A common factor of a plateaued practice is the story made up about the reception room.

An empty reception produces panic.

A full reception produces panic.

Whether from too few patients or too many, practice growth is often linked to this reception room perception.

Like trying to find a comfortable position so sleep can come, many chase the elusive sweet spot—the rare Goldilocks moment when there’s a constant stream of patients to help, but not so many as to create the stress of asking patients to wait.

Simply put, if you want to grow your practice there will be waiting.

We wait for a table at the popular restaurant. We wait in line for Magic Mountain in the hot, humid Florida sun. We willingly wait for all manner of things. It means we’ve chosen something so desirable others want it too.

The question is, are you worth waiting for?

While waiting is a choice, an appointment is a promise.

When you set an appointment time you’re promising to see the patient within a fairly narrow time window. Stray too far from the agreed upon time and you break your word. Do that too often and you have a “cry wolf” situation on your hands and you squander trust and invite patients to have a similar disrespect for time.

This is especially costly if you lack the discipline to be mindful of the clock.

“He’s a great chiropractor but he never runs on time.”

Granted, if your patient base consists largely of seniors for whom socializing in your reception room while waiting is the highlight of their week, waiting isn’t that critical.

However, if you have patients counting on you to honor your word, with a fairly precise notion of time, asking them to indulge you while attending to some unplanned patient encounter can be costly.

As is shoehorning a new patient in, causing a promise-busting chain reaction for the rest of the shift, annoying patients and stressing your front desk.

I get it. This isn’t easy. Especially when patients don’t honor the time you’ve reserved for them, creating disruptions out of your control.

All of this sets up your front desk to be an air traffic controller, focusing on a perfectly spaced schedule. It’s a tension that automatically comes with the implementation of appointment setting.

Some practices, especially high volume practices that adjust only and don’t have a particularly drawn-out routine, don’t set appointments—other than for the first and second visits.

After the onboarding process, they recommend how many times a week patients need to get adjusted, but leave the specific time on those days to each patient.

“We don’t set appointment times for routine adjustments. We leave it up to you to get in at a time that works best for you. At the beginning, when we recommend three visits a week, it’s especially important to keep your visit schedule to create the momentum necessary to make spinal changes. So, you’ll want to pick the time of the day that works best for you and your schedule.

“Granted, there are times of the day in which it’s a little busier, typically before 9:00 AM and from about 4:00 PM onward. So, if your schedule has flexibility, you may want to aim to be here during the less busy times.”

Too scary?

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.