Tag Archives: practice development

The Chiropractor Versus the Chiropractic CEO

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There is a constant struggle in your office.

It is a battle between you as the doctor and you as the CEO.

As the CEO, you want to grow your business. You want it to be profitable, smooth running, and systematized.  You want it to be efficient and providing excellent service.

As the doctor, you want to focus on each patient and their unique treatment program. You really could care less about administrative concerns as these are usually just distractions to your patient care.

Who wins this war between the doctor and the executive manager?

Unfortunately, in most cases, no one.  Usually, the doctor’s duties blend in with the executive duties and the services get watered down and the growth of the office never reaches its full potential.

Without a doubt, the biggest dilemma in practice management is just this:

How can you be the best doctor you can be
and also run your office?
If you had the time (and perhaps the training, but that too just takes more time!) you could take your business to the next level.  But there just isn’t the time. You are too busy as it is.

This was the theme of Gerber’s book, the E-Myth, wasn’t it?

You know you should “systematize” your office procedures, but that still takes time. And maybe this systematizing stuff hasn’t worked all that well for you.

It comes down to roles: how can you be a compassionate and dedicated doctor while at the same time being the CEO of a growing small business?

This Thursday, October 18, 12:30 pm Central to 1:20, we will show you how –

Learn how you can, in 5 hours or less each month:

*  Drive your business to the next level
*  Improve communication with team members
*  Help each staff member be more goal oriented
*  Help create a stronger team that is more goal oriented
*  Have more fun in practice
*  Achieve more of your clinic goals

As the doctor, you are taught patient management procedures. You need them and patients benefit from them.

But as a business owner, you also need practice management procedures. Done properly done, your business will benefit.

We will show you how to do it in just over 1 hour per week, on average.

You won’t find this anywhere else. (Hype alert.) This is a culmination of our Marketing Manager System (2001), 3 Goals Management System (2008), and three other management systems which we have incorporated into our consulting over the last 25 years.

Because we feel this process is so important for your practice, we are waiving the fee for this webinar.

That’s right, this is one is FREE. It should be three times the usual price but we want to get it out to you now and fast. We want to help you get a head start on 2013.

But you have to register, so go HERE to do so.

Best regards,
Ed

PS This webinar is for doctor owners only and the office manager or administrative/office coordinator.

 

5 Levels of Administrative Support in a Chiropractic Office

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Someone in your office needs to be responsible for the administrative duties that fall outside of the usual functions in a chiropractic office of:

  • Front Desk
  • Patient Accounts
  • Hallway/Therapy.

This someone is usually the chiropractor – at least at first. But as the practice grows there is more administrative work to do. The doctor can do it, of course, but he or she should be spending time on adjusting patients and building the office.

The smart doctor knows this rule:

Do what you do best,     
And delegate all the rest.

Some offices have a chiropractic assistant that is called an “office manager.” The role of the office manager is often vague and the duties are varied.  Usually the “office manager” has had very little, if any, management training.

The growth of the business will eventually stall because of this.

Most chiropractic team members are bright and industrious and whoever is assigned the role of office manager usually does her best for the office. Unfortunately, this is not enough in most cases for the office to achieve its capacity and goals.

In 2013 we will be launching a number of new office manager training programs to help doctors and office managers achieve their full potential.

In the meantime, the chart below may help clarify the general range of duties of an office manager. It lists an approximate hierarchy of responsibility for someone delegated by the doctor to perform administrative functions.

A staff member who has another job in the office, for example, front desk, may take on a part time role of Administrative Assistant. As the office grows, she could take on more responsibilities as the Administrative Coordinator, and then finally as an Office Manager. She may have to delegate some of her front desk duties to give time for the extra admin work she now has.

The titles below are intended to demonstrate that there are different levels of administrative responsibility and are not exact.  Your office might just need an admin assistant.

However all doctors need to delegate their management and administrative duties and more offices than not, suffer for lack of well trained and effective office managers.

5 Levels of Administrative Support

Administer = from Latin administrare, from ad- + ministrare to serve, from minister, servant

5. Practice Manager – Similar to a general manager. This role is for a larger office with 15 or more staff.

4. Office Manager –  About 5 hours per week or more, but takes on a majority of the administrative duties and some of the management functions. Supports the staff and the doctor to give better service. Is accountable for office growth and performance.

3. Office Coordinator – Works 5 hours a week on administration. Helps the doctor with management duties, including human resources (hiring, training, etc.), marketing, coordinates with the staff on training, marketing, and other special projects.

2. Administrative Coordinator – Works about 3-5 hours a week on administration. Clerical duties, some important. Helps the doctor with management duties, including human resources, marketing, etc.

