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Welcome to Look to the Children Show it’s Halloween. Wait, all the wean was a few days ago. It’s Dr. Eric. Kowalke. We’re again, not so exciting as the beast, uh, but we’re back with, look to the children for November, 2021. Um, thanks again to ChiroSecure, Dr. Stu Hoffman for, uh, just creating an amazing company and amazing, uh, company that supports chiropractic and principle chiropractic and kids in chiropractic all across the world, honestly. And, uh, um, I’m just excited to be part of this with this show. The first Thursday of every month, I get to host this. Um, I have a practice in grand rapids, Michigan, who the heck am I, and why do I even get to do this? We see tons of kids we’ve been in practice for just over 10 years. Um, gone through lots of pediatric training. We see four or five, maybe even 600 kids a week now through our practice.
Um, and we just love chiropractic principle chiropractic. We know that if we can help kids, uh, become healthy kids, they’re going to become healthy adults instead of sick kids become sick adults. So we’re really great at communicating the message and the power of chiropractic and how it heals the body or how the body heals itself through principle chiropractic care and less nerve interference and improved brain, body connection, uh, and communicating that well to families and individuals and moms and dads, uh, really gets the message across and allows them to value what it is that we do and provide lifetime chiropractic care to so many families. And it’s my mission to help you do the same thing through information through this show. And, uh, the other shows that you get through ChiroSecure and around the chiropractic profession, as well as through technology, I’m a firm believer that there’s always a better way to do things.
And if we can leverage technology to help us become more efficient and more robust in how we communicate, uh, it’ll provide a better experience to our patients and improve their convenience. And an intern allow us to do more of what we do better and rely a little bit more on technology and automation to free us up, to allow us to scale our businesses and see more people. And that’s what we’re passionate about, why we created SKED a software company to help connect chiropractors to software that allows them to do more with less and rely on technology a little bit to provide a great experience for their clients. So, uh, without further ado, let’s get into this show. I’m excited to do this topic. It’s something that, uh, we personally spent a lot of time on in our office, uh, over the last year, really focusing on and training on and revamping and things in our office in order to improve retention.
And, uh, what we found is it comes down to a couple of things. Um, retention equals convenience plus value. And so this is a little different than what you’ve ever heard in the past. If you look at the value part, that’s a hundred percent you and your practice, and I’d say most of us chiropractors spend a lot of time, uh, making sure we’re, we’re providing value. We’re, you know, we’re communicating and setting expectations and agreements. At least we’re intentional about it. We’re aware that we need to do it. And we’re aware that we need to do a better job at it. And we’re aware if we don’t do a good job at it because people quit care or they ask tons of questions or they are super skeptical, or they don’t want to commit in the first place if we’re not providing the value. So value is something we’re all aware on, and this is, you know, agreements and expectations are super, super important in this.
And this is not over promising and under delivering so clearly communicating what it is that we’re doing and what are, what, what their goals are and finding what their goals are. So this is your day, one day two process, a report of findings. Are you clearly communicating the message of the power of the body to heal itself? Are you clearly communicating that to, um, kids and parents? And are you building value on what chiropractic care really is? Why is it important that their kids get adjusted beyond them even having symptoms? You know what most of the kids we see in our office are they don’t have any symptoms they’re just coming so they can stay healthy. Because if we see kids that are 7, 8, 9 years old with asthma allergies, ear infections, all kinds of stuff, and they get better. And all we did to get them better was removed nerve interference and adjust retrieval subluxation.
Then if we would’ve found the vertebral subluxation and the nerve interference prior to them having thousands of the ear infections, everything else and the symptoms, then they would’ve never had that in the first place. And so clearly communicating that is building value on what it is that we do, which is chiropractic care. Because at the end of the day, when that patient leaves your office, you have appointments set up for them or recommendation set up for them, or the next visit set up for them. They’re going to show up to that appointment or not based on how much they value that experience. So let me say that again. They’re going to show up. So the show up rate is determined based on how much they value or their inherent perceptive value of that experience. And the only thing that they have to go off of is what their previous experience was.
So if their first visit experience, wasn’t great. If their phone call, wasn’t great. If their experience booking on your website, wasn’t great. If their experience Google searching you, and what did they find and how many, five star reviews did you have and how good were those reviews and what did your website look like? How easy was it to book a new patient appointment? All of that ties into their experience, determines do they take another step or not? Do they move forward? Do they take action on that? Um, all the way from the point when somebody is not even a patient in your office, all the way through to there are already a patient in your office, they’re already committed. Let’s say they, even, they even said, yes, I want to do this. We’re on the same page. You know, my goals, uh, I agreed to the plan and I want to do this.
