0:00

Chiropractors,

0:00

what are your patient retention strategies look

0:02

like? Hi

0:04

everybody. Welcome to the KC ChiroPulse

0:07

podcast brought to you by Kats Consultants and ChiroHealth

0:09

USA. I'm Dr. Michael Perusich

0:12

and I'm joined by my co host, Dr. Troy Fox.

0:14

Troy patient retention, kind

0:16

of important, right? Oh,

0:18

it, uh, I think there's probably nothing

0:20

more important than patient retention strategies.

0:23

If you want to be happy in your practice,

0:25

if you don't want to grow it longterm. Yeah. If

0:27

you don't want to be the dog chasing your tail

0:29

all the time, you have to have patient retention

0:32

and it's very easy to do. That's the crazy

0:35

thing about it is it's a, it's something

0:37

that once you build into your practice, it

0:40

is so helpful. All

0:43

it does is breeds more communication with

0:45

your patients. So it's

0:47

just a, it's a wonderful concept from start

0:49

to finish. It really

0:51

is. Just to kind of lay out what do

0:53

we mean by patient retention strategies in case

0:55

you don't know out there, we're just talking about retaining

0:57

patients in care. So, and

1:00

that takes on a couple of different phases. One is

1:03

retaining patients in the acute phase

1:05

of care so that you get the outcomes that you

1:07

hoped you would get for them, but also

1:10

retaining them in the practice long term

1:12

for long term chiropractic care,

1:14

maintenance care, wellness care, whatever you call

1:16

it in your practice. You know what I'm talking about?

1:19

And because it's at that point

1:21

when you retain patients, it's

1:23

at that point that they become very important

1:26

people to your practice. They

1:28

become your soldiers,

1:30

your advocates out in the community

1:33

talking up great things about you and

1:35

patient retention strategies not only help you grow

1:37

your practice, help you have a happier

1:39

practice, but it,

1:42

it, it helps you get

1:44

more referrals. And Tori, I don't know about you,

1:46

but would you rather have more referrals

1:48

or do you want to go out there and do spinal screenings

1:50

all day long?

1:51

I want more referrals all day long

1:54

and you really look at it. And this

1:56

is something I say to a lot of my patients

1:58

are our goal in this office for

2:00

you is that we get patients

2:03

well, and that we keep you

2:05

well, and I put more

2:07

focus on keeping you well.

2:10

Then I do getting you well, and I think

2:12

as chiropractors, we know

2:14

that is really the end game

2:16

in the longterm when we start talking about

2:18

Wolf's law and we start talking about plastic deformation

2:22

and DJD and knowing that it is not a disease

2:24

of old age. Otherwise,

2:26

why did your fifth lumbar age 30 years

2:28

faster than your L4 L5

2:30

disc space, so we know as well

2:33

that degenerative changes happen dramatically

2:36

in certain areas of the spine and they happen

2:38

as a result of loss of range of motion

2:40

there as happened as a result of hypoxia

2:43

in the joint. They happen as a

2:45

result of, then the degenerative

2:47

changes that happen, the loss of basically

2:49

the annular fibers. I mean, we get into

2:51

all the details, but we know

2:53

this already. We learned this in school. So

2:56

why are we not. Imploring

2:59

to our patients that they change their paradigm

3:02

from a 9 1 1 or

3:04

a, what I want to call it an, acute

3:07

care clinic.

3:08

What is it? You always call it

3:09

the owie practice practice.

3:12

Yeah. So the only time you go is when you have

3:14

an alley and it's bad enough. That

3:16

you can't, it's always the, I have a

3:18

wedding tomorrow. I need you to get me better. That's

3:21

that's the owie practic approach rather

3:23

than, Hey, how you doing today? Oh, I'm

3:25

doing great. So what are we working on today?

3:28

Anything in particular that's given you any problems

3:30

or we just tuning you up? I mean, literally

3:32

that's a conversation that you have with

3:35

people that are long term wellness patients

3:37

because they want to be well.