1. Administrative Assistant – Works about 3 hours a week on administration. Mostly clerical duties.

He Fired the Office Manager

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A few months ago a chiropractic office manager called me. She said that her doctor had fired her.

Her primary role had been that of Billing and Collections Coordinator, but she was also the office manager part time.  I had worked with the office for a few months and knew the doctor and Dorothy (not necessarily her real name.) I had gone over the role of the Office Manager with her and the doctor. They both felt that they understood the situation and would let me know if they ever needed any help. I was pretty certain they didn’t know what their roles were, or how to execute them, but their minds were made up.

Months went by and then late one Monday morning I got a call from Dorothy. She told me she had been fired. I asked her why? (Knowing her and the doctor, I had a pretty good idea.)  She told me that the number of new patients had been dropping for some months and that the doctor was not happy about this.

She said that she couldn’t believe it. “He fired me for that? I am not even in charge of new patients?” She was upset and went on about how new patients weren’t her responsibility.

What do you think?  Was she right? Or, was the doctor right?

Let’s look at this: the doctor is ultimately in charge of marketing. As the Chief Executive Officer for the business, marketing is a key component of his or her job. But since he is also so busy as a doctor, he needs to delegate most of the marketing activities. But to whom?

  1. First, to all of the staff. It is each team member’s responsibility to “sell health.”
  2. Then, a staff member could help coordinate all the marketing activities as a Marketing Coordinator or Marketing Manager.
  3. You might also delegate different marketing activities to different staff: someone for external events and screenings, someone for the internet, etc.

But behind it all, is the Office Manager’s role to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Actually, no one should have been fired. Instead, they all should have been trained on marketing and especially on MARKETING MANAGEMENT.

This is one of the reasons for our monthly webinars.  We just completed a very informative webinar on the key duties of the office manager (now posted on our members site) which can help clarify the role of the office manager.

The purpose of business is to create a customer, patient, and practice member. I didn’t say that. Peter Drucker did. You should know about Peter Drucker as he is the granddaddy of all management consultants.

“Because it is the purpose to create a customer, any business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation. These are the entrepreneurial functions. Marketing is the distinguishing, the unique function of the business.”  Peter Drucker

Doctor, you are busy.  Your #1 focus should be on quality patient care. But as the CEO of your business, you HAVE to drive the marketing. To do this effectively,  you can and should delegate the marketing activities to others. The office manager is responsible for making sure all office activities are being done effectively, and this of course, includes marketing.

Whatever your office mission states, it has to include the concept of marketing.  It is your job, and everyone’s job, to tell the chiropractic story – and to communicate the value of your services in such a way and often enough that thousands of people come in to get better.

Don’t get fired. Get fired up!

Improving Team Performance and Developing Community Services for a Chiropractic Office

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This month we cover a couple of import topics, both of which can bring you more income if managed correctly: Chiropractic Staff Performance and Community Relations Marketing.

TEAM PERFORMANCE

How well does your staff perform their duties?

Studies show that there are 3 primary methods to improve performance:

  • Deliberate Practice
  • Expert Coaching
  • Family and social support.

Natural talent is a factor, but is never enough by itself and is often overrated.

So, how well does each member of your team perform?  Are they experts? Are they ready to teach their own seminars?

And how about your how team? How well do all of you work as a team? Will they go to the Super Bowl or World Series this year?

Your office responds to training like any athletic team or musical group. If the scoreboard shows that the numbers aren’t where they should be, then individual performance or team performance is a likely reason why.

What is the fast and economical solution? Training. Coaching.  This is something you and your office manager, and each team member can learn.

Team training is not done by just one person; it is done by the team. One member helps the other member, and back and forth until both improve.

Our webinar this week covers just this topic.

 10 Tips on How to Be An Effective Team Trainer

Tools and Tips for Fast Team Training That Pay Off

Thursday, March 8th, 12:30 CT

Don’t miss it. Excellent for Clinic Owners (CEO’s) and Office Managers.

 ===============

 COMMUNITY SERVICES: External Marketing

We all live in caves.

We live in a cave house. Then we get into our cave car and drive to our cave office and stay in our cave rooms.

Meanwhile, there is a whole world out there with thousands of people that need your care, but don’t know it.  And the main thing you have to do is to just … SHOW UP and do something.

What’s so hard about that?

You all have done screenings and you all have done some kind of external events: workshops, school presentations, visiting medical offices. The hard part is not the presentation. The most difficult (and it is not difficult) is getting these events scheduled.

Ideally, you should have your community services calendar scheduled with a few external events of one kind or another every month.

This is the subject of our next marketing webinar.

