294- The Smart Patient Journey

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor where each week we deliver the latest chiropractic research and marketing strategies all in the time it takes to get to your office. Now here's your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. On today's episode, we have an awesome topic that is super relevant for your practice and this is all about your patient's journey, what we call a smart patient journey. This is how you can attract, engage and retain more of your ideal patients. We're gonna cover those three key phases that all patients move through in your practice. The six touchstones of engagement, referrals and reactivations as as well as how you can build a flywheel of attraction and retention which leads to future growth. That's a tall task, but we're going to hit it all and more on today's episode. Before we get started, I want to say a few words about the smart chiropractor. We had over 17,000 leads for our docs over the last 30 days. That includes email. That includes email opt ins. That includes online scheduling clicks as well as phone calls, website visits and direction requests from Google my business. So if you want to set your chiropractic marketing on easy street, let us do the hard work for you. We're going to talk a lot about how this patient journey today intertwines with a smart chiropractor. But if you want to jump the line, head over to the smart chiropractor.com demo. The smart chiropractor.com demo. Hop on a demo, see if we can help you build and grow. That's what it's all about. We'll give you an honest assessment of where you're at, get a better understanding of what your goals are and see if we can help. But as I said on today's episode, we are talking all about the patient journey. This is something that is in development I'm going to say in my mind right now. So this is. This podcast is going to be an opportunity to break it down. I'd encourage you to give me feedback. Jeff. The evidence basedchiropractor.com Let me know what you think because this is something. Again, we've been thinking a lot about this lately. What are those? Let's pick it up right at the top. We what are the three key phases that all patients move through in your practice? Here's the bottom line. Every patient that experiences your practice in any way, shape or form, they see A post. Maybe they become a patient. Maybe they're a referral generator for you. Long term, they're just one of those really great patients. They all go through some sort of journey. And that journey can be bad. Sometimes that people are turned off. Sometimes that journey is fantastic. They become those referral sources and everything in between. So everybody's gonna go through a journey, but it's arbitrary or it's variable in terms of what they might experience. Unless you set systems and processes up to really stack the deck in your favor, which you should, because everybody should have a fantastic experience in your practice. And let's start with those three key phases that everybody's going to move through if they engage with your practice. Number one, everybody starts as a potential patient. So they start as a potential patient. They're not a patient yet. They might be exploring things. Maybe they were referred and they're making that first phone call. Maybe they've been following you online, but they're a potential patient. That's phase number one. Phase number two is moving from potential to active patient. Now they're an actively engaged patient in your practice. They're coming in for their visits, they're talking with you, they're getting results. All of those things fall under active patient care. And that's the second phase of the patient journey is an active patient. And the third phase is what we call a proactive patient. Now, that terminology might be new to you, but this is really that retention loop in a smart patient journey. Patients are moving from potential to active to proactive. Proactive patients. Again, these are individuals who are advocates for your practice. They're reactivating, they're giving referrals and testimonials. We'll walk through all of this. But I think it's really important for you to understand, and we're kind of developing a really cool graphic around all of this. As you really need to understand, that's where and how patients are moving through your practice. Each and every day, every week, every month, they're going from potential patient to active patient to proactive patient. So your thought is, well, how do I move people through that process elegantly? How do I move them through in a way that makes sense that they're excited about? How do I move them through in a way that benefits them and benefits me and my business? And those two things can and should coexist all of the time. Again, three key phases that all patients move through. Potential patient, active patient, and proactive patient. Now, within each of those phases, there are two identifiable touchstones. So this is three times two is six. Right? The six touchstones of engagement, referrals and reactivations. Let's talk about that and dive in. And understanding this is the first step towards being able to optimize. So that's why I wanted to hop on this podcast as we're still developing these thoughts and ideas. Because understanding it is the first step towards using the power of the information, using the power and knowledge and optimizing your patient journey so that your patients are able to get the best care possible, the best results, and your business is able to be as strong as possible and grow as quickly as possible. So let's talk about those six touchstones. There's two for each phase and we'll start at the top with a potential patient. So a potential patient is somebody who's not an active patient yet. Right. They haven't made that decision. They're, they haven't crossed over that line. They're still checking things out. What are the two key things