In the hundreds of offices that we have visited over the years, the doctors take on essentially two roles: doctor and owner. This works in the beginning for a few years as the practice grows. In time, however, the practice begins to roller coaster. Numbers go up, then they go down, cycling up and down until everyone fatigues and just settles.

There are several causes for the Practice Roller Coaster. There are hidden barriers that hold an office back and sabotage its growth. These are covered in my book, The Goal Driven Business.

One of the barriers has to do with a missing role that most business owners overlook. Can you guess which one that is?

Let’s look at goals: What is the goal of a doctor? “A healthier person,” right?

What is the goal of a business owner? A secure and solvent business. Dividends from ownership.

What is missing? The doctor can achieve their goal by seeing 10 people a week. As a business owner, they can keep their overhead very low – perhaps working out of their home. But is that what you really want – to see 10 people a week out of your house? Overhead is low and you are getting good results. So, what is missing?

The CEO – the chief executive is the missing role. The goal of a CEO is a very profitable business that operates at full capacity providing world class service and delivering extraordinary results.

The CEO is the chief manager, leader, and marketer, which are the three functions that drive the business to its goals.

Sometimes we hear the doctor being referred to as the “boss,” but boss is not a well-defined role. “Boss” is generally recognized as the person who gives orders and makes decisions. However, it is an overlay of an existing role, as in a “bossy” doctor or “bossy” owner. The role of a CEO is much more than this.

Most providers are too busy providing services to do much managing – and besides, they are paid for their services, not their managing or leadership. Doctors are trained to manage patients, not businesses.

Still, this is a role that must be fulfilled as distinct and separate from the owner or provider roles if the business’s full capacity is to be achieved.

Three Functions of the CEO

The role of CEO includes these functions:

  • Leadership: Leadership is all about goals. It defines where you are going and why and helps everyone you work with embrace this knowledge with commitment. Leadership includes your mission, long-range plans, values, and … the insistence upon achieving them.
  • Management: Management deals with how to get to the goals. Management works to ensure that people and procedures are effectively working and improving.
  • Marketing. Marketing includes procedures and projects that help generate new patients/clients and retain them. Marketing is business, and business is marketing.

Once your practice is at least at 50% capacity, a couple of hours spent each week on effective leadership, management, or marketing activities as a CEO is worth 8 hours or more doing anything else. For example, time spent going to a seminar – perhaps 20 hours including the transportation, may increase your numbers for months afterward. A little can go a long way.

Because the role of practice CEO must be very part-time, we have developed the Fast Flow CEO System for the Goal Driven Business. This can take as little as 2 -3 hours per week, depending on the scale of your business. Here are five components of the Fast Flow CEO System:

  1. Get Out to Work On. Regularly take time to get out of the business so that you can work on your business.
  2. The CEO Works for the Business. The business does not work for the CEO. Sure, the business works for the doctors so that they can provide better service to the patients. But that is for the doctor. Sometimes called “servant leadership,” the CEO is the Chief Coach, helping others understand the goals and how to achieve them.
  3. Team Members. The CEO works to create team members who take on a portion of departmental management, marketing, and leadership.
  4. Manager. The CEO creates the role of manager and delegates a team member to assume this as a part-time role. The manager can take on much of the CEO’s daily and weekly duties.
  5. Study. The CEO studies leadership, management, and marketing to improve their skill as a CEO. Leaders are … readers!

Certainly, all this requires some skill and training – and coaching! But just clarifying the role of CEO and its expectations as distinct from the roles of owner and doctor (or “boss”) will significantly improve your chances of breaking out of the Practice Roller Coaster and achieving your goals.

Ed Petty

March 14, 2022

Motivation

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No matter how many goals you say you have or how you write them out, unless you have the motivation to achieve them – you won’t.

“Motivation is the driving force behind the energy required to complete a task… a person’s willingness to exert physical or mental effort in order to complete a goal or set aim. (Psychology Dictionary.org)

This is a key element in a Goal Driven Business.

You first need to define your goals – and they must be practical as well as meaningful. But you also need the drive to achieve them. Without the drive, the motivation to get to where you want to go, you are just a poser in the business world.

(Case #345) The doctor and I had discussed a plan to motivate his team and increase production. This was many years ago. Over lunch, we had a team meeting to announce the plan to his other two doctors and about 10 support staff. He announced that if certain goals were met over the next 7 months, everyone could get a trip to Hawaii.

Everyone was shocked. Including me! The doctor and I had discussed a two-month plan for rewards based upon a modest performance improvement – but not Hawaii and not the increase in production he wanted. He came up with this on the spot during our meeting.

