Cancellation Part 2
Chris explains how to reduce patient cancellations in your clinic. He stresses that practitioners should personally tell patients the cancellation policy, not leave it to front desk staff. This simple shift cuts no-shows and takes pressure off your team.
Hey, guys. Chris again. And I just wanted to follow up on last week's video about cancellation policy with an extra tip. Something that I found has made a huge difference to me, also to my patients, and also to our front desk team. And I wish I did this sooner. It really, really helps to get patients to take it seriously, to make sure they understand that your cancellation or your missed appointment policy is a rule and that it's a commitment they're making to you. And it has seriously reduced the number of people who seem a bit annoyed or a bit frustrated. And it's made a big difference to the front desk team. They get a lot less grief from upset patients. Now, since doing this, and it's a really, really simple flip, all you do is make sure that the person who tells them the cancellation policy is you, not your front desk. It comes from you. The reason for that is patients will take it much more seriously when it comes from their practitioner and you framed it as a commitment they're making to you and you own that policy. Because I know what it's like. We used to do this, and I know so many clinics do this because it's way easier. Often we're a bit uncomfortable talking about it. We don't like the fact that we punish people or we fine people. There's a penalty to pay. And we often, as practitioners, a lot of us, because of our own issues around money and discomfort around that, we, we don't like bringing finances into the treatment room. So we tend to let the front desk deal with that. They deal with the payment, they deal with the bookings, they can deal with the cancellation policy. And I practice like that for years. And I can tell you, as much as you don't like that conversation, your front desk team do not like it either. They're no more comfortable with that. And when I started taking ownership of it and going, you know what? I'm going to go through this with them, they'll be reminded on the front desk we have signs and things like that. But as far as I'm concerned, for a new patient coming to see me, it's my responsibility that they know about this. And again, patients take it much more seriously because they realize that literally say to look, this is my policy, not the front desk. If they call you and they have to charge you and you want to get upset at somebody, I'm the one you get upset, not at them. Now, you can say it in a light, friendly tone. I often make a little bit of a joke of it. So there's ways to put it, that doesn't make it seem so serious and stern. But I can tell you, my front desk team are so happy that I'm the one doing that, because what I've done there is I've put my weight on authority as the clinician behind them. Because you will always get this with some patients, that there will be a perceived hierarchy between you and the front desk, that you are the practitioner and the front desk is like your assistant. They have less power, they're sort of their lower authority, and they're just there to kind of schedule things and sort things out for the patients. And, you know, hopefully you don't practice in a way where you like lording it over your front desk team. But patients will expect that. That is not that you're lording over, but they will expect that. There's a hierarchy here and there are. I know multiple patients I've had where they come in to see me and they're very friendly and they're very chilled out, very chatty, and they go up to the front desk and they're quite stern, like, I want that. No, book that. And we have completely different experiences of the same patient. Because some patients will try to just use their authority to try and push around the front desk with the cancellation policy. That's a recipe for disaster. So if you put your weight and your authority behind the front desk and go, this is my policy. When they do this is because I've told them to, you'll find those patients who would have maybe tried to push it around or get very aggressive or unhappy with the front desk will take it seriously and not do that because they know that I'm going to go, yes, that is the policy. I told you about that. So taking ownership of it yourself, your front desk team will love you for it. Your patients will take it more seriously, and that means they're more likely to stick with it. So they're not going to cancel last minute. They will take their treatment more seriously, which is going to help them get better results as well. So this is a benefit for them. Remember, the policy is not just because you want to recoup lost income. It's because your care is valuable and you want to make sure that you're helping people where you can, that patients aren't being turned away for appointment slots that ended up empty because somebody just didn't have the courtesy or just wasn't organized enough to remember the appointment. So give that a try. Take ownership. Do it yourself. Get into your stretch zone. This will take you out Your comfort zone. I did not like the idea of doing this at all when I started, but I promise you do it a few times, you'll get used to it. You'll find a flow away saying that it's much easier, patients will respect it more. It's just a win win for absolutely everybody. So give that a try. Any questions? Find me in Patient Centered Chiropractors on Facebook. If you just search Patient Centered Chiropractors, you'll see the group there, you're asked to join and there's lots more free content I've put out there that I haven't put anywhere else. And any problems, questions, that's the place to ask. Not just because you can contact me. But we've got well over 200 other practitioners in that group already and we can all help each other, we can all try different ways of doing it and learn from each other as well. So make sure to check that out there. I mentioned the live seminar last week, but that will be in Chorley, which is just north of Manchester in March. So check out the details. If you're seeing this in the email, that will be below at the bottom. It's pretty cheap for a seminar. We don't normally run them at that sort of price there, but it's the first one in quite a while. I'm really looking forward to getting some people together in a room again. Online learning has been great. It's been a learning experience for me, but you can't be live conversation sometimes, so check that out. It's like I said, tickets are pretty cheap. They're also quite limited because we're not. We don't want it to be a great big seminar where it's just me talking to a crowd. It's going to be much more of an interactive workshop so you can all get feedback and we can tailor the event to the people who are there to make sure it's as valuable for you as possible. So check out the details for that below as well. As always, any questions, just reach out, you know, drop me a message or better yet, join the Facebook group and be looking forward to catching up with you there. Take care guys.
