CHIROPRACTIC EXCELLENCE

The Internet has now become one of the primary ways that practice members and prospective customers find out answers.

Do you help to direct them to congruent health related resources?

65% of people report access to the internet. A total of 74% of those with access use the Internet to find health information for themselves or family members. Disease-specific information is most frequently sought, followed by medication information, and then information about nutrition and exercise. Did you know that as a health care professional you can significantly build your relationship and loyalty with your customers by referring them to useful and helpful web sites?

Here are some short cuts to assist you to point your patients in the right direction…

1) Collect your patients email addresses and offer them a periodical email update service: Send out a periodical group newsletter with links to interesting health articles that align with your philosophy and services. Nowadays you can even remind some patients about their appointments via email.

Click Here To Find Out How To Send Powerful and Impacting Emails…

2) Get a web site: Not just an online business card - but one that has significant amounts of health related and even self-help information, which is regularly updated. There are chiropractic specific services that can help you with this.

3) Have a list of health sites that you regularly refer to yourself - link to these from your web-site, and try to set up reciprocal links from their site to yours.

Click Here To Visit My New Health Blog Suitable For Anyone To Read…

The Million Dollar Question

Many of us now call ourselves “Wellness DCs” or “Healthy Lifestyle Doctors” or some other impressive sounding title - I guess we are trying to differentiate our services from the other “garden variety” DCs? But these titles often are a reflection of us, and not a true reflection of how our customers really see us, or how they themselves behave. Maybe we exercise regularly, get adjusted every 1-2 weeks, keep a positive outlook, eat organic etc. But then we have 80% of our practice on monthly schedules, and have no discernable influence on their other healthy habits?

I suffered a daunting revelation when I upgraded my technique and scheduling systems to a more “wellness” driven focus. You see I used to spend ~15 minutes with each client, and they loved my soft-tissue techniques, and often complimented me on my ability to find the sore spots and to provide instantaneous relief from their musculoskeletal aches and pains. Not that there is anything wrong with this - but my mission is to improve the health and wellness of everyone that I can influence - not to be the natural alternative to Nurofen and Panadeine. And when I changed my technique to a neurological model, many left the practice before they could possibly experience the extra health benefits - why? “Because I didn’t rub their shoulders”!

So, what do YOUR clients really think of YOU? Here is the million dollar question to ask your practice members that will inform you of the truth…

“If you could come and have an adjustment whenever you wanted to, and it didn’t cost you anything, how often would you come?”

1) If the answer is, “Oh I’d come every single week, and sometimes even more”: Congratulations - you probably are truly a wellness DC - your clients truly comprehend the global benefits of an adjustment. They probably perceive the reduction in tension and stress, the improved sleep patterns, the maximised immunity, and the increases in energy after each adjustment.

2) “Oh, I’d come every 4-6 weeks”: Maybe you should replace the title “Wellness” with “Maintenance” DC. Your clients have probably discovered that if they go longer than 4-6 weeks, that their aches and pains start to increase in severity and regularity. Your periodical adjustments offer them effective and lasting pain relief.

3) “Oh, I’d come a 2-3 times a year”: I actually don’t quite understand this concept - maybe it’s because they get their car serviced twice a year, and go to the dentist twice a year, and floss their teeth twice a year, and make love twice a year? I’m not sure of what possible benefit two adjustments per year could have - maybe I underestimate the power of an adjustment?

4) “Oh, I’d come in whenever I had a problem”: Whoops, if you get a lot of this answer, then it is time to change your title to “garden variety DC”.

To take this question to the next level: If your practice members answer that they would like to come more often than they actually do - the next question to ask is - “What do we need to do to help you come as often as you would really like to?” - now its time to work out a strategy, schedule, fee, that makes their dream a reality…

Click Here To Find Out More About Practice Change Coaching…

Are You Relieving Your Patients’ Emotional Pains And Strains?

Whether or not we all agree on the theory that Subluxation is the cause of ALL illness - most DCs agree that there are three primary causes of Subluxation - Physical, Chemical and Mental.

At our TRT programs I ask the participants to rank these factors, and we always get 100% agreement - Emotional factors are by far the most common cause of Subluxation. So how does this revelation impact your every day clinical conversation and your adjusting procedures? Let me put this another way - what system/s do you have in place in your practice to identify and correct the emotional component which is causing most of your practice members, the majority of their problems?

What happens in your practice when someone is responding slower than you would expect, they keep exacerbating their condition, or you keep identifying the same recurring subluxations?

Here’s what it sounds like in most chiropractic offices: “Well Fred, what did you do on the weekend - did you do any gardening or lifting? Tell me about your office chair at work. How many hours do you spend in front of the computer? Are you doing some exercises? What position do you sleep in? Tell me more about that car accident you had 55 years ago.”

Notice something missing? Where were the questions to identify the emotional cause, let alone the second most common cause of subluxation - chemical? Physical, physical, physical…

Do you want to be a wellness chiropractor and not a back doctor? Then you need to connect with your practice members on an emotional level. This has got nothing to do with counseling or psychology, and it’s definitely not about finding new referrals for the Beyond Blue program. But it is about providing your customers with a more holistic service…

Next time you find yourself in the above scenario, stop yourself before you blow the opportunity for a learning moment, and try this instead…

“So Fred, why do you think that your body is having trouble getting better as fast as YOU would like?” Fred’s usual answer will be “well I d’know, your the doctor?”

“Have I told you that there are actually three causes of subluxation? There’s the obvious one, the physical stuff that happens to you and that you do to yourself. Then there’s chemical stuff; you know, all the toxic stuff that we eat and drink, and all the poisons that exist around us in our homes and in the environment, like allergies. Then the one you might not have thought of before, is the mind - this is actually the most common and the most severe cause of subluxation. Fred, can you think of any mental or emotional stuff in your life that might be creating stress inside your body?” Now don’t drop the ball, stay silent until Fred comes up with some ideas… Then adjust him as per usual.

Like I said, this doesn’t have to lead to a psychotherapy or hypnotherapy program; just the therapeutic power of the identification and connection of HIS emotional stuff with his subluxation will astound you….

Click Here To Find Out More About Chiropractic Coaching…