The horse shelter at Raza's Clinic

Our friend Raza Shah, ND has a large Mennonite patient base–so large, in fact, that he actually has a place to shelter horses while patients have their appointments. So cool.

In The Practitioner’s Journey, we wrote about how my dentist used to amaze me by thanking me in person for each referral over the past year as I sat in his chair. It made me feel great, of course, and I was sooo impressed he remembered.

The truth is, he wasn’t really remembering–he or his staff simply wrote the names of people I referred in my file. As he sat with me, he could look over and say, “Thanks for referring Lisa.” A free, simple tool to get a simple, but important task done. And like good magic, even when the trick is revealed, I’m still impressed. 🙂

Raza’s like my dentist. His gift is connecting with people, and it’s important to Raza to remember the little, personal things. The problem, of course, is that you really can’t remember them–not all, anyway. To accomplish similar magic to my dentist, his office uses sticky notes in the file to remind them of the little things that are important in the lives of their patients.

“One patient had missed a previous appointment, which was very rare. When she called to reschedule, we found out she’d missed her appointment because her horse had fallen in a ditch the night before. Carol put a sticky note in the file that the horse’s name was Tony. When she came back in, I asked, ‘How’s Tony?'” – Raza Shah, ND

Needless to say, the patient was thrilled that he asked. I love this. It’s an elegant, painless and basically free way to remember important things, and communicate them between practitioners and staff.

The sticky note, though, isn’t really what this is about. The sticky note is just the manifestation of actually caring. It’s no different than putting a note in your calendar to remind you of a friend’s surgery, or your mom’s birthday. It’s just a way to make your clients feel like their lives are important. Because…they are, aren’t they? (And, no, writing it down doesn’t mean you care less, or that it’s a gimmick. The fact that you write it down at all means you care more than most.)

Your patients might not arrive by horse. But for the price of a few sticky notes, you can still perform magic of your own and show you care.

Note: I love that patients arrive by horse. Anyone else know of out-of-the ordinary practice set ups or patients? Do share…   -Dan