I’m excited to announce that Tara and I will be running a practice growth and management workshop for naturopathic doctors on April 17-18, 2010 in Toronto, ON.
This is for both new and established ND’s – you can get all the details and register at NDSuccess.com, but let me give you the highlights here.
Getting new clients takes time, energy and sometimes money. For all that investment, it’s a shame when they don’t come back. We’ve had a lot of faces through our practice doors over the years, and while we do our best to keep them engaged, we don’t retain everyone. As a result, we’ve got our share of “dead” files in the back room.
This year at our strategic planning day, one of our team members came up a great idea for reactivating some of those old patients. It only takes a few minutes a week, and although we’re just starting out, I think it’s a great plan.
Last year at our strategic planning session, which involved a big push to serve, we launched Project 52, a customer service initiative for 2009. The goal was simple: make one customer service improvement each week for a whole year.They didn’t have to be huge or expensive shifts – they just had to improve the client experience.
A year later, we’re looking at a long list of improvements. They range from warm slippers and adding additional soundproofing between treatment rooms, to 30-minute guarantees on returning messages during business hours and softer toilet paper. I thought I’d share how we did it in a little more detail, and tell you about our new Project 52 for 2010.
There are a lot of names for what we do in practice – alternative, holistic, complementary, integrative. But behind the labels, we all have one thing in common: we’re trying to help others. The catch, however, is that in order to find those people who need our help, most of us have to make some effort to market our services.
Sometimes, though, the very thing that makes many practitioners so good at what they do – their ability to connect with and be sensitive to others - also makes them very, very uncomfortable with the idea of marketing. Behind many of the questions we get from practitioners is a common theme: I’m shy/introverted/timid/reserved. How can I promote my practice?
Note: Kevin Doherty is one of the first people I stumbled across a few years back when we started this blog. He built a successful acupuncture practice, then went on to become an author and business coach.
He’s a smart guy, which I like, but he’s also walked the talk, building a six-figure income while maintaining a life.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be booked solid to have a waiting list. It’s a tool that works wonders at any point in practice.
The challenge is that waiting lists are harder to use than they seem. Here’s how you can make one work for you and your clients with no cost and minimal effort.
We’re leaving shortly for our annual two-week summer getaway – it’s our 7th year for this escape. We spend 14 days living off the grid at a solar-powered cottage. During that time we have no contact with the practice whatsoever, and it’s become a critical part of staying balanced.
We generally take at least a week or so off each quarter in addition to this two-week block, plus the occasional sabbatical, but this particular vacation is a real rejuvenator. If you’re feeling the need for less speed, here are 7 tips for getting some real R&R.
We had our annual Celebration of Health at the clinic a few weeks ago. It’s become a tradition for us – we invite patients and the general public, and spend an evening at the clinic enjoying some great food and drinks, and generally enjoying ourselves.
It was a great success, but this year I was trying to pay particular attention to why. Here are a few of our thoughts, but we’d love some further tips. Anyone have any great ideas? Leave them in the comments!
After the last post on collaborating with your colleagues to help your practice, I thought I’d share the ad we put together. This is a full page newspaper ad that we were able to buy for very little cash since we split it five ways.
Recently, the naturopaths in Collingwood and surrounding area got together to discuss some joint marketing for Naturopathic Medicine Week. There are more practitioners here than ever (and many more coming soon), and this is something we’ve been wanting to do for years – to collect all our “competition” in one spot and chat.
Why, you ask? Because for us, competition really is good for business and patients. Here’s why turning your competitors into collaborators benefits everyone.
