A New Blog Noting Our Observations And Experiences In Chiropractic Practice Development

Here is a simple promotion for your chiropractic office that you can do in conjunction with Easter. We’re doing this with some offices in Minnesota. (LINK)

Many mall stores, such as the GAP, Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch, have as part of the office policy to create a party atmosphere in their stores. The idea is that potential shoppers passing through the mall will see happy faces in the stores with the music playing (sometimes extra loud) and feel like they want to join in the party.

The same concept applies to your office. It should always be friendly and inviting. And on occasion, it’s OK to go overboard.

Early this week, one of the chiropractic office’s I visited had a pleasant surprise. I made it through the ice, snow, and sub-freezing temperatures to the front door, took off my heavy coat, and walked into the reception area.

The staff were dressed in summer clothes. Marimba island music was playing. There were palm trees and a fishing net over the front desk. The staff were smiling and one of them asked me if I wanted a fruit smoothie, being told that they were not serving rum this morning.

The sign over the blender and freshly cut fruit said: “Welcome to Chiroville”, alluding to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. While enjoying my freshly made smoothie, I watched other patients come in from the cold and saw how pleased they were with the friendly change of pace of this special promotion.

The staff seemed to have as much fun with it as the patients. And, as did the doctor!

As a side note, the practice is having its best February ever for new patients.

The moral of the story? If every day was a party at your office, wouldn’t you want be there? Wouldn’t you want to invite all of your friends there too?

February. It was Thursday morning. It snowed, oh, about 20 inches or so here in Milwaukee. Plane was thankfully delayed, which gave me the time to shovel snow for about two hours. I then headed to the airport for a straight hop over to Las Vegas. The warm desert air, though slightly smoggy, was a welcome contrast to the cold and white of the Wisconsin winter.

For those of you who have gone to this seminar in earlier years, I am sure you can appreciate the energy of thousands of your fellows getting together. I asked one of the registrars and was told that nearly 5,000 were in attendance. This was the 55^th Anniversary for Parker Seminars.

At these events, there is no way that you can take in all of the speakers, but you try to catch the keynote speakers and those in whom you have particular interest.

Starting Friday morning, we listened to the President of Parker College and Parker Seminars, Dr. Fabrizio Mancini.

I had a chance to meet him the evening before at “Club Parker”. Phyllis has worked with Dr. Mancini for 10 years, knows him well, and introduced us. Dr. Fab, as he is called, was very personable and interested in how we were doing in Wisconsin. I said we were doing “Great”. He was very friendly, without a hint of self-importance.

I learned later that Dr. Mancini was “Dr. Phil’s” (the television personality) chiropractor until Dr. Phil moved to L.A. Also, he was one of a few dignitaries called to a special meeting after 9/11 to discuss what could be done about world peace. While staying at a remote meeting place and getting ready for his talk later in the afternoon, Dr. Mancini received a 5 am call that one of his fellow presenters needed an adjustment.

He was met by a few secret service men at his door and was taken to Vice President Al Gore’s room. Later that morning, before beginning his talk, Al Gore invited Dr. Mancini to sit in the front row and began the his presentation by complimenting chiropractic.

This is the story, only roughly paraphrased by me, as told by Dr. Mancini to a special group I attended with Phyllis.

A keynote speaker was Dr. John Demartini. He had just flown in from Japan, on his way to another part of the planet. With a slight sniffle, he talked about how attracting new patients had a great deal to do with simply whether you really were ready for them, and wanted them. He talked about the importance of having a “healing consciousness.”

He also let us in on the fact that a new movie that he was working on was coming out in the fall. It will be similar to the “Secret”, only better, according to Dr. Demartini. He says that it will be called: “Oh My God”, and will include many people, including the Dali Lama as well as members of the Taliban. It will be about peace and God.

You read it here first!

I caught some of Dr. Dan Murphy’s talk, which I loved. So many references to books and studies to support the harmful affects of chemicals entering our bodies and contributing to not only poor health, but the effectiveness of adjustments. (For example: Toxic Overload by Paula Hamilton, Health & Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life by Blaylock, M.D.; Poisoned Nation by Loretta Schwartz-Nobel.)

And then there was the trade show. It was like a circus with booths everywhere. The larger ones included the major sponsors like Pro-adjuster, Foot Levelers, and Chiropractic Leadership Alliance/Creating Wellness.

Hundreds of booths, probably two football fields full of chiropractic products and services all manned by doctors and attractive sales people. Maybe next year Petty, Michel & Associates should have a booth?