They have to still take action to show up to those visits. So now this is still a value thing that the value you making the adjustment, each time them coming in, and at some point their symptoms are either going to get better or they’re not. So then if they’re not getting better, but they’re still coming, do they value the education? You’ve told them, do they value the, do they have the same vision? Do they know where they’re going? Just like if you ran a marathon and there was no mile markers and somebody didn’t really didn’t tell you where you’re at, or you’re not really even sure how far you’ve gone. And they just say, well, keep running. You’re going to get halfway through, or maybe even quarter of the way through. And you’re gonna feel like, what the heck, how, how much farther do I have to go?
And so having all those steps in place in somebody’s care and building value along the way is so important for that. So, um, convenience is the part that you have to look at at each stage of this, that honestly, we just kind of overlooked for a long time. It was, um, you know, just caught in doing the same thing that we’ve always done and just relying on it to work like it always has because 10 years ago, when we opened, we would schedule somebody for a whole year or six months of visits. We’d print them out on a calendar from our EHR system. And then we would give them that calendar. And Ms. Mary would take that calendar and she’d go put it up on a refrigerator. And then she would make all of those visits. And if she missed, she would write them down or she would change her on her calendar.
I mean, how many of you are doing that today? Remember the calendars we used to like get and put a nail in the wall and hang the calendar up and flip it over every single month. How many of us are living like that anymore? Nobody. I mean, you look at, you look at our lives and what’s changed even in the last 24 months, convenience rules. So we give more and take action, more on things in our life that are more convenient. Let me give you some examples. If you want to order a coffee and you go to the Starbucks or the coffee location, and you know, it’s a line out the door. Every time you go, you’re going to jump on the app and you’re going to order it through the mobile app before you get there. So it’s ready to go by the time you get there to pick it up, because it’s convenient.
If you had to call them to place your order, do you think you would still do that? You probably wouldn’t do it. You probably just wouldn’t go at all. If you had to call them and then they didn’t always answer the phone, or if you had to call them, but their hours weren’t, we’re only open 25 hours a week. So you had to call them while they were open, but it was, they didn’t open till let’s say 9:00 AM. And you wanted to go pick your coffee up at 9:00 AM. So if you call it eight 30, you’re not going to get ahold of anybody. Then you’re not going to go because it’s not convenient anymore. What about ordering? Like w you run on a toothpaste, you can order toothpaste on Amazon and it’s there the same day. Everything’s there instantly. If it’s not the same day, it’s probably in the next day or that the two days after that, all this stuff in your life, you can order through Costco.
You can order through grocery stores, get your delivered. Everything is super convenient. Now, even more so than it ever has been in our life. And then you look at chiropractic care. Are we still printing off their schedule? Are we still expecting them to look at a paper calendar? And remember, all of the visits are supposed to come into the office. And we got to get better. Like as a, as a, as a business owner in our community, we have to stay as at least as convenient as the most convenient thing they have. If we can be even more convenient and, and provide a better experience than they’re getting at their coffee shop in the grocery store, then they’re going to be able to make chiropractic care part of their daily life and part of their weekly life forever. And so that’s where this idea came in and we started to really focus on convenience was number one.
We were, um, sinking their appointments to their Google calendar and their ICL calendar so that their chiropractic appointments, we took it from the refrigerator to their mobile phones or their computer, or where they live all day, every day on those devices. And that allows them to manage that right? So they know they have an appointment before, but it wasn’t on their calendar, or they had to manually add each appointment. And then if they change the appointment, it wouldn’t sync. So now our system, if you build out their schedule, it all goes to their calendar. If they’re in the office and they move an appointment or something on your EHR system, we’ll push that all the way through and move it on their group of calendar for them. So they can have the convenience of seeing their chiropractic schedule and their schedule with their kids and their work and everything else, all connected together, um, improves convenience.
So convenience plus value equals show up equals retention. And so that’s a small piece of convenience that actually is becoming really important because people aren’t stopping care or not starting care anymore, really because of finances or, or, or money it’s time. But it’s not only time, but it’s convenience. How much time does it take for them to schedule or reschedule or see their appointments or know when to come in? Uh, the other part of that is we make it super convenient that they always know when their next visit is. They know how many times they’re supposed to be in, in the office. I mean, how many of you have had this, where they come in and they’re say, am I supposed to be a three times this week? Or am I supposed to be at two times this week is little Johnny supposed to come once next week?
Or is he supposed to be at two times this week? And most of the time they ask your team, if they come in and ask your team to the front desk, do they do they know quickly? I mean, out of all the people we see, they’re not going to remember off the top of their head, all the, all these peoples and all their frequency recommendations. And when they all change in visit numbers. So they say, well, are they saying, well, I ask the doctor and then they come in and they ask you, and you’re in the middle of a busy adjusting shift. And you’re trying to remember, you know, a mom with four kids, who’s at what frequency, where, and you’re like, uh, you know, does that put you in a power position of being proactive versus reactive with, is that convenient for them? Is that a great experience?
