AlternativeHealthPractice.com

Practice Growth Workshop for ND’s

Dan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:57:02 +0000

I’m excited to announce that Tara and I will be running a practice growth and management workshop for naturopathic doctors on April 17-18, 2010 in Toronto, ON.

This is for both new and established ND’s – you can get all the details and register at NDSuccess.com, but let me give you the highlights here.

You’ll spend two full days immersed with us and a select group of naturopathic doctors, where we’ll cover a wide range of topics including:

New, ND-specific opportunities for practice growth
Key practice shifts for more patient retention and referrals
Strategies for work-life balance, including locums, mat leaves, sabbaticals and more
Solutions to staffing, associates and other HR challenges
Options and models for transitioning from practice to business
Building an action plan to guide you when the workshop is over

In a nutshell, the weekend is about defining what you need from your practice and building a practical plan to get you there.

This has been brewing for a while – we get lots of requests for coaching and help – so I’m excited to see it coming together. Private practice can be a lonely role at times and this is a great chance to connect, learn, and most definitely grow. It’s going to be a fun, inspirational and super-practical weekend – we can’t wait to see you there!

To register, visit NDSuccess.com. Space is definitely limited, and there’s a great early-bird special that ends March 1.

See you in April!

-Dan & Tara

PS – If you know an ND that could benefit, can you pass this on? Many thanks!

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5 Random Files: An Easy Way To Reactivate Clients

Dan — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:00:43 +0000

Getting new clients takes time, energy and sometimes money. For all that investment, it’s a shame when they don’t come back. We’ve had a lot of faces through our practice doors over the years, and while we do our best to keep them engaged, we don’t retain everyone. As a result, we’ve got our share of “dead” files in the back room.

This year at our strategic planning day, one of our team members came up a great idea for reactivating some of those old patients. It only takes a few minutes a week, and although we’re just starting out, I think it’s a great plan.

5 Random Files: How it Works

After this idea came up, Tara reminded me of a chiropractic marketing guru – I’m pretty sure it was Dr. Demartini - who talked about how his staff would pull a random client file every week at the office and just…well, just think about the client.

According to the story, more often than not that person would call out of the blue and return to the practice. Kind of a law-of-attraction approach.

Our process is a little different, but geared toward the same result of re-engaging past clients in our current practice. Here’s what we’re doing:

Each week we pull five old files at random from the archives. (If you don’t keep files, you could just as easily check old appointment records, invoices or other client notes.)
We quickly review the files to see if we have anything new to offer, or some reason that we may be able to help now, when we might not have in the past
Where applicable, we write a personal letter to the client, describing when and why we saw them last, and why we think we might be able to better serve them now.

That’s it! Just a few minutes down the memory lane of your practice past to see if there’s anyone you might be able to help.

Why It’ll Work For You

Here’s why this approach is likely to bring back some old faces to your practice:

You’re better now than you were then. Since you last saw these clients, you’ve probably gotten better at what you do. You’re more experienced, more confident. You may have done some continuing education, or have some new treatment tools at your disposal. Or perhaps your pricing, service, staff, hours or other aspects of your practice are more appealing.
It’s personal. Each client is getting a letter just about them, talking about why they visited in the past, and how you might be able to help now. It’s far more personal and relevant than a newsletter or bulk mailing, so your clients are more likely to respond.
It’s cheap & simple. Really. This is a no-brainer. The first few letters take a few minutes to put together, but after that it starts to get faster and faster as you realize part of what you’re saying each time is similar. In total, it only takes about 20 minutes a week of time commitment, and a under $5 in stamps, paper and envelopes.

Why five files? It just seemed like a manageable number. Five was small enough to ensure the job gets done and retains its individual patient focus (of each five we pull, there are only 2-3 that get letters), but big enough to get through quite a few files in a year. You can do just one, if that’s what works best for you.

I’ve got high hopes for this effort, and I love the personalization of it. It’s also really rewarding to see how much more we offer now than we did a few years ago. It’s easy to forget how much progress you make over time!

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A Simple Way to Offer Incredible Client Service This Year

Dan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:11:52 +0000

Last year at our strategic planning session, which involved a big push to serve, we launched Project 52, a customer service initiative for 2009. The goal was simple: make one customer service improvement each week for a whole year.They didn’t have to be huge or expensive shifts – they just had to improve the client experience.

A year later, we’re looking at a long list of improvements. They range from warm slippers and adding additional soundproofing between treatment rooms, to 30-minute guarantees on returning messages during business hours and softer toilet paper. I thought I’d share how we did it in a little more detail, and tell you about our new Project 52 for 2010.

