Proactive Technology for a Proactive Profession
Chiropractors are by our nature proactive. For our patients, Chiropractic is a new way to look at health. We educate our patients about the necessity of caring for their spine and nervous system in the prevention of health problems. It is therefore ironic that the one area where this has not been true has been in the technology and software we have used to operate our practices. This one area that is vital to the health and success of our business has instead been relegated to old methodologies, old ways of building technology, and ineffective, reactive approaches. So, what does it mean to have a proactive technology? How can changing from a reactive to a proactive approach improve the management of the patient experiences and result in 62% higher collections per visit, 26% better patient retention, and 32% higher documentation compliance? Let’s look at it from the same perspective as a patient being introduced to Chiropractic for the first time. Do they think it’s possible, when they come in for their lower back pain, that what they are about to learn could totally revolutionize their health? No. Do they know that it could improve the function of their body and therefore alleviate the headaches they’ve had all their lives, improve their child’s asthma, and lower their husband’s high blood pressure? Of course not. They don’t even think it’s possible to get those kind of results because they have an outdated health paradigm, or an outdated technology. They are looking at it from a reactive paradigm. Yet, when these same patients are educated and begin to learn about the spine, the control the nervous system has over the functioning of their bodies, and the way Chiropractic benefits their overall health, then it all starts to make sense. From their new proactive paradigm, they are able to understand and achieve improvements in their health that they would never have thought possible before. It is the same when you look at the technology used to manage your Chiropractic office. With the out-dated, reactive system used in so many practices, you have to go find what work needs to be done before you can do it. If you want to follow up on an insurance claim, you have to go to some aging report, find the claim, and then work through the steps. This means you have to probe and actively go find the work before you do it. No one knows, including the owner, how much work was supposed to happen that day versus how much actually did happen. You have cash flow reports, no-show reports, no future appointment reports, expired care plans, compliance reports, billing reports. The list of reports to check the work of a single day is exhausting. Even worse, this type of system leaves you always reactive. You are never preventing problems and encouraging growth. You are just putting out fires. But, with a proactive technology, your office operates from a whole new paradigm. In my next post, I will walk you through and demonstrate how this new proactive paradigm leads to the proven results I mentioned earlier – higher profits per visit, retention, and compliance.
How to Create a Patient Experience Like The Biggest Business in the World
We talked about how Big Business is using Big Data to measure, track, and manage the customer experience. Amazon, Apple, Zappos and many others are making sure that every customer interaction is analyzed and quantified to continuously improve. In the process they are building a huge base of loyal customers and grabbing more and more market share. So, why in a profession like Chiropractic that is so rooted in taking care of our patients, has the patient experience been an afterthought? To answer that question, you have to look at the basis big firms use to manage the customer experience…Big Data. Big Data uses technology and software that tracks every interaction and critical task, analyzes it, and breaks it into easily actionable information. This process is what has made it possible for Big Business to not only understand and react to their customer’s current preferences but also to anticipate the customer’s future needs, innovate, and adapt quickly to market changes. This enterprise level methodology focuses on three key things – People, Processes, and Technology. It is a secret that Big Business has known for years. The technology they use does not come cheap. In fact, each company continually invests tens of millions in their software to achieve that perfect customer experience. Knowing this, it’s easy to see why individual chiropractors and other small businesses have not been able to keep up and also why the management of the patient care experience in most chiropractic offices has not achieved the attention it deserves up to this point. The Chiropractic software on the market now is 20 years behind, an eternity in the technology race. And, current practice management technologies are built on antiquated software platforms, written in old software languages, and not in the cloud. This makes them impossible to update. Most chiropractic software today is built to sell licenses to doctors rather than to help chiropractors create an enterprise level patient experience. Without this “enterprise level” technology, Chiropractors have unknowingly been stuck in a time warp. We have been left to rely on lists of things that need to be done each day, laying the burden on our staff and our own memories for follow-up and follow through on important patient experience tasks. At best, some Chiropractors may have been using outdated Chiropractic software to print endless reports to go through and check task completion. Insurance billing, unpaid claims, missed patient visits, expired care plans…To read every report necessary to ensure that all tasks effecting the patient experience have been completed is impossible. Adding even more difficulty, Chiropractors must act as both the business owner and an active employee. This is like being the conductor