Build a Huge Practice

From the Desk of Mark Studin DC

“Communication is the Key”

The first step is actually the easiest; it’s the following steps that require patience, persistence and work.

If anyone tells you that building a practice is easy, or that they can do it for you….grab your money and run for the hills…The truth is, learning how to build a huge practice is easy, doing it isn’t. If it was, then everyone would have a huge practice and most don’t.

The first step is to tab this site, so that each week you can come back and learn more on how to build your practice. I and my other consultants will be outlining every step, in different areas of your practice so that your office is constantly filled and you can focus on the health care portion and not the micromanagement. That will only be accomplished through implemented systems.

A great place to start communicating with your patients is to gather all of your patient’s e-mail addresses. My mentors have taught me the concept of R-R-R. Repeat and Review with Regularity. Once your patients get under care you need to educate them, constantly. E-mailing them is one of the least expensive, yet most powerful avenues in communicating with patients.

Most patients, young and old alike read their e-mails. Therefore, every other week we will be creating a message for your patients and sending it to them on your behalf. This will be coming from you to them and the message will centered around keeping their appointments, understanding chiropractic and various topics on chiropractic related health issues. We will be avoiding any negative issues and keeping the message on point, to get well….Keep your appointments and do what the doctor tells you.

There are many services that have created e-mail messages for patients and they are all great, in-depth and “magazine-like” in quality. After reviewing many of them and testing them on patients, the feedback is that they are too extensive. Most patients have very little free time and will take a cursory glance, therefore everything after the first 2-3 paragraphs will not be read by the majority of patients.

As a result, we will create a target message that will be rendered in 2-3 short paragraphs to fit into the lifestyle of the “Busy Patient.” What good is page after page of beautiful work if no one is reading it? A quick message gets across often more powerfully then a long story. What sells more, the 20 second ads on TV or the 1 hour talk shows about the same product? The answer is simple, the 20 second ad, as long as it is persistent, yet non-intrusive.

You need to start collecting e-mail addresses for your patients and put them in a directory so you can easily send them with 1 key-stroke.

To get the patient to want to give you their e-mail, simply have a form at the front desk that your staff gives them upon entering the office that explains an e-mail address is essential in communicating to them should they not be available to let them know you have test results, scheduling changes and pertinent health information should they not be reachable via telephone.

As a side note, you will want to communicate with them if you have test results or scheduling changes if you can’t reach them via telephone.

Dr. Studin is a chiropractor and the President of CMCS Management, Inc. The company specializes in helping doctors build strong personal injury practices and can be found at www.teachchiros.com. Dr. Studin also heads up CMCS Post Doctoral Division that offers cutting edge “on-line” continuing education courses that can be found at www.teachdoctors.com.

Doctors Consulting Communication is the Key