“Give ‘em what they want”
Steven P. Weiniger, DC / Senior Editor BodyZone.com
If chiropractic philosophy is true, and chiropractors help people, why isn’t everyone seeing a chiropractor every month? When you ask marketing guru’s this question, the answer is it doesn’t matter what you want to tell people…it’s what they want to hear. Heed the public well, my colleagues. The future of chiropractic hinges on the ability of today’s DCs (that is, you and I) to ethically teach people truths in ways they can hear.
Choosing wellness care after insurance is, among other things, a financial decision. The benefit must be perceived as having a value greater than the cost. Marketing experts say 80 percent of buying is emotion and 20 percent is intellect. An appeal to the patient’s intellect (e.g. nerves control the body, so take care of vertebral alignment at the IVF) is not going to be nearly as effective as what brought them to you initially, something they can feel (e.g. it hurts). Now, some DCs may be tempted to link the two and add fear to increase compliance (e.g. If I don’t keep on adjusting you, the pain will return). Aside from the questionable truth, this strategy becomes counter productive after the patient misses a few adjustments without a relapse, and then views the DCs words as manipulative and proof of the truism “chiropractors just want to keep you coming back”.
There is another way.
Create an empowered patient relationship and give the person tools and knowledge for intelligent self care. Despite the contentions of gurus selling expensive consulting services, very few patients walk through your door with the initial desire to visit you frequently on an ongoing basis and pay you large sums of money for the rest of your life. On the other hand, a large segment of the population who visits a chiropractor wants to feel better and “be fixed”. “Give ‘em what they want” is a true maxim which can bring profession undreamed of success and respect for one reason: chiropractic adjustments help people move and feel better.
The baby boomers are aging, and they are going to want to stay active as they grow older. Empowering them now, with knowledge of how their body moves, how to care for their body, and allowing them to experience an improvement in body motion with chiropractic adjustments and muscle therapy, and feel stronger posture with posture exercises will make them far more likely to choose a wellness care lifehabit.
My goal is to help people choose intelligent LifeHabits to help them move well (such as daily conscious posture exercises). If you give them what they want (which is to move well and stay active as they age), then when they need help with a problem , or just want to feel good and keep moving well because they are now conscious of their posture and body motion, they will know where to go.
Chiropractic… Rehab… Exercise… Integrating exercise and active care along with chiropractic is essential for an outcome oriented practice. Progressive core stabilization exercises will increase patient participation and improve results as well as retention. Posture rehab exercises are reimbursable, and many insurance companies demand active care plans for authorization of continued treatment.
BodyZone.com will teach you practical, focused motion exercise protocols using inexpensive posture balls and other low-tech tools. You will learn current, research documented concepts of posture, motion, exercise and chiropractic to easily incorporate into your practice.
This article is the next in a series on integrating Managed Care, insurance, and personal pay in a practice treating patients for AcuteCare, RehabCare and WellnessCare. If you agree with the Patient Choice philosophy of care, and believe this is the intelligent path for our profession, we’d like to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.