How To Start Your Own Project 52

1. Create a Visual Way to Track Progress

Of course, if you’re going to make 52 improvements, it makes sense to track them. Not only can you monitor how you’re doing, but as we’ve discovered, there’s a nice side bonus of ending up with a sort of “diary” of customer service improvements over the year. It’s easy to forget just how much change you actually make in a year – it’s a pretty rewarding feeling to look at our list of enhancements.

For us, a piece of flip chart paper was the easiest, cheapest way to track our progress. Draw a grid with 52 squares and you’re done. Total time: about 2 minutes. Total cost: about two cents.

You can use a computer file if you want, or something smaller than a big flip chart. Just make sure it conforms to the next tip, which is…

2. …Post Your Tracking In a Visible Place

We have a small staff room in the clinic, so we hung our chart there. It made it top-of-mind for everyone. There was always this mild pressure to come up with a new idea. If progress slowed down, it was visible to everyone. And when we were stuck, we could…

3. …Ask for Ideas

Making 52 little changes isn’t actually that hard. Surprisingly, the hardest part can be to think them up. It’s easy to come out of the gate quickly – I had a good dozen on my mind when we started – but as things get busy, it can become challenging to think of new improvements.

Looking over our list, the vast majority didn’t come from Tara or I. They came from other people. If you get stuck, try the following:

Ask your clients: We did a very brief survey over the course of a couple of weeks in the office. It had two questions: What do you enjoy most about your visits here? and How can we make your experience better?
Turn on your radar for subtle “hints”: once you get tuned into this stuff, you realize that people are giving you service feedback all the time – it’s just not in the form of outright complaints. Listen for those comments that aren’t really complaints, but are indications of less than ideal service.
Ask non-clients: great service tends to be similar across great businesses. If you ask a few friends about where they receive the best service, and why, you might find you’ll get some great ideas.
Ask your stafff: If you have help, ask the folks on your team. They’re the people getting all the front line action and fielding most of the comments and complaints. In our case, the credit for pulling this off goes to them. Including our high-tech tracking system.

3. Collect Ideas Somewhere Safe and Visible

Some ideas aren’t implemented right away. Some you won’t use at all. What’s important, though, is to have a place to keep track of them. We taped our Project 52 list to a whiteboard so anyone could scratch down potential ideas as they occurred.

4. Don’t Worry About “Big”

In addition to service, one of our other core values is continuous improvement. Project 52 is a visible, measurable manifestation of that. But to continually improve, you need to let go of the idea of massive, sweeping improvements that hog resources. Something as small as our parking bowl improves the client experience by a tiny bit. Those tiny bits can add up to whether or not a) a client returns to your practice and b) they refer other people to you.

And this year? Our new Project 52 is called Random Acts of Wow! (Yep – we love naming stuff.) It’s similar to last year (there’s a flipchart), but with a couple of differences. This year, we’ll focus on making exceptional acts of service on an individual level. Little gifts, thoughts, calls, notes and other random acts of kindness for our patients.

To make it happen we’ve established a massive Project 52 budget of $50 per month. That can be spent at the discretion of anyone on the team. The only rule is this: you don’t have to ask, but you do have to tell. In other words, be kind, and share the stories with us via the Project 52 board.

Everyone seems pretty excited about this one. I suspect that most of the things that fill the chart won’t cost anything. Kindness, after all, is usually free.

Happy 2010 everyone. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful year of helping and growing!

-Dan & Tara

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Practice Marketing for Introverts

Dan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:01:38 +0000

There are a lot of names for what we do in practice – alternative, holistic, complementary, integrative. But behind the labels, we all have one thing in common: we’re trying to help others. The catch, however, is that in order to find those people who need our help, most of us have to make some effort to market our services.

Sometimes, though, the very thing that makes many practitioners so good at what they do – their ability to connect with and be sensitive to others - also makes them very, very uncomfortable with the idea of marketing. Behind many of the questions we get from practitioners is a common theme: I’m shy/introverted/timid/reserved. How can I promote my practice?

To answer that, let’s start with a few key truths about practice marketing for introverts:

Introverts Have an Advantage

So you’re an introvert. You’re inward-looking. You prefer the company of yourself, or a close interaction with one other person. You’re insightful, a good listener. All these things, as it turns out, make you a kick-ass practitioner, too. What no one may have told you, though, is this:

The same things that make you a great practitioner can make you a great marketer, too.

Not only is being an introvert not a flaw, you also have a unique set of advantages, well-suited for health care and health care marketing.

