The secret to long-lasting client relationships

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Title: The secret to long-lasting client relationships

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Author: Robbins

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The secret to long-lasting client relationships

Copyright 2006 Robbins

Working in the healthcare industry is different than

working in any other industry. In healthcare, you will

usually work with people who are experiencing a pain -

whether physical or mental. In addition to stopping that

pain you know there are a lot of other ways you can help

people.

You know that you can help people live a healthier and

happier life. There’s so much more to life and living pain

free. That is a minimum achievement. You can teach them not

only how to live pain free, but how to have more energy.

You can teach them how to live a life filled with health

and wellness.

In your healthcare business you see the same things over

and over again. If you stop, or even just lessen your

client's pain a little bit, they stop coming to see you.

Frustrating as it is, you don't know how to stop this cycle.

There is something that you CAN do to help these people.

Teach them.

What's that? You already know this? You've been teaching

them everything you know since day one!

Well...

That may be part of your problem.

Let me show you a scenario I see all the time.

Sally, a patient at your chiropractic practice, started

coming to see you about three months ago. She was having

unbearable migraines and had been experiencing neck pain

since her car accident earlier in the year. Right away you

saw what the problem was and began treating her. Right away

you lessened her pain.

She loves you!

The first few weeks she came to her appointments you had

handouts and packets with all sorts of information about

subluxations and Cervicogenic Headaches. You explained to

her how the convergence of afferents from the trigeminal

nucleus, pons and the upper three or four cervical spinal

nerves provides for various patterns of referred pain. You

explained to her that this implies an anatomical and

physiological connection between the nerves of the cervical

spine and the mechanisms of headache.

Sally is such a polite and friendly client (one of your

favorites) that she doesn't really have any questions for

you, but she is really glad you are stopping the pain. It

may seem obvious in my exaggerated example here, but the

truth is that Sally doesn't understand a thing you're

saying. She's too polite to say anything to you. She didn't

want to look stupid and admit she couldn't understand the

handouts you gave her.

Obviously you've been giving them to your other patients

and they understood them.

Sally's been coming for a while and you've become friendly.

You've covered all the basics of her health and how

chiropractic care benefits people. And you don't want to

bore Sally by being repetitive. Now when Sally visits you

are comfortable around each other and share stories about

your kids and upcoming holiday plans.

But there are several problems here. Sally didn't

understand what you said the first time and was too shy to

ask questions. She's much more comfortable now talking

about her family and other small talk. However, what is

also clear is that for you to keep Sally as a client, you

need to educate her about what's wrong and how to fix it.

To keep her as a client once you've stopped " her pain " you

need to teach her how ongoing chiropractic care can help

her in a million ways. YOUR job is to do this in a way SHE

understands.

The key to doing this successfully is to teach Sally in

small amounts. Small chunks at a time. While you've spent

many, many years learning all this technical stuff, she has

not.

Teach your clients one concept at a time, teach them every

time they come in, and teach them using as many of their

senses as you can.

For example, you can tell Sally things about her headaches

and how your spinal adjustments are helping her, but you

also want her to have something written down that she can

read and learn from later.

You also want to make sure you are talking to and writing

to Sally in layman's terms. The daily newspaper writes to a

fourth grade reading level. And so should you. Don't make

copies of articles from your industry journals and leave

them out for your patients to read. They can't and don't

want to understand them. Your role, as their healthcare

educator, is to translate.

Look at some of the ways you educate your clients. Are

there any you can improve upon?

About the Author:

Author of Healthcare Copywriting Secrets Revealed and The

Healthcare Copywriters Toolkit, Robbins is a

healthcare copywriter and marketing coach/consultant. She

also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection

(http://www.healthcaremarketingconnection.com), a free

e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact to

receive her free report, " 5 critical things you must know

when writing for the healthcare industry " —

info@... or 303-460-0285.