 Scheduling Effective External Events and Generating External Referrals

Learn how to schedule effective events in this short webinar.

Thursday, March 15th, 12:30 Central Time.

 

How to Register

For guests, you may register for all  of these webinars, plus full access to our extensive practice building library for one low introductory fee of $250/mo for all classes.

Guest Registration Form

For all active PMA clients register immediately for these classes at: Active Client Registration.  (Register for each webinar separately. You will automatically receive your special log-in access number where you can participate via computer, or by telephone only.)

If you’d like more information visit our website HERE, or contact Linda via email at Linda@pmaworks.com, or call her at: 888-762-8808

You can also download a calendar for upcoming webinars: LINK

Chiropractic Promotions for the New Year

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Seems like every office we talk to or visit these days is busy – crazy busy – with patients and computers and Christmas.

But the New Year is approaching – fast. 2012 only has 12 months and the first one starts in just about two weeks. And then, before you know it, it’s February and you are wondering what you should be doing for marketing and getting the word out about your services.

 

So as not to be left behind, you should begin the New Year with a strong marketing strategy.

 

Below are some fast tips to help get you started:

 

But first… PROJECT X-3. We are finishing adding the final components into our new 2012 program, temporarily called the Project X-3. This is just the working title and we will be announcing the new program soon with all the details. It is designed to help lift you and your practice onto and into a whole new level of prosperity and fulfillment in the New Year.

 

**Schedule Patients Now. Health Never Takes a Holiday. Poster. If you are active with PM&A, you can also find a customizable version on our Members site, along with other promotions under “monthly promotions.”

 

**External Referral Sources and Event Locations. Make a list of every location where you participated in a promotional type of event. Include any business or professional that sent you a referral or helped you in some way. Then, make sure you send each a card or a gift, or just stop by and wish them well and that you look forward to continued relationship with them in the New Year.

 

**Marketing Meeting. Schedule a thorough marketing meeting soon, maybe right after Christmas. Spend a couple of hours making a list of what has worked and what you want to do and then schedule these things over the next several months. One example we recommend is:

 

**Be an Authority and Educate. People want health care information.  This is proven by the fact that 80% of Internet users search for health information on line, according to PEW Research.  8 out of every 10 people at some time are looking for health information when they go to the Internet. That is significant.

…2 ways to do this is to schedule workshops and health “awareness weeks” for the New Year. People want to know the latest. This gives you an opportunity to teach. Yes, you do have to do your homework and it takes time. But it is time well spent because as you study and prepare, you will find that you will become motivated about your subject. Besides, at least 1/3 of your presentation can be your spinal care class, so this saves you time. These types of community education programs or services not only help you generate direct new patients, but give you an excuse to promote your office and services. Sample Poster Clients can find many more customizable posters and fliers on the Members site under: Marketing Materials/ Community Education.

You can find more ideas about upcoming promotions to start your New Year here. Link

 

Best wishes for a high volume 2012!

 

Ed

Making a Chiropractic Patient Community

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Is it just YOUR office?

Or does it also belong to your patients?

One office we have the privilege of working with has been smashing its past records – month after month. We plot their growth on charts and nearly every month have to adjust them to keep the lines on the chart. And it has been in business for over 20 years.

Why? Well, there are a number of reasons, really.

But a key factor is that it has created a patient community. That is, it has created a systematized business where all the patients still feel that they are part of the clinic’s “family.”

They have created an environment where patients feel they belong, that the clinic is also THEIR clinic.

The principle behind this, and why it works to generate more patient volume, is that everyone wants to have friends and belong to like-minded groups. Facebook, for example, and the rise of social networking is simply a new twist to a basic impulse we all have for belonging and fellowship.

So from a practical marketing point of view, the more you include your patients as part of your chiropractic “family”, the more apt they will be to stay, pay, and refer.

For example, we have done our share of patient focus groups. Focus groups are informal discussions with 7 or so patients where we ask them about their likes, dislikes and general opinions of clinic activities. We’ve been able to learn things from the patients that we might not otherwise have known.

But what we also learned and hadn’t anticipated was that those attending suddenly started to be more active in the office. They kept their appointments and they started to refer more of their family and friends.

OK, so back to our client’s office: Each year, they give away t-shirts with the clinic name. The only requirement is that the patient has to wear the shirt at the local county fair.

This year, they sponsored a “T-Shirt Contest.” The contest was to help the office come up with a slogan for the back of the T-shirt.  The winning slogan would receive a 6 day pass to the fair.

The suggestions are…hilarious.  Some are good, some are fun, and some are just plain silly.  But.. the point is, many patients are eager to contribute.  (Some of the suggestions are below.)

