The 3 Types Of New Patient.

[cs_content][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text class="cs-ta-justify"]There are three types of patient who are looking for you, today, tomorrow or someday. They are called the Buy It Now, The Window Shopper and the Tyre Kicker. We feel an analogy is a good way to describe them.

Let us take the example of someone that is buying a new kitchen for their home. The Buy It Now type of patient could be compared to the couple that have just bought a house and there is NO kitchen, or there was flood damage and you have been cooking on a camping stove for six weeks and the insurance money has just come though. You are looking to buy now, and the money is burning a hole in your pocket.

The Window Shopper is someone who has a naff 1970’s kitchen, It works, and you can just about keep it clean, but it is so ugly and impractical! You are embarrassed to invite friends around for dinner, but you need to get the money together before you start looking seriously. That doesn’t stop you flicking through magazines, looking online or even visiting showrooms. You may even get the guy to come and measure up, and create you a 3D design of your dream kitchen. You research the best high level ovens and most eco dishwasher, but for now it’s a ‘someday’ project, just hopefully not too soon. The window shopper will at some point become a Buy It Now person, so we need to invest in our relationship with them early, and in a very different way to the other two types.

The tyre kicker is just bored with the colour of their kitchen, they mentioned it to their wife but she shut them down saying they only renovated the kitchen four years ago and the colour was even your choice. She said you are welcome to paint the walls, but you wanted to change the cupboards and worktops too. You wonder if you can just get away with changing the doors and not the cupboard carcasses; but then again you don’t like that weird corner, maybe you would change the whole layout, a conservatory would be nice - or should we just move house… But we do need a holiday, and the car is due for its annual MOT check, we had better see how much that costs first.

The tyre kicker is in no rush, they may also go to a showroom and look around, but only just for fun, and the salesman will likely get an idea that they are not ready to buy; A tyre kicker is less likely to play the sales game as the window shopper and will often lay their cards on the table and say they are not in a position to buy just yet.
[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_image type="circle" src="http://mediamarketing.clinic/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/secretary-1050843_640.jpg" alt="" link="false" href="#" title="" target="" info="none" info_place="top" info_trigger="hover" info_content=""][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text class="cs-ta-justify"]
The “Buy It Now” type of patient

This is your prospective patient that is actively looking for you. They may have a crisis like an acute injury, or they may have a chronic problem for which they have made the decision to get sorted; or ordered by a partner to get fixed as they are fed up with their moaning.

The Buy It Now type of patient is asking friends if they know of anyone they would recommend to help them with their complaint. They are likely reading Google reviews and scanning the top results for practitioners in their area. The Buy It Now patient will respond well to a call to action. Meaning that if they are reading your website and a banner popped up offering them a half price consultation during the month of May, they may well go for it.

Our agency has great results with call to action campaigns, and this is where most of your DIRECT marketing dollars should go, on the Buy It Now patients. Unless you have the marketing budget of a big multinational, do not waste your money on vague branding campaigns: they do not make the phone ring. Examples would be the same advert in the newspaper week after week, radio show sponsorship or worse, printing your office details on the back of a bus ticket: we call this ‘Throw away marketing’.

There are many other examples of marketing opportunities that are just a big waste of time and money in healthcare professions. They may work for other businesses, but the healthcare sector is unique, purely because of the psychological and emotional reasons why people decide to consult a healthcare practitioner, which is very different to when people buy a new TV or pair of shoes. Once again, we address the ways of marketing your practice to avoid in a separate article.

Referral & Recommendation is still King

The Buy It Now type of patient likes to be told that you are the best by someone they trust and then they will find you somehow, you just need to make the process easy for them. We deal with promoting referrals in your practice in a separate article, available at the end of this one. Nonetheless, everyone in practice understands that referrals are the best source of new patient. They are pre-qualified, meaning they already trust you by extension because they trust the person that recommended you. Furthermore, their friend will often have briefly outlined your procedures, how you work, costs etc, so nothing will be too alarming for the patient. The sad part is that every practitioner knows this, but many spend very little time making referral the focus of their practice marketing efforts.

Reviews are Vital

The second most important thing that you can do after encouraging referrals in your office is to get your raving fans to give you glowing online reviews. Even people that have got a recommendation from a friend may to do their due diligence before calling you. Google reviews and other review sites such as Yelp and Yahoo local are vital to any service business such as yours. The trend in today’s society is that we value reviews, even from strangers. People check reviews on amazon of even cheap item before buying. We can read hours of TripAdvisor reviews before booking a hotel room and reserve a table in a restaurant based purely on online reviews.

