Top 10 Downtime Tips For Private Practices

It happens all the time - A patient cancels or reschedules at the last minute. The therapist now has a large block of free time. For a clinic owner, this represents a negative return on investment.

In reality, this time can be used very productively, especially if the therapist has a clear directive on how to use downtime.

Introducing 10 ideas to boost productivity during downtime in your practice. If you can implement even one or two of these ideas the next time a patient cancels, you might find that downtime is the most productive time for your practice.

1) Call the patients who have shown the greatest degree of improvement and congratulate them on a job well done. Remind them of their importance to you, and your commitment to them.
2) Write a newsletter / content rich communication for patients. Plan the next delivery day.
3) Write a press release, and research google and other search engines for the contact information of journalists in local newspapers and TV stations
4) Retrain and improve the phone script utilized by the staff to increase interaction with patients and callers.
5) Identify the single biggest topic that your patients want to hear about and find a physician who is also an expert at it. Call a physician and tell him you would like to organize a teleseminar or live workshop with him, and both sides can invite their patients. You now position yourself as an authority with the physician.
6) Identify a major brand that your customers identify with and think of a way to position yourself next to the brand (If a majority of your patients are mothers, you may want to say “Our treatment options will relieve pain, increase well being and make you feel as relaxed and content as eating a bag of OREO cookies)
7) Create lead generators for your website - narrate a 20 minute audio (using a simple voice recorder) advising patients about the ‘10 best ways to ____’ and offer a free download of the audio to your patients on your website, in exchange for their email address
Take the audio (mentioned above) and get it transcribed into a book that can also server as a lead generator on your website, in person for patients who visit your clinic.
9) Introduce loyalty rewards - provide ongoing ‘members only’ benefits for patients who take the ‘most wanted response’ for your practice. (referring friends, family etc)
10) Resolve to ask for a testimonial from the next patient. Ask in a way that appreciates the patient, instead of obligating the therapist.

You can print this blog post and put a check mark next to each tip, as you complete these tasks. Good luck and see you in my next blog post!

Condition Patients To Refer

It’s been 3 months since Ritika and I moved into a new home, and we still have not had time to buy a couch for the basement.

When we finally addressed the issue this past Saturday, she said “A couch from Jennifer Convertibles will be a good idea, in case we have guests sleeping over”

“We can look at Huffman Koos or Raymour & Flanigan too right?”, I suggested.

“I don’t think so. JC is a good bet - they have quality, affordable furniture that will fit our needs”

From a marketing standpoint,  something significant just happened here.

JC did their job well - they got the consumer (Ritika, in this case) in the right mindset to refer.

In this blog post, I am about to teach you the mindset you need to ignite new referrals from existing patients. It’s a method that will ignite your marketing results… An undisputed fastest way to increase the number of patients coming to your practice is to use the ‘Referral Ignition’ marketing system.

With Referral Ignition, you, the private practice owner, spends time on the ‘critical’ 5%, where you make the major decisions pertaining to your practice, the scripts you use and leverage media and technology to spread the message about your practice.

Let me break it down for you.

We have known for ages that the best way to get referrals is to build relationships with physicians.

One or two good referral relationships can sustain a practice.

But what if you had several different referral relationships with different businesses, all of whom were sending patients to you every single day, day in and day out?

Would this be a significant income boost for your practice or not?

The ‘Referral Ignition’ method is simple - focus on the critical tasks that drive your business forward, while outsourcing / delegating everything else, including the actual marketing.

All you need is individuals who can follow instructions, implement systems and follow through to consolidate referral relationships.

All referral relationships are based on consistency. When you combine persistence with a component of quality (consistent, relevant contact - what I call ‘quality contact’), you have an unbeatable system called ‘Referral Ignition’.

The system is founded on the “Law of Reciprocity”, which states that you approach referral sources with a giving hand. One of the most famous information marketers of all time, Zig Ziglar has said, “You can get anything you want, if you help enough people get what they want.”

Here’s the interesting part - it’s easy to learn the principles of ‘Referral Ignition’ and apply them in your practice - in fact, you can do so almost overnight.

The simple act of giving patient’s good, high quality information when they first come into contact with you is that first step in ‘Referral Ignition’.

When a prospect visits your website, calls your clinic or reads an advertisement, they form an opinion. When they pick up the phone to call you, they are waiting to be impressed / sold by your brand of physical therapy. All you need to do is cultivate that and help them overcome their defensive barriers and preconceived notions of physical therapy.

Once you do this, you will have them for life.

The biggest mistake made my most private practices is - they wait for patients to refer. Instead, they should be conditioning patients to refer from day one, and actively encourage them to refer.

Personality In Your Practice

Does your practice have personality? Do your patients miss working with you when they are away / when they miss treatment sessions? Do they talk about you even after discharge, and sing your praises months after physical therapy?

Imagine your patient at lunch with a friend, 3 months after being discharged from your clinic.

Your name comes up during a conversation, since the patient’s friend is looking for a physical therapist. The patient searches for words to describe you, and uses one of 3 descriptions to paint a picture:

a)    That therapist.. I can’t remember his name, but I got some massage, exercise and electrical therapy.
b)    John was an excellent therapist, helped reduce my pain and I like his sense of humor!
c)    That therapist was a punisher, I dread the appointments.

This is a CRITICAL perception, one that you can control.  Clearly, the second choice reflects camaraderie; a strong, positive rapport between patient and therapist.
The more patients you have, and the more they get along with you as a therapist, the more successful your practice will become. With the right planning, you can use your personality to get more patients and improve relationships with existing patients.

This is personality driven physical therapy.

Physician Profiling Principle

I get asked a lot of questions about the physician profiling principle that I revealed to my inner clients of Therapy Newsletter, and am spilling the beans today. Holding nothing back, here is my super-secret “Physician Profiling Principle”, which is an under-the-radar technique to increase referrals and grab the attention of referral sources. It is simple, effective and easy to execute and consists of the following steps

a) Approach them with a giving hand
b) Leverage the basic human principle of reciprocity with effective follow up
d) Ask for something in return
e) Follow up again using different forms of media

This is a system, not a product of chance.

I know it sounds super simple, because it is. But the truth is, this can change the way you see marketing and referral generation forever. The following video explains, in detail, the physician profiling principle and how you can use it to get referrals from all types of businesses, not just physicians.

Video Interview With Brad Hogenmiller, PT From Chicago

I was interviewed by Brad Hogenmiller of SPOTonChicago, a therapist resource site recently and revealed some of my best marketing tips in this video call. It’s a fun interview filled with valuable nuggets of information.  Sorry about the lighting on my side - I am waiting to get my new webcam, which will provide a clearer picture. Brad provides educational resources to physical therapists in Chicago.

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