COLUMN KEYS TO YOUR PRACTICE Be attractive A Ideas that will lead patients to your clinic BY ANGELO SANTIN build the presentation in a way that demonstrates your passion and taps into the audience’s emotion. They are more likely to be attracted to the story and ultimately act on your offer to have their spine checked. Getting out of your office and inter-acting with the public are some of the other ways you can attract people to chiropractic. Volunteer your time with a community group or sports team. Per-form a public health screening at a local health event or local business. It is im-portant to remember that when you are at these events you are representing the whole profession so do it with utmost professionalism. Also, don’t forget you are there to not just inform the public but inspire them, as again emotion calls people to action. Just be yourself and allow your passion for chiropractic to show and it will attract people to your practice like moths to a flame. There are members of your commu-nity that desperately need chiropractic and don’t know you exist. If the ideas in this article are performed artfully, it can lead to a large number of new patients being drawn to your practice. Do not make the mistake of having patients leave your practice as fast as they came in. Remember, when it comes to your practice work from the inside out. ttracting new patients is always a hot topic in the world of chiropractic. Many think that by satisfy-ing the unquenchable thirst for new patients, all will be well. This mindset can be detrimental to the sustainable growth of your practice. It is more important to attend to your current patients’ needs and have the best systems, including a gentle and effective technique. If you don’t deliver a great service, you will unfortunately find your-self constantly needing to fill your prac-tice with new patients – leading to fatigue and frustration. What if, instead of coming from a position of need to “get” new patients, we came from a position of abundance and the need to “attract” people to chi-ropractic? This is the best way I have found to build a practice. Referrals from your current patients tend to make the best new pa-tients. The key to increasing your pa-tients’ referral rate begins with you. You need to put yourself out there and be the main generator of referral conver-sations. Use your many patient encoun-ters to your advantage and seize the op-portunity to ask for a referral. It is important to time this conversa-tion right, however. The best moment to ask for a referral is when someone has had great results and is happy with care. All you need to do is listen to what they are saying and respond with a simple question: “That’s fantastic, who else do you know that can benefit from care the way that you have?” Rarely would someone come back with a blank answer, as almost everyone Attracting referrals internally has a loved one or friend with health is-sues. At this point, simply make an offer to check their loved one’s spine and let the patient go to work. Just make sure you care enough to follow up with them on their next appointment to ask them how their conversation went. Another way to attract people inter-nally is to give the tools to allow your staff and patients to refer members of your community to your practice. This is an area I admit I need to improve upon for myself. There are many scripts and tools you could give to your staff and patients to assist them in this pro-cess. A place to start may be just to train them in the script I gave you above. It is simple but can be very effective. Also remember, it is not only the script that is important; what matters more is the ability to convey passion and genuine concern for people’s health. Attracting referrals externally The definition of attraction is “some-thing that draws people by providing something of interest.” The chiropractic story, when told with passion and con-fidence, can be that something. You can take this message out to your commu-nity in a number of ways. One of the most effective ways to do this is through public speaking. I have written on this topic before, covering ways to organize a talk in a manner that would create emotion and interest in chiropractic. If we are trying to attract people to our practice, we need them to take action on the experience they have with us. It is proven that people act more on emotion than on facts. Ensure that your presentation is not just a bunch of information. The key is to ACTION STEPS CHECKLIST 1. Come from a position of abundance starting today (use affirmations if necessary). Act on the next patient’s positive experience by asking for a referral (repeat if desired). Commit to share your expertise at the next appropriate event in your community (repeat if that excites you). www.canadianchiropractor.ca 2. 3. DR. ANGELO SANTIN, DC, operates a busy subluxation-based family practice in Thunder Bay, Ont., and is president of the Thunder Bay Chiropractic Society. Dr. Santin is also a Carter Universal proficiency-rated chiropractic coach. He can be reached at [email protected] or 807-344-4606. 14 Canadian Chiropractor May 2015
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