Dr. Darren White
February 26, 2009 by drhambrick
Filed under Upper Cervical Interviews
Dr. White is a 2001 graduate of Life University in Marietta, GA, and currently practices in Kirkland, WA. He is a practitioner of the Blair upper cervical technique, was the 2008 Blair Chiropractor of the year, has started multiple upper cervical clinics through a unique mentorship program where he not only teaches young doctors how to own and operate the practice of their dreams, but also instructs them in the Blair upper cervical technique as well. He also teaches upper cervical chiropractic at Life West Chiropractic College.
In this interview, Dr. White discusses:
- His upbringing in England, and Canada
- How he was introduced to chiropractic
- How a frightening incident led to him discovering upper cervical chiropractic
- His multiple upper cervical clinics
- His other companies like Worksite Wellness & Achieving Wellness
Dr. White is an exciting young and ambitious doctor, and I hope you enjoy this interview.
[podcast]http://www.uppercervicaldocs.com/Audio/whitepart1.mp3[/podcast]
Download Dr. Darren White Interview Part 1
[podcast]http://www.uppercervicaldocs.com/Audio/whitepart2.mp3[/podcast]
Download Dr. Darren White Interview Part 2
Making Sure Your Current & Past Patients Know Your USP
February 18, 2009 by drhambrick
Filed under Principle #4: Initial USP Communication
You’ve developed a good USP, and you’ve integrated it into all of the media and communication associated with you and your practice.
Now you need to get that message in to the hands of all of your active and inactive patients.
It’s important to get this message to them first because they already have a relationship with you.
But, you may be wondering what you should say, and how you should say it.
Tell Them The Obvious
All you’re going to do in this step is just communicate your unique selling proposition (USP) with your current and past patients. Don’t take for granted that they know what you’re all about. Chances are, you’ve had patients say, “I’m going to my chiropractor to get cracked,” about a visit to your office. Or maybe they got a cell phone call right as they were laying on the table, and they’ve said, “I’m about to get cracked.”
No matter how hard you try to get through to them that you don’t, “Crack backs,” the average patient just can’t seem to think of you as anything other than a regular chiropractor.
That’s because of the social programming that they are exposed to… a person goes to the chiropractor “to get cracked.”
Even though you’ve made it clear, and deep down your patients know this is not anything close to what you do, social programming is a difficult hurdle to jump.
I know you have some patients who are gung-ho and insistent about how you are different, but keep in mind, they are not the norm. The average person has no clue why they prefer you over other chiropractors, other than the fact that you get results, and you do it more gently than other chiropractors. They just don’t give you that much thought. They’ve got too much else going on in their lives.
Faced with the question, “Why do you go to Dr. __________ ?” they could never really put into words how you’re different, and when referring a friend or family member they usually just say, “Just check this guy out, and you’ll see what I mean.”
Again, don’t take for granted that just because someone has been to see you before, they know what you’re all about.
You have to tell them what makes you different, and your USP does that. You have to put the words in your patient’s mouths that you want them to convey to others.
Keep It Simple
Initially, you’re just going to send them a simple letter, on your letter head. If you’re sending to a past patient who hasn’t been in to see you in a while, you’re going to send them a letter inviting them to come back again. In the letter, you will make your USP prominent. You should make it a part of the letter head, but you should also incorporate it into the body of the letter itself.
Invite the past patient to once again become a patient, and offer them a special discount as a “Welcome Back” gift.
For instance you could offer them a re-activation exam for free, or give them a free neck pillow… you get the idea.
If you’re sending a letter to an active patient, you need to have a good reason for communicating with them beyond just telling them your USP. By good reason, I mean you need to tell them you’re having a referral campaign, or a patient appreciation day, or just a “thank you for being our patient message,” or something like that. You don’t want to send a letter that says: “Hey I just created a cool USP and I wanted to tell you all about it,” your patients will think you’re weird if you do that.
Performing this step is the easiest way to initially make it known to all who have or have had a relationship with you and your clinic, why they should continue to choose you as their chiropractor, why they should come back to see you, and why they should refer their family and friends.
By stating why you’re unique, your patients will also get the picture, and convey that message to their family and friends.
Of course, sending one letter is just the beginning. You need to keep in constant contact with your patients, and prospective patients, constantly reminding them why you’re the choice for them.
The best way to do that, without seeming intrusive, is with a monthly printed upper cervical patient newsletter.
7 Principles of Shrewd Upper Cervical Marketing
December 3, 2008 by drhambrick
Filed under 7 Principles of Shrewd Upper Cervical Marketing, Upper Cervical Marketing
There are many, many different types of chiropractic practices.
Full Spine, Gonstead, Activator, Nucca, Atlas Orthogonal,…
On and on the list goes, but for all of the differences that make these practices unique, there is one undeniable truth about these and all practices:
A practice, is a business, & fundamentally, all business is the same.
All business is merely an exchange of goods or services for an agreed upon medium of equiva-
lent value.
Whether your a chiropractor, a plumber or a fast food franchise owner, people do business with you for the same reason they do business with any and all other businesses. Those reasons do vary, be they cost, product, service, convenience, but fundamentally, all business is the same.
In fact, the biggest mistake that any practice makes, is assuming that it’s different from any
other business.
This one mistake causes all practices that make it (the mistake), to ignore means and methods for improving their performance simply because no one else in their industry is doing it.
Practice owners look to see how everyone else in the chiropractic industry does things, and then proceed to model what they do based on what they see, and all they succeed in doing is making themselves look like a commodity.
This leads to marketing incest, and eventually the practice gets lost in the heap created by all the other practices all doing what everyone else is doing.
Just pick up any Yellow Pages, go to the section on chiropractors, and see what I mean. How many ads in that section are saying anything different from any other ad there?
But there is a much better way to run your practice.
There is a way to set yourself apart from the pack, become the lead dog and leave all of your competitors staring at your backside as you run away with all of their business.
And this essentially boils down to a more effective marketing plan accomplished applying as little as 7 principles to your upper cervical practice, and not requiring you to spend any more money on advertising, but simply leveraging existing assets that you may have never thought of.
The 7 principles are:
1. Developing an easily understood statement that makes you distinctive from other chiropractors (also known as an upper cervical Unique Selling Proposition (U.S.P.)).
2. Integrating your upper cervical U.S.P. into every piece of media that leaves your practice (including what your CA says on the phone).
3. Collecting present & past patients into a database.
4. Communicating your upper cervical USP to current and past patients.
5. Developing a practice newsletter.
6. Collecting letters of endorsement and testimonials.
7. Properly communicating with prospective patients.
Not only will we go over these principles, you’ll see how to apply them to your practice.