Our industry is even more personal, potentially most expensive and very heavily dependant on reputation. Combined with an increasingly insular, segregated society model, it makes sense that online reviews are becoming the new source of personal referral. Your practice needs as many quality reviews as possible, with unique comments from your clients to make each review sound personal. Ideally some reviews will mention your specialities such as pregnancy care or sports injuries. Even better is when a percentage of the reviews mention the practitioners name so a ‘Buy It Now’ type patient knows that they are very relevant to the person that they are looking to consult, and that the information is up to date.

If you already have a busy practice, there are many ways of encouraging positive reviews in-house. Most patients are more than happy to provide you with a positive review, so just ask. Or even better, get your front desk staff to ask. The best response rates we get in the practices we support follow the process we have developed below.

At a re-assessment the front desk team see from the progress form that Mrs Jones has written how happy she is with her treatment to date. You also have a section at the bottom of the form for the patient to tick saying they are happy to write a testimonial, with a consent form for the practice to use her testimonial in-house & online. Try to also sneak in a request for a photo to be used alongside the text.

The front desk approach Mrs Jones and say that [practitioner X] will be with them in a few minutes and we wondered if you wouldn't mind writing us an online review, expanding what they had written on the review form. Do this with every patient that writes a positive review, even if they do not tick the consent box. Explain how important online reviews are to people considering consulting a new practitioner and that their honest review would help people choose the right person for them.

If they then say yes, particularly as they now know it will only take a minute or two and they will be waiting anyway, then make sure they now sign the consent form before you proceed. If she looks hesitant, address her concerns. It is usually privacy related, so you can suggest that you do not use her name or cross out the section related to the photo, whatever is needed. Always respect their privacy and never post anything without signed consent.

If Mrs Jones says yes, then take an iPad and ask them to complete the review there and then, explaining that it doesn't have to be an essay, just share what they feel. Of course it makes sense to pre-load the review site where you want to focus your reviews and make it easy for Mrs Jones by checking if she has an account with X review site first for easy submission, as you may need to change sites depending on her answers.

Lastly, copy and paste her review and save for in house & online use later and ask Mrs Jones if she wouldn't mind having her photo taken. Snap the photo with the iPad and you are done. Mrs Jones goes through to see the practitioner and the online review is done and verified, all in a matter of minutes. The front desk then schedule a Facebook post, or sends the review to your social media manager. The post is scheduled to go out the following day at 3pm, a popular time for people to cruise Facebook. Ideally you have a top testimonial posted daily, and the one with the most feedback from other clients can be ‘boosted’ and put in front of “window shopper’ type patients in your community. I would also suggest that you have a testimonials board somewhere in reception where you print the photo & text for other practice members to see. This is a great way for other patients to see the success stories, important for those new to your office. It also shows the wide range of problems that you can help with and gives the reception a good talking point for referrals. A typical conversation could be that a patient reads todays testimonial and says “I didn't know you do feet’ - to which the reception team explain your expertise with biomechanics and show them the gait analysis room. This ends up with the patient taking a complementary consultation voucher for their daughter who is a marathon runner and suffers terribly with shin-splints.

Google Adwords

If a personal recommendation is not available and online reviews do not show a clear-cut winner, the Buy It Now patient may click a Google Adwords paid listing, and most importantly, they are also far more likely to call you, thus making the advert cost viable. We have other articles on writing a specific Adwords ad to make your clicks count.

The Buy It Now type of patient will take notice of a newspaper advert, especially if it is a front page wrap or a bottom right hand corner advert or advertorial in the first few pages (don’t waste your money on any other ad positions). If you offer community screening events, they will likely book an appointment with you there and then; as they have already made the decision to consult ‘someone’ - you just need enough things happening at any given time so that your name is the one that they find.
[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_image type="circle" src="http://mediamarketing.clinic/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/shopping-1135607_640.jpg" alt="" link="false" href="#" title="" target="" info="none" info_place="top" info_trigger="hover" info_content=""][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text class="cs-ta-justify"]The “window shopper” type of patient

The window shopper needs to be educated, not sold to. If you pressure the window shopper they will unplug and unlike what you are doing, as they are not ready to buy just yet. A book by Gary Vaynerchuck called "Jab, jab, jab... Right hook" describes the approach beautifully. Each jab is educating the window shopper, and moving them closer and closer to the right hook, so that when they are ready to call you, the rig hook or "Call To Action" is too irresistible to turn down.

