Dear Doctor:
If you want your patients to follow through on your recommendations, learn to uncover their values. People will act consistently to protect and support whatever is important to them, and if you can show them how your services help them get something they already want, or avoid something they already don’t want, it’s more likely that they’ll comply and get the best results possible.
Patients are not resistant by nature – remember, they chose to come to you for advice and care, so it stands to reason that they want a good outcome, just like you do. They just have little or no prior exposure to the science of your work, and therefore cannot evaluate it objectively, so they default to the way they feel – and that is largely determined by how well you relate your services to their perceived needs.
When patients come in to your office with a painful problem, often the pain isn’t what caused them to take action and see you – it was the compromise of their lifestyle that they could no longer tolerate. Frequently a patient suffers, until finally, the pain interferes with his golf swing, or her gardening, and then, finally, it’s time to seek help.
Sometimes, the values leverage is around family – sometimes it’s around finances, or their job – or, it could be around time or convenience. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the values pop out of the conversation. Also, you can stimulate the discovery process by asking questions like, “What has this problem been keeping you from doing that you really like to do?” or “What are you looking forward to doing when this problem is resolved?” or “Why is being well important to you in the first place?”
Then, once you identify a key value, use it in your patient education – “When you swing a golf club, it’s essential that you have the right mechanics in your spine – can you see how chiropractic care helps you prevent imbalances and maintain a competitive edge?”
By eliciting the patient’s values and using related language and metaphors in educating that patient, you create an indelible imprint that more effectively impacts the patient. If you can learn to put your message in a form your patients can clearly make sense out of, it will come back to you as happy, satisfied, long term patients who stay, pay and refer others like them. Ask questions that help you figure out what’s important to your patient, and use that information to help them make good decisions on their own behalf.
Dennis Perman DC, for The Masters Circle
P.S. One more chance at “The Master Plan 2005” seminar, including a 98-page book filled with tools for building and running a successful practice – to register, or for more information, please call 800-451-4514 or go to themasterscircle.com
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