How do you measure success in your chiropractic business? Many coaches tell you to keep stats, CPAs love creating financial reports and even the most un-analytical chiropractors tend to know how many patient visits they had.
But what about the somewhat fuzzier indicators of good performance? They are just as vital to the success of your practice, but rarely examined, tracked or tweaked for better results. Today, we will be looking at those!
Every chiropractor gets a report card – every day. Every time a patient comes in, they’re grading you for your quality, your value, your ability to listen, assess what’s wrong, and help them. Most chiropractors ignore these “report cards” because they are rarely formally written. Unfortunately, bad reports cards are bad for our income and good ones are hard to spot.
So, today we are going to explore some subtle business philosophy and learn some skills that will help to build our bottom line.
Pass /Fail or Graded on the Curve — Which is Better?
Sometimes, you are graded on your ability to accomplish these things on a Pass/Fail basis. You either listened or you didn’t. You understand their problem or you don’t. Your staff is friendly or they aren’t. Your toilet is clean or it stinks. This can be tough, however the factors above are generally always under your control – or should be.
While the pass/fail option doesn’t sound great, it really exposes our ignorance to how consumers (i.e. your patients). Pass/Fail may be brutal, but the other way that you are graded as a chiropractor is that you are compared against what else is out there in the market. While some of you may laugh, knowing what the crazy DC down the street is like, be careful. If your patients are able to grade you on the curve – that is, compare you to other DC’s in your town – you have already failed!
Why? Your services need to be more unique than that. You must present what you offer in a light that positions you as the only possible solution, or at least the best possible solution by a long margin. Frankly, if you can’t distinguish what makes your office different than the chiropractic office down the street, you’ve got homework to do. If you can come up with differences, but can’t communicate them easily, you need training. If you can come up with differences, but don’t communicate them often enough to be effective, you have to train yourself, your staff and better align your marketing materials.
The Real Danger and Massive Opportunity of Report Cards
The rest of the chiropractic report card you get from patients and prospects requires listening and understanding, thinking and observing trying to perceive or recognize something barely visible to others. You don’t jump for joy because you got a new patient. Well, maybe you do. But you should celebrate that you were chosen above all others, because of perceived value, and perceived quality. Grading yourself on the fact that a new patient showed up is an easy grade. But what about your other grades?
Since patients do not actually give you a card with grades on it (comment cards are rarely used in any practice) – prospects and patients will tell you how you’re doing by their words and actions.
For example, when a prospective patient says, “Great question! No one ever asked me that before,” that is an EXCELLENT grade. (Try to get at least one of those per day.) Or, an existing patient says, “WOW! How did you know my back was hurting” when responding to your recall efforts to schedule them for an appointment, because they haven’t been in for a while. That is an EXCELLENT grade. (Try to get at least one of those per week.)
Then there are the subtle grades. Grades that prove you’re making progress, and you have the patient’s attention. When the patient or the prospect says, “I didn’t know that,” or they say, “I’m glad you told me that,” or better, they say, “I wish we had more doctors like you.” That is high praise. A great grade.
Music to your ears should be when a patient says, “I wish I found you years ago” or “I wish all chiropractors were as good as you.” That’s not praise. That’s a blessing because that means that they not only recognize your excellence but will tell others to bless you with more referrals.
Here are some other positive grades based on your patient’s actions:
• They call YOU to say thanks.
• They smile when they talk to you or when they walk into your office.
• They call you to praise an employee of the practice.
• You get a testimonial letter – unsolicited.
• You are invited to speak at their event.
• Their children ask to shadow you or ask about becoming a chiropractor
• They offer you free tickets to an event or bring you presents from their recent trip.
Signs of a Bad Report Card:
• Phone calls to reschedule are not returned.
• The patient told you your price was too high.
• The patients no-showed their appointment.
• The patient never returned after their report of findings
• You receive a complaint about the way your staff treated them.
• The staff receives a phone complaint about the way that you treated them.
The Best Report Card Indicator of Present and Future Success
While it may be obvious that nice comments are good for business and bad ones cause you to lose business, most comments and clues are fairly superficial and are related to your present day business. The good news is that means you can fix problems and turn around bad report cards quickly. The bad news is that, even with, good grades, patients can be fairly fickle and still leave. Worse, good grades don’t necessarily translate into referrals either.
There is one report card indicator, however, that stands above all others. It is the universal symbol in all service-related professions that you are doing a good job and likely to retain business. It also is a major component of what makes people refer. In other words, get this and you can secure both present AND future business.
Ready – here it is.
Your patient now considers you a trusted advisor and an invaluable resource — in addition to being their chiropractor.
Unfortunately, most chiropractors don’t even realize that they have achieved this status and they certainly don’t know how to have it help their business. This is a shame – because this indicator can literally help reduce the need for marketing and/or assist you in defining how to maximize your marketing dollars. It can help you define your niche, help you better position your practice. Understanding this is also a key to unlocking the massive untapped income potential in your practice.
In Part 2, we will explore how to do all of this — how to recognize when you have become a trusted advisor, how to cultivate these relationships to stimulate referrals and how to capitalize on this to ensure better income and future chiropractic success!