 

It is no wonder, by the way, that this office which has been in business for over 20 years in small town, has been breaking its all time records for production month after month. (SHOUT OUT: Congratulations to Team Bartz Chiropractic!)

The lesson to be learned here is that it pays to empower your patients and make them feel like it is their office too.  Here are some ideas:

FRIENDLY CHATTING. Yea, I know doctors and staff aren’t supposed to spend much time socializing with the patients. I have heard that some consultants tell doctors to forbid staff to talk to patients other than talking “TIC” (chiropractic), doing a two handed hand-shake,  and mentioning the patient’s name 14 times at each visit.  Well, that is just silly.

A practice is a relationship and like any relationship, it simply has to be genuine. Be genuinely interested in your patients, like any friend.  All else can then follow.

NEWSLETTERS. A real newsletter just continues this chatting – between friends.  It can be both email and hard copy, and should include a column from the doctor. This continues your conversation with the patients.

Include survey results and patient successes and news about staff, doctor, etc. Keep it a “non professional” bulletin about your chiropractic patient community. Nothing glossy from some big company New York City. Keep it just short of being gossipy – but with pictures.

SUGGESTIONS FROM YOUR PATIENTS ABOUT UPCOMING EVENTS. The t-shirt slogans are a perfect example, but you can also survey patients about what color to paint the wall or color for the new carpet.

TESTIMONIALS FROM PATIENTS. These are another way patients can contribute to your purpose of helping more people to find better health, naturally.  It can be their purpose too.

FOCUS GROUPS. Get 7 or so of your patients, old and new, together for a luncheon and ask them survey questions about the office, promotions, advertisements, your services, etc. Best done by someone other than the doctor.  Mention the results in your newsletter.

# # #

Some examples:

T-SHIRT CONTEST ENTRIES FOR A CHIROPRACTIC OFFICE SLOGAN FOR THE  COUNTY FAIR

To be healthy and feeling fine, keep your spine in line at Bartz Chiropractic

Get your back in tact Jack….John…..Sue…. Larry at Bartz Chiropractic

You don’t even want to KNOW how bent outta shape I USED to be!

Back your Future with Chiropractic Care  (flaming tire tracks picture)

Make Your Day!  Help is on the way at Bartz Chiropractic

Get ACTIVATED at Bartz Chiropractic so you can spend the week at the Fair

Get a BOATLOAD of relief at Bartz Chiropractic (life jacket picture)

Got Pain? Be FAIR to yourself, see Dr Bartz!

I only have one spine, so I keep it in line at Bartz Chiropractic

IT NO LONGER SMARTS, WHEN YOU SEE DR. BARTZ!!

(Front)  Are you living with a pain in the neck??  (back) Dr Bartz CAN HELP!  Bartz Chiropractic Elkhorn, WI

It’s FAIR to say Dr Bartz Keeps me Healthy EVERY Day!

NO PAIN…………MUCH GAIN!!!!

Changing lives….One Adjustment at a Time!

Happy Bones = Healthy Life!

Don’t Slack…..Fix your BACK

Bartz Chiropractic, your adjustment Junction!

Less yacking, more Cracking!!

A HEALTHY SPINE WILL MAKE YOU SHINE!

BE WELL-ADJUSTED, BE HAPPY, BARTZ CHIROPRACTIC

MOOO’VON OVER TO BETTER HEALTH AT BARTZ CHIROPRACTIC (COW PICTURE OVER THE moooo)

A lifelong journey of health starts with CHIROPRACTIC

Put your life BACK IN LINE with Bartz Chiropractic Care

Walk STRAIGHT to the FAIR

Dr Bartz will CRACK you up!!

Dr Bartz is a “god” Chiropractor

Back aligned, feeling fine!!

The 6th Fear

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Chiropractors:  I think it might be time for a pep talk…

Have you been keeping up with the news lately? It’s hard not to.

Egypt, Tunisia, and now Libya recently had swift moving revolutions that resulted in regime change – all in the last few months. And other Middle East countries are also rumbling with protests.

Meanwhile, back in the States, our federal government doesn’t seem to have enough money and our representatives are threatening with a government “shutdown.” And next door here, in the Middle West, Wisconsin, there are thousands of people protesting around our state capital.

That’s a LOT of commotion!

So, how’re your patients doing with all of this? Are they worried? Is their pay getting cut? Are they loosing their jobs? Do they have jobs?

And how about you? Are you staying up watching the news, reading about it, discussing it? Are you worried? How is your income?

We need to be accurately informed about current events, of course.  Unfortunately, we sometimes become so distracted that we can loose sight of what we are doing and let our businesses suffer.