Money does need to be spent on the window shopper, which is why we clearly stated that the Buy It Now patient needs most of your DIRECT marketing budget, if not all of it. The window shopper by contrast needs some INDIRECT dollars spent on them. This only needs to be a small percentage of your budget, and most of the work here will be free.

Social Media & content marketing is the best way to speak to the window shopper. Content marketing is basically writing stuff. You are reading this ‘content’ right now. It isn't selling you anything, in fact its telling you how to do our job for yourself. Yet in the process we hope that you will see our expertise. In the future your practice may get so busy that you decide to outsource your marketing and ask for help to make your office work more efficiently, like a well oiled machine. If you have been following our blog, then we are possibly the people you may call first.

Social & content marketing takes time and it is a real art, this is why so many practices out-source this to our company. We know your profession and we know how to talk to your prospective clients and patients. However there is nothing stopping you doing it yourself. You need to create fresh original content on a regular basis. The key is to think like the window shopper and think of the questions that they are wanting answered… Then answer them!

This should be in the form of a regular blog post, three times per week is ideal. A minimum of 500 is suggested, but the longer the better. Window shoppers like to be drawn in to a ‘proper’ answer and if they are short on time they will skin read your article. You can also take snippets of that article and break them down into mini articles, tweets, videos and info-graphics. This article alone is well over 4000 words!!

Your blog is the house for your long form content rich articles. Regular post links from your social media accounts to your blog articles, and reformat them as suggested above for people who prefer audio and visual alternatives.

Take note of the blog posts and social links that get interaction, those are the ones that you will be interested in. Your current patient community has validated those articles as interesting. Of course if it is an announcement that one of your reception team is getting married, current patients may comment, but its not relevant to the window shopper. You have to think “will this post/article/video/image add value to the window shoppers experience”. If the answer is yes and your community has shown engagement, then the next thing to do is boost this post. You can simply boost this post in Facebook although we would suggest crafting a new post directly for the window shopper, it depends how well you know your way around the Facebook advertising platform. Create your advert/post and be very specific to your target audience. Set your spend low such as $5 and see how many people it will reach, if it’s a few thousand people it is worth a try. You are unlikely to get a response or much interaction, you are sending this information out there cold. This is why your budget here is small, but you are starting to engage with the window shoppers in their environment. Your aim is to get them to engage with you somehow, maybe like your Facebook page or attend a free talk that you are doing. However the aim of these posts is not to sell. Of course there is nothing wrong with stating your expertise: at the end of an article on why you have been doing your tennis stretches wrong for years you can write a little bio on your sports expertise. This way they can build you as the authority in the area, so that when they transition to a Buy It Now patient - your phone rings![/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_image type="circle" src="http://mediamarketing.clinic/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/yes-941500_640.jpg" alt="" link="false" href="#" title="" target="" info="none" info_place="top" info_trigger="hover" info_content=""][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text class="cs-ta-justify"]The “tyre kicker” type of patient

The tyre kicker will still benefit from the educational programmes that you have set out for the window shopper. You will not be able to differentiate the two until they are in your practice. The only difference will likely be the language that they use, the tyre kicker will play down their complaint. They will use words like niggle, and tell you it’s not that bad. They may recall the last time they got the same issue checked out and it was ‘cured’ in one or two visits; even if they have a 20 year history of back pain.

We feel that it could take a considerable amount of time for the Tyre kicker type of patient to decide to consult you, and take your advice seriously. If they do consult you, especially before they are ready then they may not follow through with your complete course of treatment. This is because it is not a priority right now to sort the problem out, and may decide to only attend for one or two treatments on a relief care basis. There is nothing wrong with this kind of patient. It is their prerogative to decide to follow your recommendations or not. I always give the tyre kicker the same level of care as any other patient, and most importantly I do not reduce my recommendations based on what they want. I give them a plan to correct their problems if this is achievable and set milestones along the way. It is then their decision whether to continue through each distinct phase of treatment. The tyre kicker could stop after two sessions and yet still refer many more people to your practice: Although experience tells me that they will be similar types of patient (on average) as this is their only frame of reference.

