This original article was featured in the February 2021 issue of The American Chiropractor

Welcome to 2021! 

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s how absolutely unpredictable the world is.  Practices from all over were greatly impacted by the events of 2020. And if there is one thing we observed, it’s that the practice that had an easier time getting through the year had one thing in common.  What was it?  Read on to learn…

Being the head of a software company with thousands of users, we have a tremendous amount of data that we can analyze.  This gives us a unique perspective to see what really went on in practices all over the nation.

Our hope is to help you use this knowledge so you’re better prepared for the uncertain future we all face.

So what did our data tell us?  

In April 2020, at the height of the shutdown we saw….

• One-time payments we’re down 50%.  In essence, Chiropractic offices that used one-time payments as the bulk of their revenue model were hit harder. 

• In comparison, recurring payments we’re down less than 3%.  Meaning, Chiropractic offices that used recurring payments as the bulk of their revenue model stayed at almost the same level of revenue, if not the same or more. 

Which would you rather be?  The office that saw a 50% drop in revenue or the one that had less than a 3% drop? And which group do you think is in a better position at this point? 

Now this may come as a surprise to some of you reading this.   Or maybe not.  It certainly was not a surprise to us.  Why?  We know that recurring auto-debits is a major component of having high patient retention that results in loyal patients.   

I cannot stress enough the power of having a high retention practice. Implementing these strategies is one of the most important operational decisions a Chiropractic office can make. This ensures financial security and independence from external events because it makes it easy for our patients to incorporate us into their daily lives. When things like a pandemic happen, you are less likely to struggle. 

Loyal patients will complete their recommended treatment plan, whether insurance benefits have been exhausted or not. They will also continue on to their wellness phase of care and become lifetime chiropractic advocates.  

So how do you build a practice that can weather storms that may come your way? You must adapt and implement solid procedures! After working with thousands of offices and having my own practice survive and thrive during hard times, I have been able to identify four key aspects that these practices have in common.  I like to refer to these pillars as the Four F’s: 

Forecast Care

This is a crucial step! Patients need a game plan for their treatment from the very beginning to very end. When you give your patients a full treatment plan that outlines all of their visits that reach their goals rather than asking them to buy care a little bit at a time, they do not feel like they are constantly being sold to.  

This will not only help to reduce awkward financial conversations, but it will drastically improve conversions to wellness care.  When your patients are on plans and their payments are processed automatically, they don’t have to think about whether they can afford the next visit or not. 

Frictionless Payments

The more friction there is for your patients to pay, the less likely they’re going to continue.  Make sure to always have frictionless payments in your practice; this will not only save you a ton of time in the practice but will also help your patients say yes to care.  Even when their insurance is exhausted, they’ll transition to wellness care because they’re not wondering if they can afford the next visit or not– even in pandemic times.

Remember what I was saying about one-time payments vs recurring? This simple step can change EVERYTHING.  

Feedback

You know the story — patients get the “big idea” and know that chiropractic works!  Once their symptoms that originally brought them into the office wear off and they’re out of pain, drop out.

However, you know that they need more care to correct the cause of their issues, not just mask the symptoms. The solution to this to give regular feedback as to how they are progressing with care.   This feedback needs to be in a format that is easy for patients to understand.

There are many ways you can achieve that, but I like to produce a report with a letter grade at the report of findings that shows the true state of their health in an objective manner and in language that the patient can understand. During re-exams, we run another report and present the patient with the amazing progress they have been making. They also see that even though the pain has stopped, there are still improvements to be made.

These wellness reports will take the conversation away from, “I just want to get out of pain,” or “What does my insurance cover?” to “Wow, I really need to get my grade up. How do I do that?” This will drastically improve your retention rates also. 

Patients must always know how they’re progressing with care or they will more than likely drop out.  Avoid that issue with feedback!

More on Patient Loyalty

Frequently Contacted

Routinely contacting the patient is important to remain at top of mind awareness for the patient. If you can automate that, even better! Using  automated email campaigns that slowly drip patient education on the benefits of Chiropractic as well as marketing content that spans from office announcements to Happy Birthday emails are proven to be effective. Although there might be other creative ways of achieving similar results, I have found automated emails to be the most efficient for me and my team.

Having emails geared towards education and marketing efforts will not only give you a constant connection with your current patients but will also bring in new patients.  The key here is to make sure that these are automated.  Having campaigns sent out automatically can save you upwards of five hours a month so you can then spend your time elsewhere, instead of manually sending out content.

Those chiropractic offices that implemented these strategies in 2020 were able to not only survive and thrive, but some even set office records even amid a pandemic!  If you haven’t started putting these procedures into place just yet, don’t fear– it’s definitely not too late to implement any of these.  Taking these lessons that we learned from 2020 and applying them to your practice for 2021 will ensure that your practice can survive whatever 2021 has in store for all of us.

Check out our other articles!