Every moment you spend in your office is an exchange of a part of your life for the experience of connecting with those people you serve. You invest an irretrievable unit of time with every person you see. There are so many people in your community available to be served so the question must be, is that person you are with, your “Ideal Person”? Is it important for you to have a quality practice? Imagine if every person you saw during the day was your “Ideal Person”.
The “Ideal Person” profile is derived from your office Statement of Purpose. Your Statement of Purpose defines the values which you respect in the context of “What” you do, “Who” you do it with, “How” you do it, “Why” you do it and “What results” you expect from doing it. The completed Statement of Purpose gives you the subjective “essence” of how your practice will look and feel (right down to small details like the colour you paint the walls), what techniques you will employ, what your staff are like, in fact every aspect of your practice including the profile of the people you serve.
From the business world three groups of customer have been identified.
THE BEST CUSTOMER
The best customer has store/brand/provider loyalty and spends the most money over the long term. This person occupies 25% of the time and energy of the business and produces 75% of income.
THE USUAL CUSTOMER
The usual customer has little or no store/brand/provider loyalty and purchases now and then, here and there. This person occupies 55% of the time and energy of the business and produces 20% of income.
THE WORST CUSTOMER
The worst customer gives you the most problems and spends the least amount of money. Attention to this person consumes 20% of the average businesses’ resources and produces 5% of income.
The chiropractic translation to this model is that the person who utilizes our services for lifetime wellness care spends the most money over the long term. “Ideal People” utilize chiropractic care as a separate and distinct facility in their health care regime. It is neither complimentary nor alternative care. They know that optimum human performance is reliant upon (amongst other things) a well functioning nerve system.
The usual sick person that you see every now and then or the person who comes in occasionally (every month or so) uses chiropractic as a modality complimentary to their medical mindset to prevent a return of an undesirable condition (usually their presenting symptoms). They even bring their children in so they won’t suffer given symptoms in the future. They desire attention to their “problem of the month” and require extra work every time you see them.
The worst customer occupies your time and energies with their dramas and crisis mentality. You squeeze them in your appointment book because they have “fallen apart” again and they relate how “I’ve been great since you “fixed” me last time (9 months ago)”. I’m sure you know the worst practice members.
The fact is that most practices spend most of their time, money and resources on getting new people and spend the least on keeping the ones they have. This results in most practices having a group 2 and 3 clientele with a practice member visit average of around 30. Group 1 practices are very rare.
The reality is that most people are “Ideal People” deep down. We all have been subject to a life-time of bombardment of fear based medical propaganda that drives people into the subservient position of the groups 2 and 3.
Group 1 practices are very rare because group 1 Chiropractors are very rare. As you begin to nurture the invisible group 1 within the people you already serve (be they groups 2 or 3) you start to realize that it is you who is the limiting factor. People will not come to you in large numbers for lifetime wellness care until you make the shift to group 1.
The key to communicating the vision is to have the vision. Look at your practice statistics and you will know which group you are in.
