Have you ever wondered why a chiropractic office down the street seems to be attracting a constant stream of new patients, while your office may be struggling to see more patients?
What does it take to build the practice? It takes a number of things:
- Motivation: You have to be motivated and inspired to share your valuable message with your patients as well as your community.
- Intentions: What are your intentions? Are they for financial gain? Are they to help people see that they too can have a higher quality of life? What are your true intentions?
- Passion: Everyone you talk to or come in contact with has to “feel” your passion come through in what you say or do. This passion will excite them to try something that is new to them. Excited patients refer, not happy ones. Happy patients are just happy. Excited patients will do whatever it takes and tell everyone they come in contact with about chiropractic.
- Teamwork: Is your team excited about chiropractic? Are they referring? If they have not referred anyone into your practice, then they are not excited about what you do or they do not know how to share.
Team members can make or break a chiropractic office. You need to make sure your team not only understands what chiropractic is, but also how to share the message.
Why don’t all chiropractic assistants share the message? Why don’t they step out of their comfort zone and enroll new patients? The No. 1 reason is that they do not know what to say or how to say it. This takes training. You should have weekly team meetings where at least 15 minutes is dedicated to team growth. Education is the key to your patients’ success, and it should also be the key to the success of the office team.
Here are some simple marketing success steps to help you and your team achieve positive results:
Train weekly on chiropractic and practice growth ideas. Role-play what to say and how to do it.
- Each member of your team should have business cards. These should be used in a two-card system. I give the person I’m talking with one card, then I keep the other card and write that potential patient’s name and information on the back for further follow-up.
- Do a “Care to Share” program in your office as a team. Everyone has five Care to Share cards. They are responsible for asking at least five patients for referrals. If you don’t ask, you will not receive. Here is an example: “Margaret, have you heard about our Care to Share program? Let me tell you about it. Since you’ve been getting such great results through chiropractic, I want to give you the opportunity to share chiropractic with someone you know — maybe a friend or a family member who may be suffering needlessly, or even someone who just wants to make sure they are as healthy as possible. Does anyone come to mind?”
- The team can also get involved in a “Spinal Health Orientation” program for your new patients. This is a time that is used to educate and excite the patients about chiropractic and share how they can get the best results from their care program. If it is done correctly, your patients will refer lots of new people to your practice. The doctor or even a team member can do this class.
With any practice growth idea, it takes follow-up. Once you get the referrals from your patients, what do you do then? You need to know how to contact these leads and recruit them to your office for a visit.
Here is a simple way your staff can follow through. When your patient gives you a referral, get the correct information. You’ll need the name, phone number, any concerns, the best time to call and any special circumstances that you should know about.
You can say something like this: “Margaret, thank you so much for referring _______ (name). There are a couple different ways I can begin helping your friend:
- I can call your friend personally and talk a little bit about chiropractic and how it may help with any specific health concerns.
- You can talk with your friend first and then either let me know on your next visit if it’s okay to call, or just let me know if our staff should call to schedule an appointment.
- We can call them together now. You can get your friend on the phone and I’ll share information about chiropractic and how we may be able to help.
Which would work best for you?”
Practice-building is a team event! If you train together and create a marketing plan, you will see huge results in your practice.