A few years ago when the stock market plummeted, I received phone calls from doctors who were worried. One, who had been doing very well, was thinking about selling her office entirely. Another doctor who also had been doing well, let his practice numbers nose dive as he become mesmerized by the “news”, and was worried about racial riots and internment camps.

There is no doubt that economic conditions have been changing. But it has been our experience that if you constantly work on improving your services and in developing your business, and yourself, you will do just fine. (Good coaching helps too!)

BEST EVER
Last year, many of the offices we had the privilege work with had their best year ever. Most of them, in fact, had been in business for 15 to 25 years. I can think of 3 just off hand that have hit the “waiting list” category. They have reached near capacity with so many patients that they have to schedule new patients 1 week out. Horrible, I know, but very cool too.

DOING RIGHT
Success in this environment can be had. You can have it. You may have to change your past mode of operation, but you too can achieve it. It can be obtained by doing the right things, and doing those things right through a process of constant improvement. We call this the Practice Development Process.

BEING RIGHT
But to get what you want, you have to not only improve what you do, but improve who you are. You have to improve your outlook, your skills, and your personal habits. Success has much to do with how we view the world and what we put our attention on. As one old time doctor mentioned to me years ago, “success is an inside job.” By “inside”, he was referring to one’s thoughts and attitudes. He could talk: he and his doctors were seeing over 2,000 visits per week for years.

WORDS OF SUCCESS DURING TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES
We have been going through what has been called the Great Recession.  Many patients are worried about their jobs and their money.

Napoleon Hill wrote “Think and Grow Rich” in 1937 during the Great Depression as a result of studying and working with successful leaders, including President Roosevelt.  It continues to be a best seller, perhaps the most popular motivational book of all time. In it he says:

“It is true that all thought has a tendency to clothe itself in its physical equivalent. … “The people of America began to think of poverty following the Wall Street crash of 1929. Slowly but surely that mass thought was crystallized into its physical equivalent which was known as a depression.”

THE 6TH FEAR
The thought that creates this depression, according to Hill, is fear. Hill talked about 6 types of fears, the worst of which is the fear of poverty. The other 5 were criticism, ill health, loss of love of someone, old age, and death.

“The Fear of Poverty is without doubt the most destructive of the 6 basic Fears.“

Hill states that one of the symptoms of fear of poverty is procrastination.

DO IT NOW
So, this is a pep talk to encourage you that there has never been a better time to grow your practice and expand your business.

Your patients need your leadership to help them with their own fears so that they can become more productive. By improving their health and educating them on the chiropractic lifestyle, their chances of succeeding in their lives increases. You and your team help them, their families and the community. You make a difference.

So, do it now. Increase your promotion. Stream line your procedures. Work on team training and improve your service. Plan your expansion for this year.  Schedule a technique class. Read more. Work out more.  Get enlivened with your purpose as a chiropractor.

New office? New doctor? Why not? People need chiropractic care now more than ever. And chiropractic has never been more popular. Even the quarterback for the winning football team of the Super Bowl gets regular chiropractic adjustments. (Naturally, since his dad is a D.C.)

Work with a practice building coach and get in the game – to win!

As Napoleon Hill says:

“Do it now! can affect every phase of your life. It can help you do the things you should do but don’t feel like doing. It can keep you from procrastinating when an unpleasant duty faces you. But it can also help you do those things that you want to do. It helps you seize those precious moments that, if lost, may never be retrieved.”

Fight the fear and the procrastination by just doing it. And soon, you too will be achieving your best ever again.

#  #  #

P.S. Napoleon Hill was a chiropractic patient.  One report has it that B.J. Palmer was his chiropractor. Both men thrived during tough economic times. Here is an interesting story about Hill and chiropractic. LINK

Old movie of Nap Hill. 7 minutes. LINK

..we’re sneaking away to do some planning…

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Like elves going to our workshop, we are off to our New Year’s planning meeting…somewhere up in the Far North (Wisconsin)…looking at what new “presents” we have in store for all of our great fans and wonderful clients for 2011…reviewing what’s working and what is new that will deliver the most benefit to the chiropractic teams we serve…and what trends we see for the new year.

Be the first to hear about what we have planned at our teleseminar on Tuesday, December 28, 12:30 C.T. Contact us for the phone number if you want to attend.

Health Never Takes A Holiday!

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Holidays

Holidays are a time when chiropractic patients can find many reasons not to keep to their schedules. To help you and them stick to their health program, you can pre-schedule them for the entire month of December.

We have made a couple of posters centered around:

Health Never Takes a Holiday

You can find links to these below.