The tyre kicker type of patient is still to be welcomed into your practice in our eyes. The key difference is that you are not actively talking to them when you create call to action campaigns for the ‘Buy It Now patient’ or the educational programme for the ‘window shopper’. It would be too costly to try to reach everyone in your community.

We suggest to focus your DIRECT marketing dollars on the people who are looking to ‘BUY NOW’. Direct marketing is something that you actively spend money on to bring patients into your practice.

Spend a much smaller but consistent amount on an INDIRECT targeted community educational programme; One that is exciting, engaging and informative. You may only need to spend a few dollars here and there to get the message in front of your targeted audience, whilst letting the other free methods filter out at the same time.

If you are paying someone else to write the targeted articles you will have to add this cost in, but in our experience it is well worth the cost. Not only in terms of getting the exact message across to the exact people that want to it and encouraging them towards the Buy It Now status, but also for the freedom that it gives you and your team to focus on what happens inside your practice.

If you have any questions please feel free to email our team and we will be happy to help: info@mediaMarketing.clinic[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_share title="Share this Post" share_title="" facebook="true" twitter="true" google_plus="true" linkedin="true" pinterest="false" reddit="false" email="true" email_subject="Hey, thought you might enjoy this! Check it out when you have a chance:"][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_recent_posts type="post" count="4" offset="" category="" orientation="horizontal" no_sticky="true" no_image="false" fade="false"][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]

THE SALES FUNNEL. How it works, and how it WONT work for you!

I am sure that you have at some point signed up to a free webinar for something or other. The Facebook post or whatever provoked your interest spoke to your concerns, more new patients, should you vaccinate your child etc. Then when you clicked through to the website a ‘funnel’ page made it very clear what your next step was, to sign up for the webinar. The message was focused on the benefits to you and that it’s all free with no obligation. Next you get a series of automated thank-you emails, counting down to the webinar date. They may even give you a little taster along the way and they are sure to tell you to stay until the end of the webinar for a special free gift worth a million dollars.

If you do make it through the webinar, the most likely route is that they tell you how amazing they are, they explain the hardships that they have been through so that you can relate to them as a person. They then get social proof by telling you all the big names that they have worked with and show photos with them dancing with Nelson Mandela.

By this point we are 60% of the way though the webinar and they throw you a few scraps of useful information (the whole point you signed up in the first place) followed by a long sales pitch for something that is apparently worth $9000 but you can have it for $7.

This sale is called a trip-wire, and is tempting enough for you to take a punt and enter your paypal details. Now, over the next few weeks you will be offered ever increasing options culminating in the top dollar ticket item that they wanted to sell you in the first place. Some bold marketers will even offer you the next step up to say a $23 programme as soon as you have bought the $7 item.

This is a calculated sales funnel system that can be seen on every corner of the internet. It works, it has been created with human psychology in mind. But it will NOT work for you and your practice.[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_image type="circle" src="http://mediamarketing.clinic/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ipad-820272_640.jpg" alt="" link="false" href="#" title="" target="" info="none" info_place="top" info_trigger="hover" info_content=""][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text class="cs-ta-justify"]

Why Wont It Work For My Practice Then?

Because people chose to consult a healthcare practitioner by a very different set of rules. Sure they may be tempted to book an initial consultation if there is a tasty offer on your website. They may even enter their paypal details if they can get a half price examination. We encourage this with our clients, and see great results, however we are talking about the Buy It Now type of patient. The kind of person that is looking for you - Right Now!! More can be found on this topic in our article “The 3 types of New patient” and can be found at the end of this post.

I would guess that 99% of people that utilise the sales funnel are selling something online. Usually it is not a physical product, but most likely a course or ‘how-to’ video, book or other form of content. The sales process is automated, the webinar pre-recorded and then made to look like you are live online with the speaker.

The clear difference is that they are selling to people who are looking for an online solution. Examples are how to be a better public speaker, or fill your seminars, how to get better at talking to women or meditation for ultimate relaxation. The course curator sets up the programme and lets it run, making money whilst they sleep. Yes it’s only a few dollars here and there, but that is just the taster for something bigger. The big ticket price item may indeed be a face to face conference, but again it’s likely to be a ‘platinum level’ or ‘inner-circle’ coaching group worth $50k, and you can have it for just $199 a month… Buy It Now, Offer Finishes in Ten Seconds, 30 day money back guarantee and we wash your car if you are not happy!!