You Listen Better – One of the greatest complaints about lousy salespeople and marketers is that they don’t listen. You’re telling them you want green, but they keep sticking red in your face over and over. As an introvert, odds are you’re a better listener than your extraverted counterparts. That means you stand a chance of actually hearing what it is your prospective clients want. What’s the biggest sales technique you’ll hear over and over in sales training? Listen to your prospect. It turns out that you’re a natural.

You Get Others Talking – It may be that you don’t like to be the center of attention, or it may be those great listening skills, but whatever the reason, introverts have a knack for keeping others talking. That gives you a much better chance of hearing about a health concern or a subtle detail that might never come up otherwise. It means you learn far more about prospective clients than anyone else.

Introversion Isn’t a Character Flaw

We live in a culture that tends to value extraversion. Don’t buy in.

If you tend to be energized by time alone, and a little introspective, you’re in good company. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Steven Spielberg? Yep – all introverts. Who says introverts can’t find a little success in business?

And remember, just about everyone feels the way you do at some point. You are neither broken nor alone.

Introversion and Extraversion Aren’t Permanent States

Introversion and extroversion are one continuum. We move around that continuum depending on our environment and experience. While there are genetic components to personality, they are, as with most things, not the whole picture:

Even a broad category such as introversion is like Silly Putty once life gets hold of it: a “genetically shy” child whose parents gently encourage her to get herself into the sandbox and mix it up with other kids is more likely to outgrow her shyness by age 12 than a shy child whose parents take her trait as a given. <source>

Instead of thinking yourself as flawed because you’re nervous about getting out there, think of yourself as inexperienced. We don’t blame kids for not being able to ride a bike, we just support them as they learn. You should cut yourself some of that same slack, and go easy on the labels.

Extraversion Isn’t Bad

For many, the idea of marketing a practice isn’t the fear of the actual act of say, networking, but a fear of becoming an icky extravert. That stems in large part from our stereotypical view of the marketer as the deceitful used-car salesman in the plaid jacket and snakeskin boots.

Just as introversion doesn’t mean “loser,” extraversion doesn’t mean “phony.” You can adopt aspects of extraversion without compromising your integrity or losing your personality.

You’re Already Marketing

Those great client skills of yours? Listening, reflecting, connecting, empathizing, assessing, diagnosing, prescribing and teaching? They’re the hallmarks of exceptional salespeople. The ability to truly connect with another person, understand their problem and provide the perfect solution? That’s all sales and marketing is. You learned it in school, and you’re doing it all the time, but no one ever told you. So I’m telling you right now: you’ve been marketing all along. You just need to get comfortable with the idea of expanding your audience a little.

But How?

Here are a few tips to ease your transition.

1. Start Gradually

You’re not going to change overnight. Commit to some small changes, or one big move per month or quarter. You can find a massive list of marketing ideas here. Pick just one to focus on that’s a small stretch for you. Get it done, and repeat.

2. Don’t Sell. Solve.

If the idea of “selling” is making you feel squishy, that’s good, because selling isn’t what you need to do. Your job in marketing your practice is to connect with others and solve their problems. Your job is not to sell, it’s to solve.

You can never sell anything to anyone. All you can you is create the circumstances for people to sell things to themselves. So think of yourself as connecting, sharing, educating and solving. Not selling.

3. Engage With the World

Clients don’t have to come from information sessions, speaking gigs, media interviews and article writing. They also come from being at the gym, or a mom’s group, or at the hairdresser. They come taking classes, hanging in coffee shops. From art galleries and movie theatres.

The hardest way to find new clients is to never leave your house or office. Just get out there and engage with the world.

4. Use The Buddy System

Despite all this, it can be, beyond a doubt, nerve-wracking for the less-outgoing to…well, go out. If you’re going to engage the world, there’s no rule that says you have to do it alone. Find a buddy, and get out there. Intoverted, extraverted – doesn’t matter. Moral support comes in many shapes and sizes.

5. Focus on One-On-One Interactions

Even though you might teach, or speak to groups, or show up a cocktail parties and open houses, all the good stuff happens one-on-one. Think of crowds as opportunities for a series of monogamous marketing efforts, not a pitch to a pack of rapt listeners. You don’t have to captivate a crowd. Just connect with one person.

6. Don’t Be Distracted By the Easy Stuff

There’s an enormous trend right now toward web-based marketing, especially social media. There’s a good reason for it: it’s a viable way to reach a lot of people.

The pitfall for introverts, however, is that the web is just too easy. It offers the (questionable) promise of riches and practice growth without getting out of your pyjamas, and for those of us who are a little shy, that’s too good to pass up.