3:38

Okay. So let's talk a little bit about why sometimes

3:41

we don't get to that point with a patient.

3:43

Why? Why does, why do patients sometimes leave

3:46

the practice too early? I mean, we could probably

3:48

spend two hours on this part, but I

3:51

think it's an important topic to bring up. What

3:53

do we see with practices that we work with

3:55

and in our practices? Why do patients

3:57

leave

3:58

early? Number one, poor

4:00

communication.

4:02

We can, we get a drum roll, please. Absolutely.

4:05

That's communication.

4:06

And sometimes that is trying

4:09

to drive a nail until you drive it all the way

4:11

through the board. In other words, some of you

4:13

are not realizing that your

4:15

patients have already consulted dr. Google before

4:18

they came in today. Truly they know, they know

4:20

their condition inside and out. Some

4:23

are the ones that just say, lay

4:25

down on the table. Oh, yep. Right

4:27

there. Yep. You've got, you know, is that

4:29

hurt right there? Okay, I'm going to adjust that. And

4:31

you have really haven't explained to the patient what's

4:33

going on. So I think communication from

4:36

the get go is very important. And I think it's

4:38

important for the patient to understand your

4:40

practice philosophy and what

4:42

your goal is for them and doesn't

4:45

align with their goal. And I think it's important

4:47

that you find out if you align with their

4:49

goal. Once you do that, your communication

4:51

job becomes much easier because now you're

4:53

working together as a team. Okay.

4:57

And communication goes

4:59

really deep here. So when patients

5:01

come in, they have a feeling, right? They feel

5:04

pain, but they can't

5:06

always verbalize that pain. And

5:08

so we've got to help them bring

5:11

it from a feeling To

5:13

a verbalization and

5:15

then take it to a realization of

5:17

how chiropractic can fit into that

5:19

for them and how there is a need

5:22

for ongoing care because what happens

5:24

far too many people come in. They've got an alley.

5:27

You get them out of the alley. And

5:29

they think that's why they were there unless

5:32

we've communicated with them to

5:34

help them with that realization that it's more

5:37

than just the owie and I'm not talking about,

5:39

I'm not talking about a two hour spinal

5:42

care class on day one here, not

5:44

at all. It's really a different

5:46

approach and we don't have time today to get into the approach

5:48

of, of how you break this down. But when

5:50

you bring that realization to the patient's mind,

5:52

then all of a sudden they realize they're there for a

5:55

different reason. They're not just there for the

5:57

owie and to give you a great example, the

5:59

orthodontist, what does the orthodontist do?

6:01

You go to the orthodontist. Why? Because you don't like how your

6:03

teeth look. They probably don't

6:06

even hurt. I mean, I don't

6:08

know, maybe they do. I didn't have braces. But, um,

6:11

and they talk about going through this

6:14

treatment plan for 18 to 24

6:16

months. Sounds familiar, right? Yeah,

6:19

go through this treatment plan that

6:22

is going to do what? It's going to straighten your teeth up, and

6:26

it's not just going to be how straight your teeth are.

6:28

It's going to be how great your smile is. So

6:31

did they, did people come in because they don't like

6:33

their smile? That may have been part of it, but

6:35

they don't like their teeth. They don't like how

6:37

their teeth look. So it wasn't necessarily

6:40

their smile. It's just how their teeth looked, maybe

6:42

they would bite into an apple and they'd get half of it stuck

6:44

between their front teeth because of the gap or something,

6:47

so we've got to take it to that.

6:49

extra step because here's what the orthodontist

6:51

did. It's not just I'm going to straighten

6:53

your teeth out, but I'm going to put

6:56

you on a plan of probably

6:58

lifetime care that may include

7:00

retainers, partial

7:03

retainers. It may include Invisaligns

7:06

to help keep your teeth straight. It

7:08

may include permanent retainers that

7:10

you need to come in periodically and we check up on.

