May 2006

The secrets behind a high retention practice

by Dr. Dennis Nikitow

If you were to look at the patients in your practice, how many have been there for one, five, ten or twenty years? If you have a large number of patients who've been maintaining their spine with you for years, you have a high retention practice. If you're adjusting the kids of the kids you adjusted 10‑to‑20 years ago, you have a high retention practice.

If you want to build a high retention practice, you have to position your patients to put you on their health care team. This doesn't start at the end of a patient's treatment, but at the beginning.

If you want a high retention practice follow these important principles:

1. Patients must understand what a subluxation is. It doesn't matter if you know, it matters if they know. This means you'd better have a communication system that impacts them. The important points they need to know are that the nervous system controls everything and the subluxation interferes with the nerve transmission. Any part of the body that doesn't get maximum nerve supply because of a subluxation won't function at its optimum health potential.

A really important principle to teach patients is that subluxations are silent. While they don't cause symptoms directly, they cause "dis‑ease" which is a breakdown of cell structure, dysfunction, or damage. When a threshold is met, symptoms occur. If people think subluxations cause symptoms, they'll think they know when they or members of their family are subluxated. If they understand that subluxations are silent, they'll have to rely on you to tell them if they are subluxated. This increases retention because people will want you to check them regularly if they want to be optimally healthy.

2. Another important point to establish with patients is the medical research supporting the subluxation principle. When patients see medical research they take it as gospel. This is great for credibility and helps the patient focus on the principle rather than rumors they've heard. Direct your patients to the Certainty research posters and pamphlets to remove any doubt about chiropractic and to enhance its creditability. This will magnify the importance of maintaining spinal alignment for optimum wellness.

3. Next, the patients need to see testimonials of others for help with conditions thought of as medical conditions. This helps them understand that subluxations could cause any type of problem so it's important to maintain the spine for optimum wellness.

4. The most important principle for building high retention is the MPC principle. Patients need to understand that if they don't maintain their spinal alignment with regular adjustments, they'll develop the problem of subluxations silently until enough damage is done to hit crisis and get symptoms.

This principle continually paces patients to pain if they don't maintain their spines now. It also gives them understanding of why they got into a crisis stage with symptoms and possibly permanent damage. If they have children it makes them think about the consequences of what will happen to their children's spine and health if I's not maintained. By continually reminding people about this important principle, your retention will automatically rise.

5. Lastly, you must keep people focused on the principles of chiropractic. In his 1910 book "The Adjustor," BJ Palmer said that if you don't keep people focused you'll lose them. Our patients live in a medical world. Our principles make sense and are true. However, they don't align with the medical model of treating symptoms with chemicals.

Your table talk should revolve around all of the previous points I mentioned and you should keep your radar up to pick up any misconception on points people don't understand. If they begin to drift in their understanding, re‑focus them immediately on the principles of chiropractic!

If you take the above points and do them consistently, delivering the message with passion and enthusiasm, you'll be on your way to a high retention practice. Remember, people buy you and your belief, your passion and enthusiasm about chiropractic before they buy chiropractic. They will want you on their health care team, if you've established a strong relationship with them and are passionate about helping them.

(To learn about the Certainty System, Certainty Practice Products and Dr. Dennis Nikitow's upcoming seminar schedule, call 800‑544‑3884. Outside the US, 303‑721‑6202.)