April 30, 2025 • 22 mins
In this episode of the Rocket Chiro podcast, Jerry Kennedy dives into the crucial topic of how new patients initially contact chiropractors. Understanding this process can drastically influence your patient acquisition and retention. Jerry discusses the pros and cons of various contact methods, how these methods affect patient conversion rates, and what chiropractors should know to stay compliant with regulations.
Key Points:
- Initial Patient Contact:
- Referrals and reputation establish trust before first contact.
- Cold contacts require quick and convenient responses to avoid losing potential patients.
Pros and Cons of Contact Methods:
1. Phone:
- Pros: Highly personal, immediate human connection.
- Cons: Many people, especially younger demographics, avoid phone calls.
2. Email:
- Pros: Very easy, low anxiety for introverts.
- Cons: Low open rates, delayed responses, and potential ghosting due to reluctance to speak on the phone.
3. Texting:
- Pros: High open rates (~90%), quick responses, balances convenience and speed.
- Cons: HIPAA compliance risks, requires secure software or explicit patient consent.
4. Online Scheduling:
- Pros: High commitment level from patients, convenience.
- Cons: Potential additional costs, loss of schedule control for chiropractors.
5. Social Media (Direct Messaging):
- Pros: Direct, convenient for socially active chiropractors, good for conversions.
- Cons: Significant HIPAA compliance concerns, difficult message management, risk of missing messages if not consistently active.
Best Practices Recommendations:
- Phone: Maintain as an option with clear and concise voicemail messaging.
- Email: Discourage as primary contact for new patients due to inefficiency.
- Texting: Highly recommended if compliant; utilize secure software or explicit consent forms.
- Online Scheduling: Recommended if loss of schedule autonomy isn’t problematic; ensure simplicity and ease-of-use.
- Social Media: Effective for socially active chiropractors but manage privacy carefully; consider explicit patient acknowledgment of non-privacy.
Final Thoughts:
Jerry emphasizes the importance of quick and convenient communication methods that align with patient preferences while being mindful of compliance and privacy regulations. Chiropractors should continually evaluate their patient contact methods and ensure they offer accessible, reliable, and regulation-compliant options.
Resources
Free New Patient Search Review: https://rocketchiro.com/chiropractic-practice-assessment
Best chiropractic websites: https://rocketchiro.com/best-chiropractic-websites
Chiropractic SEO: https://rocketchiro.com/chiropractic-seo
Coaching for Chiropractors: https://rocketchiro.com/join
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Rocket Chiro podcast, the business andmarketing podcast for chiropractors.
We're going to talk today about how new patients contact you as a chiropractor.
the pros and cons of those things, why things matter, why they don't, uh, we're going toclimb inside the patient's head a little bit.
(00:21):
And we're also going to talk about some things to be aware of as you're communicating withpatients because we don't want to get ourselves in trouble as chiropractors.
So that's going to be the plan for the day.
Uh, I was talking to my chiropractor actually just this morning.
Uh, he had asked me to, uh, meet with him and talk to him about some of his local SEO andsome of his website stuff.
So we're talking about that and we started talking about new patients and how they reachout to him.
(00:46):
And that's actually what became the, the spurring on idea of this podcast.
because it's something that I do talk to my website clients about, but it's not somethingI necessarily talk about on the podcast, or at least I can't remember talking about it on
the podcast.
So that's what we're going to do.
Before I get into that, I do want to say, if you want help with your website, you want abetter chiropractic website, something that's simple, that's new patient focused, it does
(01:09):
a great job at converting, and it shows up well in the Google rankings, then check outRocket Chiro.
I'd love to create a website for you, especially if you're a regular listener to thepodcast.
You're already on board with what rocket Chiro is about and you just want a betterwebsite.
You're tired of doing it yourself or you're tired of your website company because theycreated a crappy cluttered website for you that looks like it was designed 30 years ago.
(01:33):
Then reach out to me.
I'll be glad that maybe, maybe 30 years ago there wasn't where they're not websites forchiropractors 30 years ago.
Probably weren't right.
How old am I anyway?
If you want help, can help you.
If you want help with your Google ads, if you want help with local SEO, can also do that.
Reach out to me through rocket Chiro.
Uh, if you're just getting started or feeling stuck as a chiropractor and you want to getsome information that goes beyond the podcast and you want access to me, look into my next
(01:58):
step program.
It's a great way to get help and to get started in the right direction.
Get a little momentum that's taking your practice from stuck to started and going in theright direction.
All right.
So when it comes to new patients and specifically what I'm talking about here is I'mtalking about new patients that don't already know you in some capacity.
And the reason it is different is because if someone has been referred to you, there'ssort of a transfer of trust that happens.
(02:24):
If someone's done their research online and they've just sort of convinced themselvesthrough your reviews and your website and whatever that you're the person, like this is
the person that I have found.
This is the person that I want to contact and they really convince themselves.
There's been a really significant transfer of trust.
If they follow you on social, if you're really well known in the area, if you're a bigdeal because you're some sports chiropractor guy that practices for the team or has some
(02:49):
famous patient, there are some authority and sort of reputation things and referral thingsthat could very well just bypass all the stuff that we're talking about today because
those people are already really committed to you.