When talking to your patients about their schedules, be understanding and empathetic. Hear their story. Then, be bold about your interest and concern that they maintain their care schedule through the holidays – and get them scheduled until next year.

And it is OK to use bribes.. Spicy warm apple cider gives off a very cozy smell and tastes great.. and is healthy, and free screenings/exams for patient’s holiday guests.

Links to posters:

Poster for Nov/Dec
Poster for any holiday

Internet Marketing for Chiropractic Offices

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What a great teleseminar we just completed about Internet Marketing.

I wanted to provide a short summary and a few follow ups for those who joined us as well as for those who weren’t able to.

Face To Face Networking – now more valued than ever. As we live increasingly in a virtual world of “friends” and emails and ordering products and services from our computers, meeting and connecting in person with real live people is rarer and therefore more valued. Get out of the box and meet people!

Virtual Networking – We discussed Facebook and creating a fan page. Here is a link provided by Dr. Jamie Phillips on how to do this. (link) There are many ways to add content, or information, to your Facebook page including automatic feeds.  Dr. Phillips gives one example, using Google Alerts,  listed below.  But automated content or ads about upcoming events do not take the place of “newsy” and interesting articles about you and your office. A fast note about a patient success, something new about the office, a favorite recipe of one of your patients,  a notice from Sister Hilda (a patient) who is inviting one and all to the fish fry at Saint Paul’s this Friday – these are topics your patients are interested in.  Keep it local.

The Internet Is About Search. It replaces the phone book, the dictionary, and the encyclopedia. There are many people who are in pain and sick of drugs and corporate medicine and surgery. They are looking for you. Dr. Phillips went over how to best get these people to find you with local search.

Web Site. We also discussed some simple ideas for your web site and what to do if you already have one.

Other Topics Included: The importance of Social Proof, Reputation Management, use of the new bar code on you printed materials and signs, and the coming necessity of mobile web sites were other subjects we spent some time on.

Chiropractic Internet Marketing Assistant. You need one of these!   Delegate a team member to put 2 hours in per week, or more, dedicated to working on your internet presence.

We did record this teleseminar and it will be available at no charge for our active clients on our Members site in about a week. Non members who listened to the talk will receive a CD within the next several weeks.  The CD can be purchased for $65 – all proceeds will be donated to Oklahaven Children’s Chiropractic Center.

Internet Marketing CD Order Form

Links.
The links below are to PDF documents. For customizable WORD docs, active clients can find these on our Members Site (www.pmamembers.com) under Advertising.

Videos

More info on Jamie Phillips internet marketing. Link

Chiropractors: Never Work Another Day in Your Life!

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Did you know that 73% of chiropractors can make all the money they want without ever working?

This is proven by 83% of studies.

Yes, that’s write. You two can make all the money you want, and even more, without even working.

Honest.  No more talks, letters, or yellow pages or even internets.  You don’t even have to sea patients.

moneyman

With this SECRET system I was able to make lots ‘o bucks.  (Doctre Phulo Vit)

Am I talking to you?  Yes, we are.

I have just discovered 6.3 steps on how to make all the money you want with out hardly working ever and getting all the love you need.   Honest.

Yea. Baby.

So, call us now at 800 APR-FOOL

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

Don’t be fooled.   Get the real stuff.   Come to our seminar in Minneapolis and Milwaukee this spring.

See you there.

Happy Easter to you all.

Love,

The PM&A Team

carpe annum

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2010

What does that mean to you?

More money?
More time off?
Better service and care for your chiropractic patients and community?

Does it mean a new opportunity to pursue your special projects: the song you meant to write, the trip you planned to take, project with your family, the good deed you hoped to do?

It’s out there.  A New Year, another package of 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days. It is your playing field, your sand box, your canvass – it’s yours.

But it’s yours ONLY if you take it. Only if you grab it and get busy creating the life and practice and business you want. Otherwise, it will go by quickly while you aren’t looking.

It is a gift, really.  We take so much for granted, particularly us Americans. It is no wonder immigrants who start small businesses do better. They appreciate the gift of Opportunity.

If you don’t seize this year, guaranteed, the world will seize you… like it does to so many. Soon, you will be more concerned about the “economy”, “health care” “reform”, wars, and a million other distractions rather than on creating your own life. Or, you will just bury your head in work, and in a few years when you look up, you will be 55 years old, or 65, or 75, and wonder what the heck you did with your life.

So, our recommendation is to seize 2010, and each day it offers. Set goals and make plans to achieve them.

This is what we are doing. Our newsletters have been a little thin lately only because we have been putting together what we feel is the best program of chiropractic practice building services ever for 2010. All to help you achieve your goals faster.

