Physical-Therapy-Business-Mistakes

I am writing this blog post in Fort Lauderdale international airport, on my way back from my third and final mastermind meeting in Miami, Florida. I met with a physical therapist in Orlando who is making a six figure income without a single contract with any insurance company and countless other business owners using powerful, unconventional strategies to boost their private practice. We met in a private, closed door meeting at the Miami Marriot, shared ideas and strategies to transform a physical therapy business and uncover new revenue sources. At the end of the day, we went to some of the finest lounges in South Beach and Ocean Drive in Miami and had a great time recapping the day and deciding what to implement in our practice, amidst sumptuous dinners and beach-side views.

The best systems to transform a physical therapy business come in unconventional, casual settings like my 20 person “Referral Ignition Mastermind Program”, intended exclusively for motivated physical therapy business owners. The key – get out of your comfort zone, your place of work and meet with me, and a team of private practice owners 3 times a year. You also get 2 phone calls a month with me on my private line, with recordings of all conversations and unlimited email support. The truth is, it’s often difficult to think creatively in a day-to-day situation like a busy clinic. That’s why I organize these mastermind meetings 3 times a year, and only involve the best and the brightest minds in private practice to join and attend – we accept only 20 applicants each year.

While systems can be powerful, mistakes can be lethal. Sometimes, what you do incorrectly in your physical therapy business can do more damage than the other, less relevant things you manage successfully. Here are three of the most common mistakes made by physical therapy business owners.

Physical Therapy Marketing

a) Paying big amounts of money to physical therapy business ‘consultants’
Since we are not taught about how to market a physical therapy business in school, it’s easy to get seduced into thinking that a high priced coaching program  from ‘consultants’ is the solution. The truth is – it’s all hype and you DON’T have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get physical therapy marketing advice. You want to learn marketing from physical therapists in the trenches, who have struggled like you, have made expensive mistakes (that you can avoid) and who are available to coach you with new, innovative, cutting edge ideas.

I know you’ve heard all those crazy claims from consultants who promise you tons and tons of referrals after charging you tens of thousands of dollars, and I’ve done if before for a fraction of the cost, but I don’t know any private practice owner who can get nonstop referrals everyday, and the claim is a little misleading.

Cutting edge marketing ideas can get you results very quickly. For example, sending surveys to and cold calling physicians is a total waste of time in this day and age, when everyone is getting more and more busy. Using PURL (personalized URL) marketing campaigns, acquiring the right lists and identifying potential patients EVEN BEFORE they need physical therapy is the way to the future of physical therapy business. Forget the old ways of reaching patients, the way to market your practice is to reach your patients even before they are contemplating physical therapy. I explain this in detail in my “Referral Ignition Course” coming soon to a city near you.

b) Trying to be all things to all people.
It’s the equivalent of being nothing to a lot of people. Do you have a program that will help you stand out from other providers? Perhaps a method or treatment option that can be the ‘flagship’ product in your physical therapy business? A service that is so viral that it becomes a talking point and automates your physical therapy marketing? Niche programs are undervalued by the therapist and overvalued by patients.

c) Engaging in ‘push’ vs ‘pull’ marketing.
Instead of telling (interrupting) physicians and referral sources with a “Here I am, and I am wonderful” message, offer them with a tempting, irresistable offer – “Here’s something I would like to give you, no strings attached, whether you refer back to me or not”. Instead of saying “We treat low back pain, and we are nice people” in your brochures, write a short book on “Low Back Pain” and give it away to patients, physicians and anyone remotely interested in low back pain – but only if they request the information. The mode of delivery can be email or printed version. Now, you have helped them, have their contact information and are in a (unique) position to legitimately contact them again, this time with another relevant piece of content, which has your name, contact information and ‘hook’ all over it.