There's like a level of, of stickiness that they already have.
So whether they contact you by phone or email or texting or social or online, like none ofthat really matters.
(03:13):
They're, they're going to wait around.
If they don't hear from me in a couple of days, they're still going to be waiting there toget your phone call back and they're going to be excited when you call.
So I'm not saying you should wait a bunch of days to call it, contact someone back ifyou're a big deal.
But if someone is already kind of, they know you, they're, they're excited about youspecifically.
Then none of this stuff really matters where it really matters is when people don't reallyknow you.
(03:37):
They, they just found your website for the first time.
They just found you on Google.
They just drove by.
just, whatever, like they don't really know you.
So they're looking at your website.
They're looking at other chiropractors websites or looking at your online scheduler orthere.
They may get ahold of you.
They may get ahold of somebody else.
The, the, the, people, if how they get ahold of you matters, how long it takes you to getback to them matters.
(04:03):
And ideally what you're trying to do, and this is sort of skipping ahead a little bit tothe end, but ideally what you're trying to do with that demographic of people is you're
trying to connect with them as quickly as possible because time does matter.
Like if somebody gets ahold of you and they don't hear from you for a couple of days, it'slikely they've gone to another chiropractor's website and they've just went ahead and
(04:24):
scheduled something or they've done something that's easier and more convenient orquicker.
And they have just.
forgot about you all together because they weren't really committed to you in the firstplace.
So that's just something to keep in mind.
And that's why this actually will matter.
And if you find yourself in a situation where you're like, know, people are contacting methis particular way and I just, they're ghosting me.
(04:46):
can't get ahold of them.
It's just this big giant headache.
It's probably, I could probably tell you which way they're contacting you if I had toguess.
So this is what we're going to talk about phones, emails, texting, online scheduling, andsocial media.
ah It's important to note that uh also people generally do what's easier not necessarilywhat's best.
(05:06):
So if any of these things are a pain in the butt, if they're kind of inconvenient, ifthey're slow, like all of those things uh are negative.
So just keep that in mind.
Pros and cons.
So the phone, the biggest pro for the phone is that it's personal.
ah You get to hear someone's voice.
You get to make a connection with them.
(05:27):
Uh, it says, I, I'm assuming that you or whoever is answering the phone is doing a goodjob there.
If someone has a bad, like a tone, that's not great for the phone, uh, or they hatetalking on the phone, like I do, uh, probably not the ideal person to have like on the
forefront of your phone answering process.
And if you hate answering the phone and you're the only one, then maybe don't answer thephone.
(05:49):
Like maybe push everybody to some other, other way of contacting you.
So, but.
The best thing about phone is there's no quicker way to have a personal connection withsomeone than to hear their voice and to talk to them in that way.
The big con of the phone is that there's a whole percentage of people, especially a muchhigher percentage of people with a younger demographic.
(06:11):
They just don't want to talk on the phone.
They hate talking to the phone.
They hate doing phone calls.
And so that's the biggest issue with the phone is there's just a whole bunch of peoplethat don't want to do it.
And for a lot of people, it's a deal breaker.
They would much rather text.
or they'd much rather message.
They would much rather use an online scheduler and just bypass the phone conversationaltogether.
I fall squarely into that category.
(06:32):
I am not interested at all in picking up the phone and calling a company if I don't haveto emails.
So emails is another thing.
Phone and email has been around for a really long time.
These are kind of established things.
Uh, the biggest pro of email is it is easy.
I mean, it's way easier than anything.
I mean, it's
It's just as easy as texting or anything else.
(06:52):
It's probably easier than texting because it's, even more separated.
Like somebody who's a, kind of an introvert and doesn't like human contact all that muchemails are super easy because you don't expect to get an instant message back.
So, uh, for those of you who don't know us who are introverts, uh, phone calls, very doanxiety inducing, uh, messaging is less anxiety inducing, but it's more anxiety inducing
(07:18):
than emails because
you know that you're probably gonna get a response right away.
And that delay of email is actually the easiest thing for ah an introvert unless we'rejust gonna fax the office, which I'm not even talking about on here.
So uh email's easy.
(07:39):
The downside of email, there's huge downsides of emails.
And the biggest downside is that people don't read their emails.
ah There's a time delay with the emails and...
when you do call someone who emailed, the reason they emailed you in the first place isbecause they didn't want to call you.
So when you call them, a lot of them don't answer the phone.
So if you're a chiropractor who's frustrated with people getting ahold of you and thenthey're ghosting you or whatever, I would venture to guess that a lot of these people are
(08:04):
getting ahold of you through email.
that's, it's, it's, it's partly because it's not an ideal situation for people that aregetting ahold of you and they're wanting a response right away.
So that time delay is a problem.
The other part of it is just the human being that's you're not considering the human beingand why they're emailing you in the first place, which is they don't want to talk to you
(08:26):
on the phone.
And so I don't think it's a great option, but it is something that some chiropractors areused.
I tend to discourage people from using it I don't think it's great.
Next we have texting.
would say texting to me is my favorite.
Texting is it's you have the easiness for the most part of like email.
It's quick because you generally get a quicker response.
So you kill some of that time delay.