So don’t pass it up. You’d be crazy not to use some of this technology to your advantage – just don’t fall into the trap of using it as your only advantage because you’re too scared to do anything else.

In a nutshell, let’s remember the words of Winnie the Pooh, who sums it all up far better than I ever could have:

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

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A Six-Figure Income in 3.5 Days Per Week: Practice Wisdom from Kevin Doherty

Dan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:01:24 +0000

Note: Kevin Doherty is one of the first people I stumbled across a few years back when we started this blog. He built a successful acupuncture practice, then went on to become an author and business coach.

He’s a smart guy, which I like, but he’s also walked the talk, building a six-figure income while maintaining a life.

It’s about time we had him sharing his brain here, so I asked him a few questions about finding success in practice…enjoy! – Dan

1. You’ve worked closely with acupuncturists, but also with a variety of other health care professionals. How similar are the practice challenges between acupuncture and other CAM professions?

I would say there are many similar challenges that include getting enough exposure and new patients, retaining them effectively, and creating a scalable business model that enables you to have a life outside of your practice. Every business owner is faced with these challenges.

The difference I see for acupuncturists is that most of them would really prefer to just treat patients and not have to worry at all about marketing. Chiropractors are much more motivated when it comes to marketing. They understand the importance of investing in their practice growth through consulting, advertising, and internet marketing. Acupuncturists are much more resistant to investing in their marketing education. Because of this, they struggle more than chiropractors and generally make less money. Acupuncturists often struggle with the whole notion of marketing in general, as it can feel inauthentic to them. Because of this, they rely heavily on word of mouth and law of attraction principles.

For some, this works. But for most, they never see the amount of patients they want because they have an aversion to self-promotion. This is one of the greatest challenges that individual practitioners face, not to mention the profession as a whole.

2. What’s the biggest missed opportunity for most practitioners?

Fully leveraging the power of online technology to grow their practices. In many markets, consumers are searching for alternative medicine services in the thousands every month with relatively little competition. It is just crucial to get your practice positioned effectively on the internet.

3. If practitioners were to focus on one single strategy for the next three months, what would you recommend that would have the biggest impact on their practice?

Make sure you have a professional website or blog that has some current web 2.0 features like an opt in form, video, and integration with social media. Take the necessary steps through search engine optimization, article marketing, and possibly pay per click to get a lot of qualified visitors coming to your website.

4. Many practitioners are in solo practice. Is it possible to make a good living as a solo practitioner and still lead a balanced life, or is adding associates and other staff a step that practitioners have to make at some point?

This depends on the practitioner. I, for one, never had a receptionist. Neither did the mentor I trained under. We were able to see 50-70 patients per week in 3-3.5 days doing this. This can only be done if you basically eliminate the need for a receptionist. You have most patients pre-pay and pre-book appointments and you have an effective script in place that lets them know that they should only call your office to reschedule if it is absolutely necessary, as you run a very busy practice. Basically, you need to be highly organized and efficient in the way you manage your time. Otherwise, it can get pretty chaotic and exhausting.

Not all practitioners are able or want to see 3-4 patients per hour. By far the most successful and lucrative practices are the ones that do see at least this many an hour.

I think it is possible to make a solid 6 figure income as a solo practitioner and have a life outside of the practice, but the truth is that this is unfortunately pretty rare. You have to be pretty developed both personally and professionally to handle a high patient volume and set healthy boundaries so you don’t take it home with you or just end up pretty much living at your office. Your marketing needs to be mostly automated through effective word of mouth and internet promotion. Your practice management systems have to be tight and consistent. These are things most of us don’t learn in school, which is why I decided to step up as a practice building coach.

Note: I think Kevin’s the real deal – he’s a sincere guy, helping a lot of practitioners reach more people and build a practice that supports their life.

If you need coaching, inspiration or help with any area of your practice (or you find all this internet talk confusing as hell ) you’ll find it well worth your time to check out his stuff. – Dan

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How To Use a Waiting List in Your Practice – No Matter How Busy You Are

Dan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:19:26 +0000

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be booked solid to have a waiting list. It’s a tool that works wonders at any point in practice.

The challenge is that waiting lists are harder to use than they seem. Here’s how you can make one work for you and your clients with no cost and minimal effort.

The Challenge

We were doing well with our scheduling strategy, but we still had a lot of holes coming from last minute scheduling changes. We don’t double-book, over-book, charge for missed appointments or use any other fixes that I feel reduce our level of service, but we really needed to do something to get the schedule filled more effectively, while still serving clients even better.

