The Beauty of Booking 1 More Appointment

4 years ago we had moved our business into a new building and it needed new flooring and painting throughout. At the same time, our home also needed new flooring and painting. We got some quotes for both and decided to get a highly recommended, professional painter to do the whole clinic building, whilst we did our home ourselves. Painting quality can range from someone doing zero prep work, using cheap brushes and slapping the paint on, to surgical precision level cutting in, uniform disbursement and a flawless finish.

As much as talent might be a factor, the most important factor in the finished product in both the painting and health industries, in my opinion, is passion, attention to detail, a will to go the extra mile and a drive to achieve an exceptional result. A bit of OCD probably helps too. A good painter finishes the job, cleans up and moves on to the next job. A great painter finishes the job, then goes back over every wall and architrave to ensure an exceptional finish.

In healthcare, the same as the painting industry, there are a range of practitioners using a range of approaches, charging a range of prices and delivering a range of results. What diagnostic tests you do, what questions you ask, what approach and techniques you employ and how many times you see a patient, all vary significantly. We tend to do focused diagnostic processes and a great first treatment, but from what I’ve observed, we often don’t go to the excellence level. Often when the patient says that they are feeling better, we leave it at that and say, “great, call me if you need me”. I get it, we don’t want our patients to be spending needless money and we don’t want to over-service or be perceived as over-servicing. Not over-servicing is very important and ethical. Equally (possibly even more) important is to not under-servicing.

If a patient comes to an appointment and they feel heaps better or their pain is gone, it’s an instinct to leave it at that. However, if you don’t rest there, and you book one more appointment, this is often where the magic results happen. By booking 1 more appointment you can resolve movement dysfunction to a refined level, you can test that the patient understands their problem, observe them doing their exercises, you can work out a long-term, sustainable management plan, you can ensure that you have covered all aspects of the problem and completely finish the management of the patient.

Sub-optimal painting approaches can lead to poor line work, paint all over the floor, patches, streaks and if cheap paint was used, you’ll need to do it again shortly after. Sub-optimal healthcare can lead to good but not great results, people feeling better but not feeling amazing, people not fully understanding their problem, not fully understanding all of the contributing factors, and not fully understanding what they need to do.

What I noticed is that when you are looking straight at one wall that I painted, you’d think that I’d done a pretty good job with few imperfections. But when you walk through my house then walk through my clinic, all of the imperfections add up significantly. You might not be able to put your finger on it, but when you are in there, you just know. Exceptional healthcare is the same.

• Does it take extra time? Yes.
• Does it take extra effort? Yes.
• Does it cost more money for the “customer”? Yes.
• Is the result better? Absolutely!
• Are you more likely to gain raving fans? Yes
• Will you be busy? You bet ya.

So if your goal is to become a busy practitioner, with tonnes of raving fans, full books and be someone who is delivering exceptional results every day and feeling the rewards that come with that, then be the pro painter. Use the best equipment, prep the walls, lay the drop cloths, refine your cutting in skills, practice, pay attention to detail, have pride and passion in your work and don’t be content with a “decent job”. AIM FOR EXCEPTIONAL and book 1 more appointment.