A Cancellation Policy That Actually Works

Hey, everyone. Chris again from Patient Centered Training. And today I want to talk all about cancellation policies. Now, this came up with one of the members on my online course. He was asking a few questions about it and I thought it would actually be useful to put a video out for everybody just to talk through how I would recommend handling these issues and how I would recommend putting together a policy that's going to be effective, that patients respect and that isn't going to create a lot of unnecessary strife because you've probably had this experience where you have patients who they don't turn up or they turn up late or whatever it might be, and then you have a policy about there's a fee and they get very upset, they get irate on the phone, they go, I'm not paying that. And then they never come back. And obviously we don't want that. That's somebody who now isn't going to get the help they potentially need. It's not great for our reputation if they're out there fuming about how we unfairly charge them. But it's all really about how you put the policy together. Now, your exact policy may vary. For ours Personally, we charge 50% fee if it's less than 24 hours notice in a cancellation and they charge the full fee. If they forget and they just don't show up, you may vary that, that's absolutely fine. The policy itself is not what matters, it's how you implement it. So the way that I would recommend putting this to people, the mindset to have when you're having this conversation, not that, look, if you mess us around, we've lost some income. We could have, you know, had somebody else in who would have paid for a treatment there. So you're messing me around. It's annoying for my day and I've lost some income there. If you have it like that, then you're going, okay, this is a penalty to make sure that I'm not losing out on income and it becomes about you. Now, that's often part of the reason that we have it. But if we front that as the reason why, patients will sort of see it as, oh, okay, it's this thing I kind of have to agree to instead come at it from the mentality of your treatment is valuable, the care you provide and your appointment slots are valuable and a lot of people want them. And somebody else could have had that slot, somebody who is in pain, somebody who's struggling could have come in on that slot and had some help, but they've been denied that Opportunity because this person forgot or because they cancelled last minute because they wanted to do something else. If you have that sort of mentality when you have the conversation, it completely changes how people see it. So the first would be to get that into your head. That's why you're doing it. That's the reasons you're giving the patient. The other thing I would say is that whatever your policy is, stick to it. Do not make exceptions unless very, very rare circumstances. Now, I do occasionally make exceptions. The bar for that is very high. The example always comes to my mind is a patient lost her parent the day before. So I'm not saying that's the only reason, but the bar is set very high. Because the reason is as soon as you make exceptions, you teach patients that this is a judgment call. We are either deciding to charge you or not to charge you. And it's based on whether we think that your reason is worth it. And that leads you into very, very murky territory here. So very, very high bar for exceptions. Also, in terms of how that's handled, if the patient calls up and they speak to one of our front desk team, the front desk team know to never, ever, ever say, well, I'll talk to Chris. Maybe he won't charge you. Because now I either have to say, okay, I've agreed not to charge them, or I'm gonna be the bad guy. And I'm the one who's made that judgment call. And that will really disrupt the therapeutic alliance. So, you know, you might have had this before. Make sure your front desk team know not to say that. All they say is like, you know, really sorry, but this is the policy. They just stick to it, no big deal. And if somebody's really upset, they'll go, well, look, if it's really bothering you, you can talk to Chris about it next time. They haven't said, I'll talk to him on your behalf. But just say, you know, we can chat about that next time you're in and then I can have a conversation with them. But the bar, like I say, set very, very high. You definitely do not make exceptions or give first warnings. We used to do this. We used to just charge ten pounds for a missed appointment, which doesn't work because lots of people will quite happily just throw. Throw a tenor at the situation and not learn their lesson. But also, we used to let them off the first time ago. Okay, well, first one's your warning. Next time we'll charge you. That created so many problems because people realized, oh, you're just Deciding whether you're going to charge me or not today. And especially it would happen where their first time they were let off and it was because they just forgot, they didn't really have an excuse. But then the second time they had what they thought was a valid reason, something that they're like, oh, well, you know, I couldn't really help that. And if you charge them, then they would go, well, you let me off last time. And last time my excuse is rubbish, I didn't really have one. So definitely don't give them a first warning because it just creates so many more issues. Ever since we've firmed up our policy and we've stopped giving out exceptions of the time, we've stopped letting people off, we've stopped giving them warnings, we have had much happier patients because they know where the line is, they know that that is applied to everybody in all situations for fairly. And they know when they come to see us, they know that that's what will happen if they do cancel or something like that. Now, a little note at the moment, just because we're in pandemic times, obviously if somebody wakes up and tests positive or wakes up with a cough or something like that, we are letting people off for that. Definitely don't say, you know, don't come in with all these things, but we are going to charge you. So I'd recommend making exceptions there if they've given you reasonable notice. And the other thing I would say is a general rule is if I'm giving somebody an exception, it's not because they asked for it. If somebody asks for an exception, it's very unlikely they're going to get it. The times I've given them out to people have been. They weren't expecting it. Like this patient who lost her parent the day before she came in, very apologetic. I said, no, don't worry. I said, look, I completely understand. Your mind was on other things. We're not going to charge you for that visit. We're not going to apply the mis, the missed appointment fee. And she was really surprised and really grateful she'd come in fully prepared to pay that. So, you know, as a general, if they don't ask, they'll probably get it. If there's a really good reason, if they do ask, they probably won't because at that point they're expecting it and they're trying to. They're trying to push the line a little bit. And it's not about being really harsh with people or being really firm. It's just about making the rules clear so everybody knows where they are because then they're much happier. It's a lot like with kids or with dogs. They love a routine. They love to know what's going to happen. Patients love that when they come to see you, they want to know what to expect, they want to know what the rules are. As soon as the rules seem a little bit fuzzy, they get stressed out and they'll often get irritated or annoyed if they see that. Well, I think the rule should have been here and you think it should have been there. So that would be my advice. Whatever your policy is, I would just make sure it's applied fair, fairly, it's applied evenly. You know, have a very, very high bar for exceptions there if you can, because it's otherwise you tend to create more issues. And most of all, make sure when you're explaining this to patients that your mindset is about the benefits for other people, not just that you're doing this to recoup lost income. So give that a go. If you're having any problems with this with patients, try flipping that mindset. You'll see the difference. It'll definitely bring those down. Have a chat with your team as well. Make sure your front desk know how to handle that. Make sure they know to come from that mindset. Make sure they know. Never ever say, let me ask Chris and I'll see. He might let you off because they're setting up for failure there. So give those a go. And always any questions about that, anything you're not sure about to do with cancellation policies, missed appointment policies, get in touch, be happy to chat. Last thing as well, if you haven't seen it, check out the Patient Centered Chiropractors Facebook group. There's a lot more content I posted in there at the end of last year that you won't have seen anywhere else. So make sure you check that out. If you've got any situations you want to discuss, that's the perfect place to ask for help because it's not only me, but we've got coming up over 200 other chiropractors there. We can all help each other as well. So check that group out. Patient Centered Chiropractors. If you want to catch me live as well, I'm going to be doing a live in person seminar for the first time in a long time. That's going to be in March in Manchester. You'll see the details below this. If not, just get in touch. I'll let you know how to get tickets. Be really cool to see some people live as well. So yeah, if that sounds like for you and you want to hit that GCC communication requirements on your cpd, check that course out because we're going to keep it fairly small. We're not going to do great big 30, 40 people event. It's going to be very, very intimate so you can get some direct feedback as well. So if that sounds like your thing, make sure to get in touch or check out below. I'll post the details there. Take care guys.