#1 Complaint About Chiropractors
This e-mail message will show how to turn this negative into a positive.


In preparing for my marketing class at the Karl Parker seminar this past weekend, 
I decided to focus on how to turn a perceived negative into a positive.

Question: What's the #1 complaint the public has about going to a chiropractor? 
You probably already answered this when you read the subject of this e-mail. 
The #1 perceived negative about going to a doctor of chiropractic is this: "You 
have to keep going and going and going and . . ."

So, is this perception about chiropractic due to a failure of the profession, 
or a failure of the doctor to educate the patient? You know why a patient must 
return, why doesn't the patient?

The answer lies in the lack of recognition that the report of findings is the 
absolute most critical point in the doctor/patient relationship. Period. The 
ROF is where you "present your estimate" and where you "close the sale". Some 
of you may not like using typical sales jargon to describe your practice, after 
all, you're a doctor. The reality is, you're also a business providing a service, 
and as such are governed by the same success/failure mechanism as every other 
business. If the customer does not understand why they need the service or product, 
they won't buy.

In the case of the doctor of chiropractic, the public generally does not understand 
what we do. By allowing the public to think of the profession as back pain specialists 
only (Look at the Yellow Pages ads and try to find the word "Health"), we have 
actually diminished the true uniqueness of our service. But that's for a future 
e-mail message about market positioning.

So the ROF is the place where the doctor must FULLY explain the patient's problem 
and the potential ramifications. This also happens to be where most doctors are 
the weakest. I actually have heard doctors say "I don't have time to fully explain 
chiropractic in the ROF. I'll educate a little bit more on each visit." Too late! 
If a new patient can't walk out your door and explain chiropractic to the next 
person they see, how can you expect them to comply with your recommendations, 
and how can you expect them to be in the proper emotional state to refer others. 
You see, a very wise DC once told me, "It's the patient you impress, that refers." 
I believe that.

As many of you know, I write educational software. I write software that specifically 
positions the doctor of chiropractic as MORE than just a back pain doctor. Software 
that fully explains the ramifications associated with each vertebral level. Using 
this software program in a report of findings adds about five minutes to your 
report and will return dividends you can't imagine. I have a new program to do 
this even easier than before. It's called ChiroPath.

With this ChiroPath software on a notebook computer, or with the ChiroPath report 
pages printed ahead of time and in the patient's file, you can visually explain 
the importance of each involved vertebral level and its' importance to overall 
health. You can explain why pain is only ONE component to their problem, and 
how future visits will address areas other than the original pain.

The Chiropractic Subluxation is the only area of your practice that makes you 
unique. Everything else you do, and advertise that you do, is duplicated by a 
more "traditional" health care professional. Shouldn't you use the best tools 
to explain the uniqueness of what you do?

Find out more about the ChiroPath software at http://www.posturepro.com/chiropath.htm 
You can even download the real software for a demo trial. If you aren't connected 
to the Internet, just let me know and I'll send a free demo CD.

The price of ChiroPath is only $99 USD.

If you like to chat about other thoughts I have about marketing, feel free to 
call or e-mail. I'd love to hear from you.

P.S. Those monthly newsletters I've been telling you about are another great 
way to position your practice. All I need are your patient's e-mail addresses 
and we can start today!