Kats Chiropractic Consultants CHIROpulse

188 Staff Development

• Marisa Mateja

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Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast.  

This week’s topic: The Importance of Chiropractic Staff Development

The KC CHIROpulse Podcast is designed for Chiropractic professionals ready to elevate their practice to new heights, and is hosted by Kats Consultants coaches Dr Michael Perusich and Dr Alex Kallio.  Both docs are seasoned experts in Chiropractic care and business development.  This podcast provides invaluable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a flourishing and sustainable Chiropractic business.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Why Staff Development is Important to Chiropractic Success
  • How not spending time to train your team can be holding you back  
  • Why your really wants team development programs
  • How staff development creates a more engaged team  
  • …and so much more…

In each episode of KC CHIROpulse, we delve into crucial aspects of building a successful Chiropractic practice, covering topics such as establishing a strong foundation, adopting a patient-centric approach, mastering marketing techniques, achieving financial fitness, fostering effective team building and leadership, integrating technology and innovation, and navigating common challenges in the field.

Whether you're a seasoned chiropractor or just starting your practice, the KC CHIROpulse Podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and practical advice to help you navigate the intricate world of Chiropractic business. Join us on this journey as we explore proven strategies, share success stories, and connect with industry experts to empower you in your pursuit of building a thriving Chiropractic practice.

Don't miss out on the latest insights and expert guidance. Subscribe now and unlock the secrets to taking your Chiropractic practice to the next level. Your success is our priority at Kats Chiropractic Business Advisors.

DISCLAIMER:  The information presented in this broadcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to offer legal, investment, accounting, or medical advice.  Seek the consultation of a professional for advice in those areas. And remember…your results using this information may be different than described.

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the Kats Consultants CHIROPulse Podcast
When you are ready we can help.


KC CHIROpulse Podcast. Helping Chiropractors keep their pulse on success. Thanks for listening.



Dr. Michael Perusich:

Doctors, are you taking time to develop your staff? Hi, everybody. Welcome to the podcast brought to you by Kats Consultants and Chiro Health USA. I'm Dr. Michael Perusich, and I'm joined by my special guest host today, Dr. Alex Kallio, one of our Kats Consultants, coaches extraordinaire. Alex, how are we doing today? I'm great. How about you? Doing fantastic. So everybody, Alex is getting settled into his new home. So pretty exciting stuff over there.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Absolutely. Yeah. Plenty to do, but it's all right. It keeps me busy.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah welcome to the southeast.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Yeah, glad to be here.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Too bad you didn't bring your college football team with you.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Yeah, give it another year or two. We might be more excited about. Yeah,

Dr. Michael Perusich:

there you go. There you go. I thought this would be a good topic for today. I want to talk a little bit about developing staff and how not doing so may actually be hurting your practice. Far too often we have a tendency to hire people who are task doers. Who can file insurance for us, who can answer phones and do those kinds of things. And while those are important things, I think we need to keep a keen eye on different areas of the practice. And so in, in your practice, you did this. I know we did this in my practice too, that we develop staff into more of, we call them success partners, where they're actually able to help produce more revenue and help push the practice along so that everything doesn't just fall on the doctor's head. And, one of those areas that's so crucial is teaching them how to watch for opportunities.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Yeah, absolutely. And some of that, you can teach certain aspects of things within the, you can teach tasks, but there's certain intangible assets That staff need to have that kind of come by that naturally, and then be able to show them within those opportunities, how to spot that. And certainly the teachable part of, how to approach it and do that with patients. But some of that's just intangible, staff, it's part of that hiring process of knowing what to look for within those individuals as well.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah. And I think there's been a major shift in the kind of person we should be hiring. Here in the last few years, we're seeing practices really perform better when they hire people who have less task oriented skills in their resume and people who have more communication experience, more sales experience, more marketing experience. Those seem to be better staff members in today's environment.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Yeah. Which, again where do you find those people? Out in the community, many times it's your people that are working on those customer service. And jobs that, that have those interpersonal skills and not just, okay, we hired, cause they've worked at a chiropractic or medical office for the last 10 years, looking for those service oriented people.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

And when you talk about customer service, you bring up a great point in those interpersonal communication skills. Those are so important because one of the. Best things that staff can be doing for you in your practice is helping you build deeper patient relationships and deeper relationships with your community in general. So we got to take a quick break, but I want to come back and talk about that aspect a little bit and kind of flesh that out. We're going to break away for just a quick word from our sponsors. We'll be right back.

