One group of professionals you may consider adding to you network are licensed massage therapist or LMTs. It is a good idea to know a few massage therapists because you will have patients ask you who you recommend from time to time. Your patient will be very thankful if you refer them to a good LMT, especially if they were going to resort to a blind attempt of finding someone credible by using the phone book. If your philosophy is sound, you should not be intimidated by massage therapists and understand that what you do is very different. You should also be able to explain these differences. Unfortunately sometimes the general public may not know the difference between massage therapist and chiropractors. Thats fine; this can be another opportunity to educate your patients.
Your first necessity is to come into contact with a reputable massage therapist. Introduce yourself to as many as possible throughout your town or area of practice. Many will offer you a tour of their facility and sometimes even a free massage. Take them up on the free massage if offered. This will give you a chance to see how good they are at what they do and give you more time to work on your new network relationship by visiting with them. When you are visiting with these LMTs you are interviewing them at the same time. They are probably interviewing you also. Ask yourself questions like, is this someone I would trust with my patient, could I see myself becoming a client of this person? They need to have a respectable facility, reasonable fees and a philosophy that is somewhat close to your own. The last thing you want to do is refer a patient to a bad business that does not share your same philosophy. This could jeopardize your relationship with your patient.
I recommend you have about 4 to 5 massage therapist that you have built a rapport with. They need to be spread out in your area of practice for two reasons. First your patients do not want to drive all over town to get to your recommended LMT. Second this gives you a spread out area to receive your referrals from. Once you have your 4 to 5 LMTs you can trust and refer to, you also have 4 to 5 LMTs referring to your business. As always it is a good idea to keep in contact with each of them periodically to maintain your network.
When you refer a patient to a LMT, call them and let them know you sent that patient over to their business. Do no be afraid to put light pressure on them to refer you a patient or two when the timing is right.
Occasionally LMTs will want to barter with you. You may want to do the same. It is your decision. This may be the chance you are looking for to build your network relationship even stronger.
A great way that I have found to start the referral process with LMTs and build my practice at the same time is to offer a monthly special. For example, in the month of July refer a friend or family member to our office and receive a free 30 minute massage from a licensed massage therapist. Post signs in your office, have your receptionist tell patients and tell them yourself. This inspires patients to refer people to your office and at the same time allows you to start the referral process with your network of LMTs. Run the special only once every few months. This puts a since of urgency to your patients to receive their free massage. The only down side is you pay for the 30 minute massage. This is a small price to pay to add a new patient to your growing practice, and some massage therapist will give you discounts for your paid referrals. Again, its a win, win, win situation for everyone involved.
Dr. Ryan Marshall is a Tulsa chiropractor and a member of the American Chiropractic Association.
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