Patient Retention in Your Chiropractic and Healthcare Practice
- Ed Petty
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
How can you improve your retention?
Why do patients leave your chiropractic or healthcare practice?
Do they leave because of the cost? Do they leave because of outcomes? Is it the equipment, your location, your haircut?
These may be issues, but they are NOT the primary reasons patients leave.
STUDIES SHOW WHY CUSTOMERS and PATIENTS LEAVE
Study #1. 68% of customers leave due to employee indifference or lack of interest, perceived as uncaring or dismissive behavior. Empathy and genuine engagement make customers feel valued, encouraging loyalty. Lack of empathy (e.g., ignoring customer needs) is the top reason for churn, far outweighing product (14%) or price (9%) issues. (1. Reference.)
Study #2. Disinterested employees, showing low empathy through robotic or unhelpful interactions, drive customer dissatisfaction and defection. Poor employee empathy correlates with higher churn, as customers expect personalized, caring service. (2. Reference.)
Study #3. 59% of customers will abandon a brand after a single poor experience, often due to unempathetic or indifferent service (e.g., staff not listening or showing care). Conversely, 73% say a positive, empathetic experience increases loyalty. (3. Reference.)
YOUR PATIENTS DON’T CARE WHAT YOU KNOW -- UNTIL THEY KNOW YOU CARE
Jimmy Parker, D.C., used to talk about PTC -- Present Time Consciousness at his seminars. But let’s face it, it is hard to stay focused when you are running late, this is the 97th new patient you have seen this year, staff payroll is short, and your paperwork is backed up.
Add to that, the front desk staff are busy on the phones, and the therapist is not really sure what they do works or how. And over in the back, Patient Accounts is irritated by Double Cross, UnitedWeDeny, and State Harm.
Giving your full attention to the patient is essential and is easily advised. But it is often difficult in a busy, established, practice. Especially one that is high volume.
We’ve learned that empathetic engagement retains customers. Fine! But even the idea of “caring” for another person, which you sincerely want to do, becomes just another platitude.
So, what is the solution?
THE SOLUTION: STAY CURIOUS, BE INTERESTED.
The solution is so simple that it can be overlooked.
To care about someone, you must first be curious about them. You gotta be interested in them. And the thing is, you can almost always find something interesting about anybody!
People want to be recognized as a person, not just as a patient or customer. You are a person too!
A practice -- chiropractic, healthcare, or accounting -- is a network of relationships – not insurance codes, neural networks, or AI responses.
Be interested as a professional. Of course! Get the data you need and provide the information you should. But be a person, too.
You will find that honest interest in people is one of your best “tools” for retention. People respond positively to authentic curiosity about them:
“Betty, where did you find those blue shoes?”
“So Frank, I have always wondered, why do you guys call yourselves the Kiwanis?
TEST YOUR CHIROPRACTIC, HEALTRHCARE, OR PRACTICE TEAM
Then, follow up routinely.
At your morning case management meetings, test your team and yourself about the new patients, reactivated patients, or even some of the active patients, time permitting.
For example, ask your associate what sport his last new patient likes the most, or your front desk where Marge does her shopping. In a friendly manner, quiz your team about their knowledge about the patients.
Stay curious, my friends. And Goal Driven!
Ed
References
#1 Rockefeller Corporation Study (1999) CustomerThink, Help-Desk-Migration.
#2 Temkin Group Study (2016)
#3 PwC Consumer Intelligence Series, Experience is Everything. (2018)
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