(08:47):
People absolutely see them, know, email open rates might be 20 % whereas a texting openrate is going to be in the 90 % Generally speaking so people are going to see the message
that you send them now You can't make them respond but they are going to see it.
So you're kind of Eliminating a major issue that is there with email is not going to bethat way with texting but the biggest con with texting is that there are some regulations
(09:12):
and there's some HIPAA issues with texting and
There's also the issue with, and it sort of goes hand in hand where the, the, requiressome extra software really to do it right.
It requires some extra software.
Um, I know a lot of chiropractors that have micro practices or have solo practices or justusing their phone and.
(09:33):
It isn't ideal.
And I get it.
I totally understand.
I would probably, if I was personally practicing, I would probably not think too muchabout doing that.
But the more you look into it, the more you go, yeah, you're not exactly in a safe area bydoing that.
Even something as simple as, John, your appointment is at three o'clock.
(09:54):
That could technically be a HIPAA violation because you're like, you're connecting John toa medical service.
And there's like, that's, that's a technically a potential issue.
And I think your starting point for making yourself safe, if you're going to use unsecuredtexting, like your standard cell phone or whatever, the starting point is to have some
(10:15):
sort of.
uh acknowledgement on the patient's part, some sort of uh either checkbox or response orsome sort of acknowledgement that says they understand that what they're doing and that
they shouldn't share privacy stuff and you should document that in their file.
That gives you a little bit more leeway and it protects you a little bit more and I thinkthat's probably a wise thing to do if you're still using your cell phone.
(10:39):
The other option which would be probably the better option but it is going to cost youmore money most likely.
And that is to use some sort of secure texting option.
Now I personally have not used these, so I don't know how convenient or inconvenient theyare, um, in terms of like user friendliness and patients and things of that nature.
(10:59):
So it's just something to be aware of.
And I know that there there's a little bit of an incomplete thought that is here, um,because of some of the changing regulations and just the fact that I'm talking about this
now and it's like, and I don't have some sort of like A to Z complete plan andrecommendation for you.
I think my just starting point for this conversation on this podcast is just to understandthat, um, there is some privacy issues there and you just want to protect yourself as much
(11:23):
as possible.
And I think one of the starting points for that could potentially be, um, a, a consent ofsome sort on the patient's part.
Next is online scheduling.
online scheduling is very convenient.
There's a level of commitment that goes with online scheduling, which is nice.
Um,
People are much less likely to ghost you after they've scheduled an appointment onlineversus if they've emailed you.
(11:46):
mean, the level of commitment is drastically different.
They've sort of planted their, their, their flag in the ground.
They've said, this is the chiropractor I'm going to, and this is when I'm going.
So, um, in that sense, the convenience of it and the commitment level of it is, is good.
That doesn't mean people never schedule and don't come in like that.
That is a thing.
Uh, but that's going to be much less, uh, than other like email or something like that.
(12:11):
The negative side of online scheduling is that uh one, it does sometimes require extrasoftware or it requires an extra money on your part because there's sometimes this isn't
built into whatever thing that you're using for patient notes and things of that nature.
So sometimes there's some extra money involved with it.
The other part of it is the doctor does lose some level of control with their schedule.
(12:33):
I know for real busy offices, this can be an issue.
uh I know for certain personalities, it can be an issue.
This isn't something I would be, I never did online scheduling because it wasn't even athing when I, uh, when I got out of practice, which I know makes me sound like I'm a
million years old and I haven't practiced in a thousand years, but it just wasn't really athing.
(12:53):
And so I never had any experience with it, but I don't think I would have used it anyway.
I I'm not a huge fan of sort of having open ended appointment times for patients,especially for new patients.
And so, um,
I personally don't think I would have been a fan of it, lots of chiropractors use it.
mean, a lot of chiropractors use it.
So I don't, I don't think it is a bad thing at all.
(13:16):
And I think generally when people do use it, they tend to like it.
Uh, but that is going to be the downside of it.
If we're just going to talk about online scheduling.
I do want to talk about social media.
So I actually had planned this podcast and I didn't even mention social media, but I dowant to mention it because chiropractors who are
popular on social media or who have started to grow a following.
(13:39):
And that's kind of the ad, one of the main avenues that you're going to go to grow yourpractice.
They do get communication, a direct messaging communication to patients through socialmedia.
It's not going to be uncommon at all for that to happen.
And the people that I've talked to that are big on social media, they've told me that.
A lot of times it's just easier to get that person scheduled through the direct messaging.
(14:00):
You're not sending them to the online scheduler.
You're not having them call.
Like it's just more convenient and actually is better from a closing standpoint to getthem to, um, just go ahead and schedule in the, in the DMS.
The problem with that is that's even less secure than your, than your texting than yourphone is.
It's there's no way that there's, it just isn't, it isn't secure.
(14:23):
isn't secure.
It's not HIPAA compliant.
I don't know that there's a situation where it ever would be.
And so all of those conversations you're having on social media, which I am, I haveadvocated for and I, and I do, this is a struggle for me.
It's like this whole, this, this is a struggle for me because I go, man, I totallyunderstand why you would text the patient.
(14:44):
And I understand why you would text a potential patient.
And I know why you would get pulled into answering questions and things of that nature.
