Tip # 14

When you open the front door to your office today, as soon as you take your first step inside, stop for a moment and look around. As we begin the procedure of breaking our office down into zones, let's start with the front door which leads into Zone 1 (the front end).

If you are the first person to arrive at your office, flip on the light switch (or mash it, for my southern friends) and just look around. How does Zone 1 look to you? Are the counter tops cluttered with clipboards and pictures? How is the cleanliness and organization? Is your reception area cluttered with People Magazine or with current chiropractic literature? Do your posters communicate a chiropractic message? Is there a referral board posted somewhere near the front-desk welcoming all of your new patients along with a board thanking those who have referred?

Tip # 14 - Zone 1

Come in and look around Zone 1. This is exactly what your current and new patients see as soon as they walk through your front door. How does the office look to you. Believe me when I say, you do not need to spend $20,000 for a front end desk with glass and chrome and places to put your brochures. You will not get anymore referrals if your pictures are double matted and hung in a $200.00 frame. These things are great, when you can afford them. This could be tip #15 mixed in here, but for now, let's just say, it does not matter how much your office cost to put together. If you can afford all of the fancy bells and whistles and they make you happy, go for it. Personally, I take the extra money and buy another piece of property but that is for later.

For now, let me assure you and re-emphasize that you do not need a lot of money or a big fancy office to see a lot of patients, you only need passion, drive, desire and skill and all of those things are free - in fact, you already posses them, you just have to develop them.

So back to zone 1. How does the office look? Have the rugs been vacuumed? Floor swept. All brochure holders are full, pictures are hung level, chairs are straight and everything promotes chiropractic. Most patients come to your office totally ignorant about chiropractic and in most cases this holds true even if they have been to a chiropractor or a few chiropractors before. It is YOUR job, YOUR mission and YOUR responsibility to teach them about what chiropractic truly is. HINT BOMB: THAT IS HOW YOU RUN A HIGH VOLUME, HIGH PROFIT OFFICE - YOU ADOPT THE ATTITUDE THAT IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO TEACH PEOPLE ABOUT CHIROPRACTIC and then you act and promote in a way that will make it happen - nuff said.

I could stop giving tips right now because that is the only one you will ever need but let's get back to the rest of the stuff.

If you are satisfied that your front end is clean and promotes cleanliness and chiropractic in all ways possible, walk around the front desk and look around. The same hold true in the back of Zone 1. Clean, organized, prepared and promoting chiropractic but now take it one step further. Let's get Universal here for a minute. Since we know that everything has an equal and opposite reaction and that everything we put out of our mouths and out in our thoughts comes back to us let's realize that this goes down to even the littlest or most minute of things. Sometimes we are chasing patients away without even realizing it. How? Think about this. If you do not have new patient forms ready and on a clipboard, you are telling the Universe that you can not handle anymore new patients. It also shows a lack of organization and forethought. How many are ready? Trivial? I think not. Every action that you take and every word that you speak has a Universal consequence or reaction but more about that later. For right now, prepare as if 10 new patients could walk through your door at any moment. This tells the Universe that you are ready!

Is your CA's area neat, clean, organized and promoting chiropractic? Are the computers running properly? Does she/he have everything they need in order to keep YOUR practice running like a well oiled machine. Does she/he have pens (with your name and phone number on them), at the ready to give away to each person who touches them. Believe it or now, pens are a great internal promotional device. Everything in your office should be organized say chiropractic (remember the hint bomb).

Did your CA print a list of the next days patient load and have it waiting for your morning huddle? More on that tomorrow. Is her/his desk cleared and ready for action or is it piled high with folders and papers (clutter is distracting). Were all of the travel cards put away and then pulled for the next day (if you use paper) and have you created a way to see who you will need to collect from when they walk in?

Each zone has a procedure and it is the doctors responsibility to not only create a procedure but to enforce it. Although success lies in your passion and your responsibility to spread the "Story"; procedures and organization go a long way to helping you achieve YOUR mission.

Great office do not just happen - they are created.

More tomorrow.

Tip # 14 - Zone 1