For members of the Inner Circle, I just uploaded a completely done-for-you book on “Low Back Pain” with complete copyright handed to you. As an Inner Circle member, you get the rights to add your name as the author (if you choose) customize the book, change the cover and make it available to your patients as a ‘lead generation’ resource. This book cost me over $1000 to produce, including original content, graphics, formatting and design. You get complete, unrestricted use of the book as an Inner Circle Member. This is ultimate resource for physical therapy business owners.

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Speaking of meetings, I am coming to a city near you to conduct an intensive, one day workshop with a team of 14 private practice owners to share all my strategies, and you could be one of them! My assistant is working out the exact details of the ‘Referral Ignition Tour’.

Here are some of the tips I gave my coaching client…. Seven tips to boost office collections in your clinic.

1)    It is critical to have financial policies in place, and follow them to the letter, no matter what happens. No exceptions. Make sure this financial policy is written, studied and implemented by each and every staff member.
2)    You must be able to accept multiple modes of payment. Accept credit cards, e-checks and offer discounts for on-the-spot cash payments.
3)    Implement a pay by phone option, where patients can pay with a check or credit card over the phone. Introduce pay by SMS options (yes, there are ways to do that)
4)    All costs associated with a treatment should be paid for in advance. Always have a credit card on file for each patient as standard policy. Make credit card information part of the patient intake form. Most patients will not question this. The ones who do can be politely informed that the card will not be charged without prior notification and is a backup funding source in case of past due balances.
5)    Follow up with insurance companies on a weekly or if possible, biweekly basis. Do not wait until the bill is 30 days past due to initiate contact.
6)    Align your policies so that you cut a refund check to the patient, as opposed to chasing them around like a bill collector.
7)    Implement a payment collection system. Call the patient and gently remind them about the past due balance. You want to use a precise phone script and inform them that a letter is on its way. When the patient gets a phone call/voicemail and hears about the upcoming letter, he is expecting the letter and is more likely to take action. The timing of this phone call should be on or a day prior to the delivery of the letter. With the right timing, phone script and the letter, the patient will feel obligated to make their payment, as opposed to ignoring the letter or regarding it as a nuisance.

And for Inner Circle Members, login with a username and password above. I just posted 2 word documents that include -

- The exact phone script your receptionist can use to collect payments

- The exact letter to be mailed to patients to request payments

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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 for patients.
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, or an in-person bonus / gift for patients in your clinic.
9) Introduce loyalty rewards – provide ongoing ‘members only’ benefits for patients who take the ‘most wanted response’ for your practice. (writing a letter to their physicians, giving you a testimonial, 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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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STEP 1
Educate a stranger (in need of therapy) about the benefits of physical therapy, and convert them into a prospective patient.

STEP 2
Provide outstanding care to the patient and transform them into a powerful referral source

STEP 3
Empower and remind the referral source to educate ‘prospects’ about your practice. THIS is where most practices need to step up their efforts.

The top of this cycle represents the ‘funnel’ for prospective patients.

The bigger and wider your ‘funnel’, the more patients you can reach.

Community outreach is one method. The more community outreach you engage in, the greater the number of ‘prospects’ that learn about your practice, largely due to word of mouth publicity.

In a growing practice, this cycle repeats itself several times and becomes progressively larger in scope, as it involves more patients and myriads of physicians, patients and other referral sources.

Here’s a little secret.

The principles are the same – they don’t change.

The scope of execution does.

For example, I still write this blog today like the day I did when I had 2 website visitors (myself and my mother – thanks mom – hope you still read my blog).

This takes a little time, but should not take forever. It does NOT take time to build a practice, it takes the right measures, and the right timing.

With the right words and language, you can expand your ‘funnel’ of potential patients, feeding the cycle till it becomes a frenzied branding activity.

From day one, every single patient in your practice should be conditioned to refer other patients. The first time a patient meets with you, they are filled with hope and anticipation about what you can do for them. This is an ideal opportunity to seek referrals and instill the importance of ‘word of mouth’ publicity. You literally want to form a ‘referral engram’ in the patients mind. Your goal is to provide the patient with the highest standards of care and remind them about your expertise and the power of their referrals.

