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Sometimes it’s helpful to have someone help you take an objective look at things to get a new perspective. Spouses, friends, and family often do this for our personal lives, but who does this for your practice? The list below will help you grow your chiropractic practice by focusing on 10 dangerous mistakes you could be making. I hope these will help you look at your practice from a new perspective and help you grow!

1. Relying on word of mouth advertising

What’s the most amount of clients that have been referred by word of mouth advertising in a month? Is it enough for you to run your practice with patient turnover? Do you have more patients coming in each month compared to those leaving? Word of mouth advertising is critical for building great reviews for your business (potential clients will look for peer reviews to learn about you), but it shouldn’t be used as the aorta of bringing patients into your business. This is a predictable method for getting great reviews, but not for growing your practice.

2. Relying on advertising where you can’t see the return on your investment

If you invested money at a bank, or in the stock market and weren’t able to see how effective it was with how much it was yielding you, would you be okay with that? I wouldn’t be! If you’re paying a company to help with your advertising, but they’re unable to provide you with the return on your investment, run! Advertising should be a predictable investment in your business to bring you new patients.

3. Not having an easy way/offer to get people in the door to see you (relying on just back pain to get people in)

Are you relying on your main service to get people in the door? While pain relief is an effective “hook” to get people into your practice, you aren’t reaching as many people as you could. There should be a variety of services you offer, ranging from low cost to high cost, that you can offer prospective patients to get them in the door. Long term, you should also have a system put in place to move people up this ladder of services you offer to maximize revenue/patient and ensure you’re serving them as best as you can!

4. Not collecting contact information on the initial call

When new patients are booking, collect all their contact information! If you have prospective patients interested in your services and reaching out to you, but you aren’t collecting email, phone, and name, you are missing out on the perfect time to get that. You can even spin it as part of your intake process to ensure you keep them up to date about important changes, offers, tips, etc.

What if I don’t have my email list/campaign set up? Not a problem! That can ALWAYS be set up later. Don’t miss out on the immediate opportunity to collect contact information when patients first join your practice.

5. Not collecting credit card information on the call to hold appointment

How often are you plagued by no-shows? While it may be nice to have a break during the day to catch up on paperwork or continuing your education, this is prime time for you and should be treated as such! Collect credit card information when new patients call to book their first appointment and significantly reduce your no-show rate!

6. Not talking about the story of products you’re using and why it helps (then failing to offer it)

What products are you using for patients? Have you ever told them they can continue to benefit from it between appointments? If not, this is another small opportunity to increase revenue with patients by offering creams, lotions, or accessories that can help them in their health journey.

Think of it this way, when you’re using the product with them, that is their “free trial” to see how it benefits them. If they enjoy it, tell them you have a few spare ones they can buy on their way out. In addition, by explaining what you’re doing and how the product your using works, it does two important things:

1. Positions you as an expert and helps educate them about what you’re doing.

2. Provides them an experience they can tell their friends about (instead of “I got an adjustment at the chiropractor” it becomes a story about what thy did to help and why, which is much more captivating!). People love talking about positive experience and this helps add more value to what you’re offering your patients!

7. Website where services aren’t easily found

How’s the health of your website? Can patients find out how you’re able to help them in terms they understand? If not, you’re missing out on connecting with your prospective patients about your unique ability to meet them where they are at and help them get to where they want to be with their health. Your website should serve a few important purposes and this is one of them!

8. Website that doesn’t allow patient to book appointment online

I challenge you to look at your site, as well as 5 of your competitors. I guarantee that almost all of them, or all of them, require patients to call to book an appointment (some may even advertise that patients can book an appointment online, but it’s merely an email request). In the age of modern convenience, this adds another step for patients to take to see you; let’s call this friction. The Doctor that is able to get in front of patients and show them that they can help, with the least amount of friction to book an appointment will win.

Offer your patients the ability to book an appointment online and you’ll immediately reduce friction to book an appointment with you. You’ll also create a unique selling point about your practice that your patients will mention when they advocate for their friends to see you. “You should go see Dr. _____, he’s so great to work with, helped me get out of pain immediately and even allows online appointment scheduling.”

9. Aimlessly posting on all social media accounts

This is like throwing parts of a watch into a bag, shaking it, and hoping a watch comes out. It doesn’t work that way! Social media should be approached methodically; you should have a presence wherever your potential clients are spending their time. There’s no benefit trying to post on 6 different social media channels when most of your audience is only spending time on Facebook! It’s wasted effort.

10. Ultimately, not having a marketing system in place that you can turn on and off when you need new clients

What would life be like for you if you had a system in place that predictably brought you new clients every single month? A system that you could turn on or turn off at will, when you need new clients. Would you be able to feel confident leaving your practice at the end of the day without worrying you didn’t do enough? Would you be able to actually enjoy more time with your family, resting in the security your practice has? Would you be able to take more vacations and enjoy a better work life balance?

Question for you: Which one of these mistakes resonated with you most and what are you going to put in place?