Tag Archives: patients

Your Patient’s New Year’s Goals

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Your patients’ goals are why we are here.

They are why your staff came to work today and why you went to your last licensing seminar.

Your patients’ goals are why you have a practice and are in business.

So, what are your patient’s goals? What do they want?

On the surface, it is usually to relieve discomfort or pain.

So, like you do, after your initial consult, exam, and imaging, you tell them the cause of their pain and present your treatment program. They nod in agreement, and you begin care.

But when the patient sees the staff member to work out their finances and scheduling, they may have a glazed look and not be too sure what you just told them. Something-something about submarines, or joints, or spondy low dices.

The next week you wonder where they are. Your front desk does recalls. You spend money on more marketing to get more new patients.

You may have experienced a version of this in the past.

And at home, the patient may even feel that they got what they wanted or thought that they wanted. Maybe they feel better. But did they really get what they wanted?

There is a quote questionably attributed to Henry Ford: “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!'”

I get the point. But what people wanted, though they did know about a Model-T, was to travel faster with less horse poop.

You know that four adjustments, in most cases, won’t provide the health solution that the patient needs. But your patients don’t know what you know!

Was that why they didn’t come back for another visit, because you didn’t educate them enough? No.

Was it that you did not motivate them enough? No.

An excellent book on sales that I recommend is by Harry Browne, The Secret of Selling Anything. Brown points out that people are already motivated. 

You don’t have to motivate your prospective patient when you initially see them. You just need to discover what is already motivating them.

This takes place in your initial consultation and history, which I feel is the most crucial part of the new patient onboarding process.

Brown offers these three steps.

  1. Discover. Discover through intense listening what they want. For example:
  • What do you consider most important for you about your health?
  • What do you think is the biggest problem regarding your health?

These questions, and others, open the door to understanding what the other person wants. And if they know you understand them and are authentically interested, they will be more inclined to listen to you and trust you.

  1. Summarize. The second step is to summarize what the patient said about what they want. This brings out what they said on the table so that you both can agree. For example:
  • So, as I understand it, you are looking to get rid of the pain, not for just a week, but altogether so that you can get back to playing polo with your grandkids, correct?

Now you both can agree on what they want.

  1. Solve the problem. The third step is educating them on what you have found after your exam and imaging. But you direct the education to exactly what they especially want. Now they are interested because you are addressing the motivation that they already had.

This is a simple procedure that is genuine and caring. Not always easy to find these days, so you will stand out from others by using this method.

I would even spend time now and then rehearsing this. Even the pro’s practice.

Brown is not the only person who has offered this procedure as it is so fundamental. But we can never be reminded of the basics enough. He also said:

…the secret of success is:

 Find out what people want and help them to get it.

Help your patients achieve their goals in 2023, and they will help you achieve yours.

Seize 2023!

Ed

Reactivation: Fast, easy, and healthful promotion.

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This promotion has rarely failed. It is simple, fast, and not gimmicky. It is aimed at patients who have not been in for a while.

Patients drift off, and life gets in the way, but your patients still know you, like you, and trust you. And, like all of us, they could now use a nudge to improve their health.

So why not send them a personal letter? In your own words, tell them to get their rear back in here so they can stay in the best of health for the winter months.

Special promotions work best if they are linked to a genuine cause. In this case, the cause is National Chiropractic Month and also the fact that you have a sincere desire to ensure that people you have seen in the past continue to do well.

Special promotions also have an offer. It could be a free service or a discounted service, or the fact that your payment will serve as a donation to a worthy charity. It could also just be special Halloween organic pumpkin cupcakes from your local bakery (give the business a plug for a discount!) when they come in.

Make the offer for the entire month of October, or perhaps just for the last week.

Headline the letter with something like

It’s Chiropractic Checkup Time

October is National Chiropractic Month

You can then, for example, use your own words to say:

Our records indicate that you may not have been in to see us for a while. If that is the case, I’d (for multiple doctors – we’d) love to see you and like to offer you…[your offer.]

Remember, postural and spinal problems are often present long before any pain occurs. Therefore, getting a periodic chiropractic exam is good health insurance to ensure you remain healthy. Chiropractic is great for helping with back pain, headaches, arm and leg pain, and many other problems.

But even if you aren’t experiencing pain now, don’t wait until you have a problem. I sincerely believe the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

You can also encourage them to make appointments for their family and friends.

Even if you have all the patients you can handle, this is still a good reminder for those you have seen to stay healthy.

Because that is their goal as well as yours.

Seize the future,

Ed

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

Get New Patients By Just “Concepting” Them

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The stories exist.

It is not talked about much. Most offices don’t know about it, and those that do, often just take it for granted.

But we have seen it happen and it never fails to amaze.

One office I worked with had been doing badly with new patients and office visits. It was March and numbers had been declining since the previous summer. They had tried about everything – new marketing procedures, new staff, but nothing was working.   It was a three doctor office – all good chiropractors and the support team was great.  But everyone was exhausted at trying to increase the volume. They all looked haggard and disillusioned.

The senior doctor and I worked out an ambitious plan to solve the problem. We decided to hold a staff meeting to go over our ideas with everyone.  The meeting lasted about an hour and a half. Everyone brought their lunch and we talked.  We discussed items on the plan and followed an agenda the doctor and I had put together. At the end of the meeting, the mood of the office seemed to change.

Then, the phone starting ringing.

Literally, off of the hook. Existing and inactive patients starting calling in for appointments. I remember that the front desk team scheduled at least 4 new patients before I left that afternoon.  By the time I left, what had been a sullen office in the morning was now an exuberant and festive party of healing in the afternoon.

I am really not exaggerating. Looking over their numbers at the end of the month, the doctor and I noticed that they had their best month ever for office visits and new patients.

Their success was not due to a new marketing or management procedures.  It was because of something magical.

This magical thing – you too have it. You have probably even experienced it a few times. It is not always easy to acquire, but never the less, it is there. If you can grab it, harness it, it will help you towards your dreams.

Our webinar this Thursday, November 15 will cover 8 solid steps to uncovering your magic that can help you boom your office – and your life.

The power that made your practice is the power that can heal and grow your practice.

Learn how this Thursday.

Register Now