April 2002

Active Marketing

by Dwight DeGeorge, D.C.

 People talk about referral practices, but what does it really mean to say you have a referral practice? What makes a referral practice great and how does it keep its momentum? Is it merely a time-based phenomenon? Does it come from a roll of the dice? What about office location? Does the office location have something to do with how extensive of a referral practice it can be?

            It is this author’s opinion that when measuring a practice by patient satisfaction, the perfect practice is built solely on patient referrals from current or past patients.

            When referred patients come into our office, I know they have been somewhat educated by the person who referred them. They walk in enthusiastic about experiencing chiropractic care in our office. During the report of findings they are readily accepting of the proposed care plan. When they come in already enthusiastic, they are more fun to work with, require less energy from the doctor, and need less of the doctor’s time to get their questions answered and needs met. This creates a vacuum allowing for practice growth.

            As far as financial arrangements, the referral patients enter the office with an idea of how much money they will have to pay for the service. The person making the referral appreciates and values the service and communicates this to their friend, relative or associate. They explain the service provided in the chiropractic office is worth the financial as well as time commitment. This is a natural component of the recommendation. Asking for money becomes less of an issue and happens with minimal confrontation in minimal time. This gives the practice financial growth.

            When this is commonplace in practice, the day to day experiences the patients encounter are coupled with technical competence of the care giver to meet or exceed the patients’ genuine needs even beyond what they anticipated. Our office does our best to NOT sell them on a set of unwanted needs. This provides the Office (Doctor) an opportunity to be independent of, ‘Gimmick Marketing,’ and time consuming needless advising. This is a practice with roots and strength that will bear fruit year round (A Successful Referral Practice). This is accomplished by addressing each individual’s physical comfort aspirations (A Functional Repositioning System), providing a great office experience, and educating patients in an interesting and memorable manner (Results Base Education).

            Chiropractic education is then achieved without overtones of the doctor, ‘preaching chiropractic,’ and avoids putting the patient in a state of emotional dis-ease. The interaction is personally relevant, interesting, creative, and desirable... everyone has a great time! When educating patients, doctors should never have a pre-determined agenda about life-related items they will discuss with the patient. Some doctors choose to work with a daily agenda, which requires the entire office staff, including the doctor to discuss and educate patients about a daily pre-defined topic. This could be an excellent way to educate a patient about chiropractic. In reality however, this idea fails miserably. When a patient, Sally, comes into her chiropractic office complaining about ‘low back pain’ and communicates how this condition is compromising her ability to care for her children and home. Sally is looking to her doctor for some information on how best to remedy her specific situation. Yet, the topic of the day happens to be, “Headaches.” Sally receives a load of information on how Chiropractic can help headaches. Great chiropractic information is then being provided to the wrong patient. What are the results? An opportunity is missed to provide any quality educational experience and the patient is likely to stay for a shorter time in the office under care.

            Each patient wants, expects and needs to be handled on an individual basis during each and every visit. This allows the patient to understand benefits of chiropractic and how it impacts the personal life they actually care the most about. The best way to educate an individual is to present the information in a personally relevant and interesting manner. This helps them to pay attention as well as retain the information provided. What better way to do this than to relay information that involves their personal concerns and personal lifestyle needs? The doctor must listen and understand each and every patient’s concerns on each and every visit and direct any communication to that concern.

            Patient’s who come in as referrals are much more likely to refer themselves. This builds greater practice momentum! In addition, the financial commitment in obtaining a referred patient is zero. There are no costs to the office for patient activation through referral mechanisms. No payment for the price of an ad campaign, mailer, time of a corporate or community lecture or screening... they just call or show up. For the doctor, this means financial momentum and financial independence.

            In our office, we practice the art of Honest Optimism through the use of genuine honesty (without the use of fear tactic) and non-judgmental caring. Part of this practice involves offering two types of care to patients who are candidates for both types. We honestly and simply explain we can meet their initial expectations as far as symptomatic relief by offering patch care. We explain relief during patch care will likely be temporary and then offer them postural correction care based on CBP® protocol. We explain the care program is one or the other and not a hybrid of both. The doctor needs to give and bend at times but should never compromise what they know to be right! The doctor must say what the patient needs to hear in the right way, at the right time, honestly and not succumb to what the patient simply wants to hear.

            When trying to develop new and better lines of cars, Chrysler corporation interviewed a group of individuals who liked the idea of owning a sports car but at the same time had families and wanted something with room and more safety features like a mini-van. The group created a hybrid car that brought both worlds together. When this car was made and released to a consumer market, it was a flop and did not sell! It was neither the dream machine nor a safe roomy family car. The hybrid was unable to meet or exceed the car buyers’ genuine needs. The hybrid did not sell because it was meeting a mix of needs experienced at different times and didn’t meet either set of immediate needs for those looking to purchase a vehicle. As it turns out, it fell into the category of Gimmick Marketing.

            Too many of us are convinced to utilize a gimmick-like approach to selling patients on their care plans. We believe through honest optimism and specific patient-based education relating to values in an immediate, interesting and if possible entertaining manner, a strong referral base will be founded and the perfect practice can be achieved.

            (Practice Growth) + (Financial Growth) + (Practice Momentum) + (Financial Independence) = The Perfect Practice.