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. |
Patient Acquisition Program 