The waiting list was the answer. We just needed to use it the right way!

The Benefits

We were already using a waiting list, but it wasn’t working the way we thought it should. This time, we fixed our process for good and noticed the following in just a few days:

Less waiting for new and existing clients
More client visits in fewer clinic hours
More convenient scheduling for patients
Better daily flow for practitioners
Greater revenue with the same or lower costs

To make that happened required five key shifts. Not difficult ones, but each is important.

Shift 1: Work Less

In the past, we’d tend to scale up available hours as things started to get busy. Once the schedule approached the 70-80% mark, it was harder for patients to get in at certain times, so we’d add a few hours here and there. It seemed sensible – after all, if there’s not much room in the schedule, you add more, right?

Wrong. This year, we took a new approach. Faced with a busy appointment book, we actually reduced our consult hours. This was the real turning point.

Reducing available time is really a way to push the adoption of a waiting list. It forces you to find a way to truly use the time that’s available in the schedule. Why book only 75% of 30 hours when you could book 95% of 25? The deliver similar “billable time” but the latter involves a lot less time in clinic.

The result for us? We’re seeing more patients in the new reduced schedule than we did before, and providing much better service.

Shift 2: Change the Intention

In hindsight, “waiting list” isn’t the greatest phrase. I mean, who wants to be put on a list for waiting?

In the past, we might ask someone, “Can we put you on our waiting list in case there’s a cancellation?” Many would say, “No thanks.” A waiting list wasn’t really a patient-centered offering, and people weren’t interested. And for our staff, who take our clinic values very seriously, the waiting list wasn’t much fun either. For them it felt like a frustrating exercise that was all about making the clinic more financially efficient.

The solution? We changed our waiting list to a rapid care service. I know – it sounds like fluff, but it’s not. It was a fundamental shift in the purpose of the tool. Now the staff can reassure patients who can’t get in as soon as they’d like by explaining our rapid care service that will get them in sooner. Then they delight them a day later when they say, “Guess what? We’ve got a space for you.” Patients love it. It’s helpful for the staff. The practitioners love it. And the clinic is busier than ever, with fewer wasted clinic hours.

This shift is simply about service. A waiting list that is built around the intention of, “not wasting time we could be billing for,” will never work as well as one that’s built to serve.

Shift 3: Just Start

Don’t make this a big deal. You can start your own rapid care service with a scrap of paper taped to the front desk. That’s what we did, and it worked great. Just get started, and figure it out as you go.

And don’t wait until you’re busy. The waiting list isn’t a tool for booked-solid practitioners. It’s a way to increase the speed and convenience of services in your office for everyone from the clients to the staff to you. That means no matter where you are in your practice, day one or day one thousand, you can use this tool to make life in the office easier for everyone. Even if it’s just you and a small roster of patients, get this habit in place now.

One of our early problems was making this bigger than it needed to be – that kind of thinking puts up too many roadblocks and “buts.” Just get started.

Shift 4: Get Involved

A real turning point was when I manned the front desk for a few days over the school break when we had some staff shortages because of vacation. It’s a job I used to do more in the clinic’s early days, but haven’t done much recently. It’s a great way to appreciate a) the challenges of filling a book effectively, and b)just how often a waiting list can be put to work.

You may be doing your own scheduling, and know exactly what those challenges are, but if you haven’t done the job in a while, it’s worth making a few hours to live in your staff’s shoes by answering the phone and booking appointments.

If you’re not doing your own booking, you’ll still need to be on top of gaps in the schedule. Make a point of checking the schedule regularly through the day. Help your team think of ways to fill any holes. “What about Mrs. So-and-So? She could come in.” Getting your waiting list to work is about changing habits, and that’s going to require you to be leading the charge.

Shift 5: Collect Better Information

To make this work, you’ll likely need to start learning more about your patients than you currently do – or you’ll at least have to start writing it down somewhere. Focus on these three areas:

Best contact: To make your system work, you need more than just a way to get in touch with people. You need the fastest and most certain way to reach them. If you have a sudden opening in the schedule, you won’t be able to fill it quickly if you’re calling someone at home, but they’re at work for the next six hours. That means you need to know the best way to reach them now. Is it their cell phone? Email? Text? Work number?

Patient preference: You waiting list needs to have some details – like what service patients are waiting for, and their preferences for times and days

Patient flexibility: You’d be surprised how many clients have flexibility in their lives. The trick is to know who those people are. They’re the ones that are going to be a) great candidates for your waiting list, or b) the people whose appointment you can shift to accommodate someone else on the list who’s less flexible, and waiting for a specific time slot.