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Dr. Michael Perusich:

All right, everybody. Welcome back

to the KC ChiroPulse podcast

Dr. Michael Perusich:

brought to you by Kats Consultants and ChiroHealth USA. Alex and I are talking today about developing staff to actually help you build and grow your practice. And we started touching on, before the break, we started touching a little bit on interpersonal communication skills and some of the things that we need to look for. And building relationships with patients, Alex, one of the ways that we have been successful in getting patients to stay longterm in the practice and not just be pain oriented, but to be more wellness and longterm oriented is by building those great, strong relationships. But we, as the doctors can't do it by ourselves.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Those patients are, they're with us in a very focused amount of time. We have a very limited amount of time. They get way more time with the staff, whether it's at the desk or in the back office. And those staff, are going to have way more chance to, find out about, The anniversaries and the birthdays and the kids accomplishments and some of those kind of things that's what's going to build that rapport and trust, not only in the office as a whole, but even more so with the doctors to just by getting that getting that rapport going with the patient.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah, that's absolutely true. And it's, It does. It comes back to that rapport and making patients feel like they're taking care of, not just by the doctor, but by the entire clinic team. That's so important. And I know in my office, and I'm sure it was this way in yours too. In my practice, my staff would uncover opportunities all day long and they would come tell me, Hey doc just wanted you to know that Betty just told me that tilled up a five acre garden over the weekend. What does that say that says, Hey, Betty, you need to get adjusted today, but we may need to see you again in a few days to, to overcome those activities. Yeah.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Sorry. I interrupted

Dr. Michael Perusich:

it

Dr. Alex Kallio:

or the flip of that, where they're talking about themselves, they bring up, Oh, Hey, I've got to go, sorry, I can't, I got to run. I got to take my kid to this other doc because they got hurt in their sport this last weekend. If the staff lets that slide, I'm like wait a minute. Yeah. Yeah. We need to get them in here for a check too, if they've got something going on and been able to have that authority to just do that with the patient.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah. So your staff can uncover all kinds of new treatment plans proxy referrals and all sorts of things just by them paying attention to what, Patients are saying to them, but patients won't say anything to them if they don't have some kind of rapport and some kind of relationship with those patients. So those interpersonal skills really come in handy, and if they come into your business with customer service experience, with marketing experience, with sales experience, those kind of things, they know how to talk to people. And that's incredibly important as opposed to that head down, task oriented skill set, which again, some of those skills are important, but we can teach those. And I'd rather in today's world, because the consumer mindset is so relationship bent these days, I'd much rather teach somebody with marketing and communication background how to do a task than the other way around.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Absolutely. And the flip two comes into just, again, in the office of you mentioned sales, you've been just a friend down there coming up and they're talking about, again, they're out in the garden, how sore they were. Yeah, we don't get it back for an adjustment. But did you know we have this? Biofreeze or whatever the product is that you have. It's really good for sore muscles. You should get that on your way out today. What an easy, kind of thing that is to do for the staff. But yeah, some of that is within our culture and our training within the office, but some of those skills are things ideally that people have naturally just to be able to talk that up.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

My office, our staff would talk to patients about all kinds of different products like pillows, for example, and they would say things like, Hey, how old's your pillow? Have you tried one of these great chiropractic pillows? And, of course you catch patients off guard patients as well. My, I have no idea how old my pillow is. Let's get, let's send one of these home with you, and they would do that kind of stuff all day long, but here's the key docs. Thanks. You have to spend the time. And I hear a lot of you say I don't have time. If I'm over here doing staff training, then I'm not seeing patients and I'm not driving revenue, but that's actually a false profit. Thing to say, because when you spend the time you parlay yourself with a highly trained and highly developed staff, you parlay your abilities to drive revenue to the bottom line even more.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

And the thing we've seen with staff, especially in the last, really probably, five years to 10 years. It is the change a little bit of staff want that training

Dr. Michael Perusich:

they do

Dr. Alex Kallio:

not want to be developed They want to have whether it's within culture or you know within the office They want to have that development training and if they're not getting it guess what docs they're gonna go somewhere else in search of it So you're gonna be in this endless cycle of retraining You know, new staff just to, to, begin with, and then constantly get into that hamster wheel. So you've got to spend at least a little, it doesn't have to be crazy amount of time, but you got to set aside some time, even if it's just a few minutes in your staff meetings each week to have a little bit of development time. And even if it's just a real focused point on one aspect each week.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah, that's absolutely true. And, development is so important that it's actually. A great way to retain excellent staff. It's an investment, but that investment comes back to you 10 times. We're going to take another quick break to hear a couple of words from our sponsors. But when we come back, I want to talk about how simple it is to find the time to develop your staff and just some simple tips on how to create a good development program in your practice. All right, everybody, we'll be right back.

