A Patient's Point of View

I was struck by the hat she wore throughout the seminar while sitting in the second row on Saturday during my presentation at the New Zealand Chiropractic College Lyceum. She wore a different one on Sunday. We don’t see women wearing hats these days so I was intrigued who this chiropractor was. Naturally, I was surprised when she approached me after the seminar and invited me to join her and her husband for dinner at their home. Even more surprisingly, I accepted!

Later, in the car during the 20 minute drive to her cozy suburban home, I revealed that I don’t normally receive such invitations and on those rare occasions when I do, I normally turn them down. She practically squealed with delight and went on to explain how on a recent visit to the United States that she and her husband had been impressed by the hospitality of the Americans they had encountered. “I just want to return the favor," she concluded.

In the popular book series, Rich Dad Poor Dad, author Robert T. Kiyosaki makes the distinction between assets and liabilities. Rich people invest in assets. Poor people spend their money on liabilities.

That came to mind as I was considering the wisdom of a chiropractor friend having a ball because he recognized the lifetime value of a patient. Turns out he “gets” the idea that his inactive patient files are assets. The names of people who know him, his personality, his results and his office location are a valuable asset. While other practices shuttle their inactive files first to the basement, then to the storage unit and then to the silver recycler, Steven understands that many of his inactives are merely waiting for an invitation to return!

If your brochure rack is a dust collector or merely a neglected wall decoration, it’s time to put it to work and grow your practice!

Waiting for patients to take your brochures is the first mistake. Drug manufacturers shamelessly promote their wares by interrupting your patient’s favorite TV program, yet you’re somehow afraid to hand a brochure to a delighted patient to give to someone else?

Sure, some of your brochures will be discarded in the back seat, thrown away or somehow “wasted.” Constrained by predicting whether a brochure will reach its intended target or not keeps your message safely intact, but limited to the interior of your practice.

Even more significant is the mistaken notion that handing a patient a brochure is somehow self-serving; that it will benefit you more than the patient’s spouse or friend. This is a clear sign that you’ve made practice about you, rather than serving the needs of patients. (This belief is probably tainting other aspects of your patient relationships as well.)

As I was editing the previous entry about clutter, it occurred to me that most chiropractors probably don’t have a formal new patient lead generating system. Instead, most take a passive approach—like a spider, who spins its web and waits. This may produce the occasional meal for the spider, but it’s hardly a strategy for a thriving business. You could probably benefit from a formal lead generation system.

Many chiropractors fail to realize they are first a small business, with the need to attract and keep customers like any other small business. Getting on the “list” was supposed to solve this problem. In exchange for a lower fee, you were supposed to get a steady stream of appreciative new patients. Since that hasn’t worked out liked you had hoped, you need a lead generation system.

If you don’t have at least a few patients choosing not to begin chiropractic care at the conclusion of your consultation, you’re probably not casting your net wide enough. If your new patient lead generation system (do you have one?) produce prospects who all begin care, you may be playing it too safe. Without a rejection or two on a regular basis, it means people in your community are prequalifying themselves before showing up. This probably means your new patient numbers are down, and the ones showing up are largely those with neuromuscular-skeletal complaints. If you want a wellness practice; if you want to see more visceral complaints; if you want to see more miracles—you’ll want to create a larger opening to your practice.

Income down? Then you need more new patients. Gapping holes in your schedule? Then you need more new patients. Stressed out about the future? Then you need more new patients. Are patients ignoring your recommendations? Then you need more new patients.

But, more new patients will not solve your problems. Especially if you treat your next crop of new patients as you have the ones before. In fact, focusing on new patients creates an addiction that must be continually fed. Chiropractors with this addiction are constantly foraging for new patients. Most have tried every gimmick, every script and fallen for every shrill appeal in the chiropractic publications they read.

“Become a New Patient Magnet!”
“Pays For Itself With Your First New Patient”
“Get Up to Five New Patients Each Week”
“New Patients From Lawyers and MDs!”

If you find yourself lured by these promises, thinking your problems can be fixed by outside-in solutions, then you may have a bigger problem than you think...

It’s popular to assume that virtually any malady facing a chiropractic practice can be solved with simply an injection of new patients. Income down? Get more new patients. Mid-day down times? Get more new patients. Higher co-pays? Get more new patients. Higher gas prices? Get more new patients. Higher rent? Get more new patients.

And while it’s true that a surge of new patients might temper the particular “ache or pain” your practice is experiencing, what about next month and the month after? A practice becomes stable from long-lasting relationships, referrals and reactivations. If you continue to have a voracious appetite for new patients after 10 years or longer in practice, you may have a new patient addiction.

I'm kicking off the New Year by adding another category for blog posts called Chiropractic Marketing. Many of the chiropractors I meet turn their nose up at marketing, confusing it with advertising. And while advertising is a subset of marketing, marketing is so much more. In fact, I think it's probably best if you consider marketing without using advertising.

What is marketing? It's everything from your practice location and front desk telephone skills, to your fee structure and tableside manner. It’s virtually anything that affects patient perceptions, ability and willingness to refer and patient loyalty. This is the business part of chiropractic that many chiropractors distain in favor of new adjusting techniques or enhanced healing skills. Yet, great results rarely grow practices. It's practically a cliché that those whom you save from surgery or who witness miracle results rarely become the referral source you’d expect.

Here are the seven most common chiropractic marketing mistakes that chiropractors make:

You may have heard the old adage, "Dig your well before you're thirsty." Part of the challenge many chiropractors face is being taken off guard by low volume and having to immediately scrounge for new patients. Like the homeless who scavenge for food in dumpsters, manifesting new patients in a matter of days or weeks is not only stressful, it prompts many to lower their standards and resort to, well, humbling techniques that are accompanied by an odor of desperateness.

Most chiropractors lack a reliable new patient or "lead generation" strategy. Other small businesses have strategies in place to produce new customers. At Patient Media we use catalogs, speaking gigs, direct mail, convention exhibitions, Monday Morning Motivation emails, article submissions to chiropractic magazines, this website and a few other proprietary approaches. Many chiropractors unwisely rely on great results, a charming personality and what they think is a superior adjusting technique. While these, along with a few patient referrals may keep your doors open, it won't produce the abundance and affluence you deserve.

That's because most chiropractors don't know where new patients come from.