Break down your barriers to generate new patients
Relationships end, students flunk, businesses fail… all because people wait much too long to address their problems, even though the warning signs of trouble have been there a long time. Why is that? The answer is more complex than you might realize and it stands directly in the way of your practice’s ability to generate new patients.
Sure, denial and conflict avoidance have something to do with it, but so does a phenomenon called “allostatic overload.” According to neuroscientists, the wear and tear on our bodies and brains from living in a constant state of stress causes physical and mental fatigue. The latter makes it hard to focus, to process information, to think clearly, and confidently make thoughtful decisions that lead to positive actions. In other words, the longer it takes to make a decision to address a stressful situation, the harder it becomes to make any decision at all… so nothing is done until it’s too late.
This “brain fog” explains why so many practice owners wait far too long before taking action to try to turn around a deteriorating situation, and that can lead to a debilitating downward spiral.
IGNORING WARNING SIGNS WILL GET YOU FROM BAD TO WORSE
Unless your office were to burn down overnight, heaven forbid, things won’t go from good to bad literally overnight. You will begin to see warning signs well ahead of time – indicators that you need to take action to change what you’re doing to get different results.
For example, if you aren’t able to regularly and consistently generate new patients – which is the lifeblood of your practice long term – you need to do something different. If your revenue has stagnated, you need to do something different. If your profitability has been declining, you need to do something different. Maybe you started a practice from scratch with boundless optimism and enthusiasm not that long ago but have never gained the momentum to feel confident about your future. You need to do something different.
Whatever the situation, the ongoing level of stress you’ll be feeling will erode your thought processes and make it progressively harder over time to decide what to do. This stress-induced brain fog will keep you from making a decision to act, so, by default, you make the decision to do nothing … which is the same as making the decision to accept the status quo.
This is precisely why so many practices go into a downward spiral: Things start to get bad … no action is taken to change anything … so the situation inevitably gets worse. In other words, the status quo won’t stay the same – it will only get worse, and continue to do so.
… AND NOT JUST AT THE OFFICE
If you’ve ever been there, you know all too well that the ramifications go way beyond just your business bank account. Your personal life and relationships will suffer because of the relentless stress you’re under. Your team members will suffer because they will sense your anxiety, which will cause them stress, which, in turn, will affect their performance on the job and their relationships at home.
And perhaps worst of all, your patients will sense that you’re worried, no matter how hard you try to hide it. That will add to the downward spiral as you lose existing patients (and their referrals) because who wants to stay aboard a ship that may be sinking?
IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO GENERATE NEW PATIENTS (BUT WHY WAIT SO LONG?)
Many of our clients are like Dr. Jig P. who admits to joining Scheduling Institute as “a last-ditch effort.” He says he was a skeptic, but also knew he desperately needed to generate new patients. He cleared his brain fog enough to FINALLY make the decision to take action and do something different by getting his team trained on how to properly answer the phones to capture new patients. As guaranteed, they began seeing increases month over month, beginning with the very first month of training. A team member observed, “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to Dr. Jig; I see such a change in him.”
If your production has leveled off … if your profit margin is woefully slim and getting progressively thinner … if you’re not downright proud of your level of new patients … you need to DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Don’t accept the status quo, and don’t wait until things get even worse.
Clear the fog and make the decision to take THE single most effective action you can take to get your revenue ramping back up OVER THE NEXT 90 DAYS. Which is, train your team on how to answer your phones correctly. Generating more new patients should be your FIRST ditch effort, not your last!
Watch Dr. Jig’s full story now and learn more about exactly what he did to turn around his mindset and his results…
To take the same first step Dr. Jig took that was the catalyst to his turnaround, call the Scheduling Institute today at 770-518-7575 or CLICK HERE to schedule a time to speak with one of our Practice Growth Advocates!
