All relationships begin with an agreement. Your relationship with your practice member is no different. The agreements that you and your team make when a practice member first enters your doors significantly sets the stage for their journey with you. A journey that may span many weeks, years or even a lifetime.
In my experience agreements can be tricky. What happens with most chiropractors is that many of the agreements are assumed. Often the chiropractor assumes that the person wants more than they actually want. The chiropractor assumes they want glowing good health while the person just wants relief. Sometimes it is the other way around. The new person wants lifetime chiropractic care whilst the chiropractor just wants to relieve the presenting condition.
Assuming an agreement is a slippery slope. It ultimately leads to a lack of agreement which sets the scene for confusion, conflict and controversy.
One thing is for sure…
By working together through agreement we set up the framework for a long and productive future together.
This is as true for practice and business relationships as it is for romantic ones. Jackie, my wife and I got married some 46 years ago. We had a simple but wonderful wedding and made a simple agreement with each other. “We will be together as long as love shall last”. That agreement has allowed us to overcome many tricky spots in our relationship. No matter how much we’ve been at angst with each other at various points in time, we come back to that point where we ask ourselves and each other, do we love each other? We may not agree with each other at times, we don’t necessarily buy into each other’s beliefs. Some of our behaviours are very different, and to me she is quite weird at times and from Jackie’s perspective I’m definitely even weirder. But that’s all part of a relationship based on agreement.
An agreement is certainly not a contract. It is not written in black and white, set in stone, never to be changed or to be changed only at one’s peril. An agreement is a more fluid thing. An agreement is something that is subject to redefinition as the parties to the agreement change and evolve.
This is just like the relationship that you have with your practice members. Chiropractic is not a transactional, set in stone, done to you, short term and tangible event that you are in with your people.
Chiropractic is a relationship that will endure as long as your mutual ‘love’ shall last.
The fact is that you only have as the saying goes “one chance to make a first impression”. Some say less than 4 minutes. Beyond listening it’s critical that you truly hear a person’s needs. Make sure that they have uninterrupted presence to explain why they are reaching out to you. Get over your tendency to engage and let them go into the emotional reason why they are coming to see you. This reveals some important values and is critical to forming an agreement. The relationship then moves to become a shared values interaction.
When they have finished their opening ‘salvo’ and you have totally understood their drivers then and only then you can explain what you’re going to do. There is a tendency for chiropractors to dump on people all about what’s important to them (chiropractic). This is often done until the person’s eyes glaze over and they start unconsciously nodding at which point the chiropractor thinks that they have “got it”, that they are now initiated into the chiropractic worldview – job done!!
Sorry, but this is no way to get agreement.
Now is the time to gently but firmly let them know that you can help them and that it will take certain steps to find out how well you can help, (not specific symptoms, just that chiropractic has been known to help).
Let them know that you will go through their history, exams, tests, x-rays, scans, PCA, ROF etc. you must establish a strong agreement. They must say “Yes” and you say “Yes”. If either party defaults or they are in-congruent with their “Yes”, don’t go past Go.
This is what we refer to as the ‘Yes/Yes Consult’. If you would like a Free copy of the full procedure for this powerful little agreement forming procedure say YES HERE.
As with any agreement the power in it is in keeping the agreement.
When people keep an agreement the next agreement is much more likely to be accepted. So, if you get the ‘Yes/Yes’ agreement mutually nailed you will move forward to the next agreement with mutual clarity.
As agreements are progressively honoured people are more willing to engage in longer and more committed relationships. As agreements are honoured so trust is built and so is your practice.