We are grateful for this chance to help you and we appreciate your trust. We admire the service and care you provide as doctors of chiropractic and chiropractic professionals. But, to be honest, we don’t do it just for you. We do it so that you can help more people become healthy through chiropractic care. And perhaps even more, so that they can be healthy by adopting a chiropractic lifestyle and getting their family and friends to do likewise.

So, here it comes.                                                                        2010.

Go seize the year and make it your own.

Carpe Annum
Marketing through the Holidays and into the New Year
A number of doctors wanted to get the notes from our teleclass on marketing. Here is the link.

Your Promise

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Here in the Midwest, flowers and trees are blossoming.  We have a tree in front of my office that is exploding with light pink blossoms. Baby birds are chirping.

blossoms

A new crop of students are graduating and new wave of young people are getting married.  (My daughter is among them! [big smile])

Promises of what can be.

Just for a moment, think about what is it that your clinic promises?

Because it does promise something, whether or not you even planned it to. Every business does. For example, driving by a Starbucks, what is promised?

One of the definitions of a brand is a “promise.”  Starbucks has worked hard on perfecting and systematizing their brand and promise.

Your brand, your reputation, your image – what does it promise?

The tone of your front desk when she/he answers the phone – what is the promise?

Your report of findings – what is promised?

When your patient accounts staff talks with your patients, what is the promise?

There are a hundred little units of communication that you are constantly sending out about what your patients can expect to receive with your services. Do your messages inspire trust and confidence? Are they friendly? Do they appeal to what your patients and potential patients really want?

And do you deliver on the promise?

The word promise has a number of meanings. One of the meanings is a “stated commitment.”  Another is to “show potential for future excellence.” Both apply.

You can discuss this at your next staff meeting.

It is spring.  A time for new beginnings and renewal; a promise of great expectations that can be achieved.

And your gift is that you and your team have the ability to make every day a spring day, every moment a spring moment.

Are you chirping?

Ed

Chiropractic Staff ROI and Motivation

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Staff Management: An Essential Component To Practice Success

A big reason for your chiropractic practice is doing well is because of your staff.  And,  a big reason your chiropractic practice is not doing well is because of your staff.  Either way, your staff plays a major role in the success of your business.

How much can a good staff member contribute to the office? What is the Return On Investment for staff expenses?  There does not seem to be any good research on this for chiropractic offices. (If you know of any, we would appreciate the references.) We have seen some studies and based upon these and our experience it would be safe to say that a staff member should contribute at least double what you pay them.

This means that if you pay a Chiropractic Assistant, for example, $2,500 (including taxes, FICA , etc.) a month, you should at least be able to generate $5,000 because of her.  On the other hand, when a staff member is not performing well, their contributions can go to zero, or even lower.  If they are alienated from the doctor and the practice, they can actually become a liability.  An unhappy or defiant staff can turn away patient referrals, discourage patient phone appointments, create disharmony with other staff, and many other costly problems.

Staff Turnover
The cost of staff turnover can be very high, as much as three times their monthly pay.  This would include recruiting cost, training cost, extra time on your part, lost patient and lost new patients. For example, if your senior front desk C.A. leaves and she is paid $2,500 per month, it could take a couple of months before you find another CA that has the qualifications you need, and at least a couple of more months before they are trained.

By the way, this is why it is so important to have your practice systematized with all of your procedures written up for fast training and evaluation. (This is what our PM&A Practice Development Programs help you with!)

Conversely, as mentioned above, you can save money by letting an under performer go.
Staff Motivation
Once you have personnel, you have to keep them motivated. Frankly, this can be a problem for many doctors. There is a basic reason for this which I will explain later on. First, let’s look at some interesting information on employee motivation.

A recent article from the Harvard Business School reports on a study that showed that most employees start out relatively motivated, but things change after about 6 months.

“The great majority of employees are quite enthusiastic when they start a new job. But in about 85 percent of companies, our research finds, employees’ morale sharply declines after their first six months—and continues to deteriorate for years afterward.”

One of the biggest causes for this goes straight to the relationship they have with their managers.

“Many companies treat employees as disposable. At the first sign of business difficulty, employees—who are usually routinely referred to as “our greatest asset”—become expendable.

“Employees generally receive inadequate recognition and reward: About half of the workers in our surveys report receiving little or no credit, and almost two-thirds say management is much more likely to criticize them for poor performance than praise them for good work.

“Management inadvertently makes it difficult for employees to do their jobs. Excessive levels of required approvals, endless paperwork, insufficient training, failure to communicate, infrequent delegation of authority, and a lack of a credible vision contribute to employees’ frustration.” (You can read the entire article here.)

