The Tipping Point of New Chiropractic Patients
By Michael Perusich, DC
New patients are very important for your chiropractic practice. They help your business grow. Whether by death, demographic changes, or dropping out, new patients help you replace patients who leave. They also offer you a portal for new referrals.
New patients are often so important that we sometimes make them a leading statistical indicator for the performance of our clinics. We set new-patient goals with the thought that the higher the bar, the more we grow.
The reality is that there is a tipping point when it comes to new patients. By staying at or under the tipping point, your practice will profit. Go above the tipping point, and your business will likely suffer.
So what’s your tipping point?
Every practice has its own unique new-patient threshold, and it can often change from time to time. The tipping point is at the crossroads of capacity and procedures, both of which greatly affect your ability to book and process new patients. More importantly, they are the foundation of being able to convert new patients into long-term paying patients.
Your specific tipping point happens when your new-patient inflow is greater than your procedures and capacity will allow. When you scale over the tipping point, the initial symptom is an increase in dropout rates. While many doctors pay little attention to these dropouts, in my opinion, they are incredibly damaging to your practice.
First, a patient dropout represents a financial loss when you consider your marketing cost to acquire that patient. Losing a patient may also wreak havoc on your community reputation if they tell others about the bad experience they had in your clinic. That patient also represents a lost opportunity for patient visits, revenue, and additional referrals.
So why do these patients drop out when we fall over the tipping point?
The answer might surprise you. The most common reason is that you have overreached your new-patient capacity. In other words, you have tried to process more new patients than your schedule and procedures will allow. When this happens, we have a tendency to shortcut procedures to manage the inflow of new patients.
The procedures that we often drop are the ones that actually help us retain new patients and encourage them commit to care. We stop delivering good customer service. The very procedures involved in retaining patients are left behind to become more efficient in our processing procedures.
Patients are very sensitive about the customer service they receive. When your service feels “off,” they become very in tune with other things happening in your clinic. For instance, they may pay more attention to the panic your staff shows when they are overwhelmingly busy. They may notice your quickened pace and sense that you don’t spend enough time with patients. Subtleties like these cause patients to drop out of care.
The bottom line is that when you go past your tipping point with new patients, you actually can harm your practice, revenue, and reputation. As such, your new-patient marketing plans should take this phenomenon into consideration.
So the next time you start a new-patient marketing program, consider what your capacity tipping point may be and set your goals to just under that number. You may find that your success rate goes up instead of your dropouts.
About the Author
Dr. Michael Perusich is a solutions-focused advisor with more than 25 years of success across the healthcare and consulting industries. His broad areas of expertise include coaching, training, content development, and motivational speaking. Dr. Perusich is the CEO of Kats Consultants, LLC, where he and his team offer a unique platform of business knowledge and tools for today’s chiropractic entrepreneur. He can be reached through katsconsultants.com.