that you can do to guide somebody through potential into becoming an active patient? Those two things, the two touchstones for a potential patient are teach and invite. Teach number one. Invite number two. Teach is how you get out there, right? This is what we do at the Smart Chiropractor. Get out there on social media, be out there on your Facebook page, your Instagram page, get out there on Google. My business through posting. This is attracting attention. This is having email opt ins on your website. All of these wonderful things we do at the Smart chiropractor. This is about teaching. Because teaching builds the no trust and like factor and teach. Touchstone number one falls into touchstone number two, which is invite. Every time you teach now, you've earned the opportunity to invite somebody to take the next step. That's that call to action. Give us a call today. Hop on our online scheduler. Comment on this post Share the email Whatever that call to action might be, you can vary it up, switch it up, depending upon what your goal is on that day or that week. But that is how you move somebody from potential patient to active patient. It should make pretty much sense, but I don't think anybody's ever really thought about it and broke it down in a way that's actionable for you and me to be able to put this into practice. So potential patients, you have two touchstones you want to teach and then invite. When you do that, you're going to move them into becoming an active patient. Now, what are those two touchstones with an active patient? Those two touchstones with an Active patient are education and retention, educate and retain. So when somebody's an active patient in your practice, this is about patient education. We all have heard about this. This is probably one of the oldest tenants in chiropractic patient education, but it still holds true today. So what are you putting up on your video screen in your reception area? That's an active patient. They're sitting in your reception area. What kind of information are they consuming in your reception area? That's an educational process. That's an educational opportunity. Are they getting a patient handout? Are they getting at home exercises for their care? These are all things that we do within the smart chiropractor and it guides the active patient part of the journey. Right. Continuing your patient education process through handouts, through videos in your office, making sure that you have a great active patient patient education process will help with touchstone number two of an active patient retention, you want to help that active patient get through their care plan. If somebody's. If 90% of your patients aren't getting through their initial active care plan, man, your practice is going to feel like it is stuck in the mud. I think we've all had that at certain points in time. But if somebody's not getting through that initial active care plan, you have a patient education process, right? So this is part of it, right. Potential patient teach and invite active patient, educate and retain. This is about keeping their retention throughout that initial care plan. Because as that occurs, that gives them the opportunity, if they drop out before they finish their active care plan, it's going to be almost impossible for them to become a proactive patient. Which is phase number three. Right. Patient. Phase number three, proactive patient is your retention loop. So this is all about enrolling and reactivating. So on your proactive patients, these are those individuals who are giving you the reviews, giving you the testimonials they're enrolling. If you have a membership option in your practice, whether it's to utilize the gym, as Josh Satterley would say with the clinic gym hybrid, whether it's a supplement membership, subscribe and save options like we're doing with smart care stores, whether it is becoming a maintenance or a wellness patient, as we see so many athletes doing and utilizing chiropractic proactively. Right? So this is the enrollment part of that. And then there is the final piece, which is the sixth touchstone, which is the reactivations. So right now they might be out of that active patient care plan. Are they being reactivated through weekly email newsletters through in the states here HSA and FSA email campaigns at the end of the year, through quarterly reactivation email series, as well as social posts, et cetera. Because when they do that, now they come back in. You could see now they're a proactive patient reactivating well, they come back into that flywheel and become the active patient again. So these are the three phases that you want to be super in tune with as a business owner, as a healthcare provider in your community. People are going through this journey. The question is, are you guiding them to the best of their opportunity for success and the best of your ability to do so and be successful in business? But people go from potential patients, you want to guide them to becoming an active patient, and then ideally you want them to become a proactive patient. And those six touchstones are teach and invite. That's how you move from potential patient to active patient. Somebody's an active patient, you're educating and retaining. That moves them into becoming a proactive patient, which is about enrolling and reactivating. When you have those six touchstones of engagement, referrals and reactivations rocking, your practice is going to be rocking, your practice is gonna be doing really, really well. Because now you've built a flywheel of attraction and retention. And that really, I think is the goal for all of us, identifying those ideal people, those ideal patients that we love to take care of, keeping them in our practice. Not by overly aggressive care plans, not by any sort of sales tactics or anything that you don't need to feel good about or don't want to do or shouldn't do and can't do. But what you can do