7:13

So. It's a process

7:15

of care and they've explained it to us so well

7:18

that even those of us that didn't have orthodontic

7:20

care understand it and

7:23

most of the patients coming into a chiropractic

7:25

clinic. Especially if they haven't

7:28

been referred by anybody don't

7:30

understand all that if they have

7:32

been referred by somebody What do they typically

7:34

understand? Well Bob referred

7:37

me and Bob had low back pain. I have a low back

7:39

pain So that must be what you treat as low back

7:41

pain. They have the blinders on they

7:43

don't know you do other stuff and

7:46

Or they're referred by Bob, who

7:48

comes in once every six weeks on a maintenance

7:51

plan, and that's what they're expecting.

7:53

Well, you're going to get me out of

7:55

my nine out of 10 pain, and I don't have to come back

7:57

for six weeks. So you got to think

7:59

about all these kind of things and bring it

8:01

into your patient communication as

8:05

quickly into the conversation as you can.

8:07

Yeah, and I think that brings into play

8:10

what we're really trying to get at. If you drill

8:12

down on this, what are we really trying to do? I'm

8:14

trying to find out why you're really here. Yeah,

8:16

because you've had back pain over time.

8:19

How long have you had back pain? Oh, last

8:21

couple of years off and on, it was

8:23

worse six months ago. This time, actually

8:25

it's almost gone today by the time I got

8:27

here, but yeah, yesterday

8:29

it was really bad, and so I'm here

8:31

and all this pain, but what I want to know

8:34

is what. Are you really here

8:36

for, in other words, what is it keeping you from

8:38

doing at this point? Because if I get

8:40

into lifestyle changes

8:43

and how it's impacted the fact that you can't get

8:45

down on the floor with your grandkids, you can't play golf,

8:47

you can't go ride bike, bowl, whatever it

8:49

may be. Now we're

8:51

talking a strategy at that

8:53

point to get you back to life.

8:57

And that's really what we offer people,

8:59

not only that, but we offer longevity

9:02

because once you get out of

9:05

that functional care phase or that

9:07

acute and functional care phase, and

9:09

you get into more of a wellness strategy,

9:11

now, what are we trying to achieve? I'm trying to achieve

9:14

the least amount of damage to your joints

9:16

over a long period of time to give you function

9:19

later in life. So you can continue to do

9:21

what the things that you just told me that you

9:23

want to do. And you can't do right

9:25

now. Yeah. So we're about to fall

9:27

into, I think some good communication

9:29

strategies. So before we hit that, let's

9:31

take a quick message from our sponsors, Chiro

9:34

health USA and cats consultants. We're talking

9:36

about patient retention strategies

9:38

here. We'll be right back

9:41

So we all feel it. Rent,

9:43

or dining out, gasoline, or

9:45

movies. As a matter of fact, the dollar

9:48

is not going as far for a whole

9:50

host of reasons. And it's impacting

9:52

everybody, regardless of your financial

9:54

situation. Did you know that

9:57

38 percent of the overall population

10:00

is having to reconsider how they're spending

10:02

their money just to afford the healthcare

10:04

they need? And if you break it down further,

10:07

26 percent have actually

10:09

delayed the healthcare that they need.

10:12

Including going to see you, the

10:14

chiropractor. So here's what we need to

10:16

know about the breakdown in demographics.

10:18

You would think that someone who's making

10:21

120, 000 or more

10:23

would be continuing their care right now. But

10:25

the actual number is 18%. 18

10:28

percent of that group

10:30

is actually putting off health care. And

10:32

that's a group of people making six figures.

10:35

When you take that same information all

10:37

the way down to a group making 40,

10:40

000. That number is much higher. It's closer

10:42

to 40%. So it's never

10:44

been more important than now to make sure

10:46

you've made it easy for your patients to come

10:48

see you, that you have choices for

10:50

them, and you understand what they're going

10:53

through at home. We want to make sure your practice

10:55

thrives during this time, and we

10:57

encourage you to learn about what ChiroHealth

10:59

USA can do for you and your

11:01

practice, and making it easy for patients

11:03

to see you and continue care.

