What’s really going on with your new patients!
It’s a slow new patient week, and then it happens…the phone rings. The person on the other end says they want to be a new patient but immediately declares their terms conditions. They demand that you must be in network, and don't want to work with you if you're 'one of those' Chiropractors that want their patients to be healthy forever. They tell you that they are only coming to the office for short-term pain relief, and will only be in the office once every two weeks. They even demand that you work with their other practitioners (MDs)!
What are you going to do?
If you accept this type of patient, you’re going to wish you didn’t! I’ve helped countless DCs over the past few decades, and so many of them are worn down because they try to appeal to everybody.
As Chiropractors, you want to help everyone, and so it is difficult for you to walk away from this kind of a patient. To help, I’ve come up with something called The Sweet Spot. It explains that you cannot attempt to appeal to everybody without violating your own integrity. Once you understand the dynamics of this concept, you will absolutely know that it’s true.
When you work with patients that are in the sweet spot, you will stop making deals, you will maintain your integrity, and you will no longer do things for short-term financial gain. The pressures from outside of the sweet spot cause DC’s to make the mistake of believing that more demanding, unappreciative patients will somehow make their practice more successful. Spoiler alert: it actually tanks your practice and turns it into a job!
Notice how personal trainers or political field organizers get the best results when their clients or volunteers are fully committed? As a DC, it is the exact same scenario. To get optimal results, you must work with patients who are fully committed to health, and the journey that it takes to get there. Stop rewarding patients with your time and effort if they themselves are not putting forth their best effort.
The low national patient visit average tells us that practice members are not receiving positive results. No wonder your office is not growing. As counterintuitive as it sounds, many patients will gladly pay inside or outside of insurance, and come to the office more often IF they are seeing unimaginable results from their once in a lifetime DC.
When people in your community realize you are different than the common Chiropractor, they will communicate this to others. If you start to treat kids, more than strictly pain relief, and difficult cases, the number of new patients in your office will rise, not shrink.
