The Loss that Led Me to Focus on Patient Experience in Chiropractic
In chiropractic school, we are taught to examine, identify problems, create care plans, and to adjust patients. A lucky, or more prepared, few of us may have taken outside seminars to learn about strategies to bring more patients into our office, billing tactics to increase revenue, or practice management techniques. Yet, for all that we learn, the hours and years we put in to become Doctors of Chiropractic, we are never taught the most important part of having a truly successful business. We’re never taught to focus on the patient experience. Just out of chiropractic school, I was no different. I was running what I believed was a successful practice. I was helping a lot of patients and making a lot of money.. At the same time, I was trying to wear too many hats – business owner, staff manager, doctor. Things were falling through the cracks without me knowing until it was too late. I will never forget the day one of my patients came in and told me he was thinking of killing himself. No doctor is every really prepared to hear something like this, much less, a young doctor, still learning. My patient’s name was Chris and he had come to see me for low back pain, something chiropractors see every day. He had received his report of findings, had proceeded with care, and was getting great results and relief from the pain. At his words, I felt shock. I asked what had happened. The story he told me was incredible. After coming to the class that I held for new patients, he had decided to turn his life around. Hearing the chiropractic message and learning how his health affected every aspect of his life as well as his family’s life, he had made a life-changing decision. He quit drinking. He quit drugs. He was going to get healthy for his wife and children and he was going to do it cold-turkey. But now, he felt like taking his own life. After listening to Chris’ story, I was amazed that he had been affected so deeply by the chiropractic message and thankful that he had truly understood it to the point that he was determined to change his health to improve the future for himself and his family. And, I’ll admit, I was proud that my class, my words, had been good enough to change a man’s life. Yet, how could someone who had understood the message on such a deep level now think of killing himself? Chris and I spoke about what he was feeling and how, after the years of punishment his body had been through, it was natural to have difficulty trying to achieve homeostasis again. I explained how the chemicals in his system had been affecting his whole life, including his thoughts and how things were now trying to balance out as his body fought to move toward health. He understood. He got it, just like he did the chiropractic message, and we continued care. Then came the day when I realized that Chris had not been in for a visit in a while. Chris had understood the chiropractic message so completely that he should have been a patient for life. I pulled his chart to find out what had happened. That is when it became clear that once again, something important had fallen through the cracks. Chris had missed appointments, yet we had not followed up with him. His care plan had expired and his billing was not in order. These things that are so vital to patient retention had been missed. I immediately called Chris to find out how he was and to set up an appointment for a follow-up. That is when I found out that Chris was dead. He had taken his own life, just like he had talked to me about. That is when I knew with complete certainty that the systems we had in place were not enough. We tried to call patients who missed appointments, follow-up on care plans, pre-arrange billing with patients, and so many other tasks every single day. Yet, sometimes, my staff became overwhelmed or simply forgot. Other times, they would give up calling a patient who had not responded. And, so many of our systems relied on memory, leaving my staff and I to juggle all of the responsibilities, hoping no one dropped the ball. We only knew to follow-up with patients when I or one of my staff realized someone had not been in to see us for a while. We only knew to check on insurance claims when someone remembered we had not been paid. I knew that other industries used different technologies and software to manage the customer experience. Yet, the Chiropractic profession had no software to manage the Chiropractic patient experience effectively. There were many chiropractic software companies and practice management softwares available. However, not a single one broke down the patient experience into manageable tasks. And, not one offered one simple daily report to let the doctor know whether the necessary tasks had been performed. Instead, they all forced the doctor to wade through piles of reports, to check each individual aspect of the practice, an ineffective and time-consuming chore, at best. To find a solution, I had to go outside of the chiropractic profession, to find out what big businesses use to manage the customer experience. Since that time, I have dedicated myself to finding a better technology to break down and manage every aspect of the patient experience and making it available to chiropractors. And, so that I would never forget the man who first opened my eyes to the necessity of managing the Chiropractic patient experience, I named my son Christian in his honor.
