July 2005
Vol. 2, Issue 1
The Spinal Column

Win $1,000 Worth of Free Marketing Services
Contest Winner: Congratulations Glenn Merkel
To Grow: Start Your Own TeleService New
Patient Acquisition Program
Marketing Idea of the Month #13: 4 A Day For
Success
Letter of the Month
Announcing: ChiroCommunity.com Exclusive Network

 

Win $1,000 Worth of Free Marketing Services

On July 31st we will be awarding a free marketing program valued at $1,000 to one of our subscribers. To be eligible all you need to do is be an active subscriber to The Spinal Column.

The winning doctor will be announced in the August issue of this newsletter.

Congratulations to Glenn Merkel!

Glenn Merkel is our $1,000 marketing package winner for June. Glenn Merkel, please contact Sonia at Metro Marketing by Friday, July 29th, 2005. To be eligible to win for July, just sign up for our newsletter and look at it when it arrives in your in box. It's that easy to win a $1,000 marketing package.

Subscribe today

To Grow: Start Your Own TeleService New Patient Acquisition Program

A steady stream of new patients. That’s what your practice needs. Be it one new patient a day or one new patient a week. The need to bring in new patients on a steady predictable basis is crucial to the success of your practice.

If you want to grow your practice, you will need more patients.

If you want to just maintain the size practice you now have, you will still need a steady flow of new patients just to replace the ones you will lose over time for a long list of reasons … some your fault and many not.

So unless your goal is to see your practice slowly but surely lose patients from your existing active base and eventually reach a weekly appointment base too low to support you and your family … You need new patients and you need them now.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of ways to spend money to try to find and attract new patients to your practice.

Some never work. Some work, then stop working. For the most part, none of them are predictable. How many new patients will you get from an ad in your local newspaper or from your Yellow Pages ad this month?

Zero, 5, 10 or any number in between. It’s like rolling dice.

The only marketing program that you can turn on and off like a faucet is a teleservice campaign that can deliver new patients when you want them, in the quantity you need them.

The concept is simple – the execution something else.

Concept: Get on the phone and invite prospective patients in for a free consultation or exam (depending on local chiropractic board regulations). Schedule the appointment. Greet them upon arrival. Give them the free consultation or exam and convert them into long term paying patients.

Far easier said then done.

You need to first find, hire, train and then retrain a staff of (anywhere from 1 to 100) customer service representatives who will be making the phone calls for you. They need to be trained in everything from basic telephone skills to chiropractic terminology with a lot in between.

Expect a turnover rate. Expect a very high turnover rate. So you also need someone to manage and supervise this staff of customer service representatives.

Once the staff and, of course, facilities where they will be calling from are in place, you need to secure a calling list that complies with all state and federal Do Not Call regulations. Each violation is subject to an $11,000 fine. That’s $11,000 for each violation. Call 3 people on the Do Not Call list and you could be out $33,000.

Make sure you have the best toll-calling plan available as the phone bill can get out of hand very fast.

Now it’s time to get on the phone.

Best time to call can be anywhere from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. You need to test what works best in your community.

Rejection, rejection, rejection. Make sure you are paying your phone reps well, are keeping them well motivated and well fed since the process is a long and sometimes painful one.

99 “no”s before a single “yes” can be very discouraging, to say the least.

And that “yes” is to schedule an appointment to see you. Actually showing up is something else. A third to a half of those who say they will show up actually do. The ones that don’t show up will need to be recalled and rescheduled.

Make sure, a day or two prior to the appointment, the prospective patient is called to confirm the appointment when a little re-selling may have to be done.

Once you get it down right (it could take weeks or months and thousands of dollars invested in the wrong personnel and phone lists plus calling facility) this marketing vehicle can and will (if done right) deliver a steady stream of prospective patients.

Should you want a bigger flow, you will have to find, hire and train additional staff. And if you want to slow down for a period of time you will have a layoff of some or all of your well-trained staff.

But the system can work very well for you.

If you like the concept - a steady stream of prospective patients - you can call 1-800-696-7788, ext. 148 for a copy of our 33-page special report: “How To Start Your Own Chiropractic Telemarketing Call Center”. Or you can ask one of our account executives about our guaranteed new patient acquisition program where we do all the work, have all the headaches, take all the risk and you get to enjoy the fruits of our labor … a steady stream of new prospective patients in your waiting area.

