A couple of years ago we noticed that although we’d had a great year as far as new patients were concerned, our return visits seemed to have flattened out. Patients seemed pleased with the service, success rates were high, but it still felt like we were gaining new patients but not growing.
The problem, of course, was in the scheduling.
We’ve discussed scheduling problems in the past, pointing you to a few resources here and there, but we’ve never really provided a comprehensive approach for those scheduled appointments that go off the rails due to patients canceling, rescheduling, or simply not showing up at all.
Here are the exact strategies we’ve put in place over the last few years. If you’ve got something that works in your practice, leave a comment and share it with us.
Reader B. writes in to ask about dealing with patients in multi-practitioner settings:
You decide to take a 2 week vacation…now, the client doesn’t want to see you as their primary practitioner anymore and has requested to switch to the other [practitioner]. What is the etiquette? How should the client be accommodated? How can this be prevented?
There are really two possible scenarios here: Read More
SpectraSoft has a free white paper on reducing no-shows and cancellations. While their specialty is software for physiotherapists and other health care pros, some of the tips are quite good, and applicable to any CAM/holistic practice.
“No-Show” White Paper
(You’ll have to register, but it’s just a four-liner.)
There are a million conceivable things to do when you start your practice, but what’s really important in the big picture? What’s going to lead to increased referrals and practice growth? Here’s a few seemingly innocent but critical things to do from day one. And if you’re already well past day one, fear not - it’s never too late to start.
Track Your Referrals
Discovering where your referrals come from is the single best way to get more of them. You can use my “five P’s” or something of your own, but make sure you track them from day one. Before you know it, it’s going to be day one of year two and having referral source data is going to be incredibly helpful in figuring out how to spend your marketing dollars.
First things first. Accepting credit cards in your holistic practice is a must - you can read more on that here.
That being said, there can be significant barriers to actually doing it. Assuming you can get a merchant account, setup fees can be several hundred dollars, then there’s a monthly fee to have the terminal in your office, plus the per-transaction cost.
In the end, you’?re only as good as the quality of the products and services you provide. Great marketing, financing and hard work will only take you so far unless what you offer is of sufficient quality.
What defines a quality experience in an alternative health practice? Many consumers will equate quality with value. That is, they’?ll compare the complete experience they’?ve had in your practice against the dollar price they paid, and using an abstract formula unique to them, calculate the value. Was it worth it? Did they get more than they paid for? Less?
As your CAM practice grows, you’ll find your schedule filling in further and further out in the calendar. While this is generally good news, keep any eye out for the following side effects of long-term scheduling in alternative health practices:
No-Shows
Start scheduling past 3 months, and you’ll almost certainly see patients forget their appointments. The best way to deal with this is phone call reminders. Review the following week’s schedule, and make reminder calls to all scheduled patients.
“I have some clients who miss appointments without calling. It’s very frustrating. Should I be charging them a fee?”
This one has no clear answer. Ask around, and you’ll get different opinions. Compared with more mainstream medicine, my guess is CAM professionals are less likely to charge for no shows, simply because lack of insurance coverage and a smaller patient base may have made the industry more service-oriented.
No-shows tend to get more attention in alternative medicine practices, likely because of the irritation factor. When you look at it from a business perspective, though, cancellations and reschedules can be just as detrimental. The only difference is that you get more advance notice, so you may have time to fill the slot.
Many of the same approaches used to deal with missed appointments apply to rescheds and cancellations – use a wait list, stay on time, etc. But since people are calling to reschedule, why not take advantage of the fact that you’ve got them on the phone?