11:07

all right, everybody. Welcome back to the KC ChiroPulse.

11:10

Wow. I can't even talk the KC chiro

11:12

pulse podcast, helping doctors

11:15

keep their pulse on success. So we're talking about

11:17

patient retention strategies, and

11:20

we're really starting to dive into this whole idea

11:22

of what is effective Communication

11:26

try. I think you kind of started down that road when we

11:28

took our break and

11:30

I'm going to throw one word out. Empathy,

11:35

empathy. We have to walk into

11:38

the patient exam. So the first time

11:40

we ever see the patient, we have to walk

11:42

in, not with our doctor code on, not

11:44

with our knowledge code on, but

11:46

we need to walk into that room with our empathy

11:49

coat on. So we listen to

11:51

the patient. And

11:54

I

11:54

would add to that, put your psychologist

11:56

hat on over the top of your empathy

11:58

coat, because you also need to read the patient

12:01

and figure out where they're at right now, because

12:04

some people are going to walk in very closed off.

12:06

We had a discussion about this the other day, let's

12:08

think about our geriatric patients and

12:10

a lot of cases they have been

12:12

to multiple doctors and

12:15

some. Are very

12:17

open to what those doctors say. But what

12:19

I've seen is we have a, we have a segment of

12:21

patients that really don't

12:24

want to spend money, don't

12:26

want to get care unless

12:28

they got a leg falling off. And so they're

12:30

going to come in with a very defensive posture

12:32

to begin with. So you have to identify, is this

12:35

person open to what I'm saying up front? You're

12:37

the doctor. I'm here because I want to hear what

12:39

you have to say. Or is it somebody

12:41

with a wall up in front of you in the

12:43

initial that you really need to work

12:45

on softening that wall so you can find out

12:47

what's going on. That person takes a little more

12:49

time, but you can't just bulldoze

12:51

through that because they're not going to allow it.

12:54

Yeah, no, that's exactly right. And

12:57

I can tell you a great story about that. I

13:00

had a PI patient one time, kind

13:02

of a young guy, and he comes in

13:04

we did the evaluation and everything. And, and. Before

13:07

the end of the first day, he asked me, aren't you going to

13:09

get me out of pain today? And

13:12

this kid was literally in like seven or eight out of 10 pain,

13:14

neck, med back, shoulders, low

13:16

back, he was a mess. And

13:19

I said, we're going to do our best, but it's going to take time.

13:22

He, I know sooner said that he jumped

13:25

up out of the chair. He was going to punch me out.

13:27

I mean, this is sometimes the kind of

13:29

patient you get walking in the door. Well,

13:32

by the time I finally got

13:34

him out of pain and back to maximum improvement,

13:37

he and I kind of become buddies. So

13:39

we've got to remember that, yeah, some people come

13:41

in closed off. Some people are going to come in mad

13:44

and frustrated with their condition. Some

13:46

people are going to come in loaded for bear. Some people are going

13:48

to come in bringing you cookies. You're going to see all

13:51

those and everything in between. We've got to learn

13:53

how to develop great communication

13:56

skills for almost every type of patient

13:58

that could walk in your door. Now, I'm not going to say

14:00

there's nothing. The patient that walks in that

14:02

just isn't going to do anything and you probably

14:04

should fire them. You need to learn how to

14:06

do that too. We

14:08

need to learn how to personalize

14:10

our communication directly to the patient. So

14:12

we start building those relationships right up

14:15

front because that's part of what

14:17

retains patients in care. Is

14:21

building that relationship.

14:23

And once you start to build that relationship,

14:26

you can't rush that red at the beginning.

14:28

I know as we walk in, we're all on a time

14:30

schedule. I had that happen to me this

14:32

morning, actually, where I had a patient

14:34

that was 92 years old that came in. I

14:36

already knew we were going to be fighting the clock.

14:39

That when you've got somebody that's 92, because

14:41

they move a little bit slower, they've probably

14:43

got a little bit more history to tell you about.

