For many offices, it's usually clear where your office is and thus your front door. For many others, especially those in large office buildings or in urban areas it's not as clear.  Even if your office is easy to find, there can be road closures or construction that impedes timely arrival.

You can easily enhance patient experience by anticipating issues such as difficulty in locating your offices front door in a large building or alerting patients to road delays. This enhances their experience and yours by preventing frustrated and stressed patient arrivals, not to mention on time appointments!

Here are some tips to consider:

• Post clear directions on your website. Include photo's of your front door or parking structures to park that are closest to your office.  
• If sending electronic reminders for appointments, include your address and if necessary parking instructions as well as a link to your website for directions. Make sure this is mobile friendly as that is the most likely time they'll realize they are lost!
• When a new patient calls in, alert them to any possibility of confusion and provide oral instructions and/or an email that clearly outlines how to get to your office. 
• If unexpected road construction or delays are incurred, call your patients and let them know of any detours or potential delays as appropriate for the duration of the delay. 

This last one happened to me for a recent dental visit. I could have easily left 5 to 10 minutes earlier to get to my appointment had I known of the road condition. Instead I arrived 10 minutes late, stressed and anxious. As did the patient who entered right behind me. 

Finally, a fellow medical marketer shared how this could be taken a step further by suggesting a video or a video montage of pictures be made illustrating where to park, the elevator, the hallways, a map and a picture of the offices front door.  I would add to that a suggestion that you highlight the front staff waiting for them at the desk with smiling faces and waves. 

These very small considerations that make a huge and positive impact on your patients overall experience with your office and makes your office standout from the competition. 

Lately, I have seen more chiropractic advertising utilizing the terms “Doctorate in Chiropractic” and “Board Certified” but with no designation as to what they are board certified in.  Did you know there are possible advertising violations especially when using the “Board Certified” designation erroneously? Let’s review.

The Chiropractic Degree

A D.C. (Doctor of Chiropractic) or D.C.M. (Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine) degree is considered a 1st Professional Degree.  This degree designation is defined by the Department of Education as follows: 

“First-professional degrees represent a category of qualifications in professional subject areas that require students to have previously completed specified undergraduate coursework and/or degrees before enrolling.  They are considered graduate-level programs in the U.S. system because the follow prior undergraduate studies, but they are in fact first degrees in these professional subjects.  Holders of first-professional degrees are considered to have an entry-level qualification and may undertake graduate study in these professional fields following the award of the first-professional degree.”  

Other 1st Professional Degree’s include Dentists (D.D.S or D.D.M), Attorneys (J.D.), Veterinarians (D.V.M) Osteopaths (D.O.) and of course Medical Doctors (M.D.). 

Using the term Doctorate

The department of eduction defines the research doctorate, or the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and its equivalent titles, “as representing the highest academic qualification in the U.S. education system.  While the structure of U.S. doctoral programs is more formal and complex than in some other systems, it is important to note that the research doctorate is not awarded for the preliminary advanced study that leads to doctoral candidacy, but rather for successfully completing and defending the independent research presented in the form of the doctoral dissertation (thesis).”

Most often I see chiropractors referencing where they received their "Doctorate of Chiropractic" from or using the designation "Chiropractic Doctorate" in their CV's or "About Me" sections of their websites or business cards. There is no specialty for a doctorate study program in Chiropractic that I am aware of and thus no one D.C. that can truly say they have a “Doctorate in Chiropractic” although they may also hold a Ph.D. for another specialty in which case it should be added to their credentials as the designation can be supported with another degree.

If a medical doctor asks what your doctorate is in they are assuming it is something more than your D.C. degree and looking for an answer more along the lines of an additionally credentialed specialty focus or in research. Yes “Doctorate” sounds fancier and super smart, and those who have earned this designation certainly are, but you won’t be feeling so smart when the medical doctors you are trying to work with call you out on the designation!

Illegal? Not than I am aware of. Embarrassing - Absolutely!

For further definition on the 1st Professional Degree and Doctorates visit www.ed.gov

Stating You Are Board Certified 

All chiropractors take boards which they must pass to gain licensure - but that doesn’t mean you can advertise you are "board certified". When you say you are board certified (for your D.C. degree) it implies that you have more training than other chiropractors which is misleading and therefore in violation of medical advertising laws.

We often see chiropractic specialties that are truly board certified referred to as a “Diplomate”  status and if you have one you should most definitely advertise the additional accomplishment. To see a list of specialty degrees for the chiropractic profession click here.

These distinctions are more than just a potential source of embarrassment. There are possible regulatory repercussions in the form of advertising violations if you are found to be misleading in your advertising.  This is a major topic in my classroom and one guest lecturer I have in each trimester to discuss these concerns is Marc Abla from the Illinois Chiropractic Society who provides a little more clarity on the topic in this short video.

Illegal - as in the sense of jail time? Probably not. In terms of $$ - most likely if it is reported.  Embarrassing?  Yes, all healthcare specialists abide by the same marketing laws - have you ever seen an M.D. advertise that they are “Board Certified”  for their M.D. degree?

Please also make sure to check with your state board, that the title you are using is appropriate for your state (i.e. Chiropractic "Physician"). 

Don’t compensate for your D.C. degree - it’s impressive just for what it is!

