Getting new clients takes time, energy and sometimes money. For all that investment, it’s a shame when they don’t come back. We’ve had a lot of faces through our practice doors over the years, and while we do our best to keep them engaged, we don’t retain everyone. As a result, we’ve got our share of “dead” files in the back room.

This year at our strategic planning day, one of our team members came up a great idea for reactivating some of those old patients. It only takes a few minutes a week, and although we’re just starting out, I think it’s a great plan.

5 Random Files: How it Works

After this idea came up,  Tara reminded me of a chiropractic marketing guru  – I’m pretty sure it was Dr. Demartini –  who talked about how his staff would pull a random client file every week at the office and just…well, just think about the client.

According to the story, more often than not that person would call out of the blue and return to the practice. Kind of a law-of-attraction approach.

Our process is a little different, but geared toward the same result of re-engaging past clients in our current practice. Here’s what we’re doing:

1. Each week we pull five old files at random from the archives. (If you don’t keep files, you could just as easily check old appointment records, invoices or other client notes.)
2. We quickly review the files to see if we have anything new to offer, or some reason that we may be able to help now, when we might not have in the past
3. Where applicable, we write a personal letter to the client, describing when and why we saw them last, and why we think we might be able to better serve them now.

That’s it! Just a few minutes down the memory lane of your practice past to see if there’s anyone you might be able to help.

Why It’ll Work For You

Here’s why this approach is likely to bring back some old faces to your practice:

• You’re better now than you were then. Since you last saw these clients, you’ve probably gotten better at what you do. You’re more experienced, more confident. You may have done some continuing education, or have some new treatment tools at your disposal. Or perhaps your pricing, service, staff, hours or other aspects of your practice are more appealing.
• It’s personal. Each client is getting a letter just about them, talking about why they visited in the past, and how you might be able to help now. It’s far more personal and relevant than a newsletter or bulk mailing, so your clients are more likely to respond.
• It’s cheap & simple. Really. This is a no-brainer. The first few letters take a few minutes to put together, but after that it starts to get faster and faster as you realize part of what you’re saying each time is similar. In total, it only takes about 20 minutes a week of time commitment, and a under $5 in stamps, paper and envelopes.

Why five files? It just seemed like a manageable number. Five was small enough to ensure the job gets done and retains its individual patient focus (of each five we pull, there are only 2-3 that get letters), but big enough to get through quite a few files in a year.  You can do just one, if that’s what works best for you.

I’ve got high hopes for this effort, and I love the personalization of it. It’s also really rewarding to see how much more we offer now than we did a few years ago. It’s easy to forget how much progress you make over time!