As many of you know, I’m big on growing from practice to ‘business’. For many practitioners, though, the question of “why bother?” remains. Here are a few good reasons:
You Can Have a Life
Increasingly, surveys show people in all industries working longer hours. And although some manage to put the brakes on or set limits on how much is enough, alternative health professionals have an extra burden when trying to scale back: guilt. It becomes very difficult to say no to patients with legitimate health complaints – after all, that’s likely why you became a holistic health care professional in the first place! Growing a business allows your practice to treat more and more patients without running you into the ground, or treat the same number of patients with far less work on your part.
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One of the barriers to referrals from other health care professionals is their perception of you and your modality. Allopathic medical professionals in particular live in an environment of increasing litigation that is resulting in a fear of the “unknown”. Add to that the fact that anyone who refers is putting their own credibility on the line, and it’s easy to see why other health care professionals might not choose to refer to a CAM / holistic practitioner.
For most of these professionals, their comfort level with alternative medicine is determined by knowledge of whether the proposed treatment or modality is a) effective and b) safe.
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A couple of interesting pieces here that might help with deciding where to spend your marketing dollars.
CAM Usage Most Popular at Midlife
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Of all the types of referrals, the ones that come from your existing patients are most likely to be high in both quantity and quality. Existing patients tend to refer clients who are a better fit for your practice, and a patient who’s had great success in your holistic office can champion your cause with more enthusiasm than even your best friend. And although a new startup may only have a handful of patients to draw on, over time that practice will build a patient base of hundreds or thousands of files that can refer hundreds of more prospects with little effort on the part of the CAM practitioner.
The best part is that getting your existing patients to refer to you is neither time consuming nor expensive. Most of it is just about your personal interactions with your clients. Here are a few strategies to use:
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Almost as long as there have been businesses, there’s been a phenomenon of customers migrating towards the busiest places. It’s even a mantra when traveling: “Eat at the busy spots. The food must be safe.” In fact, the success of franchising is based in part on the idea that people like to go where other people like to go.
Many professionals in service industries have used this principle to grow their business, and it can work in your alternative health practice, too.
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