Each patient has a significant sphere of influence and is an underutilized referral source.  Remind them about the importance of referrals over and over again during the treatment process and transform the patient into a human billboard for your practice!

Make sure your staff says the same thing (or follows a similar script) you use. Reminders are the secret to referrals.

This is the 3 ‘R’ principle in my upcoming course on Referral Ignition -

1. Request
2. Remind
3. Refer

This strengthens ’step 3′ in your marketing ladder and becomes a seamless, automatic way to boost referrals.

Note - These are strategies from my upcoming “Referral Ignition” home study course and the “How To (Re)Launch Your Private Practice” DVD series, complete with scripts, tools and specific templates you can use to boost referrals in your practice.

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We normally go to another smaller joint called Jersey BOY Bagel, known for its collection of 40+ bagels and 30+ cheeses..

This time, we decided to try something new…

As it turns out, the large joint had the same selection and was the ‘parent company’, having split from the smaller one because of ‘commercial differences’, as the owner put it..

As far as I was concerned, we were there for the BEST low fat vegetable cream cheese and the multi-grain bagels ever – certainly the best in the east coast.

But this is where the similarities ended. The 10 minutes I spent at Jersey HOT Bagel made me their customer forever.

As soon as we walked into the new place, we noticed -

a) A smiling, talkative owner called ‘Yogi’ who chatted with EACH customer, asked them “where have you been?? / so good to see you / happy new year / look at that beautiful scarf / the bagels just popped out of the oven / can you smell the onions / try this cheese – it has walnuts in it..

b) The proprietor was VERY generous with the portions of cream cheese on the bagels.. One might argue that $2.75 for a bagel and cream cheese should get you a generous portion, but that was not the case with the older place

c) My wife did NOT like the jalapeno cream cheese, so I decided to get her something different, and walked over to the counter to buy some walnut cream cheese as a side order. The owner scooped up ANOTHER generous portion of the cream cheese and said “it’s on the house, come back again and bring your friends”

What do you think happened here?

A brilliant combination of

- customer support
- overdelivery of product
- integrated referral reminder

This guy knows a thing or two about business. My wife spend about $12 on breakfast, including eggs and coffee. When we do this twice a week (which we normally do), we will help him bring in $100 each month, $1200 each year from us.

This is one of the ways the ‘Lorenz curve’ works – a representation of the manner in which wealth is distributed across masses. In a 10 year period, we are worth $12000 to him, and its business he generated out of thin air, while Jersey BOY Bagel lost us because of

- complacence
- ‘regular’ delivery of product (not as much cheese on the bagels)
- no referral reminders

This does not even take into account the potential of referrals. Let’s say we referred ONE person a year to him (we already referred a couple of our friends), our combined value to him now, is over $100,000 over a 10 year period. The relationship with us can pay to send his kids to college.

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Future Physical Therapy Trends

Some trends are going to change the way we do business in 2010. As we get ready for the new year, practice that embraces new trends will see an instant surge in income, recognition and influence amongst patients and referral sources.

Every private practice has hidden assets, untapped income opportunities and overlooked possibilities that can transform the practice. As we look at the road ahead toward 2010, some emerging trends will shape the future of physical therapy and private practice.

There is a whole new world of opportunity in physical therapy marketing, and the ‘early adopters’ of new technology will see the biggest benefits in terms of visits per week and revenue per patient.  Small increases in volume and income per patient can lead to big changes in annual income for your practice.

Cash in Physical Therapy

Trend 1
A practice that can creatively present, market and launch traditional physical therapy programs will raise awareness and curiosity from consumers and referral sources.

Think of this as ‘old wine in a new bottle’. With declining reimbursements from providers and long delays in payments, a practice that functions independently and offers an exclusive brand of physical therapy with innovative names and headlines will set itself apart.