But people will not ‘shop’ for your services in the same way, they can’t test the water from home. They will try, they will buy the pain zapper gadget for $39.99 and waste three weeks zapping themselves before it goes in the back of the drawer. They may download the 6 stretches for back pain factsheet from your website and try them for a while before they realise that they really need to get this looked at by a professional.

The way you speak to your prospective patients who are not in the Buy It Now state of mind, is to Educate, Inspire and Lead them to the right conclusion. That conclusion is to consult you; good choice Mrs Jones!

Can you speed up the process, yes most likely, but you cannot push them to make the choice to pick up the phone. There are many reasons that cause someone to transition from a window shopper to a Buy It Now prospective patient who picks up the phone and dials your office number. In the interim you need to become the authority in their area of concern, and stay in the periphery of their mind until they have made the leap.

[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_image type="circle" src="http://mediamarketing.clinic/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/office-1198337_640.jpg" alt="" link="false" href="#" title="" target="" info="none" info_place="top" info_trigger="hover" info_content=""][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text class="cs-ta-justify"]How Do You Know What To Write About?

Use the google keyword tool, question samurai and the many other excellent tools available to find out what people are looking for, what questions do they want answers to. Then make sure that there are enough people asking those questions in your local area, these tools can give you traffic estimates… Then your job is simple: Answer their questions in an engaging way. Help them conclude that you are the expert in their area of concern. Speak directly to them, use their language, even write different articles and adverts for different groups of people. Turn the article into mini videos, quote images for Instagram & Pinterest, infographics and tweets.

A good example that we use in our agency is when we setup a Google Adwords campaign for a new clinic. We research the local community and what they are looking for help with online and cross reference this with what the clinic can offer. Then we build a campaign that includes unique adverts for every single complaint/concern/question from our research. Each advert highlights a very niche question and shows that we (the clinic) have the answer. The page that they click through is not the homepage but again a page specific to that question or complaint.

We make the prospective patient feel like we are speaking 121, our advert directly addresses their concerns. Not only does this mean that the person is likely to click our advert AND like what they find when they get to our page; thus increasing the chance of them booking a consultation, signing up for a talk or newsletter, Facebook like or whatever our goal is.

But we are also rewarded by google for providing such a good link between the searchers question and our proposed solution. Google really is that clever, and our reward… is a cheaper click cost. Yes we can make your advert hit the top spot and get more clicks than all the other adverts put together AND have the cost of each click cheaper than the advert s below us in google!

It does take a lot of time to create a campaign like this, and just as long to regularly create content that engages people week after week. That is why so many practices use our services, its far cheaper to get the experts to do it, and the results are significantly more rewarding. Have you ever tried to change the screen on an iPhone? My wife tried to once, she bought the screen and the little tool kit and spent what felt like a whole day watching youtube videos. Once she was ready she took the phone apart and spend the whole evening hunched over the dining table. She put it back together and found that it was the wrong screen type I'm sure her workmanship was top class though… We took it to the phone shop the next day and he changed the screen whilst we waited and charged us less than what it had cost to buy the screen and toolkit on ebay. We are happy to give you all the tools to DIY, but we do strongly suggest that you plan what is needed and how long it will take you first, so that you embark on this with eyes wide open. Content marketing is a commitment, and you will not reap the rewards with an inconsistent approach.

3 Types Of New Patient Article.

If you would like help with your digital marketing, or have any questions; please visit our website on www.MediaMarketing.clinic or email us info@mediaMarketing.clinic[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_share title="Share this Post" share_title="" facebook="true" twitter="true" google_plus="true" linkedin="true" pinterest="true" reddit="false" email="true" email_subject="Hey, thought you might enjoy this! Check it out when you have a chance:"][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_recent_posts type="post" count="4" offset="" category="" orientation="horizontal" no_sticky="true" no_image="false" fade="false"][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]

The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.

The Three Doors To Your Practice

[cs_content][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text]Recently we promised in another article to discuss the Three Doors To Your Practice. If you haven't already read the article ‘What Chiropractors Do Wrong’ then you can also find a link at the bottom of this post.

So what are the Three Doors to Your Practice. Quite simply they are metaphorical doors to explain where patients/clients come and go through your practice.[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_accordion][x_accordion_item title="The Front Door" open="false"]The Front Door is obvious, it is where New Patients & Clients come into your practice, it is the life-blood of any practice. A growing practice needs to have a busy front door, with lots of internal and external marketing activity such as referral programmes, google Adwords, local screening events, social media activity etc. There is more on specific tips for keeping your front door busy HERE.