5 tips for successful patient relationship building on Facebook
Building relationships with your patients via social media such as Facebook is vital for the success and long-term profitability of your chiropractic clinic. Not only can it help you retain existing patients, but also get new ones through patient referrals in the form of shared content. In other words, if you provide value to your patients with your Facebook status updates rather than try to sell them on your new fancy equipment, they will be eager to share your useful content with everyone they know. Granted, there is no simple way to get patient referrals and you can never control the outcome of your online marketing initiatives, let alone make patients talk about you. However, you can improve your odds without having to invest more time into your online marketing activities by applying general social media conventions that have proven to be successful. Naturally, it can be difficult to figure out just what kind of status updates would accomplish your relationship-building goals without alienating any loyal patients and fans on Facebook. The best approach is clearly not a one-size-fits-all sales pitch about your services. Instead, provide educational info for the various chiropractic patient personas you treat at your practice in bite-size format for easy consumption and sharing. People always like to share useful content with their friends and family, which basically generates a virtual patient referral for you practice. Here are 5 tips for successful patient-relationship-building on your chiropractic fan page: Post images with text: Although a picture may be worth a thousand words, adding text on the actual image with an easy-to-use picture editor like Picmonkey increases the effectiveness of your message significantly. Don’t forget to add a few words in Facebook’s text box when posting your pic as status update, though, especially if your account is linked to Twitter. People have no reason to check out your ‘new photo’ if they have no clue what it even is about. Share a TIP: Start your status update with ‘TIP’ to draw people’s attention to it. Then offer a useful tip or even a brief checklist that can help improve the quality of life for one of your chosen patient personas. Remember to be very specific rather than general. Tell patients/fans what to expect: Add a clarifying statement when you post the link to your educational blog or video so that your patients and Facebook fan know what it is about and how long it will take them to watch it. For example: “Here is a brief article/video for moms with small children on how to prevent lower back pain.” No one likes to be ambushed into reading or watching a lengthy post. Call to action: People generally like to help other people and a call to action, such as “Please share this video with someone who suffers from lower back pain,” will no doubt result in at least a few shares. Ask simple questions for one-word answers: Most people don’t have the time or desire to respond with elaborate answers to any questions posted on Facebook. If you want your patients/fans to interact on your fan page you need to keep it simple and make it easy for them to respond with one word only. For example: “What does health mean to you in one word?” An additional benefit of this approach will be your improved Edge Rank on Facebook since comments carry more weight than “Likes,” which in turn will make your post appear in more people’s news feeds. By applying these tips to your daily Facebook status updates you should be able to build stronger relationships with your patients/fans and generate more patient referrals via Likes, shares and comments.
Chiropractic Marketing | Google+ communities for patient relationship management
Patient relationship management without a doubt makes up a key ingredient in any chiropractor’s success formula. Since online communities provide an incredibly useful vehicle for building relationships with your patients and getting valuable feedback from them, it only makes sense to use free Google+ communities to achieve your chiropractic business goal of building your dream practice. Naturally, it will be close to impossible for you to maintain more than one online community in between patient treatments and practice management activities. For that very reason it’s important to pick the most effective platform for building your online patient community. Just how can you determine which social media site is the best fit for your chiropractic clinic and patient personas? For starters, choosing a site that most people are already familiar with, such as Google, will certainly help getting your existing patients involved. Also keep in mind that not all of your patients possess the same level of internet savvy, so simplicity is a must. Once again, as the most popular search engine used worldwide Google has already proven that it provides user-friendly and effective features. Building on the success of Google search engines, the new Google+ communities make it easy for chiropractors to strengthen their relationships with existing patients while also attracting new ones and increase the patient flow at their clinics. By providing free chiropractic patient education and allowing patients to share their personal experiences or ask questions, your online community can function as the go-to place for expert information on various chiropractic topics. Ultimately, interactivity will be a catalyst for community growth– online, as well as off-line at your clinic. How to use Google+ communities for your chiropractic patient relationship management: Identify patients who have a specific shared interest (patient personas) Select an effective name for your community that will attract patient personas (e.g. ‘Tennis Elbow Relief,’ or ‘No More Headaches’). You should avoid using your clinic’s name for this online community since that will not attract people looking for info on the health issues you treat. Decide if you want the community to be an open or closed (exclusive membership for existing patients) group. Open communities will help you attract new patients while closed ones have little to no potential for growth. Choose if people who find your group via Google search need your permission to join. Edit your group’s profile information and set up categories for discussion and content sharing. Promote your new online community on your chiropractic website and in your patient emails.