How you collect that info is up to you. Whoever does your bookings will develop a good sense of patient flexibility and preferences, but only if they ask in the first place. You need to be asking patients this information during the booking process. If you can’t reach flexible people in the fastest way possible, your list is going stumble before it gets out of the gate.

Small Effort, Big Benefits

Once you get this in place, you’ll find the benefits tend to spread into the schedule. When you have a great intention, and you can reach flexible clients easily, it become easy to shift the schedule to make it more efficient even when there aren’t people waiting. That frees up more blocks of scheduled time that help you get people in right away without ever having to be on the rapid care list at all.

Don’t be scared to work less to make this work. Test-drive it for a couple of weeks – you’ll be surprised not only at how efficient you can be, but how well your clients will respond.

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7 Strategies for Taking A REAL Vacation from Practice

Dan — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:10:13 +0000

We’re leaving shortly for our annual two-week summer getaway – it’s our 7th year for this escape. We spend 14 days living off the grid at a solar-powered cottage. During that time we have no contact with the practice whatsoever, and it’s become a critical part of staying balanced.

We generally take at least a week or so off each quarter in addition to this two-week block, plus the occasional sabbatical, but this particular vacation is a real rejuvenator. If you’re feeling the need for less speed, here are 7 tips for getting some real R&R.

1. Believe It’s Important

Guess what? You need the break. Taking care of people is tough work, and it just keeps getting tougher if you don’t take care of yourself. Even if you’re practice isn’t booked solid, don’t kid yourself. You need to take some time.

Besides, working less is good for business, too. Just about every major breakthrough we’ve had with the clinic has happened outside of the office, and usually on longer breaks.

2. Stretch Yourself

If you’ve never taken longer than a week off, or a long weekend here and there, now’s the time to develop brand new skill: taking real time off. A week is great, but it’s a different experience from two weeks or longer. If you’ve never taken a long break, try pushing the limit by doubling your longest vacation of the previous year. You won’t regret it.

3. Plan in Advance

If you think you’re going to squeeze in a week or two off at the last minute, think again. There will always be someone in the schedule and unless you block off the time well in advance, it’s just not going to happen. Most practitioners we know aren’t willing to just cancel a week of appointments on a whim. Best practice? Book all your holidays for the year at one time. Then your job is just to show up and enjoy them.

So – right now, plan your holidays for the next 12 months…

…no really, I’m serious. Do it.

4. Partner

Admittedly, it’s tough to abandon clients who need you. The reason it’s tough is the same reason you’re good at this stuff: you actually care about these people.

But rather than forgoing a long vacation, why not partner with someone who can cover for you? We’ve had local and non-local practitioners cover our bases during vacations for years. And when they take time off, we cover for them. It’s a great win-win. Every gets a break, and patients get the care they need.

5. Keep the Office Phones Alive

Just because you’re away doesn’t mean you need to shut down the lines of communication. Make sure you get that phone answered. At the bare minimum, have someone check your voice messages and email for you. It makes vacation that much more relaxing if you know that someone’s filling your schedule for you while you’re away.

But remember: people don’t always leave messages.

6. Don’t Work While You’re Gone

I’m a big fan of working vacations – there are a some types of “big picture” work things that are best done away from your daily routine. But sometimes you need to really, truly, stop.

If you’ve never done it, force yourself to stay off email and other work. If you’re opting for a “staycation” – taking time off without leaving home – be wary, and be prepared to hit the road if you find yourself slipping back into work mode.

7. Trust

Still feel you really can’t take the time off? Then it’s time to do some mental rewiring. It can really be hard to believe that your practice won’t crumble into dust in your absence (we’ve been there) but just trust me: it won’t. If anything, taking some time is going to keep you and your practice from falling apart.

Have a great month, everyone!

-Dan & Tara

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Tips for a Successful Open House

Dan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:22:54 +0000

We had our annual Celebration of Health at the clinic a few weeks ago. It’s become a tradition for us – we invite patients and the general public, and spend an evening at the clinic enjoying some great food and drinks, and generally enjoying ourselves.

It was a great success, but this year I was trying to pay particular attention to why. Here are a few of our thoughts, but we’d love some further tips. Anyone have any great ideas? Leave them in the comments!

Have a Designated Greeter

This year I spent most of my time serving drinks, and from my vantage point I had a clear view of the main entrance for most of the night. The one thing I noticed more than anything else was how uncertain new people looked when they came in. Fortunately, there were enough of us around that someone was usually able to welcome them give them a tour or point them in the direction of food, drinks, samples, etc., but in hindsight, I think having a “greeter” would have been helpful.

