Avoid the Kryptonite: Keep Your Practice Strong

Superman had his Kryptonite. In the same way, chiropractors can face certain challenges that sap their practice strength, sometimes leading to failure. ChiroEco.com’s Dr. Drew Stephens provides some practical advice for practitioners who want to grow into a super practice.

Every day I get a call from chiropractors whose chiropractic practice is simply enduring. There is an absence of patients, failure to pay themselves and powerlessness to meet costs.

Everything rotates around three straightforward thoughts:

• Undesirability to search out new patients
• Inability to create patient value
• Lack of frameworks

I am an incessant film and outdated comic buff, and I am reminded as I compose this article that for some, these three thoughts become kryptonite. Chiropractors become frail, still and lose all abilities.

To keep your chiropractic practice strength and no longer succumb to your kryptonite, do the following to help increase your business in the next 45 days.

• To aid the flow of new chiropractic patients to any practice, a chiropractor and his or her staff must build an increasing number of relationships in the local community. Take some time over the next two to four weeks and hand out business cards to alliances such as medical practitioners and physical therapists, gymnasium owners and men and women’s clubs. Provide an interview for a local television or radio station on an area of interest and passion, and also schedule time to conduct a workshop that reviews new treatments for patients. The more you do, the more community you build. You have to realize that to have chiropractic practice growth, you must create the conversations that build relationships, and these relationships grow your practice.
• Reading a recent chiropractic magazine, I took note of the verbiage used, and while watching television, I noticed an ad that was attempting to speak to consumers. Doctors, doctors, doctors—patients do not want speeches with facts; they want conversations that understand THEIR issues. Too many chiropractors talk with what I call “Fact Talk” and language unfamiliar to patients. Kill the fact-based discussions and can the technological mumbo jumbo. For example, ask a patient what a subluxation is and they cannot tell you. However, converse with a patient about joint, hip, back pain and lethargy and you will converse for hours. Reverse the speech for conversation and talk in terms of issues and value returned to the patient.
• Too many chiropractic practices fail because there are no systems for practice growth. In a recent survey with over 5,500 chiropractors, many lack reactivation, rescheduling and cancellation procedures. Chiropractors are similar to the airline industry—you make money when there are butts on the table. Well enough said, so create systems to ensure your tables are warm from the previous patient. The only manner in which to create patient flow is to use systems that ensure their return.

No one said that growing your chiropractic practice was easy, but if you put into place some new systems and techniques, you will be more resistant to obstacles and create the super practice you always wanted.