We have seen versions of these problems in every office. Even our own!! It happens. One of the most common habits of doctors that can impede staff performance and motivation is micro managing.  For example, fretting over the office volume, doctors can hover around the front desk causing the staff to be more concerned about the doctor’s constant evaluation than engaging with the patients.

To solve these de-motivation factors,  the authors suggest the following:

1. Instill an inspiring purpose.
2. Provide recognition.
3. Be an expediter for your employees.
4. Coach your employees for improvement.
5. Communicate fully.
6. Face up to poor performance.
7. Promote teamwork.
8. Listen and involve.

We would add two more factors. First:

9. Clear policies and procedures consistently applied. You need to coach your team on the same procedures today that you applied yesterday, and will use tomorrow. These procedures should be written down in some form for easy reference. This gives an objective reference for staff coaching (#4) and regular staff evaluations (#6).

And the most important, and most overlooked in a doctor’ office:

10. Separate your roles of doctor and clinic director so that you can be a part time manager.

The Most Common De-motivator
Most chiropractors are either too busy and/or too focused on doctoring to have much attention left for caring for staff.  After all, the staff is there for the doctor and to help him or her with the patients. The doctor is not there for the staff. And, the staff is paid to do their job.

So, what’s the problem?

The problem is that employees are people and not machines.  And, like all living things, they need a certain amount of nurturing. Growing a business is like growing an orchard. It needs tending. Doctors do not feel they should have to do this, and as doctors, they shouldn’t.

However, as the C.E.O. their business, they have too. Larger offices have office managers or practice administrators that can help do much of the staff management. We usually recommend that the doctor assign a staff member to take the role, if only for a few hours per week, of senior C.A., office coordinator, or office manager.

Most doctors can be managers and coach their staff, but don’t. The reason, and the solution are relatively simple: just separate the roles of doctor and clinic director. As the doctor, everyone works for you and the patient. As clinic director and a part of management, you work for everyone else.

With good business systems in place, a well organized office should require little time of the doctor to be a clinic director.  And in the role of business owner and investor, the doctor should see a very good return on his efforts if his staff is motivated.

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Chiropractic Practice Bottlenecks: How to Increase Capacity by Removing Hidden Barriers

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The theory of capacity management, as developed by Eli Goldratt and explained in his books, including the best selling The Goal, discusses the theory of constraints as applied to a manufacturing environment.

The same principle applies to chiropractor’s business. According to Goldratt, “Capacity is the available time for production.” A bottleneck is: “what happens if capacity is less than demand placed on resource.”

Bottlenecks can be hide anywhere in an office.  For example:

  1.     Peak Periods. Between the 4-6 pm slot, where there is extra traffic, extra staff or increased capacity is not provided.
  2.     Paperwork. Old forms that are redundant.
  3.     Poor scheduling of patients: (not cluster booked, not booking for NP paperwork)
  4.     Doctors waiting for therapy patients. (No CT or therapy after adjustment)
  5.     Front Desk doing insurance and scheduling at each visit (no MAP and PIA)
  6.     Not enough exam rooms
  7.     Clutter in front desk/insurance area
  8.     Quitting time. After a long day, all staff and doctors are looking forward to leaving and really don’t want extra patients to call or come in. Patients are inadvertently discouraged to come in extra, bring in friends or family , or call in during the last hour.
  9.     Backlogs. Undone reports from the two summers ago, partially completed projects, cluttered desks or office space, all discourage more an increase in production. You only have so much mental capacity, and if it gets frittered away on projects that are not completed, you will have “too many irons in the fire” to add any more. Finish what you started, and make room for more.
  10.     “Difficult people“. Some staff, or patients, will seem to drain you of your energy, or consume too much of your time trying to keep them happy.

Warning: Too much capacity can also be a barrier.

A) Personnel. A staff that has to make up work can retard production. Happy staff are productive staff, and the opposite is also true. Unhappy staff will not make for happy patients. This will also suck up the doctors time to try to remedy his “staff problems.”

B) Space. Too large of a space can disconnect the staff from each other and the patients and minimize the synergy.

 

Exercise – Getting Rid of Capacity Restraints and Bottlenecks.

Make a list of any bottlenecks in your office. Start by considering the flow of patients, of paper, and anything that slows it down or gets in its way. Consider patients waiting, paperwork waiting, any times of the day or days during the week where there is a slow down or back log. You can organize it into four categories:

Physical space
Personnel
Procedures
Difficult people
Incomplete projects

Once you have listed these, give yourself 30 days to fix all these capacity restraints.

NOTE: Bottlenecks can sometimes be difficult to locate, and even more difficult to remove.  Need help: Give us a call. (414) 332-4511