I prefer to think of each day at my chiropractic clinic as a football game for 2 reasons.
1. It makes practice more fun when I associate it with something I love, which is competitive and/or sports related.
2. It makes it easier to explain how the office should work to the staff, since they usually all understand the basics of the game.
Often my chiropractic consulting clients approach their practice in the same way only to gain a different perspective on their practice.
In this approach, a new game begins each day, and each interaction with a patient or potential patient is a game within that daily game. Maybe you have 20 plays a day right now or possibly 80 plays a game. Also, at any given time in your office, there might be 2, 3, 4, or even 10 games going on at the same time.
There might be a person checking in, a person on the phone, a person getting an adjustment, and someone getting a massage; That yes there are 4 plays that are running at the same time inside your office. And while everyone has a role on the team to ensure every play is executed to perfection, in this article I want to focus on where every play begins … in the front office.
The front office is the ‘quarterback’ position of your clinic and, like that position on any other team, should be considered one of the most respected areas within any practice.
Anytime the front office starts interacting with anyone… that’s the start of a play. And just like with any play in soccer, if you drop the ball early on, there’s a good chance the rest of the play will break up.
There are 3 basic plays that take place in every practice every day and if we can make sure they start with a perfect cross of the ball through excellent customer service, chances are they will result in a first down.
play 1 – Incoming calls
To make sure that every call that comes into your clinic starts out as a perfect move, make sure to smile as you answer the phone.
Speak enthusiastically and almost slightly faster than normal speed and tone of voice. This will ensure that the person on the other end who is listening to you gets a good vibe or ‘feeling’ from you by preventing you from inadvertently sending them a bad vibe.
Also, use superlatives when talking to a new or existing patient to ensure again that they enjoy their interaction with you. Phrases like “Sounds GREAT (‘Good’ verses)” or “That’s GREAT (‘Good’ verses)” used in your daily dialogue can have a big impact on the success of the call and patient follow-up.
play 2 – New patient visit
You’ll remember from school that if your body temperature rises even a little, it can push you into a fight or flight mode; in other words, it can put you on guard.
When a new patient enters your clinic for the first time, you want to make sure that they are not uncomfortable in any way in their new chiropractic home. Leaving a patient in a state of limbo, confusion, or tension due to lack of care or poor customer service is a broken game from the start.
To ensure an almost immediate bond and a smooth start for all new patients, make sure…
Call patients by name
Get up and shake hands
smile at them
offer them water
Bring their forms to them in their flesh on the forehead
Show them around the clinic
Explain benefits and payment due so there is no uncomfortable stress or “questions” from patients.
play 3 – Existing patient visit
Existing patients are actively on your schedule and come every day, every week and every month; therefore, they are where most of your clinic’s profits come from, and therefore where most of your clinic’s profits come from.
Because of your importance to the stability and growth of your clinic, you must continue to provide existing patients with the same high level of service that you provide to new patients.
For new patients, I mentioned that to make sure they have a ‘wow’ experience, you can give them a tour of the facility and bring them their paperwork or water. However, with existing patients, you need to look for opportunities to ‘wow’ them and provide an experience beyond what they expect.
For example, let’s say an existing patient comes in for a visit with billing or insurance questions they need help with, and you use an outside billing company. Instead of just saying, “Here’s the number for the billing company we use; give them a call and they can help you,” go for them. Tell them that you will call the billing company on their behalf to let them know and that the billing company will contact them today or tomorrow. And then follow up with the patient to make sure her concerns have been resolved.
Another example might be if they come in and it seems like they’re a bit down or having a bad day, they start their ‘game’ in the office by bringing them a glass of water or just having a little extra dialogue with the patient to try and brighten their day a bit. .
So you have to look for those opportunities; but considering that it’s less expensive to keep patients than you have to find new ones, you need to make sure you go the extra mile to maintain a level of customer service that is A. beyond what patients expect and B. consistent every day.
There will be broken plays at some point during the game… it just happens. However, and all of my chiropractic training clients can attest to this, if you make the effort to start each game with strong customer service, then there is a significantly higher chance that each game will result in a victory and that sends the whole team home every night feeling great for the day.