of the orchestra and the violin player. There is not enough time for the Doctor to do their own work and manage the staff. Effective management consists of three steps: quantify, delegate, verify. With a reliance on an endless number of reports that there is never enough time to even look at, there is no possible way to complete all three management steps for every task that is critical to the patient experience. Without completing these three steps of quantify, delegate, and verify, Chiropractors cannot complete the most important step – analysis of the results and improvement of their process. When the patient care experience is not improved and modified over time, Chiropractors are unable to take their business to the next level. They are stuck guessing about what does and doesn’t work without any real data to back up their decisions. They manage their business like treating symptoms, putting out fires but never getting to the cause of the problem. Their process never becomes systematic and scalable. Instead, it depends wholly on their own energy to drive its growth and sustainability. If that approach isn’t good enough for Big Business, why should it be good enough for us as Chiropractors. We have a duty not only to ourselves, to make our practice successful, but also to our patients, to give them the best patient experience possible. To do this, Chiropractors must use the same technology and software methodologies employed by companies like Amazon and Zappos. We have to start leveling the playing field and apply the principles of Big Data in our own practices. Patient experience has to become the call to action in Chiropractic that customer experience is in Big Business. And, it has to happen now. When we add in Chiropractic software and billing at the enterprise level of technology used by Big Business, the results are a predictable patient experience, increased patient loyalty, scalable operations, increased patient retention, improved patient compliance, more revenue per visit, , more patient referrals, decreased management time, and increased staff efficiency. Isn’t that what we all want for our business and our patients?
Chiropractic Business Tips: How Big Business is Focusing on the Customer Experience
How’s the Chiropractic Patient Experience at your office? For Big Business, there is one thing that is surpassing all other marketing efforts and that is the customer experience. Major firms are investing millions into “Big Data”, developing software and technology to quantify, track, and manage the customer experience in a bid to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and of course, the bottom line. From Apple to Amazon to Zappos to the Ritz Carlton, large companies are turning away from traditional customer service models and using cutting edge technology to ensure every customer interaction is managed down to the smallest detail. Just look at how four of the biggest names at the forefront of customer experience have changed the landscape of customer interactions forever. From the very beginning, Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, focused on the customer first saying, “We start with the customer needs and work backwards.” Amazon’s technology allows them to capture huge amounts of data on every customer interaction, letting them anticipate real-time customer needs, like with their “Frequently Bought Together” and “You Might Also Like” sections. The information they capture also helps Amazon respond to changing customer needs and innovate to stay ahead of the competition. One of the first pioneers of the customer experience, Apple has broken down each customer interaction into 5 steps. Each step must be completed by a staff member to create a successful customer experience and achieve their goal of “a customer for life”. This customer-centric focus has made Apple the most profitable retailer, with the highest revenue per square foot of retail space, on the planet. Ritz-Carlton is another major company who has broken down the steps of each process they use to create a perfect guest experience. From their 3 steps of service required for every interaction with a guest to the over 30 steps housekeepers must complete just to make the bed, staff members know exactly how many tasks are necessary to achieve Ritz-Carlton perfection. And, not to be left out of the Big Data drive, every Ritz-Carlton employee is trained to use a database that keeps track of guest preferences from favorite drinks to bedtime snacks, allowing them to completely customize every guest experience. Even before their acquisition by Amazon, Zappos founder, Tony Hsieh, literally wrote the book on managing the customer experience. Zappos uses technology to track customer behavior, personalize each experience, and create the “Wow factor” the company is known for. Using Big Data, all four of these companies are applying and adapting to customer feedback. From improving their products and services and finding new opportunities for growth, to personalizing the customer experience, large companies are leveraging technology to capture market share and increase revenue. The question we have to ask ourselves is, with this push by Big Business to manage and improve the customer experience through technology, are small businesses being left behind, unable to compete?
Own the Phone with Spencer Peller
Spencer Peller is the Co-Founder and CEO of YesTrak and Founder and CEO of MyDoctorCalls. He is also the author of the new book Own the Phone! Today’s training is all about your telephone! If you’re a business owner, you know how important your telephones really are. This training will help you understand every aspect of answering the phone. It’s also a great training for your staff, so make sure you send this link to them and tell them to watch it. Click the interview below to get started… For more information about YesTrak: Visit: www.YesTrak.com Call: (800) 620-5877 Send email to info@yestrak.com
