Reader D. asks: “What are your most successful tips for closing the appointment on time with verbose patients?” For those of you with “talk-heavy” consultative practices, a talkative client (or a series of them) can either throw a busy schedule completely off-kilter, or turn a not-so-busy schedule into a day of chatter that you don’t [...]
The more I speak to practitioners, the more I’ve come to believe visit/treatment length tends to be a legacy issue. It’s not something we’re giving a lot of conscious thought to. You open your doors and do what you did in school, or copy another practice, and it pretty much stays that way. Most consultative [...]
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 [...]
Back in 2006 (wow) we listed five things we wished we would have done in practice right from day one. Since the New Year is almost upon us, it seems like the right time to pass on a few more. Even if you started your practice long ago, you can still pretend like the new [...]
One of the ideas in The Practitioner’s Journey is that complexity is what gets us bogged down. We often know what to do in practice. We just don’t know what to do next. You’ve probably been there. You take a look at the pile on your desk, or the to-do list, or you scroll through [...]
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be booked solid to have a waiting list. It’s a tool that works wonders at any point in practice. The challenge is that waiting lists are harder to use than they seem. Here’s how you can make one work for you and your clients with no cost [...]
A couple of years ago we noticed that although we’d had a great year as far as new patients were concerned, our return visits seemed to have flattened out. Patients seemed pleased with the service, success rates were high, but it still felt like we were gaining new patients but not growing. The problem, of [...]
We’ve discussed scheduling problems in the past, pointing you to a few resources here and there, but we’ve never really provided a comprehensive approach for those scheduled appointments that go off the rails due to patients canceling, rescheduling, or simply not showing up at all. Here are the exact strategies we’ve put in place over [...]
Reader B. writes in to ask about dealing with patients in multi-practitioner settings: You decide to take a 2 week vacation…now, the client doesn’t want to see you as their primary practitioner anymore and has requested to switch to the other [practitioner]. What is the etiquette? How should the client be accommodated? How can this [...]
SpectraSoft has a free white paper on reducing no-shows and cancellations. While their specialty is software for physiotherapists and other health care pros, some of the tips are quite good, and applicable to any CAM/holistic practice. “No-Show” White Paper (You’ll have to register, but it’s just a four-liner.)
There are a million conceivable things to do when you start your practice, but what’s really important in the big picture? What’s going to lead to increased referrals and practice growth? Here’s a few seemingly innocent but critical things to do from day one. And if you’re already well past day one, fear not – [...]
First things first. Accepting credit cards in your holistic practice is a must – you can read more on that here. That being said, there can be significant barriers to actually doing it. Assuming you can get a merchant account, setup fees can be several hundred dollars, then there’s a monthly fee to have the [...]
In the end, you’?re only as good as the quality of the products and services you provide. Great marketing, financing and hard work will only take you so far unless what you offer is of sufficient quality. What defines a quality experience in an alternative health practice? Many consumers will equate quality with value. That [...]
As your CAM practice grows, you’ll find your schedule filling in further and further out in the calendar. While this is generally good news, keep any eye out for the following side effects of long-term scheduling in alternative health practices: No-Shows Start scheduling past 3 months, and you’ll almost certainly see patients forget their appointments. [...]
“I have some clients who miss appointments without calling. It’s very frustrating. Should I be charging them a fee?” This one has no clear answer. Ask around, and you’ll get different opinions. Compared with more mainstream medicine, my guess is CAM professionals are less likely to charge for no shows, simply because lack of insurance [...]
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