But that afternoon, amazingly, the phones lit up. People were calling in for appointments. (Never mind that this was an example of Innate or Quantum Entanglement!) As I recall, they had their best month ever. But unfortunately, they soon realized that the goals were unrealistic, they had little support to achieve them, and the doctor saw that he couldn’t afford it even if they did reach their goals. The practice subsequently went into a long-term slump.

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

What is the lesson? Well, there are a few of them, but I want to focus on motivation.

While it may seem like people become motivated because of the “carrot,” or the reward, there are deeper reasons – or principles.

Edward Deci, along with others, put forth a new framework for motivation called Self-Determination Theory. Essentially, it states that we are all driven by intrinsic goals as part of our fundamental nature. Our reward comes from the satisfaction we feel from the achievement more than from any external prize.

These are the three intrinsic goals we all share:

AUTONOMY. We all want to play in our own sandbox! We need to feel in control of our own corner of the world. Just like we don’t like insurance companies intruding into our clinical decisions, staff does not like being micromanaged.

COMPETENCE. We all want to be superheroes! Deep down, the prospect of becoming more skilled, more masterful, and better able to be in control of our environment is a drive we all have.

CONNECTION. We all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. This manifests in two ways: a) being part of and working with a supportive group or team, and b) working to help bring about something more significant than our paycheck or the accomplishment of our everyday tasks.

The office staff was excited to go to Hawaii, but this was not necessarily because they could lie in the sun. It was because it was a huge goal that gave them a very large sandbox to play in – together – to work for a very large result.

Self-Determination Theory is why games work. In Kevin Werbach book, For the Win, he discusses the subject of Gamification.

“For thousands of years, we’ve created things called games that tap the tremendous psychic power of fun. A well-designed game is a guided missile to the motivational heart of the human psyche. …monetary rewards aren’t even necessary because the game itself is the reward.”

Whether it is a sporting event, video game, or Sheepshead (a popular game of old-time Wisconsinites, so I’ve heard), we love our games. And I think we need them.

But it all goes back to the principles of Self-Determination Theory.

Remember when you started your business? The challenge that lay ahead? The new business card that identified you as the hero to conquer new plateaus?

Those drives are still there and can be rekindled, regardless of prior disappointments.

As Soon as You Make a Goal—You Have Created the Potential for a Game.

Win or lose, IF the principles of Self-Determination Theory are in place, you will be motivated and so will those with whom you work.

Apply these principles to yourself and your team – for the game, for the fun, and for the win!

Seize the Future,

Ed

For more information on how to apply self-Determination Theory, games, and motivating yourself and your team, please purchase the book,
The Goal Driven Business. [Link to sell page]

 

Everything Else: Why The Goal Driven Practice is More Profitable and More Fun

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What gets in the way of you growing your business?

What holds you back from your growth? From increased services and profits?

What keeps you from providing better services and improving your marketing results?

The government? Your childhood? Your neighbor’s cat?

One thing that is NOT holding you back is chiropractic or whatever services and skills you provide.

It is everything else.

When you are first growing your business, and let’s say you are barely at 40% of your full capacity, your practice may be performing well. You may have an assistant, but for the most part, you can see patients and generally oversee the operation of your practice. Life is good, and the future is … wide open.

But almost imperceptibly, as you start seeing more and more patients, the tide of administrative demands starts rising.

Eventually, you can look around your desk and see “undones” and “half-dones” and a hundred or so “to-dos” littering your office, smartphone, computer, and brain. You try to keep up, but there seems to be just too much to do.

So, what do you do? There seems to be only one solution – you settle. You settle into a comfort zone just to a point where you can earn enough to pay your bills.

Growth becomes a trap, and after many attempts to reach your goals, you finally settle.

Is there a way out?

Yes. But it has been hidden. And booby-trapped.

But you should know, after years of observation and analysis, what is holding you back is not your lack of effort. It is not chiropractic or your professional services.

The fact is, you can’t really get to where you want to go from where you are now. You can’t get there from here.

You need to make some major Big Shifts. 

To get to your goals, you have to start from a different place and build a newer version of your business. This is your next stage. Stage One is survival and entrepreneurial growth. It is a Personality practice.

Your next version is a fast, more advanced business that will take you to your goals and beyond.

The new version is called a Goal Driven Practice.

To achieve this requires making some significant changes or Big Shifts.

MANAGER OR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT (BIG SHIFT #7)

One of the solutions to breaking out of the trap and moving closer to your goals is assigning someone on your team to help you with…Everything Else.