Kats Chiropractic Consultants, your partner in chiropractic success. We are dedicated with one on one guidance to bring you all your practice management needs. Let's supercharge your practice. Give us a call today.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

All right, everybody, we are back. I'm here with Dr. Alex, and we are talking about staff development. And Dr. Alex, before the break, we started talking just a little bit about how simple it is, and you don't have to spend an extraordinary amount of time in staff development. So let's just throw out some ideas on just really simple ways to incorporate training into your regular work week. It's pretty simple.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Yeah, it doesn't take a lot, half the battle is just getting it on your agenda,

Dr. Michael Perusich:

right? Exactly.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Just actually putting and putting it on the agenda to start with and making sure you're having regular meetings even if that's reviewing stats and your things, but, literally can carve out a 10 minute, focus time and pick a topic if you're not doing anything that's the first spot to really start is just actually getting it down on your agenda. Yeah.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah, exactly. And so you brought up staff meetings, staff meetings are incredibly important. And I hear a lot of docs say our staff meetings are boring. We don't know what to talk about. Here's what you talk about. Talk about a condition that some patient came in this week with or recently talk about how chiropractic is helping that help your staff understand how broad chiropractic can be and, In what way are we helping people take one product that you sell and talk with staff about how to talk to patients about it? Just those little things right there Go through your list of patients who are coming in on the next day or later in the week and talk about who? Who is coming in and maybe has kids who are playing sports or, we're in that back to school time right now, what moms are coming in and, do we need to get their kids in for scoliosis screening because schools don't do that anymore. There's all kinds of little things like that don't really take any time.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Yeah, I would say the flip is don't just talk about it, give the scenarios, give, what the responses should be, but then role play actually be able to hear staff, again, staff don't want to be just talked at. You can get some pushback for staff that don't necessarily always want to participate in a role play, but we've tended to find if staff. They may be uncomfortable in it to start with, because it's just different, especially if they're talking to the doctor or having a role play with the doctor, they might be uncomfortable to start and that's okay, but if they just flat won't participate in that kind of gives you a little bit of a hint, what you may be seeing down the road anyway, so they're just not going to do that. That procedure and find those opportunities if they're not willing to participate in that either. So it can also give you some other information into those staff.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

It can tell you how engaged your employees actually are. And if you have employees that aren't fully engaged. Either have the conversation with them of how important that is and how it can make their job easier. Or you may be at the point where you're looking for a new staff person that fills that role better for you.

Dr. Alex Kallio:

Absolutely. But yeah, we found role play is absolutely the best way for staff to one, Get into and maybe it's even, you get into training and missed appointment procedures and how do they respond to those barriers that patients put up role playing that kind of thing can prep them for that. So they don't end up with the deer in the headlights. Look, when somebody gives them the, Yeah, I'm just not going to do that, talk. How do we respond with that? Versus getting angry or, having that kind of thing. So it's vitally important to, to mix that into your, in your training periodically. It doesn't have to be every time, but certainly it is good to put in the mix.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Absolutely. So we're, we've been talking about staff development and how important it is, and I just wanna recap a little bit so your staff can help drive additional revenue to your bottom line. That's a good thing. It doesn't take a lot of time to do development. It's a great retention tool for great, for excellent staff. It points out how engaged your staff really is, and it helps you build those deeper relationships. Wow. Talk about a win, win for everybody. So docs, make sure you're spending the time to do staff development. And when you have a chance, go to cats, consultants. com and check out all the ways that we're helping doctors develop their teams into success partners and really driving that strategy. Straight to your bottom line. So go check us out. Be sure to subscribe and tell everybody about our podcast We are growing like crazy and that's thanks to you everybody in the audience. So we appreciate you checking us out and Special thanks to Chiro Health USA for being one of our sponsors and dr. Alex. Thank you for being on here today I really appreciate it. Absolutely glad to be here. Awesome All right, everybody from all of us at cats consultants make it a great day