Being a chiropractor is a uniquely rewarding career path, as you get to help others achieve wellness every single day. Running a practice, however, can be draining, and some doctors do not consider themselves to be particularly proficient at the “business side” of running a chiropractic clinic.
Regardless how good you perceive your business sense to be, everyone makes mistakes. Unfortunately, even the smallest of mistakes can make or break a business in this post-COVID-19 world.
The American Chiropractor’s March 2020 issue featured a story titled, “Eleven Ways to Kill Your Practice Sales.” The author, Crystal Misenheimer, focuses on maintaining healthy financial practices so that you can potentially attract a buyer for your clinic one day. The bottom line is that in order to have the ability to sell your practice, your practice needs to be operating optimally to attract patients. Here are some of the base-level mistakes we see which can lead to business stagnation—or even failure—down the road.
Are you killing your practice? If you’re doing these three things, you might be.
- Relying solely on word-of-mouth. We’ve said it before: word-of-mouth is your best friend when it comes to chiropractic practice marketing. But it shouldn’t be your only tool. From social media to traditional marketing to referral programs there are many free and low-cost marketing tips that you can employ to attract new customers. You can get more specific details and tools in our Chiropractic Practice Marketing Ebook, containing some of our best-of marketing tips that we have offered over the years.
- Ignoring your internet presence. This is not a social media lecture—this is about curating your online image. According to Forbes, more than 57 percent of customers will not recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile, yet some chiropractors either rely on their Facebook pages or opt to not have an online presence at all. On top of that, 86 percent of consumers read reviews online before deciding to visit. What we’re trying to say is, have an up-to-date online presence of some sort—it doesn’t have to be fancy—and do not ignore your online reviews. For many, positive reviews on Google and other websites might be the most important factor in whether or not they decide to call your practice to set up an appointment.
- Failure to incorporate new technology. With Palmer College of Chiropractic offering a new course on Instrument Adjusting, the chiropractors of tomorrow will be more equipped than ever to experience long careers free of practice injury and meet patients’ rising expectations for evidence-based techniques. Don’t get left behind.
The PulStar is one of the instruments being featured in this new course at Palmer, so if you’re ready to embrace new technology, reach out to us! We would be happy to give you all the information and support you need to determine the best move for your practice.
Want more content like this? Check out our other practice management tips on our PulStar blog.
