Business is simple…not easy but VERY SIMPLE.
I have said it before and I will say it here again…easily double, if not triple-figure growth is possible if the initiative is taken to implement the points stated in this article
The principle of looking after your most valued and loyal “true believer” clients. DID YOU KNOW…? Right now, in your practice, about 70%-80% of your revenue is coming from 20-30% of your patients. This is where ‘Pareto’s principle’ comes in. You may better know it as the 80/20 rule. Simply put, it states that 80% of the benefit comes from 20% of the effort or people. In this case, 70-80% of your revenue is coming from about 20-30% of your clients.
You don’t need to go do the analysis…WE HAVE DONE IT. It’s probably the most accurate study of this you could possibly find in the Chiropractic profession, considering that this was done analysing over 15 million dollars worth of revenue across easily 50+ Chiropractors. So, for us, UNBELIEVABLY, 10.23 million dollars worth of revenue came from just 30% of the clients…
SO, THE NEXT LOGICAL QUESTION WE ASKED OURSELVES WAS…WHAT ARE WE DOING EXTRA FOR THAT GROUP…?! If all this article does is get you to ask the same question…MY JOB IS DONE!!
The Leaky Bucket
The leaky bucket theory was originally coined by Andrew Ehrenberg and it suggests that companies are always losing customers, so to maintain share, you have to win an equal number of new customers to keep the bucket full, so to speak. To grow, you have to be especially good at new customer acquisition, or you have to slow the leak… or even better DO BOTH!
In any business, there are certain predictable points of attrition and lost customers that can be identified and measured. I have long believed we do not talk enough “business” within Chiropractic.
For some reason, I think because the unit of measuring is “humans”, it kind of feels a little weird to ruthlessly and unemotionally just look at this stuff and come up with solutions. BUT OUR SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON US DOING IT…
So let’s look at just a few predictable areas of attrition/lost customers in Chiropractic Businesses:
- The first hole in the bucket is before they even come into the practice, your ‘Did not attends’ (DNA), How many people booked an initial consultation but never attended. What are the processes and procedures to “win them back”
- If they haven’t booked after their Report of Findings or any appointment for that matter – (No Future Appointment / NFA). Is there a weekly stat that measures this? What are the emails and procedures that follow?
- Progress Exams – these are for setting up the future for your clients NOT the mark of end of care
- Patient Visit Average – What is your clients’ lifetime average with you? How good are you at retaining your client base? Are you using your progress exams to reframe for the future? When do most “drop off” and can you add a touch point just before this?
So these are just some of the holes in your leaky bucket, but what can you do about them?
Firstly, Are we measuring it? Get these stats measured on a weekly scorecard and update and review weekly – yep you heard me, WEEKLY!
It’s simple, just make one person accountable for collecting and measuring these key numbers, you have to measure each one of them and remember, there’s a difference between accountability and doing. Delegate the load, not actually giving it to someone to do all of it. The key is accountability.
Just implementing this step will make a BIG difference for you and your business.
As for your DNA/ NFA’s you want to create more options for them to reconnect with you, this can be a super simple ‘Oops did we mess up?’ email and text campaign or asking them on a scale of 1-10 how highly they would rate your service. Remember the key is to get ANY answer back from them, even if it is negative, as it gives you an opportunity to prove to them that you can fix it.
Also, put these people onto your callback report and have a dedicated phone person be disciplined to call UNTIL they pick up and give you an answer. I promise you right now, tens of thousands of dollars are just sitting waiting for you in your practice. If you can, hire someone disciplined enough to do this.
Increase Opportunity to engage with you
Use a custom audience on Facebook to retarget your client base and stay in front of them. A custom audience is a process of inputting a particular list into Facebook that you specifically want to target. In this case, it would mean using your client base/email list.
This could be a ‘Tip of the week’ or ‘Coffee with the Chiro Q+A’. Run patient appreciation events, this helps with retention and referrals and creates a positive community. Send Birthday Cards to your clients (even if they haven’t been in) this shows that you care and may give them the nudge to call back in.
One easily implementable strategy is to add a newsletter to every Welcome Pack. I recommend using an issue number or volume number as opposed to a date on the newsletter because then you can reuse it for any time of the year and make it “evergreen”.
Newsletters are great because it gives you an opportunity to seed certain opportunities and answer and address any preconceived ideas that clients may have before they even see you. You can do this via a Question and Answer section in the newsletter with you, the doc or the team. You tailor this section to answer all the common questions or fears you often hear before a client starts with you.
The campaigns above are SIMPLE, in fact, I would go as far as to say, doing them BADLY will still give you the result, but doing them is NOT EASY.
SIMPLE. YES.
EASY. NO.
How is “Pareto’s principle” showing up in your practice and how will doing the simple “leaky bucket” exercise save you thousands in lost revenue?