So this is definitely a struggle for me personally where I'm like, man, I'm not sure how Iwould handle this, how comfortable I would be with the gray area ah or just ignoring it
and doing it anyway.
I don't know.
I think that there's some issues there that need to be sorted out.
(15:07):
And maybe as time goes on, there's going to be a way of doing that for healthpractitioners that they can message through their social media and have it be HIPAA
compliant.
think that's probably interesting, an interesting development.
that could happen.
But it is something that you want to be aware of.
think the same thing is true for ah social media as it is for texting, where I would saythe bare minimum is you would want to have some sort of agreement or understanding uh
(15:37):
consent that the person acknowledges that uh what they're doing, what you're doing, thatit's private or that's not private and they should be sharing private information.
So I think that's probably your starting point for that.
I think the other headache with social media is it's kind of uh a headache to keep trackof it.
Social media direct messaging is not really designed for messaging and keeping track ofmessages in that way like you would with email or texting or something like that.
(16:05):
It's not really designed for that.
It's not ideal for that.
So there's some issues with sort of keeping track of things.
But I think the privacy issue is probably a bigger issue than the hassle of it.
And I would say the other thing about social media that's a hassle is those who are not
really busy and really uh active on social media.
When someone gets ahold of you through social media, it's, it sort of just sucks becauseoften a lot of times the chiropractors who aren't really active on social media.
(16:31):
Aren't getting their messages right away.
And then you just kind of lose someone through that, through that process.
So it can, there can be a little bit of a disconnect between the person who's if theperson's very active on social and it's normal for them to reach out to people through
direct message.
And then the chiropractor is not very active or
isn't getting their messages.
And probably the tip there is just make sure that you're getting your messages forwardedto you or you're getting some sort of notification about messages on your phone.
(16:56):
If somebody reaches out to you on social that way, you're not missing those opportunitiesif they're there.
Sir, what are my recommendations?
Phone should always be an option and just make sure you have a very clear and shortmessage when going to voicemail.
Um, you know, and we used to change our voicemail message all the time based on if therewas something that people needed to know, like if we were going to be gone, we would let
(17:18):
people know.
Um, if there was, you know, if we were going to get return calls, like, you know, what ournormal hours were or whatever, but you do want to keep it short, uh, really, really long
messages before you go to voicemail are super annoying.
So just keep it short.
tidy, clear, uh but have something that's there.
ah Email's not a great option, I wouldn't recommend it, I'm not a fan.
(17:42):
I'm just not.
ah Not for new patients, uh scheduling.
You can do it if you want to.
There's plenty of clients that I have that still have email forms and they do it.
It's just not great, and I'll tell you the same thing I told my chiropractor this morning,you're losing people because of that.
You're losing people through the process of email.
Texting, texting is great.
(18:05):
Just make sure that you're aware of the privacy stuff and you're handling it as smart aspossible.
Some possibilities would be consider an automated response about privacy.
So have a consent kind of geared up for an auto response and have them acknowledge maybe,you know, whether that's a checkbox or text back the word yes or whatever.
(18:27):
Um, there would be some sort of response from the person where they acknowledged that theyread the privacy, uh, policy that you sent them.
Also, you could potentially consider sending someone an automated response when you're notmonitoring the text.
This would be, know, somebody's texting in the middle of the night at one o'clock andthey're like, you I'm interested in an appointment.
(18:49):
And if you could set it up to where it says, uh, Hey, we're going to be back on the officeat this particular time.
We'll be reaching out to you then.
The only reason I say that is because I do think the more this quicker you connect withsomeone on some level, even if it's an automated response and you can kind of set
expectations, I think the quicker you do that, the more likely you're going down the paththat you want to, which is establishing a relationship.
(19:12):
So I think that there are times where those automated responses are a good thing.
I think that they can be out of control.
Like you can have like auto responders and all kinds of stuff that just sort of gets outof control and
general rule, people don't like talking to bots over human beings.
Now there's probably going to be a change in that as time goes on, because I don't know ifyou've ever had a conversation with chat GPT, but it is pretty freaking good.
(19:38):
So there's probably a time down the road where you can have AI answer your texting orrespond to people in a way that's actually really, really competent.
Uh, but right now it's probably a little sloppy.
I don't think that technology is quite there for.
individual practices.
Online scheduling, I think it's great if you ah don't mind giving up some control of yourschedule.
(20:03):
And you can set the parameters of the schedule, obviously, but there's a certain level ofautonomy that's lost there.
The one thing I would say about online scheduling is make sure that it is simple and easyto navigate.
I've done some online schedulers with chiropractors where I'm like, hey, this is reallystraightforward.
I've gone through others and I've thought to myself, what a giant pain in the butt.
(20:24):
this like this step, this thing, just check, do this jump here, raise your leg, left footin, left foot out.
Like what a, what a freaking headache.
So if you have not gone through your own online scheduler, I would strongly recommenddoing that.
Try to look at it from a patient's perspective.
And if it sucks, get a different one.
Like don't like those, those are the type of things you lose patients just because of theprocess and uh,
(20:51):
Last thing, social media.
Social media is awesome if you are a social media guy and you're committed to doing thesocial media thing.
But just be aware of the fact, you have to be aware of the fact that when someone messagesyou through social media, uh, you are in a gray area when you're talking about health
stuff.
