Welcome to the CEObrief eLetter for Chiropreneurs In this issue... * The Triple Play for Chiropreneurs: Volume, Fee and Service * Plan Early...the earlier the better. * It's not about information...it's your paradigm. Enjoy! ****************************************************** ********************* Finding Success with a Triple Play ****************************************************** ********************* Prior to 1975, consumers enjoyed what I call The Golden Age of Customer Service. Sadly, based on recent research, we now appear to be in the Plastic Age of Customer Service. In a recent American Customer Satisfaction Index, the average customer satisfaction rating was less than 60%. Going six for 10 is pretty good -- if you're playing baseball. But during The Golden Age of Customer Service, any business with that batting average was headed for the shower. So how has such a level of unservice become a 21st century norm? Because consumers have become sensitized to what I call the Plastic Triplets: High volume, low price and poor service. For Chiropreneurs, the Plastic Triplets create both opportunity and danger. But seizing the former and avoiding the latter requires an understanding of two things: 1. Rarely do the high volume, low price siblings appear without bringing along their triplet, poor service. Don't get me wrong; there's nothing inherently wrong with high volume. But it becomes bad for Chiropreneurs when combined with low fees, often needed to attract the high-volume. And low fees is also not inherently bad -- for Patients. But it's bad for a Chiropreneur that turns down that dark and dangerous road. Low fees can create high volume, but the price paid in the end can be extremely costly. 2. Nothing that has happened in the past 30 years has changed how humans want to be treated, only how they expect to be treated. Armed with this knowledge and understanding, all a Chiropreneur has to do to prove that it isn't plastic is to reverse the order of the Plastic Triplets and rename them. Our first new triplet is Exceptional Service on each every patient visit, which is delivering your brand of chiropractic in a way that is not only reliable, but also creative, fun and innovative, in an environment that reinforces your brand message. Here's some components that communicate Exceptional Service to your Patients: * Your office. The location, the exterior and interior treatment and your equipment. * Your T.E.A.M., talent, appearance, physical and dress and expertise. * Your products and services: a focus on wellness. * Your technology including treatment and patient records. The first thing you'll notice is that your Patients will be astonished, because remember, humans still want to be treated well, they're just not used to it. The second of our new triplets is the mother's milk of a Chiropreneur: premium fees that deliver high margins. If you're not charging for the value you deliver, that means you've joined a fee war, and you know what we've said about fee wars. There will always be someone who will do it for less or even FREE! Now, what if you are in a competitive marketplace or have other limitations? Don't be the cheapest in your marketplace, but all things being equal, have the best office, the best talent and attract patients who want superior care and service for the same fee charged down the street by someone located in a small office, smaller staff and lack of technology. Or better yet, acquire or merge the competition! The third triplet is targeted volume. As a Chiropreneur, you not only don't want to do business with everyone, you can't. Target only those Patients who want more from you than just a low fee. The Patients you're after want customization, dependability, professional assistance and one more thing: They want you to save them time. This may be the most important 21st century development on which Chiropreneurs must focus: More and more people are valuing their time more than their money. Offer a guarantee: your appointment will start within 3 minutes of your arrival or the office visit is free! It has been said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. But the way to the heart of a 21st century chiropractic patient is through exceptional service on each and every visit. Focus on the Golden Triplets and you'll create your own Golden Age of Patient Service and outrageous success. Lawton W. Howell, Sr. Call me toll free at 877 WELNES1 or 877.935.6371 ceo@wellnessone.net P.S. Click the link below and you can receive a customized marketing report for your practice. No charge. No Kidding. No Strings. Click the link and answer just seven questions and your custom marketing report will be emailed to you! FREE! No strings! Custom Marketing Report: Click Here Now! ****************************************************** ********************* Moving Your Office? There's No such Thing as "too early." ****************************************************** ********************* Once you've decided to build a new office, or move to existing space, start planning your move right away. Completing an orderly move on time depends on thorough planning well in advance. The "to do" list includes an amazing number of tasks, many of them interrelated. For example, carefully write out each telephone extension number's location on your blueprints and insist that your electrical subcontractor mark every outlet box accordingly. You'll simplify the telephone installer's job this way, and you'll save time and money. Getting a jump on planning will help prepare you for the inevitable mistakes and bad luck that come with complex projects. Starting early buys you extra time if a supplier delivers the wrong item, or