It is the other two doors that get forgotten, and if they are not checked, can mean that your business is a bucket that you regularly fill with water, but it is strewn with holes. The Side Door is very important, especially if you are new in practice, or want to improve the quality of care that you offer your clients, which should be everyone.
[/x_accordion_item][x_accordion_item title="The Side Door" open="false"]Any client that does not complete your initial recommendation is said to have left through the side door. For example, someone with a lumbar disc herniation is given an initial recommendation of two treatments per week for six weeks before a formal re-assessment. The patient stops coming to you after four weeks and you do not hear from them again.

Firstly, you or your staff need to make contact and find out the reason; it could be that they are so happy with their progress as they feel 100% better and felt they had gained all the benefit that they needed at that time. You then have a choice to thank them and say that the door is always open if they need you again; maybe even ask for a google review if they are singing your praises!

Perhaps you could choose to say that conditions like this do not always repair in-line with symptomatic improvements, so whilst you are happy that they are feeling so well, you are concerned that the problem hasn't been fully stabilised and either suggest that they keep to their original programme, or give you a call if they feel ANY regression; making sure they do not wait too long to come in. Of course each situation will dictate which course of action that you take. Nonetheless, once you have spoken to them you have gained some feedback, tied up loose ends and left the patient with a positive message; the aim is NOT to convince them to come back into your office.

The other scenario could be that they had not felt any improvements and didn't want to continue paying for treatment. Again, you can use this to educate the patient about their condition, explain the healing process and how it takes time, and re-iterate that this was all discussed at their initial visits, and that we are only part way through the programme. If the patient still doesn't want to continue with care, I then respectfully accept their decision, but do not negotiate on my recommendation and tell them that the door is always open for them.

In my experience with over 100,000 treatment session, I am clear that a patient that drops out of care can often feel embarrassed to come back with their tail between their legs and say you were right; can we start again. So I try to make it easy for them by keeping my integrity and reiterating what I had said at the start of their care, sharing the progress that I think they are making clinically, whilst respecting the decision that the make, and showing them that we are there for them regardless on when that may be.

If you look at statistics in your practice, which can either be tallied up manually or with some practice management software, it will be clear to see if you are losing a lot of patients through the side door. This will mean that you constantly have to work on people coming through the front door in order to keep your business stable. The side door is such an important concept to monitor, but it doesn't stop when you have the stats in front of you, the work then begins.

Bring up the stats at a team meeting and brainstorm all the reasons why people might be leaving through the side door. What can you do lessen this number? Perhaps your feedback shows you that your opening hours are too restrictive, or that patients can never get an appointment with you, so find it impossible to keep to your recommended schedule. This is a good problem to have, and maybe its time to look for an associate to work with you, especially one that is prepared to work Saturday mornings, as your feedback tells you that this would be very helpful to patients.

There could be some staff training topics that come out of the meeting. For example, what do the reception team say when a patient phones up to cancel an appointment? Do they let the patient take responsibility for keeping to the practitioners schedule, meaning weeks could pass before their next treatment when they are due in twice per week. Or do they make sure that the patient is still on track, limiting the lapse between cancelled appointment and the follow up booking.

The meeting could trigger a need for even deeper self reflection… perhaps your recommendations are just not appropriate, or how you convoy them isn't working, Maybe you are so grumpy that patients can’t bare to spend more than a few visits with you. Although hats off to any staff members that are brave enough to tell that to their boss!

The side door can never be bolted shut, people make decisions to stop treatment for a multitude of reasons, many outside of your practice. The aim is to minimise those things that you have either direct control over (say your office hours) or an influence over (what your team say on the phone).[/x_accordion_item][x_accordion_item title="The Back Door" open="false"]The final door to consider is the BACK Door, and is mostly relevant to any practices that have some form of ongoing maintenance or wellness programmes for their patients. The back door is said to be open when your clients complete your initial phase of treatment, receive your rehabilitation or wellness/maintenance recommendations, and then leave anyway!

You may not run a maintenance practice or even believe in the concept, and in this case, there is nothing wrong here; your practice is a tunnel with an open front door leading to happy healthy patients walking out the back door. However most practices in this day and age have some form of maintenance option which can range from a weekly, monthly, quarterly or bi-annual check-up. With most patients understanding the benefits to keeping their body in check with a professional. If you fit into this category, then you will also need to keep note of your back door statistics.