So just do everything you can to be safe with that.
(21:13):
Um, and just don't get yourself in trouble.
And I'm not trying to scaremonger or whatever anybody, I'm not trying to make you like,
afraid of doing anything like that's not that's not my thing.
ah But there are potential issues with texting and messaging on social media.
And I think that what we should be doing is is doing those things as smartly as possible.
(21:34):
I think they're great options, especially the texting.
I think it's probably the best option, ah honestly, that I think is out there.
But do it right.
Do it smart, as smart as possible.
ah There's no sense in getting trouble.
for doing dumb stuff.
All right, guys, that's it.
I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up.
Thank you for listening to the podcast.
(21:55):
Thank you for subscribing.
Thank you for sharing.
If you know a chiropractor who does not listen to the podcast, I would appreciate yousharing the podcast with them.
And there are a lot of them because I am not a big deal.
This is not a popular podcast.
And there are a lot of chiropractors that could probably use the help that are not gettingit.
So sharing it would be super awesome.
And I would appreciate that.
I'm done.
I'm out of here.
(22:15):
you guys want help, go to rock at Chiro.com and reach out to me.
I'd love to help you.
I will talk to you on the next episode.
See ya.
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Rocket Chiro podcast, the business andmarketing podcast for chiropractors.
We're going to talk today about how new patients contact you as a chiropractor.
the pros and cons of those things, why things matter, why they don't, uh, we're going toclimb inside the patient's head a little bit.
(00:21):
And we're also going to talk about some things to be aware of as you're communicating withpatients because we don't want to get ourselves in trouble as chiropractors.
So that's going to be the plan for the day.
Uh, I was talking to my chiropractor actually just this morning.
Uh, he had asked me to, uh, meet with him and talk to him about some of his local SEO andsome of his website stuff.
So we're talking about that and we started talking about new patients and how they reachout to him.
(00:46):
And that's actually what became the, the spurring on idea of this podcast.
because it's something that I do talk to my website clients about, but it's not somethingI necessarily talk about on the podcast, or at least I can't remember talking about it on
the podcast.
So that's what we're going to do.
Before I get into that, I do want to say, if you want help with your website, you want abetter chiropractic website, something that's simple, that's new patient focused, it does
(01:09):
a great job at converting, and it shows up well in the Google rankings, then check outRocket Chiro.
I'd love to create a website for you, especially if you're a regular listener to thepodcast.
You're already on board with what rocket Chiro is about and you just want a betterwebsite.
You're tired of doing it yourself or you're tired of your website company because theycreated a crappy cluttered website for you that looks like it was designed 30 years ago.
(01:33):
Then reach out to me.
I'll be glad that maybe, maybe 30 years ago there wasn't where they're not websites forchiropractors 30 years ago.
Probably weren't right.
How old am I anyway?
If you want help, can help you.
If you want help with your Google ads, if you want help with local SEO, can also do that.
Reach out to me through rocket Chiro.
Uh, if you're just getting started or feeling stuck as a chiropractor and you want to getsome information that goes beyond the podcast and you want access to me, look into my next
(01:58):
step program.
It's a great way to get help and to get started in the right direction.
Get a little momentum that's taking your practice from stuck to started and going in theright direction.
All right.
So when it comes to new patients and specifically what I'm talking about here is I'mtalking about new patients that don't already know you in some capacity.
And the reason it is different is because if someone has been referred to you, there'ssort of a transfer of trust that happens.
(02:24):
If someone's done their research online and they've just sort of convinced themselvesthrough your reviews and your website and whatever that you're the person, like this is
the person that I have found.
This is the person that I want to contact and they really convince themselves.
There's been a really significant transfer of trust.
If they follow you on social, if you're really well known in the area, if you're a bigdeal because you're some sports chiropractor guy that practices for the team or has some
(02:49):
famous patient, there are some authority and sort of reputation things and referral thingsthat could very well just bypass all the stuff that we're talking about today because
those people are already really committed to you.
There's like a level of, of stickiness that they already have.
So whether they contact you by phone or email or texting or social or online, like none ofthat really matters.
(03:13):
They're, they're going to wait around.
If they don't hear from me in a couple of days, they're still going to be waiting there toget your phone call back and they're going to be excited when you call.
So I'm not saying you should wait a bunch of days to call it, contact someone back ifyou're a big deal.
But if someone is already kind of, they know you, they're, they're excited about youspecifically.
Then none of this stuff really matters where it really matters is when people don't reallyknow you.
(03:37):
They, they just found your website for the first time.
They just found you on Google.
They just drove by.
just, whatever, like they don't really know you.
So they're looking at your website.
They're looking at other chiropractors websites or looking at your online scheduler orthere.
They may get ahold of you.
They may get ahold of somebody else.
The, the, the, people, if how they get ahold of you matters, how long it takes you to getback to them matters.
(04:03):
And ideally what you're trying to do, and this is sort of skipping ahead a little bit tothe end, but ideally what you're trying to do with that demographic of people is you're
trying to connect with them as quickly as possible because time does matter.
Like if somebody gets ahold of you and they don't hear from you for a couple of days, it'slikely they've gone to another chiropractor's website and they've just went ahead and
(04:24):
scheduled something or they've done something that's easier and more convenient orquicker.
