December 2003

The surprise connection

by Dr. Kevin Pallis and Dr. Ed Plentz

Without communication skills, everything in your practice and in your life seems just out of reach.

Your patient education has no bite, your practice members skip appointments, your practice members don't "get it," and both your practice and income become stagnant. You perform all your predictable knee‑jerk reactions to your sinking practice. You rant and rave to your C.A.s, put the clamps on your favorite practice members to refer, and then run an advertisement in the newspaper that fails to work.

The answer to all of these problems is not more marketing ‑‑ it's communication skills. All the new patients in the world will not correct the office problems and stress caused by poor communication skills.

Many D.C.s are addicted to a continual stream of new patients, only to be used up and replaced. When you replace departed patients, you are not growing but exchanging, and this creates an unbelievable amount of stress. As the insurance hammer gets closer to your practice, you have to realize that, sooner or later, you must learn to communicate what chiropractic truly is. Keeping patients is the name of the game, not attracting lower quality patients who don't stay, pay, or refer.

People interested in wellness don't drink water for a limited time only, buy one bottle of vitamins and stop taking them, read one book on well being and quit, or buy just one piece of exercise equipment for their home gym. They spend billions in cash on anything that increases wellness for themselves and their families.

Therein lies the problem.

The public's perception of chiropractors is that of short‑term bad back fixers. They don't know that you are already on their wellness team. Just look in the phone book advertisements for chiropractors to see for yourself. The public is confused, to say the least.

That's where communication comes in. When you communicate that you are a different kind of D.C., people notice you. Patient objections like time, distance, and money seem to be non‑existent.

Picture yourself in an expensive vintage car that you love, (a '69 Camaro with a big block 396 and all the goodies?) that doesn't run right. You take it to a regular mechanic and he does the best he can. Your car hesitates, smokes, and still doesn't run as it should. You decide to take it to another mechanic with the same result as the first mechanic.

You begin to get frustrated and the joy of owning a vintage car begins to evaporate. Then you hear of a special mechanic who actually designed the engine in your car. He is a different kind of mechanic, not your average Joe. Do you think distance is a concern? Nope. How about money? No again. Describing this feeling of hope is like finding an oasis in the desert. Every waking hour you have is consumed by the need for that car to run the way it was designed to run. Now think of that mother with an unhealthy or challenged child.

YOU must become that special chiropractor with the communication skills that separate you from all other D.C.s. A chiropractor with great communication skills will have a booming practice in a town with 50 other D.C.s, all in a five square mile radius. Like the special mechanic, the special D.C. has no peers or competition. People gladly come from miles away to be a part of his or her practice.

It amazes us at The New Renaissance that D.C.s continue to attract new patients only to be used up after a few visits. This is akin to a golfer thinking she'll get better by playing games. If that were true, older golfers would be the better golfers. The way to learn to do anything in life is to practice over and over so that when you play, you are able to use your new skills to perfection.

Excellence defined

Excellence is the continual pursuit of growth.

Most D.C.s don't see the need to communicate to patients. The problem with this belief is that when you can't communicate, you can't educate practice members about what chiropractic really is. When you abdicate your responsibility to educate, people will consult you only when they think they need you (i.e., symptomatic care only). Every time you fail to communicate to your practice members what the Vertebral Subluxation Complex is, as well as its tragic effects on total body health, you get further and further away from the practice of your dreams.

Instead of thinking of communication as a luxury, think of communication as a vital survival skill. No one has ever presented the world a concept without using communication.

(The New Renaissance ‑‑ the next generation of office procedure, chiropractic mindset for success, and patient education for today's chiropractor ‑‑ is a complete system of practice based on science and philosophy working on the doctor from inside out. To learn more about The New Renaissance, and the Mentor IV Practice Development Program that takes 24 years of the pioneering experience of Renaissance procedures and combines it with the practical daily activities of doctors in the field, contact Dr. Kevin Pallis at 781/255‑7080, Dr. Ed Plentz at 517/592‑8208, or the New Renaissance world headquarters 800/525‑3879.)