How reproducible is your chiropractic care? Is it driven and supported by solid systems that give your practice members confidence and trust or are you relying more on your charisma and personality to bring people back in for care? Charm can and does work for your business, but only in the short term; it does not build a brand. Relying solely on your likeability is unsustainable; once you withdraw your energy for a holiday or illness, people will stop coming. PROVIDE TOP NOTCH CUSTOMER SERVICE Customer service isn’t just a great slo-gan; it is a must in today’s economy. With the advent of social media and reputation reviews, sloppy, inconsistent or average customer service will just not cut it anymore. Great customer service is where the bar is set in today’s market-place. Exceptional customer service is the only thing that gets noticed in to-day’s fast-paced busy world. likely to purchase from a company again if they have already purchased once. Staying on their customers’ radar screen has always been a priority for these strong-brand companies. It is even more important in today’s information-based age where the average person is bom-barded by 3,500 sensory bits of market-ing data every day to buy some new product or service. Many of these mar-keting campaigns are quite creative and intriguing, and can lead people away from your valuable service if you don’t stay on their minds. This is definitely a weak link for most chiropractic offices I have coached and consulted with over the years. It just does not seem to be top-of-mind for most docs and their teams. They assume people will find their way back to the practice if and when they are ready. These are usually the same offices that complain about the new chiropractor in town who is actually getting his/her message out to the community. team. They invest in recruiting great team members who support the vision and value proposition of the company/ brand. They continuously train these team members very well. They also re-ward them with competitive salaries and bonus options for performance. Historically, this has been a weakness in the chiropractic brand. The average assistant stays for about two years in a chiropractic office, and the most com-mon reasons they leave are financial and lack of training. Is your mission important enough to have others assist in manifesting it? Is your short, mid-and long-term vision clear enough to know how many team members you need and in what roles? Do you have a recruiting strategy? Do you have an ongoing training program? Do you pay a competitive salary and have bonuses that inspire? These are all important things to focus on to grow your brand. HAVE A SUCCESSION PLAN “Exceptional customer service is the only thing that gets noticed in today’s fast-paced, busy world.” Staying up-to-date on the latest trends in chiropractic and natural health care is a good starting point for delivering exceptional customer service. Attending seminars and continuing education programs to keep your finger on the pulse of the profession and to continu-ally upgrade your adjusting skills and/or diagnostic and assessment skills is wise. Training your team in customer ser-vice and rewarding them for going above and beyond always bear fruit. Remem-bering people’s first names and their family members’ names, where they work, what their interests and hobbies are show people how much you care. Having theme weeks and events, ad-vanced health talks, doctor’s dinners are some of the ways to interact and engage your community are standard ways to focus on high-level customer service. Marketing your practice is so much easier today than it was before the digi-tal age. You can use electronic tools like e-mail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, text messaging, YouTube, Google+ and Instagram, to name a few inexpensive or free ways to connect with and stay in touch with your patient base. On your intake forms, are you asking patients the best ways to connect with them? Are you investing time and energy to develop a database, keep it current, and develop interesting and informative posts and data to send to your clients? If not, someone else is going to be com-municating to them and that is not good for your brand or your business. HAVE COMMITTED TEAMS THAT SUPPORT THE VALUE PROPOSI-TION – AND REWARD THEM STAY IN TOUCH WITH CLIENT COMMUNITY REGULARLY 28 Canadian Chiropractor June 2015 Statistically, people are 17 times more Any person or company that wants to make a lasting impact on the commu-nity realizes they cannot make nearly as big an impact on their own than as a Leaders behind strong brands like Nike, Starbucks and BMW believe so strongly in the value proposition they are offering to the marketplace that they develop succession plans to ensure the value perpetuates long after their role in their company is complete. This takes strong leadership, powerful and reproducible systems, and a committed team that sees the big picture; but it is certainly doable – and worth the effort. Is what we do every day as chiroprac-tors valuable enough to outlive us? Should the cumulative wisdom, skill and talent we have developed through the years die with us, or should we pass the torch on to other generations so our communities can continue to be served at the high level they have become ac-customed to in our offices? I know the answer for me, which is why I created a succession plan in my practice and why I am helping others do the same. Building a strong, reproducible and recognizable brand should be the goal of every business, regardless of its size. If we, as chiropractors, have the fore-sight, courage and wisdom to build our individual brands based on the seven foundational principles addressed in this article, we will effectively build the global brand of chiropractic as well as be as busy and fulfilled as we choose to be in our own practices. www.canadianchiropractor.ca
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