And they have just.
forgot about you all together because they weren't really committed to you in the firstplace.
So that's just something to keep in mind.
And that's why this actually will matter.
And if you find yourself in a situation where you're like, know, people are contacting methis particular way and I just, they're ghosting me.
(04:46):
can't get ahold of them.
It's just this big giant headache.
It's probably, I could probably tell you which way they're contacting you if I had toguess.
So this is what we're going to talk about phones, emails, texting, online scheduling, andsocial media.
ah It's important to note that uh also people generally do what's easier not necessarilywhat's best.
(05:06):
So if any of these things are a pain in the butt, if they're kind of inconvenient, ifthey're slow, like all of those things uh are negative.
So just keep that in mind.
Pros and cons.
So the phone, the biggest pro for the phone is that it's personal.
ah You get to hear someone's voice.
You get to make a connection with them.
(05:27):
Uh, it says, I, I'm assuming that you or whoever is answering the phone is doing a goodjob there.
If someone has a bad, like a tone, that's not great for the phone, uh, or they hatetalking on the phone, like I do, uh, probably not the ideal person to have like on the
forefront of your phone answering process.
And if you hate answering the phone and you're the only one, then maybe don't answer thephone.
(05:49):
Like maybe push everybody to some other, other way of contacting you.
So, but.
The best thing about phone is there's no quicker way to have a personal connection withsomeone than to hear their voice and to talk to them in that way.
The big con of the phone is that there's a whole percentage of people, especially a muchhigher percentage of people with a younger demographic.
(06:11):
They just don't want to talk on the phone.
They hate talking to the phone.
They hate doing phone calls.
And so that's the biggest issue with the phone is there's just a whole bunch of peoplethat don't want to do it.
And for a lot of people, it's a deal breaker.
They would much rather text.
or they'd much rather message.
They would much rather use an online scheduler and just bypass the phone conversationaltogether.
I fall squarely into that category.
(06:32):
I am not interested at all in picking up the phone and calling a company if I don't haveto emails.
So emails is another thing.
Phone and email has been around for a really long time.
These are kind of established things.
Uh, the biggest pro of email is it is easy.
I mean, it's way easier than anything.
I mean, it's
It's just as easy as texting or anything else.
(06:52):
It's probably easier than texting because it's, even more separated.
Like somebody who's a, kind of an introvert and doesn't like human contact all that muchemails are super easy because you don't expect to get an instant message back.
So, uh, for those of you who don't know us who are introverts, uh, phone calls, very doanxiety inducing, uh, messaging is less anxiety inducing, but it's more anxiety inducing
(07:18):
than emails because
you know that you're probably gonna get a response right away.
And that delay of email is actually the easiest thing for ah an introvert unless we'rejust gonna fax the office, which I'm not even talking about on here.
So uh email's easy.
(07:39):
The downside of email, there's huge downsides of emails.
And the biggest downside is that people don't read their emails.
ah There's a time delay with the emails and...
when you do call someone who emailed, the reason they emailed you in the first place isbecause they didn't want to call you.
So when you call them, a lot of them don't answer the phone.
So if you're a chiropractor who's frustrated with people getting ahold of you and thenthey're ghosting you or whatever, I would venture to guess that a lot of these people are
(08:04):
getting ahold of you through email.
that's, it's, it's, it's partly because it's not an ideal situation for people that aregetting ahold of you and they're wanting a response right away.
So that time delay is a problem.
The other part of it is just the human being that's you're not considering the human beingand why they're emailing you in the first place, which is they don't want to talk to you
(08:26):
on the phone.
And so I don't think it's a great option, but it is something that some chiropractors areused.
I tend to discourage people from using it I don't think it's great.
Next we have texting.
would say texting to me is my favorite.
Texting is it's you have the easiness for the most part of like email.
It's quick because you generally get a quicker response.
So you kill some of that time delay.
(08:47):
People absolutely see them, know, email open rates might be 20 % whereas a texting openrate is going to be in the 90 % Generally speaking so people are going to see the message
that you send them now You can't make them respond but they are going to see it.
So you're kind of Eliminating a major issue that is there with email is not going to bethat way with texting but the biggest con with texting is that there are some regulations
(09:12):
and there's some HIPAA issues with texting and
There's also the issue with, and it sort of goes hand in hand where the, the, requiressome extra software really to do it right.
It requires some extra software.
Um, I know a lot of chiropractors that have micro practices or have solo practices or justusing their phone and.
(09:33):
It isn't ideal.
And I get it.
I totally understand.
I would probably, if I was personally practicing, I would probably not think too muchabout doing that.
But the more you look into it, the more you go, yeah, you're not exactly in a safe area bydoing that.
Even something as simple as, John, your appointment is at three o'clock.
(09:54):
That could technically be a HIPAA violation because you're like, you're connecting John toa medical service.
And there's like, that's, that's a technically a potential issue.
And I think your starting point for making yourself safe, if you're going to use unsecuredtexting, like your standard cell phone or whatever, the starting point is to have some
(10:15):
sort of.
uh acknowledgement on the patient's part, some sort of uh either checkbox or response orsome sort of acknowledgement that says they understand that what they're doing and that
they shouldn't share privacy stuff and you should document that in their file.