The greeter doesn’t need any special clinical knowledge – it can be a friend or family member. They just have to make people feel like they’ve come to the right spot for the right reason. Next year, we’ll have someone assigned to the front door the whole time.

Spread The Word Widely

People show up from an amazingly diverse range of places. We promoted the event:

On our website
To our patient mailing list
In posters in local stores and shops
On clinic signage
In postcards left with local practitioners and other vendors
In newspaper ads and events calendars
In various local online calendars and community sites

Many of these sources were free, and they all helped spread the world. It turned out that just about everything connected with someone. As we’ve discovered with new client marketing, you never quite know where the people are going to come from.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Invitation

We sent letters to all our patients to let them know about the open house, and it was a pleasant surprise for me just how many clients seemed to truly appreciate simply being invited. It was a great reminder of how much people long to feel special, or a part of something. The letter included other services and events, but the lead item was an invite them to the event, and people responded, many with messages of gratitude. It made the whole process of marketing the open house quite enjoyable.

Apparently, Recipes are Big

We had advertised that we’d be sharing recipes for unique and healthy foods, and there were people who came for that reason only. Who knew? Apparently Tara did, which gives you some insight into who does most of the cooking at our place. At any rate, recipes=more people!

Free Stuff Is A Big Draw (and Easy to Get!)

I think this was our biggest year for freebies. Our supplement suppliers and local retailers really came through for us, and it was surprisingly easy. We brainstormed a few ideas in advance, made a list, and simply asked. The people at the open house loved it, and the suppliers were super-keen and helpful. It also had the added bonus of moving people through the clinic. By placing freebies throughout the office, people tended to explore a little more, and become more familiar and comfortable with the space.

Partner

Back when the clinic was a lot smaller, we arranged to have our open house on the same night as the massage therapists down the hall. We were both relatively new in practice, but by holding events on the same night, we were able to create a much busier (and more enjoyable) event for both of us.

This year, we had a local personal trainer and raw food expert spend the evening with us. She blended up some amazing organic green smoothies, and actually turned out to be the biggest hit of the evening. She was a hugely successful addition for us, and was able to promote her own services at the same time. A great collaboration.

Have a Way to Stay in Touch

A good open house can bring a lot of new faces in the door, and it’s nice to be able to get in touch with people after the event is over. Our approach was pretty simple: a door prize that people entered by writing their name and email address on a ballot.

The next day, I simply emailed everyone a short message thanking them for attending, and included a link to the recipes from the night before on our website. The key? Respect their email address, and offer something of use. Having a great email newsletter solution makes things a heck of a lot easier, too.

Anyone else have any practical tips for making the most of an open house or other event in your practice? Let’s hear your ideas!

Post from: AlternativeHealthPractice.com

Joint Advertising With Your Colleagues: An Example

Dan — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:23:43 +0000

After the last post on collaborating with your colleagues to help your practice, I thought I’d share the ad we put together. This is a full page newspaper ad that we were able to buy for very little cash since we split it five ways.

If you’re interested in giving your practice and profession a boost by doing something similar, here’s a little more behind-the-scenes info on how the process worked.

First of all, why the newspaper? Our community is reasonably small, so the local paper gets a decent amount of attention. We got a special rate on the full-page size, too, so in terms of value, it was a great way to start off our collaborative efforts. (If you can’t see the ad, you’ll find it here. ) In the end, it was a simple project that we could easily come together on.

The objective was to expand the slice of pie – to increase the percentage of the population actually using naturopathy. All our logos appear, but the ad is really about our profession, not us as individual practitioners. We started out with each practitioner submitting 35 words about what makes their practice unique, but I ended up scrapping the blurbs so we could focus on promoting the profession.

Some of the challenges in expanding the market that we tried to address:

Helping people understand the level of training required for ND’s to be licensed in our jurisdiction. Naturopaths make a massive time and financial investment before they even open their doors, but as a rule, the general public isn’t really aware of the level of training and education required.
Differentiating an ND in our area from other practitioners who are using the same title without proper licensing
Dispelling the misconception that you can’t see both an MD and an ND at the same time. People believe it’s “not allowed,” or that the two professions can’t collaborate.
Understanding one of the key differences of the profession, which is that ND’s are heavily focused on finding and treating the root cause of health concerns, not just palliating symptoms.

Working Together: Some Thoughts

I think our process was made easier by me doing the artwork (for better or for worse ). If you’re doing something similar, but working with a designer, I’d say your best bet would be to pick one practitioner to be the contact point for the designer. They’d bring the ideas to the designer, and have the authority to work with them to the point of 1-3 acceptable samples that everyone can comment on. Anything else would be chaotic and cost a lot more.

