When your patient behaves nicely

She was a referral from one of my existing patients. The person who referred her to my office warned she can be quite demanding, and then added the dagger…she’s an attorney. I felt my stomach do a couple flips – my experience with attorneys has been horrible. Whenever I talk to them, I feel like I’m a kid in school and they’re consigning me to detention.

I can’t remember the last time I was this nervous for a new patient. I warned the CAs and told them to be on full battle alert. She finally arrived and she was the opposite of what I expected. Casual smart dress, big smile and fun personality. One of my CAs remarked that she wasn’t like most attorneys and she said she gets that quite a lot.

When it came to the yes/yes consultation, she understood perfectly that there would be no adjustment given on the first day. She was glad that I would take the time to study and evaluate her case and report to her the next day on my findings and recommendations for care. She gratefully thanked me after the exam and excitedly took our Important Patient Records folder and asked for my website so she could learn more about Chiropractic. She paid full fee outside of insurance!

Wait, what just happened?

Sometimes we have preconceived notions about how patients will act in our offices. Instead of reacting to the patient in front of us, we sterotype them according to our experiences. We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are. When a patient understands and appreciates us, we always ask ourselves the same question…why can’t all of our patients behave themselves like this?

Sometimes in an effort to please everyone, we bend over backwards to be all things to all people. As a result, we sometimes miss the mark. Face it, you are most effective with patients who are open minded and who embrace and accept new concepts.

It can be so easy to just get used to combative and resistive patients, negotiations about fees, missed appointments, that we expect everyone to be like that. Ask yourself when was the last time you missed an appointment with something you love to do from playing tennis, hunting, working out (okay, not everyone may love that), vacation, and the like?

While everyone can be helped through Chiropractic, not everybody is willing to put forth the commitment. Working with people who want what you have and love to refer in people just like themselves will leave you excited and energized at the end of the day.

Practice is not a battle of endurance of seeing how much crap you can put up with. Working with unappreciative people tends to wear you down very quickly and as you lose your Chiropractic MOJO, that chip on your shoulder gets bigger and bigger.

Start looking for those VIP, sweet spot patients. The more of them you have, the more fun your office will be!

And the best way to get sweet spot patients is to be one yourself. See what I mean in the 30 day free coaching program!