This might all sound like a lot of complicated statistics to measure, so unless you have software that can show you at a click of a button, the most simple way to review this is to find the average number of visits that each patients comes to your practice. Your patient visit average, known as a PVA can be worked out by dividing the total number of patient visits for a given period by the number of actual people in active care (including maintenance patients)

Obviously each patients recommendation varies, but lets say that your average initial treatment phase is 6-8 treatment visits; so if the PVA - patient visit average is 14 then you can make some assumptions that the average patient continues into some form of additional care beyond your initial recommendation. The opposite would be true if your initial treatment phase is 24 visits but your PVA is 6, then your side door is wide open and you might want to ask your staff if they think you are grumpy!

I have worked with very well established Chiropractic clinics where the PVA is close to 100. These practices have a very strong wellness base with thousands of patients in long-term active care. Only a small percentage of the weekly patient numbers are those in the acute stages of care. The benefit to this form of practice is that it is far less tiring for the practitioners (acute patients are much harder work, everyone knows that) it is relaxed and enjoyable as you build meaningful relationships with your patients, often seeing whole family’s, even several different generations of the same family. Lastly, it makes the business far more stable! I work with many practices that have busy diaries a year ahead, and others who have a patchy diary in two weeks time, booking from week to week. The later form of practice is very unstable, it may still be busy and profitable; but it hasn't got roots. It is your decision what kind of practice you want to have for yourself, but my gut tells me that a stable business lets you sleep at night and lets you give the patients the best level of care. I know whole-heartedly that once I started to earn a lot more money, I managed to get myself out of the way. Meaning that the needs of my family were met, they were met on the first few days of the month; so I was able to treat patients because I loved what I do, without the staff wages and overheads hanging….. overhead! - Of course feel free to leave a comment below and tell me that you would never consider your own financial gain when discussing a patient’s treatment recommendations. Great, you are a better person than me, or a robot. I have worked in healthcare for nearly 20 years and now I coach practices across the world and run the world’s biggest Media Marketing agency for the healthcare sector, plus my own private practice! So I'm going to be real and say the things that people think and feel, but do not say - I point at the elephant in the room. I know all too well that when you are not making ends meet and you are having restless nights worrying about finances and a patient walks in with a complicated chronic condition, who wouldn't metaphorically rub their hands together. Just because it is healthcare, it doesn't make profit an ugly thing.
[/x_accordion_item][/x_accordion][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_promo image="http://mediamarketing.clinic/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/marketing-1466313_640.jpg" alt=""]In Summary, make sure your front door is wide open, attracting as many new patients as you want and need. Keep your side door as closed tight as possible; try to work out why people leave your practice before you have finished your work with them. If you can get an honest answer they may surprise you, it lead to some big changes for me personally, within myself as well as in my practice.

Finally decide what kind of practice you want, if it’s a symptom/complaint/pain based practice, then you are good to go; your practice doesn't even need a back door. However if you want a wellness or maintenance based practice its just as important to look at the back door. You may think you are a maintenance practice but if your PVA closely resembles your average treatment phase recommendation; in this case like it or not, you are a pain based practice. What can you learn from that? At the heart of much of the discussion will be patient education. Are your patients fully educated to make an informed decision to continue visiting your practice, if not - why would they invest time and money when they are unsure of the benefits to them! If you said to a gym member “l spend a year working out in the gym, then stopped and couldn't understand why I got fat again” they would laugh at you. This is because they know the need for an ongoing investment - but not everyone is so clued up on what you do for them. If they think you are taking their pain away, then the natural thing to do is stop coming to your office once the pain stops!

Final tip, if you want to know peoples perception of your practice, at the end of your initial treatment phase ask them to complete a progress review form. Ask them to score their improvements on a scale of 0-100 and other clinically related questions. Next ask a couple of open ended questions such as “in your own words can you explain what [insert your name] has been trying to achieve in your treatment sessions” also, “can you tell me what specifically was wrong with you when you first came to our practice” and finally “in a few words, please explain what a Physiotherapist/Physical Therapist does etc”. Use the answers to better educate your patients about their health and your practice. Education is the key to empowering your patients to make better choices, to giving you a fun place to work, especially once the front desk team are part of the education process and lastly it gives you a business with deeper roots.
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