14:46

And so I knew going in that

14:48

I had to do

14:51

one of two things, either cut that patient

14:53

off, which wasn't going to happen,

14:56

or I had to make sure that I

14:58

was very efficient with the things that

15:00

I said and did. In other words, I need to hear

15:02

the patient story. I don't need to extrapolate.

15:05

I don't need to talk more about what's going

15:07

on. Let's find out what's going on with you. Really

15:09

listen, really put it together. Go

15:12

ahead and give them affirmation that I'm hearing.

15:14

So what you're telling me is blah, blah, blah,

15:16

and then get to a point where I'm ready to

15:18

do an exam and I have to do it in a way

15:21

that I'm not looking at the clock, even though

15:23

I I'm in my head, I probably am still

15:25

thinking about it, but I already

15:27

know that I might be a couple of minutes

15:30

off. As a result of that,

15:32

but I'm not going to cut short

15:34

that conversation with my patient, because at

15:36

that point, once that patient

15:38

has regurgitated everything that

15:40

they want to tell me, and they

15:42

feel like I've gotten it, and I've heard this

15:44

a lot of times from patients, I came

15:47

to you and I'm still here with

15:49

you because you listened to me.

15:52

That's so important, and it doesn't

15:54

mean that you have to have a 15 minute conversation

15:56

every time you adjust them. But if you give them

15:58

that up front and you don't

16:00

rush that portion of it, a lot of us want

16:02

to rush right to exam. I want to, I want to get

16:04

the, I want to get you in a position for straight

16:07

leg raise right now, because I want to know what's

16:09

causing your low back pain. They're not

16:11

ready for that. They want to talk to you a little bit.

16:13

And so some of our younger patients,

16:15

you get them there a lot quicker. They tell you what

16:17

they need to tell you. And it lasts about 30 seconds,

16:20

right? And then sometimes it lasts longer. So that

16:23

is one of the big keys when you're being empathetic.

16:25

And when you're using your psychology to understand

16:27

where the patient's coming from, you need

16:30

to understand as well, when it's time to actually

16:32

physically do the exam.

16:35

That's really true. That's very true.

16:37

Sometimes we get in such a rush.

16:40

We want to cut the patient off. Letting

16:42

patients talk oftentimes

16:45

does a couple of things. It gives you a ton

16:47

of information if

16:50

you sift through it correctly. But number two,

16:52

it also helps them get to that point where

16:54

they can verbalize the feeling of what

16:56

they're having into something

16:59

that's real, a realization that they can

17:01

actually go, Oh, now

17:03

I understand why I'm here. And

17:06

when you get the patient to that point, so

17:08

what patients 20 years ago,

17:10

Troy were information based

17:12

patients. They didn't know a lot about chiropractic.

17:14

The internet was kind of new and

17:17

so forth. And so their ability to research

17:20

was limited. It was just I

17:22

don't want to say just word of mouth about

17:25

chiropractic, but kind of was in some

17:27

ways. Today's patients

17:29

are different. They have all the information at their fingertips,

17:32

their needs based. Today, they

17:34

want you to fulfill a need there.

17:37

I know as much about chiropractic

17:39

care as they want to know. Otherwise

17:41

they wouldn't have called your office there

17:43

and they want to be your patient. That's why

17:45

they called your office. We

17:47

just need to help them understand what

17:50

their need is.

17:52

Right. Which sometimes

17:54

does lead into a little more education. I

17:56

don't want you to think that you can't ever tell them anything,

17:58

but. You

18:00

may have a starting point that's a lot

18:03

farther along than you thought it was, which actually,

18:05

to me, seems like a win

18:08

because they come in armed with information

18:11

and all I have to do is put the finishing touches

18:13

on it to get them to understand

18:15

what care looks like, what

18:18

different phases of care look like, and

18:20

why it's important that they follow through with care.

18:23

It becomes easy at that

18:24

point. It, in my opinion,

18:26

the report of findings today is so simple

18:29

that the chiropractic education component

18:32

happens at your table on each

18:34

visit, you give them a little bit each time.

