THIS IS DR. MARK RADERMACHER YOUR LEADING CHIROPRACTIC COACHING SOURCE, AND WELCOME TO YOUR TOTAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL HOT TOPIC OF THE WEEK.
This is a unique topic. Unique from most of the others, because you are going to sense some sarcasm even in the title, which is… Chiropractic coaching, and the “lucky” doctor. The word lucky is in quotes because you will realize the sarcasm is justified.
AN HONEST MISUNDERSTANDING
Doctor, you would be very surprised to hear, through chiropractic coaching, some very bizarre situations. Just a few days ago, a doctor called all excited, just put yourself in this doctor’s shoes, the doctor called and said his front desk staff team member came up to him and said, “Doc, we’ve been really lucky lately for a couple of weeks now, in that, we haven’t had any new patients; because you don’t have any time to see any new patients. Ever since I have noticed, doctor, that you’ve been taking more time with your patients to better connect with them…it’s great. Patients have commented, ‘wow, Doc really took a lot of extra time.’ And you don’t have any time in your schedule for new patients. But really, that doesn’t matter. Because you’re connecting so well just because of the extra time.”
YOU LIKE PRAISE
Just stop and think, this is really what this staff member said to this doctor. And a doctor is of course a human being, and human beings like praise. The doctor then started a stream of consciousness in his own mind, “well, you know, yeah, I like, you know, it’s good that, that my staff team is all excited and impressed and impressed with, and in praising me with, you know what I’m doing. I’m doing something well. I’m doing something better.” Therefore, after the praise from the staff team member, the doctor’s response was “well, thank you.” He then walked away, sat down, because it was lunchtime, and started thinking.
COMING TO GRIPS
And the first thought that he said came to his mind was: “From a chiropractic coaching point of view, I started thinking, am I really connecting better with my patients in the last few weeks or am I just wasting everyone’s time? Does spending more time really help?” So, this doctor became brilliant in a split second. He had written agreements with his patients so that he could legally audio record visit conversations and he started audio recording that afternoon and listened to the recording that night. A highly recommended chiropractic coaching technique is to review tapes on an empty stomach; he should have listened on an empty stomach, but he didn’t. He listened after he had dinner and got sort of sick to his stomach, apparently, because this is what he heard. He said, “I heard the classic elevator waste of time talk. I was spending and am spending more time with my patients talking about sports and gardening, talking about travel and politics, talking about the economy, for heaven’s sakes, talking about anything and everything that really doesn’t matter anyway in regard to their visits, their health, and their chiropractic care.” He went on to say, “from all my chiropractic coaching, this was probably a bad idea.”
JUST STOP AND THINK
He figured that out just by listening to himself and what he was saying to patients. Then he started thinking, “well, gosh, if I’m taking that much more time, for weeks and weeks and weeks (actually, it was longer than just a few weeks) if I’m taking that much more time to talk about nonsense, and it’s wasting the patient’s time, it’s wasting my time, and I don’t have any openings for new patients…where is this going? Where is the good in what is being done?” So, he called and he said, “what do I do? I mean, I’ve created this situation where not only patients are saying to my staff team they enjoy and appreciate the extra time, but my staff team is noticing, thinking I’m actually doing something better, and I don’t have any time for new patients. What do I do?”
AT LEAST THE PROBLEM WAS UNDERSTOOD
The recommendation was this: Doctor, here is some legitimate some praise. At least you noticed something was wrong. You didn’t take the praise from your brilliant staff team member and try and continue more of the same. You actually analyzed what was going wrong. Do you realize that as a doctor, if you don’t come to grips with identifying a problem, how could you ever fix it? If you don’t even admit something might be wrong. If your pride is way too big and, in the way, you’ll never, ever, analyze what might be going wrong.
IN THE REAL WORLD OF CHIROPRACTIC COACHING
You know what many doctors would do in a situation like this: run an ad in order to bring in more new patients. But with no room in the schedule, where do you put them? Expand the hours? Ridiculous! And then burn out, right? You see, what has to be done in a situation like this is to focus on the patient during the visit and give them everything they need. The word was not WANT, the word is everything they NEED, then the visit is complete. Everyone in chiropractic coaching knows this. Here is what they need. Everything done for the adjustment, and everything done for the communications. That’s it. If you deliver everything they need, and you, as a confident doctor, let them know “Mr. Smith, good adjustment. See you on Wednesday.” You can turn to the next table, two feet away, and start engaging in that visit. And the patient you just left will not feel like you rushed or cheated them out of anything at all.
OWNERSHIP
So, think this through, doctor. This sounds a little bizarre, right? You have a staff team member pointing out and praising a huge mistake, but not understanding it. This is not the staff team member’s problem, this is your problem. You created it. Remember this fact. This is chiropractic coaching 101. So, what do you do to fix it? First you take pride out of the way. Then you figure out what’s really wrong, and then you figure out what to do about it. And doctor, it’s not that difficult to do. But, if you sensed the sarcasm from the title going into this video today, you can sense that that’s how real doctors get caught up in nonsense. Ask yourself if you are living more of a sarcastic practice, or are you living a true, straight up common-sense practice. Do you know when something’s wrong, stop and try to figure it out, or get some chiropractic coaching help to figure it out, and then implement a fix? On that note, this is one to think about, this is one to write about.
Have a good day.