This could be a manager or an administrative assistant. In either case, the role would probably only require 5-8 hours per week – at least at first.

One of their goals would be to remove everything from your desk, all your to-dos, all administrative traffic, sort it for you, and then work out with you what should be done with each item.

You would delegate, delay or dump each item.

This would help free you to increase your services as a doctor and give you time to expand the business as the CEO.

You can produce $500 to $1000 in services per hour as a provider if you are unfettered. As the CEO, you can direct your business to produce much more than this per hour. So, why are you spending time drowning in trying to do $20 or even $30 an hour jobs?

Everything Else gums up the works. It slows you down, confuses the staff, and the patients feel the confusion and notice the neglect, however slight.

This is why I came up with the Goal Driven System. It unmucks the gears of your business so that you can freely provide services and not be haunted by the looming demands of hundreds of to-dos.

This is covered in the book, The Goal Driven Business. If you can do this, you will be more productive and have more fun.

This is so valuable that I will be scheduling upcoming Zoominars on this subject for you and your manager. And stay tuned for upcoming programs on manager training, and training and even coaching on the Goal Driven System.

And just, just for fun, (I am smiling) don’t miss this future article:

The 2 Management Consultants from Petaluma California.

Seize the future

Ed

For more information on The Goal Driven System visit Goal Driven

The Goal Driven Front Desk

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A dynamic front desk can increase your visits by 20%, maybe more if you have the room. On the other hand, a dysfunctional front desk can constrict the flow of patients and hold your office back.
I have seen instances of both.
There is much more going on and at stake at the front desk than most doctors and staff appreciate.
Ordinarily, you would think that the billing department is the most demanding. There are hundreds of details that need to be learned and followed with excellent discipline. This position requires professionalism and expertise.
But this function is not on the front lines of the constant patient, phone, and doctor interactions and interruptions. Managing patient accounts can be regulated and organized to maintain a calm and comfortable workflow.
Therapy and adjunctive services are often undervalued, but the patient flow is usually smooth, and they are not faced with unexpected patients or phone calls.
It is interesting to note that the front desk has the highest turnover in most offices.
But properly set up and managed, this department can be an engine of growth and stability in your office.
Let’s look at some of the more important attributes of the front desk:
  1. It represents you and your services. It is your ambassador to the world outside your office. The front desk reflects what you stand for and the quality of your services.
  2. It is the first and the last contact – and impression –with anyone in the office.
  3. It can convert inquiries to new patient appointments.
  4. Rapport and relationships. The front desk can provide world-class service to patients, improving patient retention, reviews, and referrals. (The 5 Rs)
  5. Direct marketing. The front desk can directly promote clinic services to patients, hand out coupons, and promote upcoming events to generate patient referrals.
  6. Team member support. The front desk can support the insurance department and all team members to create a positive, upbeat day every day.
  7. Case Management. The front desk can contribute to case management by relaying any comments or observations relative to the patient’s care to the doctors.
  8. Fully Scheduled Day. The front desk fills the appointment book and keeps it full.
Let’s imagine an ideal front desk and put it at a “5” on a 5 Point Scale.

 

5. GOAL DRIVEN FRONT DESK. The appointment book is full. The front desk staff are cheerful, having fun doing their jobs, and genuinely interested in every patient and phone inquiry. They sincerely care for each patient and non-patient. They have a strong intent on helping patients complete their programs by keeping their appointments. They personally and professionally want to achieve the mission of the office and encourage patients to help them accomplish this mission by bringing in family and friends. They also help the rest of the office achieve the office’s mission. They are sending out positive “vibrations” to help more people. They are proactive and Goal Driven.

 

Below this level, we find the front desk that is struggling.

 

2.5 A COPING FRONT DESK– The appointment book is 50-70% full. The front desk is trying, but it is not keeping up, which creates a bottleneck to patient flow. (Subluxated) Even though the staff wants a full appointment book, subconsciously, they don’t want any more work until they catch up.

 

2. A SLOW FRONT DESK. The front desk operates at a “comfortable” 40-50% capacity. The staff is pacing themselves, keeping up with computer tasks, insurance, and following the scripts for phone and patient encounters. However, they are mostly disengaged from the front desk and office goals.

 

1-2. GIVEN UP and BORED. I only describe this because I have seen this condition. The staff is ignored or badgered. In either case, they feel relegated to a 4th class employee. They hide out and pretend to work, essentially having quit and just waiting until something better comes along.