Stroke has been a long standing point of contention over the years between chiropractors and medical physicians. In 2007 one of our most compelling papers was published in Spine and JMPT (Cassidy et al) indicating that there was no increased risk of stroke with manipulation and rather that patients were likely seeking care for the symptoms prior to their stroke. Further studies would go on to illustrate that blood flow and injury to the arterial wall were also not caused by the head positions during SMT setup. Today we have a new study that not only states that "Manual therapy does not result in an increased risk of CAD" but one which is also relevant and important for screening patients, understanding the typical pain distribution associated with stroke and a step-by-step risk benefit assessment.  This is an absolute must read for all chiropractic practitioners, but also one to be shared with healthcare practitioners who still influence their patients treatment options based on erroneous and outdated opinions. For patients who may be nervous and influenced by headlines this paper would also be reassuring. 

The full text can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07853890.2019.1590627

Do you know who your patients are? I don't mean in the sense of knowing their name. I mean do you know who your patients are that you want to treat? What are their conditions? What are their needs? What services do you provide to meet those needs?  

We work in a high burnout profession. To improve your professional quality of life target your medical marketing to  appeal to the patients who have the conditions you want to treat? This means if you have a love of managing migraines - find the specialists in your area who also manage migraines. Love workers comp? Great, look to reaching out to occ. med, orthopedists and other specialists who would be likely to have these patients. 

This might seem obvious but I talk to so many chiropractors who try to appeal to everyone and fail to really specialize in one or two specific niches - often trying to claim patients with all sorts of ailments. From a marketing perspective this doesn't help direct or steer your target market in any specific direction.  I'm not suggesting that you can't be "family" practice oriented. Of course you can, but even this has a special focus and more generalized conditions to talk about in your meetings with MD's. 

Look to your own strengths and passions to appeal to the patients who have the conditions you excel and enjoy treating. Not only will you be more targeted in your outreach but you'll be less likely to suffer from burnout by making yourself available at all time to all patients to ensure your practice remains stable. 

That's the magical opportunity in marketing to medical professionals - you can really be selective and find the MD's in your area to build the practice of your dreams and enhance your professional quality of life! 

Hi everyone! 

At the start of class today, I asked my students the following question:

"Today is Valentine's Day, what marketing strategies could you put in place to attract new patients and could you also use those same strategies to double down and focus on patient engagement?"

I have to say whenever I ask these questions I am always impressed at the ideas that come forth - watch out for them when they graduate!

From educational to civic service to good old patient appreciation the ideas were wide ranging.  It's too late to plan a celebration for Valentine's Day for this year, but what about other upcoming celebrations? Are you Irish or just love green? Perhaps St. Patrick's Day might inspire you to start planning an event? 

What I love about these events are that they can capture both new patients and work towards patient appreciation and retention goals as well. 

Take a moment to look at the calendar for the remaining year and start planning some events to enhance awareness of your practice in your community. There are multiple holidays and multiple directions you can take each one to make it fun and engaging for all. 

Christina

Being active in your community is essential to your marketing. The more your name (clinic or personal) is heard, the more it is seen, the more recognizable it becomes and with that comes an implied reputation as an expert in your field. 

I spoke recently of analyzing your statistics and growth twice a year. If you did so and feel there is a need for change or room for improvement consider being more active in your community.

There are multiple ways to achieve this, some known and some that may take some digging or networking to find.  

Community talks are an obvious choice but personally I get tired of the same expected talk so traditionally associated with chiropractic. Twenty years ago when I first started out, these talks almost always included the history of our field. No offense to our founding fathers, but we have precious moments to educate our communities and talking about our history just simply isn't necessary. I'm quite sure they would forgive the oversight and appreciate it if you stick to educating potential patients about conservative care that should take place before more invasive strategies!

Even if you leave out the history don't you lose enthusiasm over time of repeating the same general chiropractic overview? You know the one about the hose being kinked? 

Look to the cases you love to manage and think outside the box on how you might offer more on the topic within your community. In turn you'll spark your creativity, your enthusiasm and certainly you'll be more enthusiastic in improving the reach in your community to gain more market share!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to the site and Happy New Year!

The New Year is always a clean slate. Reflections on the previous year are pondered and new goals are set.  Hopefully you were satisfied with your business stats but there is always room for new growth and adapting to changes in the market place. 

When you reflect on the previous year at what you did from a marketing perspective it will likely coincide with your business statistics. If you did little, your business likely grew little and those with stable businesses may have even seen a decline from the comfort zone.  This happens frequently when you assume you've made it and marketing is no longer a necessity. 

For others, where more marketing effort was put forth you may have found success in expected areas, success in unexpected areas or even lack of results in what you thought was a sure thing. I think we all struggle with any of the above situations. 

Your marketing efforts should be ongoing for the life of your business and so should your analysis no less than twice a year. Right now is the perfect time to pull the numbers from last year and try to correlate where the growth came from and emphasize those efforts while cutting back from marketing campaigns that did not perform reallocating budgets accordingly. 

Analyzing your numbers will help you tell the future, catch declining trends before they hurt and be strategic in your efforts. 

Hi Everyone,

Due to increased response and outreach I am now opening a portion of our site to those who just need a little push, a little insight or just aren't sure what they need in the moment but want to participate

To meet this need, I will offer twice a month open access blog entries focusing on basic and more simplified versions of my members only entries and other topics that stand out at the moment. 

I invite all to participate through comments which I am sure will grow in time or to just sit back and be a silent observer - the choice is yours! I ask that all comments consider all view points and are posted with respect. 

If there is something you would like me to post about feel free to suggest it as post response here or in future entries. 

Happy New Year everyone!

Christina