My anatomy and physiology professor at Life University used to say, “Everything has holes… and everything takes time.”
I am not sure what he meant by that first part, but the second has always rung true when it comes to chiropractic care, health and healing. Time is a very precious commodity and in many ways, it’s the only one. We depend on time in our field of work just as much as we do our own hands.
So, it’s not wonder that one of the biggest commitments chiropractic patients have to agree to, is their time. Because it is so precious, new patients are going to be possessive of their time and they absolutely should be!
New patients want to know: “How long is it going to take for me to get what I want?”
If you want to create a successful practice that is built by collecting long-term commitments you must convert with the intent to retain. In order to do this, you need to address their time first. Chiropractic patients need and want to know exactly what you expect of them and want them to commit to.
The key to avoiding that deer in the headlights look from new patients is avoid rambling through a series of recommendations concerning weeks, months and years worth of work including financial plans and details.
You do not want to overwhelm patients by jumbling all their commitments into one discussion.
Once you sit down with a patient to go over their report of findings – you move onto your recommendations for care. See this blog post for specifics or go directly to Module 22 of TRP Academy for the FULL recommendations with scripts and all.
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When you review your findings and their goals, assuming they are an acceptable case – you want to make certain they know those two things do not work together right now. So, one of them has to change, which will it be?
At which point you want to ask your chiropractic patients a series of small questions leading them to understand the position they are in at this moment. Do they want to make their goals achievable? If yes, do they think continuing this way will be helpful or harmful?
During this discussion be certain to get their verbal agreement between questions. A great way to finalize the decision to commit their time is to say for example:
“Is the correction of your problem – meaning your subluxation pattern – and reaching your goals enough of a priority for you where you can commit the next four months to begin the correction process?”
Most likely, they will answer yes and you’ve already passed through commitment #1: TIME.
It’s natural for anyone to protect their assets and that strongly includes their time. But once the chiropractic patients see that their time is well worth it to achieve their goals, someone who is committed to getting results will agree. Wouldn’t you?