Give your program a catchy title like ‘Low back protocol training’, ‘Pain termination project’, ‘Instant motion method’, ‘Active superstretch therapy’ and so on. Build the ‘buzz’ for your program by announcing the name and releasing information in bits and pieces to raise curiosity.

Trend 2

A practice that integrates ‘social connections’ with employees and patients will stand out compared to a ‘financially driven’ practice

In an increasingly fast paced world, every person is looking for the ‘it’ factor – the personal connection.

A traditional practice serves patients with high quality physical therapy, but falls short of establishing that ‘personal’ connection with patients. Phone call and postcard reminders on birthdays, anniversaries, holidays help to achieve this. Lasting value and friendships are built on social connections (enriching conversations, empathy, gratitude). Exchanging gifts with a patient and demonstrating reciprocity is another way to integrate ‘social norms’ into the physical therapist – patient relationship.

Social Connection With Patients

Closely linked to trends 1 and 2 mentioned above, a practice that uses the right message and marketing with the right market transforms a stranger through the various stages of prospect, patients, referral source and raving fan. Every element of your practice – personality of your staff, quality of physical therapy, documentation, receptionist interaction should move patients up in the ascension ladder.

Trend 3
Practices that collect email addresses of patients will save time, money and resources on marketing.

Since email is fast, free and simple, collecting email addresses from patients on your intake form should be standard protocol. If you don’t have it set up like this, there is a simple way to contact past and present patients and obtain their email, but this has to be done in the right manner. Don’t ask for the email without offering something in return. Instead, offer a free report / booklet / downloadable ebook and confirm contact information, asking for their email to update your records.

Trend 4
Engaging in joint promotions with local businesses will skyrocket awareness and increase public perception.

Joint Promotions With Local Businesses

Obtain a list of non competing local businesses from the local chamber of commerce or the local library. Besides physicians, examples include hair salons, gyms, health clubs, attorneys, accountants and even bank managers. Approach these businesses, telling them you can help their business by promoting them to your existing list of patients. Ask them to send out a letter (which you provide) to their clients telling them about your services, and offer to do the same for them. You can even do a joint advertising campaign to their clients and split the cost of the advertising or mailing. The big advantage of local promotions (as opposed to traditional advertising) is that you are leveraging the reputation of the business with its existing customers. Remember, the business has invested its own time, money and resources to cultivate its own clients list, and to have access to this list with a plug from the business is like taking an elevator to the top of the remote Himalaya mountains.

Trend 5
The FREE OFFER – instant patient acquisition in 2010 with attention grabbing marketing

Provide patients with an irresistible offer to get them to walk in. Examples include a free CD of DVD on injury prevention, a free booklet on low back pain or an audio CD on pain relief at home. These resources can be created at a nominal cost, usually under $5 each, and then announced in newspaper, magazine of radio ads in your geographical area. This will allow potential patients to raise their hand and identify themselves, and will attract the right kind of people to your practice. Your cost to acquire a new patient can range anywhere from $4 to $8 for this type of marketing and the results are immediate, as long as the message, market and marketing is a good match.

These are the key trends for 2010.  Some additional trends that I see emerging include:

• The use of proven, tested marketing scripts for phone call follow ups with patients
• The implementation of a systematic system of follow up, including postcards and emails to encourage referral generation from patients
• The use of one-page, single message, targeted physical therapy websites with precise headlines and a call to action – designed to crush traditional, outdated websites with tons of navigation tabs, links and confusing messages
• Dirt cheap, effective lead generation advertising – the incorporation of headlines, benefits, scarcity, urgency and call to action designed to promote curiosity and get the patient to call you for more information
• Instant, free publicity for your practice with local media with well timed, well written press releases, signaling the end of expensive advertising and traditional referral generation.

Don’t wait, be the first to apply some of these emerging trends in your area. Some or a combination of all of these strategies will transform your marketing in 2010.

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