UPFRONT | Columnist BUSINESS TALK It’s (probably) your fault I Taking responsibility in business practice BY ANTHONY J. LOMBARDI n business practice, success is usually due to a team effort, but undera-chievement is almost always your fault. The first step is to understand that a business problem is nearly always a personal problem in disguise. Our health, the health of others, our re-lationships, and financial issues are all common roadblocks to business success. Or sometimes it’s because we don’t love what we do. It could even be that we en-tered chiropractic school because we felt pressure from our families, ourselves, or society to do “something.” Whatever the problem is, we must rec-ognize how it is preventing us from achieving our business goals. Here I will outline and review four common practice issues that you can correct once you real-ize it’s your fault. 1. Practice is slow, and you are not generating referrals Practices do not become slow or success-ful overnight -what we do daily makes it so. Your practice could be slow for many reasons. But slow patient flow doesn’t reflect your lack of business acumen, it demonstrates your ability as a practi-tioner. You may be a lousy clinician, you do not have a systematic approach at assessment, or your history taking is in-consistent. Whatever it is, it’s you that is the common denominator in the lack of patient flow. Some chiropractors blame the construction on the street that decreased car traffic or the changes in insurance coverage -but many practices experience those hiccups and still produce successful outcomes. If you are not offering the patient a quality experience, they mostly have nothing to talk about. Talk generates buzz and buzz produces patient referrals. It would help ANTHONY LOMBARDI, DC, is a private consultant to athletes in the NFL, CFL and NHL, and founder of the Hamilton Back Clinic, a multidisciplinary clinic. He teaches his fundamental EXSTORE Assessment System and practice building workshops to various health professionals. For more information, visit www.exstore.ca. 10 Canadian Chiropractor February 2020 if you aspired to be significantly better than the majority of your peers. It would be best if you strived to give your patient a consistently positive patient experience that they have never had at any chiropractic visit before you. 2. Patients are not re-booking after an initial assessment The failure of patients to adhere to the treatment plan and book subsequent visits could very likely be due to part of what I spoke about in number 1. However, many times it’s because of the disconnect that happens from the time they leave the treatment room and arrive at your front desk. If your front-end staff does not correctly direct the patient, they can quickly go without re-booking. For www.canadianchiropractor.ca © fizkes / Adobe Stock
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