Resource Centers:(News, information, and tools to support your practice)
Does your Yellow Pages ad attract as many patients as it used to? In fact, are the methods you have always used to recruit new patients as effective as they were in the past? If you answered “no,” do you know why your traditional methods of drawing patients into your office are no longer working? Perhaps someone moved your cheese, à la Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, MD. Things change — including how to attract new patients — and it’s important to change with them. That change should incorporate a comprehensive marketing plan that includes a wide variety of components. Here is a checklist of those components used by highly successful practices: • Unique selling proposition (USP). A USP differentiates your practice from the others in town. Create a USP that distinguishes you so people will drive past other chiro-practors to get to your clinic. • A professional referral system. The key to growing practices today is referrals from other professionals, including medical doctors, physical therapists, massage therapists, and leaders in the community. Develop a system that not only allows you to meet these people, but will also nurture the relationships you develop. • A system of external events. Becoming known in your community is essential to attracting referrals. Schedule regular external events, such as health fairs, spinal screenings, and talks. Implement a system close to people at these events and bring them into the office to start care. • An internal educational system. The more people understand the benefits of chiropractic, the more they are inclined to obtain lifetime care. Schedule research-based educational programs weekly on such topics as fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and scoliosis. You can publicize the topics in your office, on your Web site, and in advertisements, as well. Develop a system to encourage patients to bring guests. Track leads and follow up. • An active presence in cyberspace. Consumers increasingly use the Web to research health conditions and find providers to help them. Design a Web site that provides information on chiropractic and introduces you, your staff, and your clinic. Collect e-mail addresses and send out monthly e-mail newsletters. • Monthly marketing events. Monthly marketing events, both internal and external, ensure consistent messaging to the public and help penetrate the market. Consistent marketing also attracts a regular flow of new patients, not a surge that can occur when panic marketing is done. Schedule events on a marketing calendar. Publicize these events well in advance to ensure good attendance. • Internal processes. Good marketing also requires good internal processes to assure new patients can be accommodated without disruption to the clinic. Develop a policies and procedures manual and train all employees on it. Spend at least one hour per week working on the practice’s business with your team, solving problems, and improving processes to assure better patient relations. • Branding processes. Successful practices have a consistent look and feel about them. Assess all of your marketing materials — from your signage to your business cards. Make sure all materials brand you — that is, they have the same look and feel, and send the same message. The most successful practices have implemented these systems and continue to reap rewards for many years. They follow the trends of the future and don’t live in the past. Get excited; take action now! Put these systems into place to create multiple streams of new patients so you become the most recognized chiropractor in your com-munity. Spread the word and dominate your market. |
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HAS YOUR CHEESE BEEN MOVED?
Lynne Sullivan, DC, is a senior coach for APB Marketing and has developed a high-volume, family-oriented practice focusing on wellness care. She can be reached by phone at 925-484-1070, by e-mail at