18:36

Here's what we're doing. Here's why we're doing it. Here's

18:38

wolf's law. Isn't that cool? that's

18:40

when you bring that stuff to them,

18:43

right? What they need to know up front

18:45

is, can you help me fulfill

18:47

my need? That's how people

18:49

accept care. And so once you get them

18:51

to accept care and then they understand

18:54

care along the way, and

18:56

you've set your goals correctly. Now, by

18:58

the time you get to the maintenance point, they're

19:00

excited and ready to go. Yeah.

19:03

It's you're taking the braces off and giving me the retainer.

19:05

This is cool. I made progress.

19:08

And then to add into that, now

19:10

you have got a built in group

19:12

of folks that are willing at

19:14

that point to either give you a review on

19:17

Google, or they're willing to do

19:19

a testimonial that you can put up online.

19:22

And what's important about that is, and

19:24

I'll give you an example, I had a guide. Today,

19:26

come in and talk to me. And

19:29

he had been on maintenance care for, I

19:31

don't know, eight or nine months now. And

19:33

since I had taken over this practice,

19:35

he had been basically

19:37

coming in whenever he hurt bad enough

19:40

that he felt like he needed to get adjusted. So he

19:42

was self directing care. I

19:44

talked to him about the benefits of

19:46

wellness. He followed through with what

19:48

I said. And today was amazing

19:50

because he looked at me today and he said, doc.

19:53

I just want to let you know, you putting on

19:55

mate, putting me on maintenance was a life

19:57

changer for me. He said, when

19:59

I get up in the morning, I don't have any pain

20:02

now and I've got my life back. He

20:04

said, I cannot believe how easy

20:06

it was for me to

20:08

get my life back when I thought I

20:10

was going to have to live with this pain for the rest of my life.

20:13

And he said, you convinced me.

20:15

That it would be important for me to get periodic

20:18

care and what the benefits would be. and I did

20:20

a little education with that about why

20:23

it would be beneficial and how we would make forward

20:25

progress by, by giving him care.

20:28

And he chose to do a month timeframe.

20:30

And, I told him it'll happen a little slower if we're

20:32

doing it a monthly rather than every two

20:34

weeks or every week or whatever, but the eventual.

20:37

Point of the, of the conversation

20:40

was when he told

20:42

me that I got goosebumps on my arms.

20:45

I was excited about it. I was so excited

20:47

because I made a change in this guy that he

20:49

thought would never happen. Do you think

20:51

that guy trusts me as a doctor? Absolutely.

20:55

Sure. Now, if I had continued the status

20:57

quo and said, I know you've been coming in just when

20:59

you hurt, why don't you just call me? We

21:01

would have been in the same boat. He would have come in every month,

21:04

told me what hurt this time. And

21:06

it's probably still going to be the same area over

21:08

and over again. And we would gain

21:11

nothing at that point. How much trust

21:13

does he have it for me as as

21:15

a doctor, number one, when

21:17

I haven't really made a big change, it

21:19

starts to wane after a while. Yeah,

21:22

all I did was made you feel better for a few days

21:24

and then you're right back where you were. So

21:26

when you make a long term change

21:29

with the patient, that is, that

21:31

is a really rock solid way to create

21:33

retention. And that's not going to happen with every patient

21:35

that walks through your door. No, it's not. But

21:38

you know, that, that should, that should absolutely

21:40

be a goal. And,

21:42

you know, along with that, when you

21:45

get that patient who has that miraculous

21:48

turnaround and, and gets their life back,

21:50

gets their function back, if

21:54

you don't put them on a regular

21:56

care plan and they, they relapse

21:58

and that's when they come back and, you know, that's,

22:00

that's all that ever happens is they,

22:02

they go away for a while, six or eight weeks, they relapse,

22:05

they come back, you get them out of pain, they go away for six

22:07

or eight weeks, they relapse, they come back. When

22:09

you get into that cycle, you degrade that

22:11

patient's experience with you. And

22:14

so it's imperative that

22:16

you help the patient understand that, Hey, six

22:18

or eight weeks isn't going to work two

22:21

or three weeks is probably where you need to be.