That gives you a little bit more leeway and it protects you a little bit more and I thinkthat's probably a wise thing to do if you're still using your cell phone.
(10:39):
The other option which would be probably the better option but it is going to cost youmore money most likely.
And that is to use some sort of secure texting option.
Now I personally have not used these, so I don't know how convenient or inconvenient theyare, um, in terms of like user friendliness and patients and things of that nature.
(10:59):
So it's just something to be aware of.
And I know that there there's a little bit of an incomplete thought that is here, um,because of some of the changing regulations and just the fact that I'm talking about this
now and it's like, and I don't have some sort of like A to Z complete plan andrecommendation for you.
I think my just starting point for this conversation on this podcast is just to understandthat, um, there is some privacy issues there and you just want to protect yourself as much
(11:23):
as possible.
And I think one of the starting points for that could potentially be, um, a, a consent ofsome sort on the patient's part.
Next is online scheduling.
online scheduling is very convenient.
There's a level of commitment that goes with online scheduling, which is nice.
Um,
People are much less likely to ghost you after they've scheduled an appointment onlineversus if they've emailed you.
(11:46):
mean, the level of commitment is drastically different.
They've sort of planted their, their, their flag in the ground.
They've said, this is the chiropractor I'm going to, and this is when I'm going.
So, um, in that sense, the convenience of it and the commitment level of it is, is good.
That doesn't mean people never schedule and don't come in like that.
That is a thing.
Uh, but that's going to be much less, uh, than other like email or something like that.
(12:11):
The negative side of online scheduling is that uh one, it does sometimes require extrasoftware or it requires an extra money on your part because there's sometimes this isn't
built into whatever thing that you're using for patient notes and things of that nature.
So sometimes there's some extra money involved with it.
The other part of it is the doctor does lose some level of control with their schedule.
(12:33):
I know for real busy offices, this can be an issue.
uh I know for certain personalities, it can be an issue.
This isn't something I would be, I never did online scheduling because it wasn't even athing when I, uh, when I got out of practice, which I know makes me sound like I'm a
million years old and I haven't practiced in a thousand years, but it just wasn't really athing.
(12:53):
And so I never had any experience with it, but I don't think I would have used it anyway.
I I'm not a huge fan of sort of having open ended appointment times for patients,especially for new patients.
And so, um,
I personally don't think I would have been a fan of it, lots of chiropractors use it.
mean, a lot of chiropractors use it.
So I don't, I don't think it is a bad thing at all.
(13:16):
And I think generally when people do use it, they tend to like it.
Uh, but that is going to be the downside of it.
If we're just going to talk about online scheduling.
I do want to talk about social media.
So I actually had planned this podcast and I didn't even mention social media, but I dowant to mention it because chiropractors who are
popular on social media or who have started to grow a following.
(13:39):
And that's kind of the ad, one of the main avenues that you're going to go to grow yourpractice.
They do get communication, a direct messaging communication to patients through socialmedia.
It's not going to be uncommon at all for that to happen.
And the people that I've talked to that are big on social media, they've told me that.
A lot of times it's just easier to get that person scheduled through the direct messaging.
(14:00):
You're not sending them to the online scheduler.
You're not having them call.
Like it's just more convenient and actually is better from a closing standpoint to getthem to, um, just go ahead and schedule in the, in the DMS.
The problem with that is that's even less secure than your, than your texting than yourphone is.
It's there's no way that there's, it just isn't, it isn't secure.
(14:23):
isn't secure.
It's not HIPAA compliant.
I don't know that there's a situation where it ever would be.
And so all of those conversations you're having on social media, which I am, I haveadvocated for and I, and I do, this is a struggle for me.
It's like this whole, this, this is a struggle for me because I go, man, I totallyunderstand why you would text the patient.
(14:44):
And I understand why you would text a potential patient.
And I know why you would get pulled into answering questions and things of that nature.
So this is definitely a struggle for me personally where I'm like, man, I'm not sure how Iwould handle this, how comfortable I would be with the gray area ah or just ignoring it
and doing it anyway.
I don't know.
I think that there's some issues there that need to be sorted out.
(15:07):
And maybe as time goes on, there's going to be a way of doing that for healthpractitioners that they can message through their social media and have it be HIPAA
compliant.
think that's probably interesting, an interesting development.
that could happen.
But it is something that you want to be aware of.
think the same thing is true for ah social media as it is for texting, where I would saythe bare minimum is you would want to have some sort of agreement or understanding uh
(15:37):
consent that the person acknowledges that uh what they're doing, what you're doing, thatit's private or that's not private and they should be sharing private information.
So I think that's probably your starting point for that.
I think the other headache with social media is it's kind of uh a headache to keep trackof it.
Social media direct messaging is not really designed for messaging and keeping track ofmessages in that way like you would with email or texting or something like that.
(16:05):
It's not really designed for that.
It's not ideal for that.
So there's some issues with sort of keeping track of things.
But I think the privacy issue is probably a bigger issue than the hassle of it.
And I would say the other thing about social media that's a hassle is those who are not
really busy and really uh active on social media.
When someone gets ahold of you through social media, it's, it sort of just sucks becauseoften a lot of times the chiropractors who aren't really active on social media.
