A few weeks ago I was on the phone
with my friend Marilyn Allen (whom many of you know, I am sure!), discussing ways that business education and
levels of success could be improved for acupuncture students and practitioners in the US
and how we could continue to participate in that effort. We agreed that, while anyone can
learn what needs to be learned with respect to budgets and bookkeeping, taxes,
insurance forms, and charting, the difficult and more important part of practice
success had to do with patient communication and management.
Why? You can (and as a new
practitioner you probably will) spend lots of time out in your community
building a clientele through volunteering, giving talks, joining networking
groups, writing blogs, and working on your website. But once someone decides to
book an appointment or come to a free consultation, how do you WOW them enough
to keep them coming back for life and believing in our medicine, and more
importantly, in you? We need new bookings every week as a new practitioner, but
we need steady, long-term patients for success over the long life of a
successful practice.
So what are my five keys to making
a life-long patient?
- The greased-bannister effect
You want a
prospective patient to find there way onto your treatment table as easily as if
they were sliding down a greased banister…in other words, effortless and
natural. A prospective patient’s experience should be such that they think “why
would I go anywhere else” or “how could I not choose this person to be on my
healthcare team.
To get that
response, you have to think about every experience a person coming in for the
first time or two will have: phone service, ease of finding you, parking or
public transport, paperwork, educational materials, smells, sights, sounds,
lighting, retail displays, office accoutrements, your library, your bedside
manner, the way you touch them and work with them in that first session, and
the ease of the check out process. To get a more objective assessment of how
well you are doing in all of these areas. Consider creating a check list of
these things and having a good friend (one who is willing to be unflinchingly
honest) walk through this experience and give you feedback. Then decide what
you are able to improve or change to make a new patient’s experience “wow”
them.
- Generate trust and relaxation
My suggestions in
this area might begin before they ever arrive at your door. Trust could begin
when they meet you at a lecture, a volunteer event in the community, or because
of something they read on your website. If you send out a “Welcome Packet” it
can include a number of simple educational items to help a patient understand
that you are a professional and you are going to take good care of them. If
there is more than one room, show a new patient around your clinic so they know
there’s nothing “weird behind door number three.” Introduce them to anyone else
who works at the clinic (or train for front desk person to do that). Offer
water or tea. Then, the room or area where you take histories and do initial
consults should:
- include a library, which could be an impressive sight for a new patient, and have a significant placebo effect
- be clean, comfortable, and nicely appointed so that it looks professional
- include educational signage as well as or instead of just artwork.
- Make a real connection
- Whenever you are with a patient, you must control the time but allow them to ask questions to the extent that you can and stay within your time frame.
- Always educate them about their own body or their health condition…a little at a time. Your knowledge also has a placebo effect.
- Touch and treat with confidence. Even if you are shaking in your boots, your body language must remain confident, calm, and assuring. Even if you can only be certain of one or two things in your treatment for that day, those things should be done with the grace of a master.
- Make eye contact. Nod your head. Let them know you hear them, you are listening to them, and you understand them. There is more power in that, perhaps, than anything else you do with a patient.
- Educate for the long term
Make the
assumption that this person will be using Chinese medicine for their health
care for the long haul. In order for that to happen, you must slowly and continuously
share with them more and more about Chinese medicine and acupuncture. For the
first three-four-five visits, your patients should go home with some
information about the medicine, a brochure, an article, a piece of research, an
assignment such as a food diary on a form that you create, a recipe, an
exercise or self-massage regimen (on paper with illustrations), a book to read,
a liniment or plaster or poultice to use (with instructions). These things both
keep you in your patient’s mind when they are not with you and they increase
understanding and enthusiasm. Both of these are requirements for keep patients
for the long haul.
One
word of caution about education: be careful of Chinese medical jargon. Try to
speak in terms that most people can understand. Talk about immune modulation,
increased blood flow, energetic balance, reducing energetic stagnation,
increased endorphins and brain neurotransmitters, etc. rather than “qi” and
other Chinese technical terms. This helps patients share their experience of
your care with others more easily.
- Make as many decisions as you can for the patient
A
person coming for treatment is often worried or even frightened about their
condition (will it go away, will it get worse, will I have this for life?). One
of the mistakes I used to make as a newbee was to say something like “do you
want to come in again next week?” to my patients. This was a really uninformed and poor choice of words. I
should have been saying “I’d like to see you again this week if possible and
again next week at least once as well.” But you can learn from my ignorance!
You should be the one to decide what the treatment plan
should be and tell the patient what your findings are. This is what most
patients want. It gives them confidence that you know what you are doing, what
the treatment should look like in their case, and how long it should take. You
can suggest a course of so-many-acupuncture treatments over a specific period
of time, and/or how long they will need to take Chinese herbal medicine. Write
it down on a form with your clinic contact information and go over it with the
patient. Ask them if they have questions about the protocol and perhaps offer
them payment options to save money. Send a copy of this form this home with
them.
That’s my top
five patient communication suggestions for maintenance of a successful
long-term relationship with a patient who will come back again and again for
life. Of course, this list could have had ten points instead of five, but these
are the ones that I believe are not optional for your prosperity.
Thanks for
reading. Best wishes for success. Send me your ideas for a happy and successful
practice any time.
Honora Wolfe is
the author of Points for Profit: The Essential Guide to Practice Success for
Acupuncturists. She paints watercolors, practices Buddhist meditation, cooks gourmet meals, and tries to make at least a little bit of trouble from her home in Lafayette, CO.
