5 of 13 things that annoy your staff: Lack of chiropractic training.

For chiropractors simply thankful that someone with a pulse has agreed to hold down the front desk, the notion of investing in a chiropractic education seems like a luxury. In the beginning it's thought to be far more important to master the scheduling and billing software and other essentials.

"We'll get to that later."

Often, later never comes. Chiropractic doctrine is assumed to be absorbed by osmosis. So, the role degenerates into a bizarre combination of hostess, traffic cop and bookkeeper.

No wonder there's frequent turnover.

Without chiropractic training there's a feeling of incompetence by not understanding the vocabulary. Without chiropractic training it's easy to feel like an outsider.

If you neglect this training and are unwilling or unable to inspire your team to embrace chiropractic principles, the likelihood of patients abandoning their medical mindset borders on hallucination.

Bill Esteb has been a chiropractic patient and advocate since 1981. He is the creative director of Patient Media and the co-founder of Perfect Patients. He’s been a regular speaker at chiropractic gatherings since 1985. His 12 books explore the doctor/patient relationship from a patient's point of view. His chiropractic blog, coaching program, patient focus groups and consulting calls have helped hundreds of chiropractors around the world. Since 1999 Monday Morning Motivation has been emailed to over 10,000 subscribers each week.