Keys to Your Practice: Be attractive

Attracting new patients is always a hot topic in the world of chiropractic. Many think that by satisfying the unquenchable thirst for new patients, all will be well. This mindset can be detrimental to the sustainable growth of your practice.  

It is more important to attend to your current patients’ needs and have the best systems, including a gentle and effective technique. If you don’t deliver a great service, you will unfortunately find yourself constantly needing to fill your practice with new patients – leading to fatigue and frustration.  

What if, instead of coming from a position of need to “get” new patients, we came from a position of abundance and the need to “attract” people to chiropractic?  

Attracting referrals internally
This is the best way I have found to build a practice. Referrals from your current patients tend to make the best new patients. The key to increasing your patients’ referral rate begins with you.  

You need to put yourself out there and be the main generator of referral conversations. Use your many patient encounters to your advantage and seize the opportunity to ask for a referral.

It is important to time this conversation right, however. The best moment to ask for a referral is when someone has had great results and is happy with care. All you need to do is listen to what they are saying and respond with a simple question: “That’s fantastic, who else do you know that can benefit from care the way that you have?”  

Rarely would someone come back with a blank answer, as almost everyone has a loved one or friend with health issues. At this point, simply make an offer to check their loved one’s spine and let the patient go to work. Just make sure you care enough to follow up with them on their next appointment to ask them how their conversation went.

Another way to attract people internally is to give the tools to allow your staff and patients to refer members of your community to your practice. This is an area I admit I need to improve upon for myself. There are many scripts and tools you could give to your staff and patients to assist them in this process. A place to start may be just to train them in the script I gave you above. It is simple but can be very effective. Also remember, it is not only the script that is important; what matters more is the ability to convey passion and genuine concern for people’s health.

Attracting referrals externally
The definition of attraction is “something that draws people by providing something of interest.” The chiropractic story, when told with passion and confidence, can be that something. You can take this message out to your community in a number of ways.  

One of the most effective ways to do this is through public speaking. I have written on this topic before, covering ways to organize a talk in a manner that would create emotion and interest in chiropractic. If we are trying to attract people to our practice, we need them to take action on the experience they have with us. It is proven that people act more on emotion than on facts. Ensure that your presentation is not just a bunch of information. The key is to build the presentation in a way that demonstrates your passion and taps into the audience’s emotion. They are more likely to be attracted to the story and ultimately act on your offer to have their spine checked.

Getting out of your office and interacting with the public are some of the other ways you can attract people to chiropractic. Volunteer your time with a community group or sports team. Perform a public health screening at a local health event or local business. It is important to remember that when you are at these events you are representing the whole profession so do it with utmost professionalism. Also, don’t forget you are there to not just inform the public but inspire them, as again emotion calls people to action. Just be yourself and allow your passion for chiropractic to show and it will attract people to your practice like moths to a flame.

There are members of your community that desperately need chiropractic and don’t know you exist. If the ideas in this article are performed artfully, it can lead to a large number of new patients being drawn to your practice. Do not make the mistake of having patients leave your practice as fast as they came in.

Remember, when it comes to your practice work from the inside out.

Dr. Angelo Santin, DC, operates a busy subluxation-based family practice in Thunder Bay, Ont., and is president of the Thunder Bay Chiropractic Society. Dr. Santin is also a Carter Universal proficiency-rated chiropractic coach. He can be reached at angelosantin@gmail.com or 807-344-4606.