November 2002

Team Tips By Susan Hoy

If you’re serious about offering ancillary products to your patients, it’s best not to keep them a secret. Creating an attractive, professional display area where patients can see what you offer and identify with the products is vital to your success.

Make sure you have an area in full view of your patients where you can display the products you offer. You do not necessarily need a large amount of display space. It is not necessary to have a large display, since too many of a particular item on display can result in reduced sales. Conversely, too few of the same item can reap the same results. Only three of the same item should be displayed at any one time. The rest of your stock can be stored out of sight.

Make sure your patients can fully view and even shop for products. Patients often like to browse while they are waiting to be checked out. You may want to have a lighted display case. Smaller items are displayed at eye level. Items should be close, but not touching.

Similar items should be grouped together. For example, some good pairings might include: ice packs and mineral ice; cervical pillows and cervical collars; vitamin E and vitamin E cream; anti-oxidant products; lumbar belts and supports, etc.

A small explanation label should accompany each product or group of products. For instance, if you offer a special vitamin cream that helps with skin conditions, such as burning or scarring, be sure to mention them on the label. You must help your patients identify with the need. If you offer supplements that help with allergies, asthma, and sinus problems, reference those conditions on the label. Be sure the labels look neat and professional.

You should also have a small area at your front desk where you can offer samples. An example would be if you offer sample packets of your mineral ice. Keep the samples in a nicely presented basket at your front desk. Additionally, if you offer special vitamin creams, open a container and let patients try the product.

Be sure your staff is enthusiastic about the products you sell. In the winter, you can offer samples of chewable zinc tablets. Whenever a patient complains about having a scratchy throat or coming down with a cold, you can offer them a sample along with an explanation of how this product will help them. The same can be said for chewable echinacea products, which can help boost their immune system.

Your front desk display and samples should be changed often; otherwise, they will lose their appeal and will be ignored. Your display should be appropriate with the season or your monthly theme. Let’s say that in January your monthly theme is boosting your immune system. Offer suggestions on how to keep those colds and flu away and prepare a cold and flu survival kit.

You can even include special skin products to help with cold weather and dry skin. Be sure to write a short article on why some people tend to get colds and flu while others do not (referencing the immune system). Then take each product you recommend and explain why you recommend it, along with instructions on how to use it. These articles should be in a display container along with the product.

You can also offer a seasonally decorated basket displaying the products you are recommending. Use a seasonal linen napkin as a basket liner, then arrange the products you are recommending. You can even sprinkle snow around the basket to give it the winter look or artificial grass for spring.

Looking ahead, another survival kit idea is a spring survival kit. In the spring, patients come out of hibernation and often sore muscles and back pain result. Include an ice pack, mineral ice, lumbar support (to support the back while raking, biking, gardening, etc.), calcium to help with spasms, and niacinamide for aches and pains. Your survival kit should also include some preventive tips and some muscle-strengthening exercises.

Another spring promotion could be a weight loss survival kit. This kit would include supplements, digestive enzymes, exercises, etc. Your nutritional supplement representative should be able to help you with appropriate products. A summer survival kit could include tips for traveling and include a small cervical pillow to use in hotel rooms and airplanes, a lumbar support to pack in case lugging all those suitcases or all that driving results in back pain, a small ice pack, etc.

The ideas for survival kits are many; you and your staff can really have fun with it, and your patients will be sure to snap up the kits for themselves as well as family and friends.

Ms. Hoy speaks to chiropractic team members throughout the country and is an award-winning team trainer and consultant. She is the author of several books and a team-training manual and has just released a set of team-training cassette tapes. She writes a newsletter called “Team Work,” which focuses on chiropractic staff issues. Ms. Hoy served as an office manager of Snyman Chiropractic Group in Center City, Philadelphia for 11 years. She can be reached at 215-674-0130; suzzhoy@aol.com; or sign on to her website at www.beefitup.net