February 2007

Have you seen the purple cow? It really exists!

by Dr. Mike Reid

This is a story told by marketing guru Seth Godin about his travels in France. He was traveling with his family along the country roads in Provence admiring all the white and black dairy cows in the pastures. He described the scene as mesmerizing, but over time one black and white cow started to look like the next. The scene was all too common and soon became somewhat boring.

Suddenly, Godin noticed a purple cow amongst the sea of black and white. He pulled his car over to the side of the road. He and his family stepped out to ponder the remarkable difference of this purple cow. Regardless if it was a genetic abnormality or a gag, the point was that it was different amongst the normal.

Godin describes the cow as something phenomenal, something counter intuitive, exciting, and flat out unbelievable. He noticed that other cars had stopped and were gawking at this cow as well. What was most unusual is that the purple cow story didn't stop here. The buzz in the town and the following towns down the road was about the unusual purple cow in the pasture.

It dawned on Godin that in today's marketing you need to transform your business into being truly remarkable. Seth Godin urges you to put a "purple cow" into everything you build and everything you do to create something truly noticeable.

Consider a company like Starbucks that has created culture where people love the atmosphere, the smells, the mission, the vision, the comfort of an experience, and an escape from their daily lives. Consider a successful new company like Jet Blue, voted the top airline in five of its last six years in existence. It's a company that has transformed the airline industry and become profitable even as the giants file for bankruptcy. How about companies like Home Depot and Wal‑Mart? While others have scrambled to make ends meet, they've broken all sorts of records by "thinking out of the box."

Every day people and potential patients come face to face with a lot of boring stuff, a lot of the same‑looking cows. So, ask yourself how can you take the experiences of all these great companies and apply it to your clinic to make it go from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the safe to the remarkable. Consider our profession, which is becoming less insurance dependant and more cash/wellness‑based, a trend that's being adopted by the new health care industry. Also, consider the following list of suggestions that will allow you to put the purple cow into your practice to make everything you build, do, and create truly noticeable and remarkable.

Purple cow suggestions

1. Calling patients after their first adjustment to see how they responded to care.

2. Serving herbal tea, bottled water, banana bread, and fruit to new patients creating a spa effect.

3. Creating wellness plans that include emergency care.

4. Leaving your cell number on your answering machine in the event of emergency care needs.

5. Designing a kid friendly office with a kids corner that has coloring books, toys, bubble gum machine filled with yogurt covered raisins, and video games.

6. Offering auxiliary services in your practice such as nutrition, massage, and orthotics.

7. Creating VIP (Very Important Patient) services for wellness care patients. This includes reduced fees on nutrition and wellness plans.

8. Establishing an extensive Lending Library of books and videos for patients' utilization.

9. Creating a no wait policy where you promote a "10‑minute wait or less" or your adjustment is free policy.

10. A family gift certificate for immediate family members entitling them to receive a complimentary exam and report of findings.

My best recommendation is to find the most successful doctors in your field and shadow them for half a day to see what they do that's extraordinary and remarkable. Any doctor who's successful in practice will want others to be successful as well. Don't hesitate to give them a call, introduce yourself, and ask permission to follow them around for a day. This is one of the ways I built a successful practice that's still growing. I've created my purple cow in my practice. I challenge you to create your own.

(Dr. Mike Reid is an international lecturer, Canadian president of the World Chiropractic Alliance and the international director and head coach of Anthony Robbins' chiropractic coaching program called "Fortune." Merging his "Gorilla Chiropractic Coaching" with Robbins' personal empowerment technologies, Fortune is an elite and executive‑level program designed to create extraordinary practices and extraordinary lives. A member of the class of 1992 from CMCC, Dr. Reid maintains a private, cash‑based wellness practice in Ottawa, Ontario. For more information, contact him at 800‑781‑8127.)