Early Saturday I went for an walk through the trade show before it was officially opened. I observed Dr. Gentempo, who had his sales team mustered in the booth, going over the plans for the day. A few isles over, Dr. Pisciottano was talking with his booth people before the day had started. It would be at least ½ hour before other booth operators showed up.

This was kind of a homecoming for me. About 18 years ago, or more, was the last time I attended Parker Las Vegas. I remember being invited as a guest of one the speakers to a special reception where I met Dr. Jim Parker himself.

I had a chance to sit down and catch up with our old friend Dr. Jim Sigafoose. Dave Michel and I worked with Dr. Sigafoose years ago. He continues to be one of the profession’s great philosophers. In my opinion, he is so connected to innate wisdom, has such a strong conviction and purpose, and is so utterly un-commercial, that he has been able to help many doctors and staff move beyond their comfort zones and improve their practices. We have seen it and can testify to his ability to motivate doctors, staff, and patients. He is not the youngest fellow, and if you can, I would highly recommend attending an event by him and spending some time with this truly worldly healer. (And we don’t give out many recommendations for other services.)

Actually, while we were talking, a young doctor with just a few months to go before he graduating from Parker Chiropractic College came by introduced himself. He related that he had gone with a chiropractic friend to a talk Dr. Sigafoose gave 5 or so years ago. He said it was that talk that finally convinced him to become a chiropractor. (Hi David D.!)

Phyllis gave a stirring talk to a hundreds on Friday afternoon. I continue to be impressed with her innate skills, power, and dedication to chiropractic. We appreciate her association with us, as do our clients.

Just before my plane left, I sat outside the hotel and took off my shirt and took in some warm Nevada sun. It was actually hot! I couldn’t enjoy it for long though as I had to catch my Midwest Express flight back home. Imagine my shock when I walked out to my car and the temperature was minus 5.

Over all, what a great experience! Even though the Midwest winter is cold, the warmth of the friendship, camaraderie, and mutual purpose shared at Parker will help keep me warm till the next time I attend a Parker Seminar.

We have always recommended Parker and will continue to do so. Maybe next year we will see you there too!

(More Parker Seminar Photos)

We just finished our first seminar for 2008! And, from the comments of those attending (see below), our 3 Goals Chiropractic Seminar was a success.

(Photo of Phyllis giving her presentation. More photos here.)

For our part, we loved it. Dave, Phyllis, and a guest consultant, Mary Jo who is an expert with all things insurance, and me, Ed, had a great time.

The 3 Goals concept seemed to make sense to everyone in that it helped to provide a clear cut path to practice success. We covered how it applied to practice development, marketing, and particularly to many staff functions, from the front desk to financial consultations. Our guest billing consultant, Mary Jo, always appeared to have a crowd around her discussing effective reimbursement tactics.

Our next seminar is in Milwaukee, WI, on Thursday, April 24th. It is an all day seminar, from 8:30 to 5. We will be sending and posting more info on this soon.

After that, we will be hosting a seminar in Minneapolis on Thursday, May 15. Again, it will be an all day seminar. (We will have a special guest which we will be telling you about soon.)

Here are some seminar comments:

“Everyone did a great job!”
“..the presenters were engaging”
“..liked how the program was laid out in easy, step by step ways.”
“Encourages everyone to find their greater purposes.”
“..helped me understand my role in the clinic more specifically.”
“I got more ideas for our patient education.”
“..there were many ideas to improve the our office procedures.”
“..learned how mission affects everything we do inside and outside of the office.”
“..learned about enthusiasm and its role in promoting the office.”
“..got ideas on more structure, policies, control, and the importance of more patient guidance.. throughout care.”
“…reaffirming… learned new perspectives or twists on how we already do things in the office.”
“Phyllis gave great insight into how things can be changed positively.”
“..very informative.”
“..everything present was useful and will help to improve our office.”
“..was wonderful and motivating.”
“..useful ideas on a marketing person and marketing procedures.”
“..excellent presentations…”
“..liked systematizing procedures and getting help on focus on goals..”
“Good ideas on how to monitor clinic performance and set goals and keep track with goals…and marketing meetings..”
“Good for team to hear Phyllis she is very motivating… They got the Big Picture…”
“Good ideas on marketing!”
“..liked the motivational aspect of the seminar..”
“..good review on the Marketing Manager Toolkit for ideas…”
“..high energy.. and kept to time agenda..”
“I liked having a clear concise road map for practice development..” [Read more →]