March 2001

Tricky Business: Marketing an ‘Intangible’
By Ivan Delman, DC

In the United States, 80% of our workforce is in a service industry.

The other 20% is involved with the production of a product that can be seen, touched and sometimes smelled. You can’t, however, see, feel or touch a service.

A service is abstract, elusive and intangible. Chiropractic is a service, not a product.

A great example of the difference between a product and a service can be found at your favorite restaurant. Most restaurants offer similar food, so why do you have a favorite? One reason will be the quality of the restaurant’s service. That quality service could mean faster order-taking or food delivery, a more relaxed atmosphere, friendly interaction between you and the servers or whatever is the best match with your wants and needs. The service that appeals to you can’t be seen, felt or smelled — but that service helps sell the product, the food.

As chiropractors we offer a very personal service… period! We have no products. When the consumer buys our service they may do so with uncertainty, discomfort and sometimes distrust. There are no guarantees regarding the outcomes of our work. This makes the task of marketing chiropractic services more difficult than selling an actual product that has the same cost.

Chiropractors/business people come in all styles of ambition. Some are astute, curious people who constantly look for ways to raise the success level of their practices. At the other end of the spectrum are chiropractors who just wish to be successful and patiently wait for the “Spirit of Success” to appear at their clinic door. Of course, this rarely happens. To put it another way, some come to the fountain of achievement to quench their thirst and others just to gargle.

How can one practice be thriving and successful when the one next door is sliding down the frictionless slope of failure? The answer to that question does not usually rest with the technical competency of either the thriving or failing chiropractor. Instead, if you observe the different ways in which these doctors market their services, you’ll see why your colleagues are either succeeding or failing in their practice efforts.

Marketing a service is totally different than marketing a product. If you recognize you’re marketing an intangible promise, then you must also recognize the consumer will be looking for the nearest tangible item for validation. That “item” they can “touch and feel” is... YOU.

The best way to validate your chiropractic message is to communicate to your patients the assets they consider important to the success of their treatment program. In other words, your expertise, experience, dedication and history of past treatment triumphs will validate you in the eyes of your patient. Once your patients believe in you, they will then start believing in your work.

Along with earning your patients’ confidence, a parallel approach to marketing your services is to remove the barriers prospective patients put up as reasons not to use your chiropractic services.

Here are a few of those barriers:
• PAIN… “I’m afraid you’ll hurt me,” or, “I’m hurting too much to see you right now.”
• COMMITMENT… “Chiropractors make you come back forever.”
• COST… “I can’t afford you, right now (or maybe ever).”
• TIME… “I’m too busy with (add any reason) and just don’t have time to see you.”
Try these answers and see if they help you handle the objections:
• PAIN… Explain the palliative therapies used in your office that you initially use to reduce their discomfort. Go into detail on those methods to eliminate the patient’s fear of the unknown.
• COMMITMENT… People will not be as hesitant to make a commitment if they feel somewhat in control of that commitment. With that in mind, give your patients control of their future appointment schedule.

In order to give you enough visits to stabilize a patient’s condition, your patients will not control their visit schedule until after they have agreed to a finite number of appointments prior to deciding the scheduling of future visits. In reality, patients already control their future appointments; however, if there’s mutual agreement to a defined number of visits to effect condition stabilization, the patient will feel more comfortable regarding future appointments.

• COST… Your goal is to lower the financial speed bumps that prevent new patients from driving into your office. Look over your first visit costs with a target of making it easier for the first-time patient to pay for that visit.

A caveat: Do be careful about the levels at which you set your fees. When setting fee schedules, be aware of your overhead costs. Don’t be like the toy manufacturer who, when he found out he was losing a dollar for every toy he made, decided to fix the problem by making more toys. You must be aware of all the costs involved in providing your services. Also, be aware that if you set prices too low, the fees will demean the value of your services.

• TIME… Conduct an analysis of your busy and slow patient times. Without making major scheduling changes (you’ll have fewer problems when you make operational changes in small increments), see if you can schedule patients who have trouble making their appointments at a time that is not normally used for patient treatment.

You might consider offering those patients a walk-in schedule (no set appointments), as long as they know they might have a little wait. You might want to consider shutting down during slow times and re-opening at times more convenient to your patients. In other words, see what you can do to accommodate your patients rather than yourself and/or your staff.

Your marketing should be based on the fact that your service is the foundation on which you’ll build a thriving, successful practice. Further, by consistently communicating your caring personality, professional assets and personal dedication to your patients, you’ll discover that marketing your services will be a natural.

Dr. Delman is the author of “The Business of Chiropractic: How to Prosper AFTER Startup.” He has degrees in both business and chiropractic. His experience includes 20 years in business management then 20 years as a chiropractic practitioner before retiring to write and travel. His work can be previewed at www.dowritepublishing.com and he can be reached at uncleive@sisna.com.