Turn Shopper Calls into New Patients

Dr. R. A. Foxworth, FICC, MCS-P

Doctors are often frustrated by the lengths to which they must go to turn shopper calls into new patients and transition insured patients to private pay. Knowing the right things to say and when can make all the difference. Promoting ChiroHealthUSA as a means for your patients to afford their care can help make this “dreaded call” a breeze and give you a leg up in growing your business. If you would like a simple script we use to convert shopper calls into new patients, just shoot an email to “info@ChiroHealthUSA.com and put shopper call in the subject line. This simple script is just one way to GROW your practice using ChiroHealthUSA.

Now, let’s talk about some other options. As far back as 1880, department store magnate John Wanamaker became famous for saying, “Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted. I just don’t know which half.”

Even with today’s measureables such as Google Analytics, open and click-through rate tracking, etc., it’s still difficult to know exactly what kind of marketing outreach works best. But that doesn’t mean you should give up and stop marketing your business. Here are the options I recommend you investigate:

• Yelp – increasingly, consumers of all kinds of services and products are going to Yelp to read reviews before committing their dollars. Yelp can give your practice quite a boost, but there’s a downside. You can’t delete negative reviews, even if they have no factual basis. You can, however, promote positive interaction and encourage patients who’ve had good experience to leave enough good reviews to outweigh the occasional negative outlier.
• Facebook – Facebook is becoming an increasingly tough nut to crack (the social media giant wants you to buy ads, so their algorithm suppresses business-related posts), but you can mix up sales-oriented posts with more lighthearted ones for better reach. Note: Facebook “likes” infographics and videos, and tends to show them to more “likers” than posts that are text only.
• Twitter – Twitter has better reach than Facebook, but it also trends toward a younger demographic, so phrase your tweets accordingly. Your tweets can refer your followers to your website or Facebook post. One thing to remember. Learn to craft your messages concisely. Tweets are limited to 140 characters.
• Pinterest – What started as a place to gather photos a la scrapbooking or vision boarding has rapidly turned into a viable marketing tool. Share visual information here such as infographics, photos of your office and/or staff, blog posts if you have a business blog, even recipes for healthy eating, or graphics of exercises.
• Mass Email Marketing – Whether you use Constant Contact, MailChimp or another email service, you can get a lot of mileage out of a monthly or bimonthly newsletter. Consistency is key here. “Train” your mailing list to expect your newsletter at a specific time or times of the month and they’re much more likely to read it. Note: you MUST get every recipient’s permission to add them to your mailing list. Create a sign-up sheet at the front desk, so that you can make signing up for your mailing list a natural part of your new patient procedures.
• Local event sponsorship – does your community have fairs, farmer’s markets, school events and other places where you can set up a booth? Visibility within your community is a gift that gives both ways.

No matter where you advertise or market your practice, it’s critical that you avoid the no-no’s that can get you in trouble with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) such as inducements via outrageously low discounts or coupons, and/or illegal dual fee schedules by offering one fee for new patients, but another for existing ones.

And, here is the definition of “outrageous”; anything more than $10.00, or a total of $50.00 in a year per the 2009 OIG Special Bulletin Alert on Gifts and Inducements. Hardly outrageous don’t you think?

But you already know that. That’s why you joined ChiroHealthUSA in the first place, so you could offer your patients legal discounts based on your actual fee schedule. What you may not know is how much more we have to offer you in terms of training, news updates, marketing advice and support. Our on-demand webinar “Risky Business” offers insight on key areas of interest to DC’s and their teams. Spread the word to your colleagues. And check out our other informational webinars.