22:24

And sometimes your patients will even tell

22:26

you that, which is great. Once you get into that

22:28

cycle, they'll go I don't think

22:30

four weeks is working for me. Can we drop back

22:32

to three? So think of it this

22:34

way you buy. A new cell phone

22:37

and the new cell phone goes haywire on

22:39

you. You take it back down to Verizon. That's

22:41

my provider. So I take it down to Verizon and

22:44

they fixed my cell phone and it works again

22:46

for two weeks, then all of a sudden I get

22:48

locked out of everything. And I take

22:50

it back and they fix it again. And then

22:53

two weeks later, now all of a sudden I can't

22:55

send or receive calls. That could

22:57

be because the whole world got hacked, but

22:59

I don't, maybe not, but if it's just my phone

23:01

and then I take it back again, now the back cover's

23:04

falling off and the battery's not doing very

23:06

well. Am I eventually going to lose faith

23:08

in that product? Yeah, real quick. Yeah.

23:10

So as you think about that, you

23:12

have to realize that status quo

23:15

for your patients. It's not good

23:17

enough if they're not getting the results that they want.

23:19

So for you to have an effective retention

23:22

strategy, you have to have an effective

23:24

strategy for your

23:26

patient to retain.

23:29

And hold function over time, it

23:32

can't just be cookie cutter. Everybody goes to a

23:34

month or six weeks or eight weeks or whatever

23:36

you have to work with the patient. Now, if the patient

23:38

just flat refuses and says, you know,

23:40

I'm not into all that stuff, if you can only

23:43

get them to come in once a quarter. It's

23:45

better than nothing, but then at that

23:47

point you explain, you're

23:49

not going to get the same results as somebody

23:51

that's coming in every two to four weeks is going

23:53

to get, and that's just bottom

23:56

line, but I'm not afraid to tell

23:58

people that because then once they get tired

24:00

of still not feeling good, they

24:02

eventually will go, you know, doc, I think I'm

24:04

ready to try that monthly thing. You know, I'm

24:06

right, you know, and then we can wean it down

24:08

from there. If, if four weeks is good,

24:10

great. If we need three or two, now

24:12

the conversation is open. Hey, why don't we do

24:14

this?

24:16

And so you preempted that patient by

24:18

saying, okay, we'll do it your way, but you're

24:20

not going to get the results you want. And when

24:22

you don't get the results you want, This

24:24

is what I used to tell him, I'll see you two or three times

24:26

like that, but then about that third time I'm

24:28

going to look at you and I'm just going to smile and cross my arms

24:31

because at that point, if we're not going to do

24:33

it my way, I'm done with you because if we're

24:35

just going to keep degrading your experience

24:37

with chiropractic care, I don't really want to play

24:40

that game. I'm about

24:42

helping people understand the

24:44

true value of chiropractic care and

24:46

the benefits of making it part of their lifestyle

24:49

so that they can keep doing the things they want to do.

24:51

And that is not repeating

24:53

the pain cycles over and over again.

24:57

That is a hundred percent true. And that

24:59

is the bottom line to retention.

25:01

You have to be willing to put your doctor

25:04

hat on. Yep. If you want retention,

25:07

you can no longer allow the patient to

25:09

self direct care or ask them what they want

25:11

to do, because you know what they

25:13

want to do? Not come back at all because they're busy.

25:16

And I get it, you know, there

25:18

are days, and I don't know about you guys, but there

25:20

are days for me that I get out of

25:22

the office and I I'm scheduled to go get

25:24

adjusted that day. And I

25:26

have to force myself to get in the car and go get

25:28

adjusted because you know what, I got 18 of the things

25:30

I need to go do, I could, I could

25:32

pull out of my parking lot and make a right turn

25:35

instead of a left really easily. Sure.