 

You can create a Goal Driven Front Desk. It is not achieved overnight, but once it is established, you’ll be close to a dream practice and a Goal Driven Business. We will cover some tips on how to create a Goal Driven Front Desk in another newsletter.

 

In the meantime, stay Goal Driven,

 

Ed
“Your brain sends out vibrations all the time, and your thoughts affect your life and other people’s. They pick up these thoughts and get changed by them.”
– Bruce Lipton (Biology of Belief)

How to Create a Full Appointment Book with Goal Driven Marketing

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busy desk, planning calendar

Happy Valentines Month!

This article is about sharing the love… the love of your services and how they can help people.

And what is the best way to do this? Create a Goal Driven Business.

A Goal Driven Business runs at FULL CAPACITY, or close to it.

That means no more room in the appointment book. It can mean that there is a waiting list to get in to be seen. But how is this achieved?

In a practice, it is a combination of excellent service and clinical results, inspired leadership, sound management, personal integrity, and … marketing.

Let’s take a took at marketing first. What is marketing?

It is a method of helping people get what they innately want through communication. Marketing communication, either through one-to-one contact or through media, communicates and educates in such a way as to point to what an individual wants. It also can inspire them to get it.

Goal Driven marketing is helping people get to their goals!

People want to be free of pain and discomfort, but they do not know about your services or how your services can achieve this. And if they do, they may not trust that you can do it for them.

Every marketing approach you have must help those people who have a particular need or want to find you, and discover how your services can help them, and why they should trust you. This can be accomplished through patient referral programs or events, setting up external alliances, direct response ads in social media, radio, through one-to-one external relationship building, speaking events – all these and more point to how you can help people and that you can be trusted.

Testimonials and reviews top the list, but so do articles, newsletters, and support from opinion leaders. These are all outward types of marketing communications.

What would someone who knows what you know about your services do if they had pains, or lacked mobility, wanted to improve their immune system, and just be healthier? They’d drop by and see you for an adjustment or for some kind of a treatment from your office.

Not everyone wants what you have to offer, and even fewer want it bad enough to do something about it. But there are more than enough people who are looking, right now, to act who could keep your office full – if they just knew about what you could do for them.

Many times, I have heard chiropractors amazed at comments from patients who say, “Headaches? I didn’t know you could help with … headaches!” And the doctor just assumed everyone knew that they fixed headaches!

Don’t assume anything. It is a noisy world, and you and what you do is drowned in the snow storm of competitive messages and personal activities.

You must be industrious in getting your message out. You have to be continuous. And this is where most doctors fail in their marketing.

Marketing fails because it is not systematized,
organized, continuous, and managed.

A Goal Driven Business focuses its marketing three echelons of activity.

  1. Marketing Procedures. Obviously, the different types of marketing communication and marketing procedures need to occur. This is the most evident (and fun) level of marketing – marketing procedures.
  2. Marketing Motivation. But even if you have bookshelves of marketing binders and libraries of marketing books, they will do nothing unless you and your team are motivated to use them. So, this is the second level of marketing.
  3. Marketing Management. The third, and I believe the most essential level of marketing activities, is marketing management.

Your front desk is organized and routine. Your billing is systematized and well managed — or should be. So is your therapy area and your new patient procedures. But in most offices, marketing is not organized! It is hit and miss, now and then. When numbers are down, “Hey, let’s do some marketing.” When numbers are up, we all get “too busy,” and it is neglected.

Most practice marketing is reactive and symptomatic. This causes the PRACTICE ROLLER COASTER.

There are simple methods to effectively manage your marketing systems to help create a full appointment book which we can cover in another newsletter.
But keep in mind two important points in marketing:

  1. Help People Get to Their Goals and Obtain What They Want. You are helping people who already have a perceived need and want to purchase what they are looking for. You simply must help them find it in what you offer and convince them that you are worthy of their trust.
  2. Manage Your Marketing Procedures and Keep them Running. Stay motivated, find the procedures that work best for you, but organize your marketing procedures so that they continue. This will help you avoid the Practice Roller Coaster.

To find out more about how to create a Goal Driven Business and create a full appointment book, buy and read the book the Goal Driven Business. Read about it here.

Happy Valentines Month! Spread the Love!

Ed

 

The Cobbler’s Wife Has No Shoes

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bare feet in the snow

The Cobbler’s Wife Has No Shoes

And Your Team Members Have No Personal Health Programs

You have heard the old expression, “The cobbler’s wife has no shoes.” Sometimes it is also said: “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.” Either way, the message is that the shoemaker, or cobbler, is often too busy with his work to spend any time making shoes for his wife and children.

