It may feel impossible to plan right now with not enough firm guidance and no clarity of what the immediate and long–term future holds.
It is important at this time to not put your head in the sand and have ‘hope’ as your only strategy.
- Work out the numbers– everyone will have different circumstances to take into account. Work out what your current reality is. Sometimes even if the situation is worse than you thought it is a relief to have a clear picture so that you can then look at all the different options.
- Forecast scenarios – map out the different options you have in terms of going back into clinic. How many patients will you be able to see? How many therapists and admin team members will you bring back initially? Will you start doing or continue doing some of your consultations online and have a different pricing structure? How will the PPE requirements affect your costs and your treatment fee? We recommend putting a spreadsheet together and entering the different scenarios.
- Plan your communication – keeping your patients informed is really important. I have heard from many therapists that they have had many patients asking when they would be open again. You will have some patients eager to return for hands-on treatment and some who are in need but fearful. Your communication needs to assure your patients of the precautions you will be taking to ensure a safe environment for your patients, your team and you. Your communication also needs to educate your patients about what they need to do before and while attending your practice. You may not have decided on a firm opening date as yet but it is still a good idea to spend time getting your procedures and communication strategy in place.
- Plan and prepare your marketing – marketing is often the last thing therapists want to do but it is needed to get patients through the door. While you have time on your hands (if you do!) take time to think about which patients you would like to attract into your practice, what your your marketing message needs to be and which methods you would like to use. Now might also be a perfect time to update your website and write a bank of content you can draw on when you’re busy and don’t have time to write blogs or social media posts.
- Attend our next marketing course on Zoom – we will be running our marketing course on zoom next week Friday, 22 May 2020 which will cover planning your communication and marketing. We also offer the course as a more personalised 1-2-1 version for those of you who can’t attend a day on zoom due to home or child care constraints – email us if you’d like more information about that or book here to attend the zoom session
We hope that our thoughts have helped you and most importantly, we hope that you are all well and keeping safe.