Call us today at 1-800-696-7788, ext. 148.

Marketing Idea of the Month #13: 4 A Day For Success

Each month we will give you a proven marketing tip or program that, if done right, will work for you. Collect, read and use all 36 of them over the next three years and you will have put together an effective powerful marketing program to help grow your chiropractic practice.

Last issue’s idea: Developing an "Upstream" Referral Network

This month’s idea: 4 A Day For Success

Simply make 4 phone calls a day and your practice will grow because of it.

The old line about “How do you eat an elephant? – One small bite at a time” applies to growing your practice as well.

If you try to set aside enough time to call 10 or 20 people, it will never happen - too large a commitment.

But if your responsibility is to make 4 calls (total time 20 minutes at most) a day (one small bite of the elephant), you have a much better chance of not only starting the program, but staying with it in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Okay, 4 calls a day. But to whom?

We can start with one of two universes unless you want to tackle both at the same time.

Your lapsed patient base . Patients who have stopped coming.

Do you know why? You need to know for three reasons. First, you may be able to ‘correct the problem’ and restart the lapsed patient. Second, how many others stopped for the very same correctable reason. And third, how many more will be stopping in the weeks and months ahead for the same correctable reason?

Print out a lapsed patient database going backwards from the most recent time period, get a pad and pen ready and start dialing.

You are calling for three reasons.

First, to thank the patients for their past loyalty and support. Second, to find out how they are feeling (you have reviewed their chart prior to the phone call) and thirdly to find out specifically what they liked and didn’t like about the experience in your office and what caused them to stop coming in.

Regardless of the results of the call, which you will find out to be powerful, eye opening and helpful to fixing your practice, the call itself will do more to establishing your reputation as a caring, understanding person in the community than anything else you could possibly do.

No other marketing, advertising or PR tool or vehicle will come close to generating the powerful results you will get by simply picking up the phone and showing that you truly care.

Prepare a list of questions to ask before you call. What is it about your practice you would like to know about? Is it your staff, the parking, the waiting area, the paperwork, the treatments, the payment process? What else? Ask and you shall find out!

The second database is the list of your current patients. Call four a day to see how their experience with you is going. How are they feeling? How can you improve what you are doing?

Again, have specific questions to get the conversation started.

Take lots of notes. Be prepared to say “you’re welcome. It’s my pleasure to be able to help you” and step aside quickly because the rush of new patients to your practice may just bowl you over.

Four calls a day (eight if you are doing lapsed and current patients together) and nothing will ever generate the return on investment as this program will.

Think about it for a minute. Did you ever get a phone call like this? Ever! Make a simple 10-day commitment. Start today. If you say you will start tomorrow, it’ll never happen. Trust me on this one.

And watch what happens.

You will never get any better advice - at least not from me.

Letter of the Month

Each month we will give you a ready-to-use letter that can be used to help promote your practice.

A professional copywriter would charge you anywhere from $150 to $350 to write you a marketing letter, but as a subscriber to The Spinal Column you get it for free.

This month’s letter: Patient and Lapsed Patient Sample Survey

Free downloadable copy

Click here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader

To grow your practice your professional marketing skills are as important as your chiropractic knowledge, maybe even more so.

Announcing: ChiroCommunity.com Exclusive Referral Network

We are excited to announce the successful launch of
ChiroCommunity.com, with a phenomenal response
from chiropractors all across the United States!

Don't let your competitor "lock you out" of your zip code!
Click here for more details

Remember, only one chiropractor in each zip code.

Publisher: The Spinal Column
Director: 800 696 7788, ext. 112
E-Mail: larry@chirometromarketing.com
 

P.S. If you would like information on our test drive new patient programs with a 100% money-back guarantee (if we don’t deliver) call us at 800 696 7788, ext. 248.

P.P.S. We now have a new program that pre-qualifies the patients we send you. They must have a treatable condition and insurance or a job.

Call for details at 800 696 7788, ext. 248.

 


Click here for more info on our NEW exclusive chiropractic referral network

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more marketing information and tips visit www.chirometromarketing.com.

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©2005 Metro Marketing, Inc.

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