The same can apply to your support team when it does not receive the health services you provide your patients.

Too frequently, I have seen employees not given a personal health program that is supervised by the doctors for whom they work and support. While this is an oversight, I feel it is also negligent. And it can be expensive.

Staff who are ill need to take time off to get well. I have heard about this more in the last year with the COVID protocols of quarantining. Employee absences can impair the quality and quantity of daily services to patients and clients. It can also create backlogs and add extra stress to the employees who try to cover for those who are ill.

There are no 100% solutions to prevent employee illness, of course. But perhaps there is more you could be doing. To start, ensure that each team member regularly receives the same services you also provide to your patients.

Then, I have seen many reports that say keeping Vitamin D levels up minimizes the risk of viral infections. Why not get your staff’s vitamin D levels checked if you haven’t already? It is easy to do and inexpensive. I list a source for testing vitamin D that I have used at the end of this article. (1)

Beyond Vitamin D, there are other supplements that can be taken to bolster defenses in winter against viral infections. The FLCCC (Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance) has a list of supplements they recommend. You can find a link to them at the end of the article.

And speaking of the FLCCC, if you have not been following them, I recommend you do. (Link at the end of the article.)(3) They are a group of medical doctors and other medical professionals that have spoken out on and advocated for other remedies for COVID other than vaccinations. Pierre Kory, who is the President of the FLCCC, once taught at the University of Wisconsin Medical School and worked at St. Luke’s Hospital here in Milwaukee. (4) (He recently spoke at a rally in D.C. this past Sunday. Link to see a clip of his speech at the end of this article.)

But back to your staff and their health.

We all get busy. I get it. Front and center are the urgent and important matters of our practice which we must deal with directly. But some matters are very important that do not seem urgent. For example, taking care of the health of our staff and ourselves is important, but because it does not seem urgent, it often gets put on the back burner.

Working ON the business is important even though it may not be urgent. And working on the business includes working to improve the health and education of your team members that support you and the patients.

So, keep this in mind: for fewer sick days, fewer quarantines (!?!), and fewer service interruptions, see that each team member is seen regularly by you or by one of the doctors at your practice, and ensure that they are on a health program. And help them follow it. This is no guarantee of less sick days, but it can certainly help.

Having a mission to help people become healthier and relieved of pain is a noble goal. But remember that it applies not only to your patients but to your support team, your family, and yourself as well.

In all ways, try to stay true to your goals!

Goal Driven — Faster to a Better Future!

Carpe Posterum (Seize the future.)

Ed

Get the book The Goal Driven Business and apply it. It will help you achieve your goals including better service, more profit, and…more freedom. Be a Health Rebel and grow your practice. Fight Back! The Goal Driven Business

(1) Vitamin D testing
(2) List of supplements recommended by the FLCCC
(3) FLCCC
(4) Pierre Kory, MD, speaking at a rally at Washington DC, Sunday, Jan 23. (Here he is talking last Sunday at a rally in Washington D.C. (Another link to the same clip.)

Whose Goals: Yours or Theirs?

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goals-2022 nurturing your goals to growth

At the beginning of each New Year, it is customary to reflect on the past and look at and set new goals for the New Year.

This can help you have a happier and more prosperous New Year.

Life can get messy and confusing, and like a rookie quarterback facing many onrushing tacklers, even frightening. The solution is to have planned goals already established that you can confidently move forward towards regardless of the circumstances you face.

Here is a vital tip about goals that is often overlooked:

GOALS NEED REGULAR NOURISHMENT.

Weekly, even daily, a fast reflection on where you are going and WHY helps focus and energize your drive towards them. Once established, you need to take time aside weekly, and more so on a monthly and quarterly basis, to rekindle them and mark your progress towards their achievement. Make adjustments and course corrections as needed.

Do this as a scheduled and determined ritual!

Share them as well. There is nothing better than sharing agreed-upon goals with others and working together to make things better. Work with your patients, your team, and your family to achieve shared goals.

And do this or else!

There are good consequences in doing this and not good consequences if omitted. Other powerful interests have different goals for you and your patients. So does plain old inertia.

In this New Year, stay true to your goals, nourish them, and help others do the same.

Ed

For more information on how to do this, please read my book, the Goal Driven Business.

Also, stay tuned for a new training program we will be offering on the Goal Driven System. It will be limited to just 10 offices and last for 6 months. Its goal is to train the business owner and manager/senior staff member on the Goal Driven System to transform their practice into a Goal Driven Business. What is a Goal Driven Business?