(16:31):
Aren't getting their messages right away.
And then you just kind of lose someone through that, through that process.
So it can, there can be a little bit of a disconnect between the person who's if theperson's very active on social and it's normal for them to reach out to people through
direct message.
And then the chiropractor is not very active or
isn't getting their messages.
And probably the tip there is just make sure that you're getting your messages forwardedto you or you're getting some sort of notification about messages on your phone.
(16:56):
If somebody reaches out to you on social that way, you're not missing those opportunitiesif they're there.
Sir, what are my recommendations?
Phone should always be an option and just make sure you have a very clear and shortmessage when going to voicemail.
Um, you know, and we used to change our voicemail message all the time based on if therewas something that people needed to know, like if we were going to be gone, we would let
(17:18):
people know.
Um, if there was, you know, if we were going to get return calls, like, you know, what ournormal hours were or whatever, but you do want to keep it short, uh, really, really long
messages before you go to voicemail are super annoying.
So just keep it short.
tidy, clear, uh but have something that's there.
ah Email's not a great option, I wouldn't recommend it, I'm not a fan.
(17:42):
I'm just not.
ah Not for new patients, uh scheduling.
You can do it if you want to.
There's plenty of clients that I have that still have email forms and they do it.
It's just not great, and I'll tell you the same thing I told my chiropractor this morning,you're losing people because of that.
You're losing people through the process of email.
Texting, texting is great.
(18:05):
Just make sure that you're aware of the privacy stuff and you're handling it as smart aspossible.
Some possibilities would be consider an automated response about privacy.
So have a consent kind of geared up for an auto response and have them acknowledge maybe,you know, whether that's a checkbox or text back the word yes or whatever.
(18:27):
Um, there would be some sort of response from the person where they acknowledged that theyread the privacy, uh, policy that you sent them.
Also, you could potentially consider sending someone an automated response when you're notmonitoring the text.
This would be, know, somebody's texting in the middle of the night at one o'clock andthey're like, you I'm interested in an appointment.
(18:49):
And if you could set it up to where it says, uh, Hey, we're going to be back on the officeat this particular time.
We'll be reaching out to you then.
The only reason I say that is because I do think the more this quicker you connect withsomeone on some level, even if it's an automated response and you can kind of set
expectations, I think the quicker you do that, the more likely you're going down the paththat you want to, which is establishing a relationship.
(19:12):
So I think that there are times where those automated responses are a good thing.
I think that they can be out of control.
Like you can have like auto responders and all kinds of stuff that just sort of gets outof control and
general rule, people don't like talking to bots over human beings.
Now there's probably going to be a change in that as time goes on, because I don't know ifyou've ever had a conversation with chat GPT, but it is pretty freaking good.
(19:38):
So there's probably a time down the road where you can have AI answer your texting orrespond to people in a way that's actually really, really competent.
Uh, but right now it's probably a little sloppy.
I don't think that technology is quite there for.
individual practices.
Online scheduling, I think it's great if you ah don't mind giving up some control of yourschedule.
(20:03):
And you can set the parameters of the schedule, obviously, but there's a certain level ofautonomy that's lost there.
The one thing I would say about online scheduling is make sure that it is simple and easyto navigate.
I've done some online schedulers with chiropractors where I'm like, hey, this is reallystraightforward.
I've gone through others and I've thought to myself, what a giant pain in the butt.
(20:24):
this like this step, this thing, just check, do this jump here, raise your leg, left footin, left foot out.
Like what a, what a freaking headache.
So if you have not gone through your own online scheduler, I would strongly recommenddoing that.
Try to look at it from a patient's perspective.
And if it sucks, get a different one.
Like don't like those, those are the type of things you lose patients just because of theprocess and uh,
(20:51):
Last thing, social media.
Social media is awesome if you are a social media guy and you're committed to doing thesocial media thing.
But just be aware of the fact, you have to be aware of the fact that when someone messagesyou through social media, uh, you are in a gray area when you're talking about health
stuff.
So just do everything you can to be safe with that.
(21:13):
Um, and just don't get yourself in trouble.
And I'm not trying to scaremonger or whatever anybody, I'm not trying to make you like,
afraid of doing anything like that's not that's not my thing.
ah But there are potential issues with texting and messaging on social media.
And I think that what we should be doing is is doing those things as smartly as possible.
(21:34):
I think they're great options, especially the texting.
I think it's probably the best option, ah honestly, that I think is out there.
But do it right.
Do it smart, as smart as possible.
ah There's no sense in getting trouble.
for doing dumb stuff.
All right, guys, that's it.
I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up.
Thank you for listening to the podcast.
(21:55):
Thank you for subscribing.
Thank you for sharing.
If you know a chiropractor who does not listen to the podcast, I would appreciate yousharing the podcast with them.
And there are a lot of them because I am not a big deal.
This is not a popular podcast.
And there are a lot of chiropractors that could probably use the help that are not gettingit.
So sharing it would be super awesome.
And I would appreciate that.
I'm done.
I'm out of here.
(22:15):
you guys want help, go to rock at Chiro.com and reach out to me.
I'd love to help you.
I will talk to you on the next episode.
See ya.
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