The new patient attracting image -- Part 5

Doctor attributes & consultation room decor ‑‑ The good and the bad

by Dr. Peter Fernandez

The final steps in getting the potential new patient to actually become a new patient are the dΘcor of your consultation room and you, the doctor. Everything you did to get the potential new patient to your consultation room door could have been perfect, and he or she may have already decided to become your patient, but all of this can be quickly undone inside your consultation room. Your advertising, sign, telephone procedures, facility, and staff have brought the potential new patient to the finish line ... but it's up to you to get him or her to cross it and become a new patient.

As with every other room in your office, it is strongly recommended that you use an experienced interior decorator/designer to help you choose the colors, furnishings, flooring, window dressings and furniture placement for your consultation room. Using an expert decorator/designer will assure that each element of your consultation room instantly impresses potential new patients with your professionalism, knowledge and warmth. By creating this type of atmosphere, you avoid creating mental barriers that keep potential patients from completely trusting what you are about to tell them. In other words, the proper consultation room atmosphere makes your new patient interview significantly easier and far more successful.

Professional interior decorators/designers are not just for the rich and famous. You can easily find a good one whose services are free, and will save you money. How? One example is the many home repair/remodel businesses like paint stores, Home Depot and Lowes that offer their customers complimentary decorator/design services. In addition to these free consulting services, these knowledgeable decorators/designers can almost always offer you lower cost alternatives for decorating your office. Another example is the independent decorator/designer. This professional knows where to get the very best deals for you, and gets paid by commissions from the vendors he or she negotiates with. Once again, you're getting free decorator/designer service and saving money. In other words, hiring a professional decorator/designer doesn't cost, it pays.

Yet, great advertising, telephone procedures, facility, staff and a consultation room that instills a great new patient attracting image is not enough. The last vital element and final determinant in converting a potential new patient into an actual new patient is you, the doctor.

More than ever before, people expect and demand certain qualities and characteristics in their doctor. In today's competitive market, "shopping" for health care is commonplace and it's the doctor with the best marketing, most pleasing personality and professional style that attracts the most new patients. The many doctors who I've helped to build million dollar a year practices, all have certain characteristics in common. Based on this knowledge, I have compiled the following list of what patients expect and demand of their chiropractor.

Patients expect their doctor will:

*** be a well‑educated intellectual who can communicate easily with the patient. Therefore, the doctor will have professionally framed diplomas and chiropractic achievement awards displayed on his or her walls, and will answer a patient's questions at the patient's level of understanding, not above or below it.

*** be focused on helping his or her patients understand their health problems.

*** have a certain amount of personal charisma that enables the doctor to get his or her patients to trust and accept care recommendations.

*** take no shortcuts in the patient care he or she provides (the doctor will treat the patient's health problem, not his or her wallet).

*** dispense his or her services in a professional manner by telling patients what he or she is going to do before doing it.

*** take the patient's complaints seriously with a genuine degree of compassion, and give patients hope that he or she can help their problem (if he or she can). If the patient's problem is chronic, the doctor will never act matter‑of‑factly about it. The doctor will treat every condition like the important issue it is to the patient. The doctor will always make the patient feel that his or her problem is the doctor's top priority.

*** be dressed and groomed like a doctor ‑‑ a successful one. If you want people to trust and respect you as a professional, you first have to look like a trustworthy, respectable professional. For male doctors, this means a shirt, tie, neatly pressed dress pants and shined dress shoes. For female doctors, this means a business skirt or pant suit with business shirt, neutral hosiery and shined low heeled dress shoes. Both gender doctors should wear a doctor's white coat that falls just below the hip and has their name with "DC" after it, embroidered over the left side chest pocket.

*** have a modern and well‑equipped office. It may not be new, but the equipment and everything else in the office should be maintained to look new and up‑to‑date. Patients should never be allowed to see worn out or damaged items. Potential new patients will rationalize that if a doctor gives so much attention to office details, he or she must surely give his or her patients and their health problems the same exceptional attention.

*** not allow politics, religion or any negativity towards others in the office, spoken or written. Eliminate all materials that might be offensive to someone, including those that slam or insinuate negativity towards the medical profession. Stepping on someone is your quickest way down, not up. It is a foolish person who thinks he or she can build credibility and respect by being negative towards others.

*** be completely honest with his or her patients.

*** be confident and optimistic in what he or she tells patients.

*** be a good communicator. Patients should understand what to reasonably expect if they follow or don't follow the doctor's recommended plan of treatment.

*** set a good healthy example for his or her patients. The doctor will not overindulge in food, alcohol, or smoke during his or her work day. The doctor must appear rested and be enthusiastic in his or her care of patients.

*** Remember, doctors are carefully scrutinized by potential patients, making it important for doctors to always look and act in a way that boosts and supports a new patient attracting image.

Can doctors succeed without dressing professionally or having a professional looking facility? Sure they can ‑‑ if they're lucky enough to be one of the less than one percent who are born with exceptional good looks and have an extremely charismatic personality that draws most everyone to them. Unfortunately, 99% of all humanity does not have these looks or this personality and must do other things to compensate. Those "other things" have been clearly defined in this column series, and I've coached thousands of doctors on how to use them to achieve the success levels that are otherwise attainable only by the extraordinary few in the less than one percent category.

The lack of professional appearances is a huge and insurmountable practice building barrier ... purposely and needlessly set up by those doctors who choose to be that way.

It's up to you, doctor. The celebration that occurs at the front door when a potential new patient enters does not have to be a short burst of excitement that ends in nothing. Take the steps to assure that you, your facility and your staff are what your potential new patients want and expect ‑‑ professionalism, impressive office, and a knowledgeable, positive, caring doctor ‑‑ and your practice will be in a constant celebration of new patients.

Next: Part VI of "The New Patient Attracting Image," where you'll learn how to conduct examinations that motivate potential new patients into having total confidence in you, their new doctor.

(Dr. Peter G. Fernandez, is a 1961 Logan graduate. His practice with five staff chiropractors and 12 satellite offices, was one of the country's largest all‑referral, high income chiropractic clinics. As a practice consultant for the past 24 years, Dr. Fernandez has taught practice building techniques to nearly 15,000 DCs, and consulted in the opening of approximately 3,000 practices. He can be reached at Fernandez Consulting, 10733 57th Avenue North, Seminole, FL, 33772, by calling 800‑882‑4476, or via e‑mail: DrPete@DrFernandez.com. Visit him on the web at www.DrFernandez.com).