Unique Original Articles » New Patients? Are you crazy?

If you've been asking yourself "How can I get more new patients" during the last couple of months, then you're crazy!

Whenever the economic climate starts to look rough, either for just one practice or for the country as a whole (as we're seeing right now), the vast majority of practice owners start to panic. They worry about what a decline from previous years numbers will mean to them, their staff, their practice, and their family, and so they start to think about ways to try to "drum up new business."

Inevitably, this takes the form of trying to figure out how to bring in new patients - and, as I pointed out a few sentences ago, that's crazy!

What's so crazy about it?!?

Well, to start with, it's crazy because in just about every practice I've ever looked at, the retention rate for new patients is MUCH more alarming than practice owners realize. It's not uncommon to see 30-50% of patients never have more than 10 visits, even in the very best of times.

So what happens when those same new patients are suddenly worried about THEIR jobs, about THEIR family, and about THEIR income? Well, it means that even if you DO manage to get them in the door (which will be much harder), you're going to see even higher early attrition rates.

In short, it means that it's going to cost you a lot more money to even get a new patient in, and it's going to be a lot harder to get them to stay.

So what SHOULD I be doing?

Well, frankly, a lot of things. But we're just going to focus on one for this article.

You see, the things you should be doing right now are the things that will serve to make your practice even stronger when we come out the other side of this - namely, you should be investing your time and money into the INTERNAL aspects of your practice, rather than trying to bring in new patients from the external world.

What I mean by this is that this is the time to be actively focusing on how to improve your patient retention, and on re-activating patients who have left your practice for whatever reason.

Today, we're going to focus on patient re-activation, because it's the area that will show you immediate and measurable profits.

Why Patient Reactivation Works

In my last article (link), I wrote about the reasons that patients leave, and pointed out that a great many of them really DO want to come back.

But that's not the primary reason that this is a favorite strategy of highly profitable practices. The main reason this is such a favored strategy is that these practice owners realize this one simple truth about their patients:

A person who has been a patient in the past, and comes back, is FAR more likely to stay longer, be more co-operative, and see lasting results than a patient who walks in off the street.

There are a lot of reasons for this, but the biggest is simply this: These patients don't need to be convinced that chiropractic treatment is right for them. They don't need to be convinced that you're going to have their best interest at heart. In fact, since they were previously patients, they know EXACTLY what you can do for them - All you need to do is remind them.

Add to that, of course, that it's MUCH less expensive to bring back a past patient than to bring in a new patient, and you'll earn far more in treatment fees from the past patient than you will from the new patient.

And that's why it's crazy to be focusing on trying to get NEW patients right now - If you haven't actively and effectively exhausted every avenue to bring back past patients, then you're effectively choosing to invest $500 to gain $800, rather than $100 to gain $1,000.

Buying Back Patients

I want to ask you a very serious, very silly question. Would you take out your wallet, and trade $5 to bring a patient back to your practice?

How about $50? $100? $1,000? $10,000?

Where did you stop? Do you know how much you'd pay to bring back a patient?

It started off silly, but this is among the most important questions you can ask about your practice.

After all, if you don't know how much a patient is worth, then you have no idea how much you can spend in marketing dollars, how much you can spend in terms of time or effort, how much you can invest in any area to bring back a patient (or to bring in a new patient, for that matter).

The easiest way to evaluate this is to try to determine how profitable a returning patient will be. Will they have 1 visit? 5? 10? 20? Of course you can't know. But you can have a pretty good idea on average, and give yourself plenty of 'wiggle room' to decide how much you'd be willing to pay to bring back a past patient.

Summary

The most profitable practices in the world KNOW these numbers inside and out.
They know EXACTLY how much they can afford to spend to bring back a past patient.
Or to bring in a new patient.
Or to generate a referral.

Not just in terms of money, but also in time, energy, or staff resources. They know because it's the greatest leverage in the world to know this - If they can consistently trade $300 to bring back a past patient, who will consistently generate $2,000 in visit fees, it's a game they're willing to play all year round, but ESPECIALLY when the economic climate looks grim.

When you can do this, and do it consistently, then it really would be crazy to choose to focus on trying to generate new patients instead of reactivating past patients. Especially in an economic climate that ensures that new patients will be even more cautious, even more skeptical, and even more wary of spending any money than they would otherwise be.

And you're not crazy, right?


Start bringing back patients IMMEDIATELY:

If you've read this article, and the others available on this site, then you're probably very serious about making your practice into one of the very best. To help you do that, I want to give you the opportunity to bring back 5 of your past patients, absolutely free. Click here to find out more.


Want to learn more?
Patient Reactivation is one of the many strategies covered in Real World Growth Strategies for Your Practice – an exciting new marketing program for Chiropractors. To find out more, e-mail info@svachiro.com.

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Shawn Veltman is a marketing consultant and the creator
of the highly acclaimed ‘Real World Growth Strategies’ program
for Chiropractors. To find out more, e-mail info@svachiro.com
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