if a critical piece of equipment is backordered. Rich Pittam, Architect to the WellnessOne National Alliance Call me at 801.274.1944 richpittam@msn.com P.S. If you are planning a new office or remodeling an existing office, click the link below to download WellnessOne Ultimate Office Guide: This 25-page report describes the philosophy behind the WellnessOne Ultimate Office and includes actual architectural renderings, model, floor plans and photographs from four sites in four states. The WellnessOne Ultimate Office has been heralded as the most innovative space planning for chiropractic offices and is being emulated in other health care provider offices. If you are planning new office or remodeling your existing space, you can use this report to brainstorm with your architect or contractor to move your ordinary space into extraordinary space. Your office is a powerful marketing weapon when designed for maximum impact and for creating the WOW! experience for your patients on each and every visit. To see the possibilities, order this report now! Ideas for Your New Office! Click Here ****************************************************** ********************* Paradigm Shift Anyone? ****************************************************** ********************* Every day I take call from Chiropreneurs. Here are the kind of topics raised: * The Ins and outs of spinal screening events * Mindset of a successful marketer * Recommendations for "pithy" business books * How to get in front of audiences of business people * Feedback on logo/tagline * Fear, reluctance and procrastination What's my point? Getting the information you need to market your services is not the problem. It has never been the problem and will never be the problem. The answers are out there, readily available and actionable. Books, manuals, teleclasses, eZines, online discussion groups, forums and, of course, Google. You name it. You can find the answer you want, often in a few minutes. But if that's the case, why doesn't every Chiropreneur have as many patients as they can can handle? After all, with a little research, you can find the ideas, resources and how tos you need and apply it to your business. Can't you? You'd think so, but au contraire. No matter how much information we have, we tend to get stuck in putting it into action. Once I led a private retreat for a large professional services firm. Half a billion big. The division I worked with was doing $100 million in sales and not making a profit. They had all the talent, information, resources, and ideas you could possibly want to help them figure out how to be profitable. But they weren't. They were struggling. And they really had no idea why. The first part of the private retreat was about paradigms and how they limit us. We all have our own limiting paradigms. In marketing it's things like "Marketing takes too much time," or "Marketing myself is an interruption," or "I'm just not the marketing and sales type." Sound familiar? Organizations, like individuals, live within their own limiting paradigms. This organization had an interesting one: "It is what it is." Sounds pretty innocuous, but what that meant was that nothing could change or improve. It was just the way it was. Forever. The resignation in the room was palpable. Any effort to struggle within this paradigm was bound to simply produce more of the same. Efforts to improve profitability weren't going to come out of this old paradigm. Remember the Einstein quote: "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." Another way of putting it: "No problem can be solved within the paradigm it was created inside of." I recently received an email from a CEObrief subscriber who dramatically turned his business around. He went from someone with an allergy to marketing to someone who is addicted to marketing (his words). Essentially he shifted his paradigm: "If I could boil the shift in my marketing mindset down to any one thing, it would be the shift in my being that led to a shift in my thoughts and feelings about marketing, which in turn led to a significant shift in my actions and results." In the private retreat, the firm shifted their paradigm of "It is what it is," to "We work together to make it right." It wasn't a slogan or an affirmation, it was the expression of a new reality. By the end of the retreat, this paradigm was being expressed through a new level of participation, cooperation, commitment and action. What paradigm do you have to shift to take your business to the next level? What thoughts or attitudes are currently limiting you? What negative things do you keep saying about marketing? Where do you feel stuck, hopeless or frustrated? Identifying the paradigm is the first thing, and the second is realizing that the paradigm or mindset is not YOU. It is not real. It is simply a creation that you bought into, and that has shaped you. With a new paradigm to work from you'll discover that business and marketing ideas come easier. It will be less of a struggle to implement what you already know. And you'll have fewer barriers to getting the information and resources you need to produce great marketing results. Paradigm shift anyone? Lawton W. Howell, Sr. Call me toll free at 877 WELNES1 or 877.935.6371 ceo@wellnessone.net P.S. More information isn't the key to success in marketing. That information is everywhere and easily accessible. You've got to apply it. But you may find that application is a struggle if you're living from a paradigm that says, "Marketing is a struggle." Change your paradigm and end the struggle. P.P.S. Would your practice benefit from a private retreat? Yes or Yes? For more information click the link below: