April 2004

Creating a first‑class family practice

by Dr. Eric Plasker

If there's one thing chiropractors have in common it's their search for the secret to how to attract and retain a larger share of patients in their communities. Reaching and serving your share of the chiropractic market can seem like a complex numbers game, but there's one simple and effective way it can be won, and all it entails is a subtle change in your practice orientation, one that involves a family first focus.

Can you imagine the effect it would have on your enrollment if instead of marketing your services to singular patients and their individual health problems, you began to focus your efforts on educating and enlisting entire families into the chiropractic way of life naturally, with no need for drugs? You'll be amazed at how quickly your bottom line will flourish and the positive impact you can have on the health of your community when you create a family‑focused practice.

The secret to truly building your dream practice and serving your community lies not in limiting your scope and focus to one particular type of condition or symptom (such as those with back problems) but in implementing marketing and office systems that will appeal to multiple generations by meeting the needs of everyone instead of one random family member.

Isn't it true that you would never think of allowing your own family members to go through life without regularly checking them for subluxations? So, let's begin running our own practices and profession in the same way that we live and participate in chiropractic in our personal lives!

You can start this process of aligning your practice with your personal beliefs with an honest evaluation of your current systems. When you do this, you may discover that one of the reasons you haven't been attracting families to your practice in the first place is because you aren't truly "family‑oriented" in your philosophy. In fact, a more accurate description could be that your practice is family "after‑thought" oriented and has enjoyed the lagniappe of enrolling additional family members purely by accident.

To truly maximize your scope and reach in your community, make sure that families form the foundation of all of your thoughts, systems and procedures. Here are just a few strategic steps to help you establish a family first practice so that you can instantly begin to double ‑‑ even triple ‑‑ your market share and practice income. It's a subtle change in orientation and operations that can bring huge returns ‑‑ one that focuses on the family instead of the individual.

1. Adopt a family first consciousness. When you communicate the benefits of chiropractic to your patients, speak to them as if they were one of your own family members. Share with them why and the ways you and your family members participate in chiropractic as a lifetime health care choice instead of a "quick fix" for fatigued or achy muscles and joints.

Shift the focus of your communications away from how chiropractic can be effective in alleviating unwanted symptoms toward the huge role that chiropractic can play in health and wellness by boosting the body's immune system and supporting it in its natural ability to heal itself.

Make this kind of dialogue, about the positive impact chiropractic can have on your patients' health and well‑being over a lifetime, a daily part of your discourse during your Report of Findings, health talks and lectures. Help them cross this bridge of understanding to how chiropractic can pro‑actively benefit them and each generation of their family through every stage of growth and development and you will attract patients who will make a commitment to chiropractic and to you over a lifetime.

2. Institute a family appointment system. You can enroll your staff and patients in the family first mentality with a few simple questions.

When a patient calls your office, always instruct your front desk personnel to ask, "Are you interested in booking an individual or a family appointment?" Then have them ask, "Is this appointment for treatment of a specific health problem or for general wellness?" When you ask these types of pointed questions, you instantly convey to your patients the broad scope of your services and the various levels at which they can participate in chiropractic care in your practice.

Remember, don't schedule appointments for family members at different times of the day or week. Put them all on the same day, back‑to‑back. The beauty of scheduling whole families in one time slot is that you can double or even quadruple your capacity with little more effort than you would expend on one patient. When they arrive, guide them to the adjusting area all together instead of one at a time.

3. Arrange your office flow for families. Do an assessment of your daily visit procedures. Are your current systems designed with the goal of serving one person at a time or do you need to alter them to cater to multiple patients? Is your adjustment area large enough to accommodate a whole family? Make sure that you have adjusting tables for both children and adults. Have all of the family members lying face down, relaxed and ready to go as they wait for their turn. If you build it, they will come.

4. Offer family‑oriented fee systems. Once you establish efficient office procedures for families, you'll find that it should take you the same amount of time to adjust a family of four as it does two people. However, if you discover that you're unable to adjust multiple family members in this time frame, do not proceed with implementing a family fee system.

Have the family set‑up in your computer system under one account, so that checking in and out will be effortless. Remember, you should always implement internal family‑oriented efficiency systems before you adopt a family fee system. Once you become efficient in both your adjustment procedures and your financial structure, your practice income will soar as your cost per visit drops.

5. Fashion your marketing messages for families. Many chiropractors mistakenly choose marketing materials that focus on how chiropractic can provide relief for an assortment of symptoms. They unconsciously end up targeting "conditions" instead people and limit their patient base to the individuals who have these ailments. When selecting your marketing strategy, remember that the type of patient you attract is going to mirror the message in your print or broadcast material.

Warm up your marketing with messages that talk about people instead of sickness and symptoms. If your marketing uses verbiage about car wrecks and whiplash, you're going to attract people who have this history ‑‑ and who will BE history in only three‑to‑ten office visits after their symptoms subside. Yet, if your marketing emphasizes wellness and the long term positive impact chiropractic can have on health throughout every stage of growth and development, you'll start attracting entire families willing to commit to chiropractic, you and your practice over a lifetime.

Finally, brand your care plans as "family wellness" or "active life plans" in support of this modern wellness philosophy. Have photos of families hanging in your office and a display board of family‑oriented success stories to motivate and inspire your new and potential patients with the message that chiropractic is indeed a "family affair."

There has never been a better time to practice chiropractic or impact our nation's health care than today. Use some of these strategies and systems to build a first‑class family practice and soar into abundance as you spread health and wellness in your community.

(Dr. Eric Plasker is a chiropractor and founder of The Family Practice where chiropractors are uniting to lead family health care. Nationally recognized as a speaker and educator, he is best known for rallying chiropractors around the "Lifetime Care For Everyone" [LCFE] and "Family Practice" visions in the chiropractic profession. For seminar, coaching, training, or product information, call The Family Practice toll‑free at 866‑532‑3327, ext. 105. Or visit The Family Practice website at www.thefamilypractice.net.)