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When is the perfect time to offer new chiropractic patients ancillary services, nutritional products, or other “spending opportunities” within your practice? The answer may surprise you.
In fact, the answer you’d get from fellow doctors would almost always be the complete antithesis of what the experts of the direct marketing world would tell you.
It’s long been held that “recency” – when a patient has last spent money in your office – is not only a primary measurement of your practice vitality (when viewed globally), but is also a strong indicator of when a patient is most likely to spend more money with you.
In other words, the more recent a patient has spent money with you, the more likely they are to spend money again. The key lies in recognizing this and seizing the opportunity in a timely, targeted manner.
In the world of direct mail, individuals who have spent money within the past 30 days (“buyers”) are referred to as Hotline Names. When renting a direct mail list, hotline names are considered the most valuable and, therefore, fetch the highest cost of rental.
Why?
Because “recency of purchase”, or in your case – “recency of patient action” – illustrates a patient’s state of being. The more recent the willingness to invest in their health, the more eager they are to experience the benefits.
For example, the more recent an individual has invested in… let’s say… a vitamin supplement, the more likely they are to respond to an additional offer for another vitamin supplement. The further back their purchase goes, the less eager they clearly are, and therefore the less likely they are to respond to an additional offer for supplements.
Fact is: whenever folks spend money on something they are the height of their interest and excitement. In some cases, people go into a hyper-buyer state, where they spend lots of money on their area of interest. And, so, their point of purchase is the best time to present them with additional offers.
So, what does this mean for you as a chiropractor?
It means several things:
First, when a new patient gets started on their care plan, the best time to present them with an additional offer for related and beneficial ancillary services or products is before they leave the office.
Second, anytime an existing active patient invests in anything in your office, it’s also an opportune time to present them with an additional related offer. The key word here being: related offer. (This gets into “marketing segmentation, something I’ll be talking about in a future essay.)
The point is just this:
Recency is a great indicator of willingness to buy. And, it’s also a great indicator of excitement and eagerness. So, seize those opportunities and present those folks with additional opportunities to invest in their health.
[A quick tangential blurb: recency is only one of the three power-house measurements you should be looking at. In a future essay I'll be explaining the other two. When used in combination to dictate your practice marketing, you'll experience tremendous response rates and surges in cash flow.]
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