All told, though, it turns out we’re a surprisingly agreeable bunch. There were a few tweaks to the ad based on everyone’s input, but it was really quite easy to collaborate. The biggest challenge was getting everyone’s logo in the right format for consistency. Other than that, collaborating in this way turned out to be an amazing process. We highly recommend it!

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A Bigger Pie: How Getting Friendly With Your “Competition” Can Help Your Practice

Dan — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:06:38 +0000

Recently, the naturopaths in Collingwood and surrounding area got together to discuss some joint marketing for Naturopathic Medicine Week. There are more practitioners here than ever (and many more coming soon), and this is something we’ve been wanting to do for years – to collect all our “competition” in one spot and chat.

Why, you ask? Because for us, competition really is good for business and patients. Here’s why turning your competitors into collaborators benefits everyone.

1. Collaboration Creates a Bigger Pie

My guess is that about 5% of the people in our area are users of our particular brand of health care. So of the many thousands or so folks that could potentially use naturopathy, only a fraction of them actually are (and that 5% is being generous, I think). That leaves a really big pile of potential patients. Really, really big. And our area is small – the same idea applies just about anywhere.

The real opportunity, then, is not to fight over the same slice of pie (the 5%), but to expand the size of the slice – to tap into more of the 95% who aren’t users of our profession. There’s a whole world of pie out there – why fight over the same old slice of apple?

The challenge of course, is reaching and engaging that other 95%. That’s where competition helps. The more people who say, “I see a homeopath,” or, “I use a chiropractor,” for example, the better off the whole profession is. Competition raises awareness, which creates acceptance and momentum, and expands the market for your services.

What to do: Reach out. Pick up the phone or email a practitioner in your field. You’ll be surprised at how many of your competitors really do want to talk with you. They’re just too scared to take the first step. Open a dialogue with a practitioner in your area. Be generous. Share your vision. My guess is that you’ll all sleep better at night, and discover something marvelous along the way.

2. You Can Flex More Muscle

Of that huge untapped expanse of pie, a huge percentage of them use conventional medical care, so the problem isn’t health care need, it’s health care awareness. You need to reach those folks who don’t use your stuff. Tapping into that group, though, can be an expensive and time-consuming prospect – it’s hard to make enough noise to get the attention you need.

The good news is that there’s strength in numbers. By combining forces, you can create a larger presence and do some marketing that gets attention. In our case,we’ll essentially becoming our own lobby group, promoting the benefits of naturopathic care in order to reach more people than we ever could alone.

What to do: Pool your resources to create joint marketing efforts. For example, you can take a full page ad out in the local paper for a fraction of the cost of doing it alone, and make some noise. You can have a large booth at a trade show that really attracts attention, or run some amazing clinics, info sessions or classes that offer some real value. Get five practitioners together and you can do five times as much without spending any more time or money than you would alone.

3. Collaboration Generate More Referrals

You and your “competition” might all be massage therapists, or chiropractors, or acupuncturists, or nutritonists, or herbalists or homeopaths, but you’re all unique, too. It’s the ways in which you’re different from each other that offer the greatest opportunity. What do you each love? What do you hate? What are you best at? What does one offer that the other can’t/won’t/doesn’t?

In our group, for example, there’s an ND who’s a doula, and an ND who specializes in cosmetic / spa applications of naturopathic medicine. They’re both great services that we don’t offer, but that many of our clients would love. We’re happy to refer to them for those things. And in return, we can offer things like IV therapy and colon hydrotherapy to their clients. Patients gets better care, practitioners get more business. It’s great for everyone.

The trick is, of course, you need to connect with these folks to truly understand their specialties and explain yours. You can’t do it by reading each other’s websites on the sly or peeking in their windows after hours. You need to reach out.

What to do: First, connect. Do a lunch or breakfast offsite, as opposed to in someone’s practice space. Get to know what each of you love and do best. Next – and this is the most important part – refer. Send a client to your competition as soon as the opportunity arises. It’s a smart, patient-focused act of goodwill that will benefit everyone, including you.

Start Now

This is a sum of the parts thing. You and two or three other practitioner can generate more total business cooperating than the three (or 6 or 15) or you can working separately. Don’t be shy. You’ll find most practitioners pleasantly relieved to have open dialogue with you.

Focus on your differences, your passions, and the strengths of your professions as opposed to your practices, and you’ll find more patients, more fun, and more pie than you ever would have alone.

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