by educating, by teaching and inviting, by continuing to educate as they become a patient, by having great retention, enrollment and reactivation processes and systems, if you dial this in, that becomes the flywheel. Now, if you're struggling and you're feeling like, man, my short term retention kind of stinks, chances are you have an education and a retention problem, right? If you're short term retention people aren't getting through your care plan. Let's identify some of these challenges and opportunities. If you're having a challenge of people getting through their care plan is less than 90%, then look at those two touchstones in the active journey. I'm not having good enough patient education and I definitely don't have those retention systems in place. Those would be where you'd look. Now if you're looking and saying, well, I do pretty good with that 90%, I think we hit that. But wow, I'm not sure about Our proactive patients. We don't have a ton of patient advocates out there. We got good reviews, but. But it's not, it's not filling our schedule in each and every week. Well, now you got to look towards are you enrolling and reactivating? That's that flywheel, right? If your long term retention is not good, then you want to enroll and reactivate. And these are offers, not forces, right? These aren't you selling anything. This isn't something that's tacked on. This is the process that you can build and should build in your practice to ensure that you have a full schedule, that you're serving your patients over the course of their life by teaching and inviting, by being present for them and not ghosting them. Sometimes I feel like evidence based chiropractors. Listen to the evidence based chiropractor podcast. Evidence based chiropractor is like, well, once we finish that active care plan, okay, I'm done. I don't want to do anything after that. And you're kind of ghosting your patient at that point in time. I don't think you're serving them in the best manner possible. If every engagement with your practice stops the day they complete their active care plan, it shouldn't be that way. These are individuals who know trust and like you. And you're in, you're probably going to have, and I see it time and time again when I talk with docs that do these, what I'm gonna say aggressively short care plans, that's fine, no worries whatsoever. But man, you gotta build in that proactive patient retention loop on the backside. You gotta make sure that you are touching them, that you're continuing to teach and educate, that you're offering the opportunity for them to reactivate. And if you have a gym, if you in enrollment, if you have a supplement subscription through a SmartCare store, make sure that you're offering enrollment help people do what they're already doing elsewhere with the services that you offer. I think all of us would say, man, I think if you're into training and gym, we have a great gym. You probably picked out the equipment yourself. You would do the programming yourself. And it's probably better than they're gonna get anywhere else. Do they know that? Have you offered it supplements? What do you believe in? What do you take yourself? What do you think every day everybody should be taking what offer that. And I want to say one thing about supplements, not to make it too confusing because we're talking patient journey today, but this is not the dusty shelf that You've never been able to sell anything. This is not about selling something point of service. This is about having a website that drop ships to them on a subscribe and save model. That's what we do with SmartCare Store. That's what's critically important because if you try to sell stuff at your front desk, you're going to feel like you're selling stuff at your front desk. It doesn't work out very well. Most stocks don't like it and it's not very successful. You, you want to have that store in the email campaigns to nudge people that way to educate, to teach and invite them the offer. And if 5, 10% of your patients take you up on that, over time, you're going to see a huge boost in the revenue that you create. You're going to see a lot more attention on the patients that you serve and you're going to have a stronger and more durable practice because of it. So the smart patient journey is all about moving a patient, guiding a patient from potential patient to active patient through proactive patient by teaching, inviting, educating, retaining, enrolling and reactivating. That is where we are going with the smart chiropractor in a lot of ways. Not to let the cat out of the bag, but as we look at the tools that we offer, we say, man, we are offering so much more than just email, than just social. We really are guiding that smart patient journey in an ideal way that helps our practices be super, super successful. So I'd love your feedback, Jeff at the evidence based chiropractor.com if you have not left this podcast a rating or review, that'd be super awesome if you'd be. If you do so if you're listening on iPhone, you can scroll on down with your thumb and leave us feedback right there that helps more docs find out about it. I really appreciate you tuning in and if you're gonna be out of your practice anytime in the next couple months, we do have some super talented docs ready to provide coverage services for you. Whether it's maternity or paternity leave, whether it's an unexpected injury, whether you're going for ces, you don't need to close your practice. You can stay profitable and hit up Chiromatchmakers.com Chiromatchmakers.com where we have coverage services as well as DC and CA placement services available for you. Have a fantastic week in practice and I will talk to you soon.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. If you want to grow your practice, come back for next week's episode. If you want to grow faster, visit theevidencebasedchiropractor.com and join our MD Marketing membership today.

Sam.