When you think about the kind of patient you are trying to attract, and the kind of patient that can realistically see you now, taking all of the elements of your practice into consideration, do they match up? You know that the working class person – the one who sits at a desk all day, works in cramped positions, stands for long hours at a time, spends the majority of most of their days working, is most often in auto accidents – is the one that needs to see you regularly the most, and often the one who has the insurance that will allow them to do it…but are you making it possible for them to do so?

If you have not caught on yet, we are talking about hours of operation. This tends to be a pretty big sticking point with most of our clients, but the fact remains – if you are only open when the working class is at work, the working class will not be able to see you for very long. Can you imagine an employee who told you that for the next several months they were going to need to leave early 3 times per week? You would look at them like they were nuts! But that is exactly  what you are expecting people to do!

So, what do we suggest? It’s a fairly simple solution, though we understand that it does mean adjustments for you and your staff; who also want to work the hours of the average person. However, the only way to make sure that you aren’t losing the patients that matter most, is to make a space in your schedule that will make it possible for the working class to come and see you. That means offering early morning, lunchtime, or late afternoon hours that would allow a person to realistically see you before work, on their lunch, or after work. The average person usually works from 8 am – 5 pm with a lunch break somewhere between 12 pm and 2 pm – so you should be offering appointments before 7:30 am, between 12 pm and 2 pm, and/or after 5:30 pm if you want these patients to continue seeing you, rather than going to your competition.