Thanks, Lisa!

Thanks for sharing your insights and experience with scheduling strategies. I instituted a “Cancellation List” several years ago and along with all the benefits that you detailed, I also received two added bonuses.

(1) Patients became much better about scheduling several appointments in advance, so that they would not NEED to use the cancellation list, and (2) they were better about calling me to cancel when something came up because they knew I could fill the spot with someone on my list. This decreased the number of “No Shows”.

Great article!

Lisa Hanfileti, LAc
http://www.insights-for-acupuncturists.com/

It’s true – half the battle is turning this stuff into something that can be repeated – by you or someone else.

The other half of the battle for us is intent. Every time we try to just “market” we seem to get lousy results. But when the intent is to serve, the marketing part just flows naturally. The “roots” kind of spread on their own…

When you share your strategies it’s easy to miss they are rooted in marketing. It’s great to see how you set up your “systems” and then forget about it. Yes, they’ll require some tweaking, but once you crack the code it’s smooth sailing from then on. I strongly believe the success of any CAM practice, or any small business, is setting up systems. Especially the ones that run on auto-pilot.

I also enjoyed your article on “How to Design the Ultimate Patient Booking Strategy.” It compliments this one very well;

http://alternativehealthpractice.com/2008/04/how-to-design-the-ultimate-patient-booking-strategy.html

You have my Digg and Stumble Upon on this one

PS– What was the big take away for me? In Shift 5 when you say:
“If you have a sudden opening in the schedule, you won’t be able to fill it quickly if you’re calling someone at home, but they’re at work for the next six hours. That means you need to know the best way to reach them now. Is it their cell phone? Email? Text? Work number?”