The Secrets of Doubling Your Practice

US Chiropractic Directory

"Preferred Listing Consulting"
 

　From the Desk of Mark Studin DC, FASBE(C), DAAPM, DAAMLP

 

"The Secrets of Doubling (2X) Your Practice"

　

To double your practice, the equation is very simple; you don’t need to double the people you know, you need to double the people who know you. That truism has been in place forever and it couldn’t be truer today.
 

Doubling the number of people that know you is a form of networking and advertising. In today’s economy with managed care and cash patients, it is often hard to maintain any advertising program. A one-hit-wonder ad campaign is the quickest way to "separate a fool and his money." In other words, unless you have the expendable income to sustain an ad campaign over time, save your money. Rarely does a one-time ad pay for itself. Occasionally, you capture "lightening in a bottle," but that is the exception.
 

When looking to double the people that you know, you have to look both within your practice and your community. The single best way to for internal exposure is to use the US Chiropractic Directory. If you haven’t already, go in to the consulting area and read "How to Use the US Chiropractic Directory to Get New Patients" (uschirodirectory.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&cid=64:doctors-consulting&id=169:how-to-use-the-uc-chiropractic-directory-to-get-new-pateints-part-1&Itemid=129). This will give you the tools and the forms to increase your exposure exponentially without ever leaving your office and your patients, who already love you, will be your "delegates of goodwill."
 

External exposure is a whole different ballgame.Through the years, many have done health fairs and been active in service organizations, such as rotary or the chamber of commerce and I strongly advise you to participate in these types of organizations. Personally, I was an active member in the chamber of commerce because they meet monthly, unlike the service organizations that meet weekly. It was simply too much of my time.
 

My single biggest practice builder for my family practice in 30 years was health fairs. Nothing was as successful as those where I brought a simple set of bilateral scales and an infrared temperature device. I would simply put people on the bilateral scales and if it was off by more than 10%, I would share with the person that he/she had a potential problem in his/her lumbo-pelvic area. If the temperature reading at the C1 area was more than 10% off, I would suggest that he/she had an upper cervical problem.
 

I brought posters of the autonomic nervous system and the spine nerve chart to the extremities with me and after I explained the results using the charts, I offered to bring the person into my office, as a public service (no fee), to do a more complete evaluation. I brought my appointment book with me and made an appointment with him/her on the spot. When I got back to my office, my staff called to confirm the appointment. 50% kept the appointment and 75% showed up. Almost 80% of those who showed up became patients.
 

Another very, very simple way of doubling the people who know you is with your business cards. My friend was a dentist, and we brainstormed together about building practices. The single simplest common denominator was business cards. In fact, we had a contest and the loser had to buy dinner for the other. We consistently gave out over 1000 cards per month for years.

You have to determine your commitment and resolve to be successful. There are rules of success and rules of failure; follow the rules you want...Duhhhh!
 

In every setting, either business or social, a moment presents itself when you can share your business card with someone and if that moment doesn’t arrive, creatively bring the conversation around to business and ask the person what they do. Once you have established that, share with them what you do and always whip out your business card. This is acceptable business etiquette.
 

One of the best ways to double your practice is to double your patient visit average (PVA). Consultants are always asking what your PVA is and for good reason. That tells us if the doctor is educating his/her patients effectively. The equation is simple; take the total number of office visits over a 3 month moving average and divide that by the number of new patients that you had during that time. The results are very revealing and in a different consultation I will dissect how to understand PVA and how to move up the list by getting your patients to stay for more visits only because it is clinically indicated.
 

A report of findings is one of the best avenues to communicate with patients and get them to understand their care and keep the recommended visits. I will also be spending a lot of time with you in another consultation on how to effectively render a report of findings. These are the basics; double the people that know you, both internally in your practice and externally in your community. Increase your PVA for the right reasons (as clinically indicated) and give a quality chiropractic report of findings so your patients understand their care and can choose the care they want.
 

We have only touched on a very few items in this consultation and over time, we will be covering so much more.