25:37

But I have to know I want to take care

25:39

of myself. I have to want it. Your patients

25:42

have to want it as well. So for them to create

25:45

a mindset where they want to be

25:47

in your retention model or in the, in,

25:49

in their retention model, they

25:52

have to buy into the care. And

25:56

that takes you

25:56

directing them. And one

25:59

more thing, you've got to get your staff involved in

26:01

this process to, your staff can

26:03

run patients off. You may not even realize

26:05

this, but if they're telling the patients

26:08

things different than what you're telling them,

26:10

so maybe you tell him, Hey, I want to see you back in two to three

26:12

weeks and they get up to the front desk and

26:14

maybe the staff says, when does the doctor want to see you back?

26:17

And the patient says, Oh, I don't remember

26:19

what he said. Well, let's just put you down in

26:21

a couple of months. How would that be? Okay. I mean,

26:23

that's going to begin to degrade that patient

26:25

experience because now the patient thinks,

26:28

Oh, wait a minute. I think the doctor told me more frequently

26:30

than that, but you're saying too much. You're the one

26:32

scheduling. So that must be right. So

26:35

everybody in your office has to be on the same

26:37

page and your staff should be emulating

26:40

the same communication in the same style

26:43

that you do to patients, they should be emulating

26:45

that, which is really

26:47

easy to do. All new staff that come in

26:49

and work with you should either shadow

26:51

you or be it within earshot when you're

26:53

working with patients so they can hear the verbiage

26:56

that you're using. So that way they start to

26:58

mimic that verbiage because quite frankly,

27:00

docs, you guys are the ones in charge

27:02

in your practice. Yep. Don't absolutely don't

27:04

duck your head in the sand and hope that the

27:06

staff is able to schedule that patient for their

27:08

next appointment in a timely manner,

27:10

because that's not their job. Their job

27:13

is to follow up on what you've said.

27:15

It's exactly right. Be the leader of your practice. Be

27:17

the leader of your staff. Be the leader of your patients.

27:19

We covered about 800 things already.

27:22

I mean, literally, that's like a master class.

27:25

There's so many ways we could go. That's the thing. If you

27:27

guys listen to our podcasts all the time, you

27:30

guys listen and you hear,

27:32

Oh my gosh, there's 80 different

27:34

directions are going, but you have to realize there's

27:37

an interconnected web to everything

27:39

that we do. One thing leads to another,

27:41

which leads to two other things. And you, and

27:43

you will never nail it all down. Even

27:45

in my practice on a daily basis, we

27:48

are constantly working to be better for

27:50

our patients. And as

27:53

a result, we're constantly

27:55

revisiting what I would call these

27:57

hallmarks or these points in this masterclass.

28:00

It's like looking up into the sky and seeing the stars.

28:03

There's a lot of points up there, right? It's

28:05

the same thing in practice, but you will, you

28:07

will come close to mastery

28:10

on a bunch. It's like juggling balls,

28:12

I guess. And every once in a while, you're going to drop a ball.

28:14

You got to pick it back up and throw it back and play.

28:16

So that's how retention is built is

28:19

by a whole bunch of good processes

28:21

in your office, just like we just talked about today.

28:24

Absolutely.

28:24

And don't be afraid to listen to this podcast again

28:27

and work on these principles. And if you need help,

28:29

give us a call. That's what we do at Kats consultants.

28:32

We help doctors improve their

28:34

practices, bring success into

28:36

the practice, bring the fun back into practice.

28:39

And above all. make the practice profitable

28:41

and great for your patients as well. So check

28:43

us out at KatsConsultants. com. We've

28:45

got all kinds of free downloads on there. Subscribe

28:48

to the podcast. Make sure you

28:50

tell your friends about it. Our podcast is growing like

28:52

crazy, so we appreciate everybody

28:54

out there listening. And I want to thank our sponsors,

28:57

ChiroHealth USA, as well as Kats Consultants.

29:00

All right, everybody, thanks for tuning in to the KC

29:02

ChiroPulse podcast. We will see you next time. See

29:05

ya.