By Sharon Gorman, D.C.
What excites you about being a chiropractor? Is it the fact that we watch sick people get well? Is it the fact that we help people? Is it the fact that people’s bodies will function better under care and they will achieve a life healthier physically, emotionally and spiritually than if they lived their lives with subluxations that they did not know or care that they had? That last explanation sort of sums it up for me.
At least one time a week I need to stand up in front of my new patients and stake my claim. My new patient Orientation is sort of my affirmation of what I am doing in chiropractic and why I feel they should join me for a lifetime of chiropractic care. How would I expect them to know what I stand for and what I am creating in my practice if I didn’t stand up and repeat what that is. In my practice people come to me for many reasons but if I had to be honest most people would have never shown up in the first place if they weren’t in some kind of distress.
People are used to seeking care when they are hurting. I applaud them and am very thankful when they give me the chance to serve them. Shame on me if I didn’t take that opportunity to share with them the full benefits they could enjoy if they choose to include lifetime care in their life. I couldn’t sleep well at night if I didn’t think I gave it my best shot. Granted many people think that the whole concept is interesting and don’t follow through with it but then there are the others who will take the opportunity to CHOOSE Chiropractic. The people that don’t choose it are not of a huge amount of concern for me because I feel I did my job if I gave them the choice.
Yes, it is my obligation to be constantly improving on my ability to convey the message, yet the ultimate decision is theirs. I can live with their decision but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t give them the choice. Sometimes I would not want to do the orientation even when it was time to start it but by the time I got going for a few minutes I would really get into it and I would actually have trouble sleeping the night of the orientation because I would be so excited about chiropractic and so would my staff. I also developed my speaking abilities and am much more comfortable speaking outside of the office to civic groups and the like from my experience that I gained in my own waiting room.
I especially didn’t want to do orientation if I only had one or two people scheduled and would sometimes secretly wish they wouldn’t show up but I found that when I would cancel due to poor attendance and reschedule the one or two people that did show up I would often have them quit care before the next scheduled Orientation because they would be out of pain and not feel further care was necessary because they wouldn’t get the whole picture. Then I decided to do something a little weird. I committed myself to doing an orientation each week even if no one showed. I have done this several times over the years but I never had to do it two weeks in a row. After doing it one week I would be certain that I had at least a few people there the next week and this proved a great way to discipline myself to do the weekly talk.
A lot of people tell me they share chiropractic with people one at a time during the consultation or the x-ray report. I found this practice much less effective for two reasons. One reason is because I tended to leave things out when I was talking to only one person and told them a version that I thought they would like and possibly accept easier thereby taking away their opportunity to accept as much as they could and only as much as I cared to share. The second reason is because there is a positive psychological effect that occurs when they sit in a room with other people hearing the same message at the same time.
Let’s face it Chiropractic is not status quo. Most people don’t bring their kids to the chiropractor every week, YET, so when they see that other people are there and stepping out of the box it makes them feel more comfortable making the decision to include chiropractic in their families lives. And yet one more positive effect is that they get to hear how strongly you feel about what you do. I’ve heard it said “that you can’t anchor to an unanchored mind.” Let them hear where you stand. Let them also bond with you. Let them feel good about you being their chiropractor and good about being in relationship with you.
Now I want to share the selfish reason to do Orientations. Your practice will grow. You will get more people to bring in their families so you will have more new patients. The patients will also be more excited about you and chiropractic so they will refer more people to you. They will talk about you. That is the whole idea when you are trying to grow a practice. In addition your PVA (Patient Visit Average) will increase dramatically. That means that a patient will come to you longer. You will have a practice full of more patients that are coming to you for healthcare rather than simply for relief care. Now we are talking your bottom line. You will have a larger practice and make more money. Isn’t that what most of us are after. Now, what does it cost you? Just about nothing. Maybe a little extra in CA’s salaries because they are there with you. Maybe a couple of bucks for some refreshments if you want to get fancy. Not much at all for doing something that will have so many positive effects on your practice. Not only all that but you will feel good after you do it. You will feel proud to be a chiropractor and you will know that you are being more consistent with your objectives.
I need to be honest with you at this point and tell you that me sharing this with you is very selfish. Sure I want to see your practice grow as much or maybe even more than you do but as corny as it sounds I know that when you start telling the story every week and more chiropractors do the same it is going to make it easier for all of us. Let’s face it, only a small segment of the population utilize chiropractic care. I think the reason the rest of them don’t is mostly because of ignorance. Chiropractic makes so much sense. People just don’t know and I know the best way for people to know is to tell them the way I just described. My life is dedicated to shifting the consciousness of the people so that they include regular care in their lives. I’m always shocked when I speak somewhere and ask how many people do an Orientation every week and so few hands actually go up even though I know that the people that are sitting in front of me are the ones that actually take time out of their lives to do something that they feel will help their practice grow.
Put your money where your mouth is. Get out of your comfort zone. Let your actions match what you say you want your practice to look like. If you want your practice to look like what you say you want it to look like then share your vision with your people. It’s a lot of fun taking care of people that are coming in long term to stay well with their families and have chosen to take responsibility for their health. Those are the people I prefer to spend my days with and the Orientation is how I shared chiropractic with them so they could make that choice.
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