An important component of maintaining practice profitability is to maintain and continually improve chiropractic patient relations. There are several reasons why this is important including:

1. Reputation- It has been said that if someone has a bad experience with a supplier, they will tell ten other people about it. Nothing can be worse than having any patient saying bad things about your practice.

2. The lifetime value of a patient. Retaining patients is critical for profitability. The higher your patient attrition rate, the more time and effort you will have to spend looking for new patients.

3. Referrals- Good patient relations will encourage a high level of referrals. Referral building is an inexpensive and highly effective way to build your practice but referrals can only be obtained from those patients with whom you have good relations.

Here are some specific tips for improving chiropractic patient relations:

1. Evaluate, with your staff, on a monthly basis any problems or issues which have come up with patients and decide what steps can be taken in the future to prevent these problems from occurring again.

2. Periodically re-examine what is happening during "moments of truth" with your patients. A "moment of truth" is any instance where a patient interacts with your practice- for example, when checking in, when on the phone, or when receiving written communications from you. During each "moment of truth" a patient will have a negative, positive, or neutral view of the event. Examine and re-engineer these moments of truth so that each moment can be a positive one as perceived by a patient.

3. Handle problems promptly and efficiently. Solve the problem quickly and take action to compensate the patient for the problem. Apologize for the problem. Give the patient a reduction in a fee or a discount on the next visit. Although there is a cost associated with this, the cost far outweighs the more positive view the patient will have of the previously negative experience.

4. Create a patient focus group. A focus group involved one or more meetings with a group of patients where you ask them specific information that will help improve your practice and provides you with feedback about the perception of your practice. Many chiropractors find that they are surprised at the insights they receive from focus group sessions.

5. Train your staff to always speak to patients by their first name. A person's name is important to them and can make a big difference in the interaction. Also train the staff to give patients genuine compliments about themselves. Everyone likes to be complemented.

6. Respond to patient phone calls or other requests for information promptly. Train your staff to give your patients the same level of service they would expect.

Create a bond with your patient by giving them helpful advice and by working on building rapport with them. You might even want to consider having an outside firm provide training in patient relationship building.