Dear fellow chiropractors, are you doing enough with your inactive files?  Are you convinced that these people are never going to come back to your office so it’s not worth your time to try to contact them?

You spent a lot of time and money to acquire all those patients.  And, those files are taking up space in your office.  You need to “squeeze” some money out of these files, especially during these times.

Here’s what you do:  you hire someone to call them (go through your inactive files yourself first and filter out the ones you don’t want contacted).  The phone script is simple.  Have your marketer say something like:

“Hi, this is Debbie calling from Dr. Jones’ chiropractic office.   It’s been __ months/years since you were last in to see us, and Dr. Jones wanted to check in and see how you are currently doing.”

From there, she is likely to  get all kinds of responses, such as

• I’m ok, thanks for calling
• Oh, we moved away last year…
• I’ve been so busy and I know I need to get in…
• My insurance changed, do you take___?

and others.  Make sure to give your marketer specific instructions on how to steer the patient to make an appointment.  The best way is to ask leading questions that convince them that they need to come in, and make it easy for the patient to come in (flexible days, hours, no waiting, etc.).

Just post an ad in Craigslist for a part-time telemarketer.  The person should have a good phone voice and confidence.

As an alternative, you could have this person prepare direct mail to go to these patients:  Sign the letters, stuff them in the envelopes, hand-address them, affix stamp, and take to the post office.

You can go bonkers and have the marketer do BOTH– send the letter to warm up the caller, then call three days later.

This can be very effective when done right.