Category: Chiropractors

Word-of-mouth advertising is powerful. That’s because it is unfiltered, often unsolicited, and completely genuine. As a bonus, this form of marketing requires very little financial investment.

Happy patients do the marketing for you. Too often, healthcare professionals overlook this marketing technique. Don’t make that mistake.

Check out these 5 easy ways to increase your chiropractic patient referrals and grow your business organically.

#1 Ask Existing Patients for Referrals

The absolutely most effective way to increase your chiropractic patient referrals is the one that is used the least. Simply ask for the referral!

Each time a patient expresses pleasure with the progress they are making or the results you have helped them achieve, don’t hesitate for a second to ask them for a referral. 

Happy customers are pleased to tell others about your practice. Often it is just a matter of asking. Your practice should always be prepared to make the ask.

#2 Go Above and Beyond

Provide knock their socks off service. Move beyond osseous adjustments and treat the entire patient. Use the support of lab services to monitor key nutritional levels, add Applied Kinesiology, offer dietary counseling, massage therapy, and nutritional supplements. When your patients feel good, they’ll naturally share the good feeling with their friends and family. This is the finest word-of-mouth advertising you’ll ever enjoy. When you help a patient restore their vitality and mobility, you create an ambassador for your clinic.

#3 Highlight Patients in Short Videos

Everybody wants to be a TikTok star these days. So, fulfill your patient’s dreams of stardom and ask them to participate in a short 30-second video. These don’t need to be high-production value videos. Remember, some of the hottest videos to go viral are nothing more than a person sitting in their car, looking at the camera, and sharing what they feel. So, if you have a cell phone in your office, you have everything you need to make a video. Get patients to share why they love coming to your practice for care. Have them talk about the change your practice has made in their life. 

Share these videos on your social media and ask the patient to share them in your feed as well. Of course, you’ll want to ask each of your patient video stars to sign a release before you begin filming.

#4 Leverage the Power of Digital

Most successful chiropractic practices have an active presence on social media and an engaging email marketing campaign.  Whether you use  TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter ask your happy patients to follow you on social media and share your content. 

A share sends a strong social signal to the patient’s sphere of influence. It is a referral that doesn’t feel like a marketing message. When your patients share the success stories of other patients, it adds a layer of authority to the original post.

Make sure your digital newsletters and other email marketing assets are completely shareable. Add a click-to-share, click-to-forward, or some other call-to-action button to make it easy for patients to share your information. 

#5 Acknowledge Each Referral With a Thanks

When a patient refers someone to your practice, be sure to give them a heartfelt thanks. People appreciate the personal touch and taking a moment to say thank you sends your social and professional value soaring. 

You can preprint thank you cards or handwrite a note. You might even make the effort to make a personal phone call. The call itself only takes a moment, but your patient will talk about it for weeks. After all, when is the last time your healthcare provider called you?

Increasing Chiropractic Patient Referrals Just Makes Sense

If you want to grow your practice, patient referrals just make sense. It costs as little as patient retention and is an easy way to add volume to your practice.

Many times, the hardest part of getting referrals is simply making the ask. When you provide great services, your patients will gladly share their experiences. Your job is to make that sharing process as simple as possible.

New chiropractors often struggle to gain traction once their office is finally open. Instead of scaling their operations, they find they struggle just to get by.

To avoid the common mistakes chiropractors make, understand you can’t do it all yourself and that the people that surround you have an incredible impact on your success.

Follow these tips to avoid making the most common chiropractor mistakes.

#1 Trying to Do Too Much

With all the pressures of student loan payments and the expenses associated with opening a business, it’s natural to try to curtail costs by doing everything yourself.  Resist the urge. 

Focus your efforts on creating the vision for your practice, providing the best chiropractic care possible, and executing your business plan. You can’t do everything from painting the walls and cleaning the offices to scheduling appointments and still provide outstanding personal care. This approach only leads to burnout and frustration. If you aren’t your best self, you can’t give patients the best care. 

Instead, play to your strengths and focus on care and build a team that supports your efforts. That leads us to mistake number 2.

#2 Waiting Too Long to Hire

The number one mistake chiropractors make leads to the number two mistake – waiting too long to hire. Whether it is bringing in another patient care coordinator or expanding with an associate, don’t wait until you have more than enough for the new person to handle.

Your new staff is key to supporting the growth of your practice. The excess capacity they bring to the table (and the office) is exactly what you need to scale. How can you open a second office if you can’t commit to additional staff?

When your marketing efforts are clicking and you’re bringing in a steady stream of patients you’ll be glad you’ve got that additional capacity. 

#3 Failing to Hire and Onboard Staff Properly

Once you’ve committed to hiring, it’s important to follow through with precision. No matter the role, from Associate Chiropractor to Care Coordinator, make sure you hire people who align with your mission and values. Clearly communicate their role and responsibilities and what key performance indicators you will use to measure their contribution to the team. 

You’ll work many hours with these team members, and they impact your success. So, create a yardstick of the characteristics and skills you need and compare candidates to the yardstick – not each other. 

Once you’ve hired, set aside ample time for onboarding. Provide training manuals and materials for any software or treatment equipment they will need to operate. The first 90 days are crucial to creating a supportive environment while new team members get their sea legs. 

# 4 Failing to Provide Value

Rare is the chiropractor who finds true success with nothing more than osseous adjustments. Patients are looking for real value and if you don’t provide it, they will seek chiropractic care elsewhere. 

Don’t just treat pain, help your patients achieve better health and quality of life. Talk to your patients about the importance of following your prescribed treatment plan with the goal being not to get out of pain, but to return to daily walks, golf, tennis, or any other activity they are missing. Show them the path to better health is possible, and then let them know you are with them.

Support your differential diagnosis procedures with lab tests and Applied Kinesiology using muscle testing supplements. Provide nutritional counseling services and don’t hesitate to marry physical and massage therapy to your own chiropractic care services.  

When you provide stellar service and real value, patients will naturally tell others about the results they achieved under your care.

#5 Relying on a Single Revenue Channel

Don’t overlook additional channels of revenue. Chiropractors that rely on a single revenue stream frequently find themselves strapped for cash.

Adding additional revenue streams allows you to boost cash flow without taking away from your primary focus of patient care.

For example, offering nutritional supplementation, like the chiropractors at Nutri-West New York, creates an additional cash revenue stream that is recurring. Patient outcomes improve, patient health improves, and you have a reliable stream of revenue.

Avoid Mistakes Other Chiropractors Make

Schedule a consultation with the chiropractors at Nutri-West NY. 

 Drs. Forster and Horowitz are practicing chiropractors who help other medical practitioners grow their practices and duplicate the amazing results they experienced with Nutri-West products. They’ll help you decide if Nutri-West can help you and your patients.