Do they have confidence in you? Do you, are they valuing those recommendations? If the team and the doctor doesn’t even know what those recommendations are, how great would it be? If you know, you could push recommendations and frequency to their mobile device. So they always could check what their current care plan is for each kid and their family and who, where everybody is at and what they’ve completed, what they haven’t completed when they’re supposed to come in next, how many visits are supposed to come this week, prompt them automatically to make visits up or schedule those visits. Like they’re supposed to, through a mobile application. We created that through skin. We created that. So you should be using that. If you don’t use SCAD, you got to this think of ways to make this more convenient for people. Um, you should at least be using text messaging to communicate appointment reminders, uh, for them.
So they can see those quickly. 90% of those are read within a minute. It’s the only way you’re really going to get information to people anymore. Nowadays, you send them an email. You’re going to have a 18 to 30% open rate. If you’re, if you’re to integrate, that means 70% of the people didn’t get the message that they’re supposed to be there for the appointment. It’s not a great way to do it. If you call people, nobody answers their phone anymore. Everybody sends you to voicemail, not even listening to the voicemail, they just read the voicemail on their phone. So you just gotta be thinking convenience. If you want the people to come forever, you know, on consistent lifetime maintenance, wellness chiropractic here, you have to make it so easy that they can just implement that in their life. So start to break down some of these barriers with your team action steps out of this is just how can we make our office more convenient for people?
And it starts by going through each experience of, of a patient and just, what do they have to do to get into our office? What do they have to do as a new patient? Do they have to go to work? You know, somebody tells them on the weekend, Hey, you should check out this chiropractic office. What do they have to do to check you out? If they Google you, do they show up? Do they have to try to find your email to enter it in? If they click on your Google listing, do they see the reviews? How do they get to your website? How do they book on there? How many steps does it take for them to book to actually get on your schedule? Do they have to request an appointment? Then you have to respond to them and then they have to confirm it.
And then how do they get their paperwork? Do you have, do they have to print it off and fill it out and scan it in and email it to you? I mean, you’re creating friction in this process. The more friction you create, the worse, your results, the less convenience you’re going to get, and the harder it’s going to be to build the value. And at the end of the day, your retention to show up, it’s just going to drop you. Look at that part of the formula. Most of us are creating an enormous amount of friction around that person, through all of these steps. What does it take for them to just come into your office? Do they know what the, what the easiest times are to come? You know, if in our office, if they’re using the scat app, which most people are, they can get on there and they want to reschedule.
They can see which times are the busiest today, which times aren’t as busy, which is so amazing for us because it balances out our schedule. So we used to have the, Hey it’s super busy at three o’clock and then there’s nobody at three 15, and then it’s super busy at three 30. Well, now the people at three are there, they’re supposed to come at two. They want to reschedule the three. They just schedule at three 15 when it’s not as busy. And they can see it all through the app. And they just show up at our schedule super smooth. So you’ve gotta think about ways, even if you’re not using sketch, how do I make my internal office more efficient? The end of the day, it’s gotta be convenient for the end. Even if you have to add extra steps for your team to make it more convenient, your rate of return your ROI, and that’s going to be huge.
And it’s just so important in today’s society, because everything is convenient. Look at all this stuff. So the best way to, if you have a team and you want to get your team on board with this and approach it with your team, try to ask them what apps and stuff do they use in their life to make it convenient. They’re using Amazon and they’re probably used to Starbucks. They might be using target. They’re using all these apps to bring stuff into their life and make their life convenient and easy. And then just bring up the topic. How easy are we making it for our patients and our families and our kids to get into our office to say yes, to commit, to stick to the recommendations. And you’re going to find holes in that bucket that you can start to steal up and make their experience more convenient and just a greater experience overall.
So take that back. I would love to hear, uh, wins from that. So if you guys have wins, shout out to me or post them in below, or send me a message, cause I know you guys are gonna have huge growth from this and improved retention. This is stuff that just keeps coming back to you month after month after month after month for years, that you can keep building on as you make progress, progress and changes in these areas. So thanks again. Hopefully you got something out of this. Look to the children, November, 2021, coming back to the last show of the year, uh, in December, don’t miss Dr. Monika third Thursday of every month. Um, she’s fantastic. And does this a great job to give you more nuggets, to see kids and help more kids in your community? So we’ll be back first Thursday of December, close out the year, uh, will be something special. And, um, yeah. Thanks again. Appreciate you all. Thanks again to Stu Hoffman and ChiroSecure and all that you do for this profession without further ado, have a fantastic week.
Pediatric show to my children was brought to you by ChiroSecure.