Recalls give me the chills.

Why are we so afraid to pick up the phone and do recalls? For clarity, recalls are where you call patients who have not been in care for a while or have no future visit booked.

There is often such a stigma and distain for doing this as it appears pushy, salesy and makes us feel uncomfortable. I get it!

I used to hate recalls, actively shy away from them and either flat out avoid them or send text or postcards instead. Now these do have their place, but nothing beats picking up the phone.

When I think about it there are two main reasons that we put off doing recalls.

1.       We feel uncomfortable that they may say ‘no’.

2.       We make it all about us.

Feeling uncomfortable is a given, we have decided to ring someone on our time and for our incentive. We may catch them off guard, they may actually have been disappointed in our service. But how do we know unless we try, and what if they were disappointment, are you too proud to take feedback? If you are to grow as a chiropractor and continue to provide exceptional service, the feedback and opinions of your patients is vital.

But most of the anxiety and reason we put it off is simply because of the frame of mind in which we approach it. We make it all about us, we do it because we ‘need’ more adjustment visits and we want to encourage people back to care. When really we need to be taking our head out the recall sand pit and look at the whole playground of a successful practice.

Your practice is a success because you have a vision, a reason for doing what you do. From that reason comes your mission, this is how you bring that vision to the people.

For example, the vision of my practice is ‘To enhance the quality of life of our community’. From that vision comes the mission to simply, ‘Inspire, Educate and Serve’.

From this we must consider that the only way we can enhance someone’s life is to inspire them, educate them, or serve them. And this can only be done if we have contact with them.
So, from a selfless point, if you truly want to change someone’s life and make them better, stop thinking about you, your ego, and your pride. Think more on how you can give, how you can serve, how you can inspire.

That person you put off calling, may just be waiting for you call, they may have got so caught up the stresses and strain of life that they neglected their care. And your simple call and reminder gave them the encouragement they needed to jump back in and get adjusted.
Maybe you call someone who doesn’t wish to get adjusted right now, but your call prompted them to start reading your blogs again and looking after their health. This has contributed towards your vision.

As BJ Palmer famously said: “You never know how far reaching something you may think, say or do, will affect the lives of millions tomorrow”.

It is time to get out your own way and love on your people. Pick up the phone today.

With love,

Tom