Q: Dr. doctor I work for is attempting to increase our new patients. We need some advice concerning an idea that I heard about. We are thinking of sending letters to all the patients on file and and asking them if they have a family member or friend who is in need of Chiropractic care. We will tell them that they can send one person in for a free exam, x-ray, and one adjustment(on the initial exam date). The only thing we are going to ask of them is if they want to donate any money for the day they may donate to the charity of their choice. We figured this would be a great community service and also the rest of the care they recieve will be our profit. If you have any advise on this type of project please let me know. A: This program is called a Patient Appreciation Day .. to make it effective you really need a few weeks to get your act together .. if this is being done in a rush there are a few vital items that must be gathered immediately: 1: Decide who is going to be responsible for all the activities and follow through .. someone should coordinate all efforts and be assured that all steps are followed 2: Create a label list of all the patients you wish to send material to .. if you will be using a computer this should be easy .. if it will be hand written .. write them boldly and clearly on a label sheet and make a number of copies of each sheet so you do not have to do it again 3: Create a log of those you wish to send the material to .. it could be a flyer .. a newsletter .. I recommend both. This log will have the patient¼s name .. address .. phone number .. last visit date .. known problem .. ex. lower back pain .. headaches .. neck pain etc. You will use this log to check off those you contacted .. what they said .. follow up material sent .. etc. A one stop place for all the information .. keep this handy for future mailings and phone programs. Remember .. if you follow through with a phone call .. the newsletters have a bigger punch .. a call script would ask them if they received the newsletter and to update their address .. that¼s the reason for their last visit date and the known symptioms .. „how is your lower back doing, Mrs. Smith.¾ see how they are doing .. then discuss the newsletter and the offering. Also .. „who else do you know that may benefit from this (give them the laundry list) possibkly someone at work .. at church .. you care pool with ..in the family .. etc. 4: Create a flyer with clear wording of what you wish to offer .. date .. time .. fee .. charity drive .. also some form of incentive like door prizes. This flyer should go out to the patient¼s who are not coming in presently and given by hand with an explanation to the active patients 5: To make it even more effective .. tell your active patient's it's a Community Appreciation Day .. and have a flyer prepared to this effect .. offering similar stuff for their referrals with a charity donation .. a Community Appreciation Day opens the doors for thee flyers to be placed in local health Spas .. as drops in the bags given with vitamins in the health food store .. as a large poster done at a Kinko¼s to be placed on the window of some nice store ..etc. 6: Find out which is the most effective charity in your area .. a Food Bank or something like it. You may wish to call a lovcal retail store ..such as a WalMart and see which charity they collect for .. this will allow you later to coordinate efforts. Call the charity and tell them you wish to promote their charity during your Community Outreach Programs and provide a discounted service for a donation to their charity .. would they object? The answer should be NO .. therefore you would like a letter of endorsement from this charity .. the more charities you contact the merrier .. and this gives you to he avenue to reach the Walmart's and other retail stores for extended projects such as Screenings and Health Fairs. Once you have all this in place .. flyers .. newsletters .. logs .. labels .. and people designated to make the calls and specific dates to send the material .. remember if sending 1000 at a time it¼ll be uncontrollable .. pick those you wish to hit first by screening the names and sending them and calling them in the first wave. Once you have all this in place you should send out the material in batches of 250 or 300 bi weekly or once a week .. and log these in and follow up with phone calls three days later. If you leave a message on their machine don't use 5 minutes of their time explaining what was in the flyer .. just say simply "this is Mary from the Family Chiropractic Center .. I'm calling to see if you received our recent office newsletter ( if you wish add this .. „and to update your file¾), would you please call us at ........" 7: If you want to extend this to the community .. find local mom and pop service retail stores such as Baskin Robbins .. Jiffy Lube .. Blimpies .. movie theatre .. etc. that can offer a promotional free door prize .. free ice creme cone .. free lube .. free sandwich etc. If you have a number of these .. highlight these door prizes and have a goldfish bowl on the counter where people can place their name and phone number to be in the drawing the special day or week (By the way .. you should extend it to a Patient Appreciation Week to get the most out of it .. not just One Day). Be sure to show these Mom and Pop shops your endorsement letter and the completed flyer with their name included .. and be sure to send them a thank you letter etc. You may wish to check my webpage under Practice Tips and see if I have some stuff concerning these events .. I think I do .. such as flyer ideas. I'll send you some stuff as well. Good Luck Dr. M