Chiropractic Economics Blog

As editor of Chiropractic Economics magazine,  I get calls from readers. Many of them are similar to these:

• “I’m getting a divorce. Can you tell me the average income and salary of chiropractors in …?”
• “I’m a new DC and I’m setting up my first practice. I need to tell the bank how much I will be paying myself and my staff. What’s the going salary rate for a new chiropractor?
• “I’m hiring my first associate. How much should I pay her?”
• “My CA wants a raise. How can I tell if I’m paying her the right salary?” 

I’m not in a position to advise anyone about financial issues. However, I can and do refer callers to the latest information we have published in our annual salary and expense survey.

The salary and expense survey Chiropractic Economics conducts each year is not acurately named. It is not so much a salary survey as it is an income and expense survey. Its analysis shows how your income (gross and net) compares to your peers across the country and to members of the opposite sex. It shows differences and similarities between group and solo practices. It compares cash-only and reimbursement-based practices.

In other words, it gives you information you can use to set sail on your future.

You can’t get this information from any other source. No other organization conducts a similar survey — not even the U.S. Dept. of Labor, which uses our data in its biannually published Occupational Outlook Handbook.

I am aware that completing surveys is a time-consuming task. When I was in human-resources management, I used to get periodic requests to complete salary surveys that required salary ranges, descriptions of positions, and averages of more than a dozen benchmarked positions. Completing that type of salary survey was very time-consuming.

Our 11th Annual Salary & Expense Survey is online and waiting for your input. It is not a difficult survey to complete. And it should only take about 15 minutes of your time.

Surveys are only as good as quanity and quality of the data they collect. Whether you are a new practitioner or a seasoned doctor, please take the time and go to www.ChiroEco.com/2008survey now. The survey will be active only through the end of February.

It’s easy to dismiss a request to complete a survey, thinking, “Let the next guy do it!” I hope this time, though, you will think, “I am the next guy.”

And who knows? You may need to know some of the information we collect.

Until next time,

Please don’t underestimate the importance of careful hiring and deliberate training — not only in the “hard” skills of the job, but also in the “soft” skills of dealing with people.

I am inspired to comment on this subject because as I write this blog, I am waiting for a call back from the technical assistant at my ophthamalogist’s office. I placed a call to her this morning, but technically, I have been waiting to hear back from her for more than a week, when I last called her for information.

What makes this “wait” so much more irritating and frustrating is that when I last saw this assistant, I related to her the story about my husband getting fired by our doctor because he wanted good customer service. All he wanted and expected was for the staff in her office to keep him informed. When they didn’t, he complained, and she fired him. (See my blog entry, “Do you fire patients?”)

When I told the technician this story, she was dismayed at the lack of understanding by the doctor. But, I guess the lesson did not hit home, because here I am, waiting for the telephone to ring.

The technician is competent, but she could obviously benefit from some customer-service training. Or, the doctor could benefit from more careful hiring practices, to make sure he hires someone who knows how to balance people skills with productivity skills.

We recently asked readers to tell us about mistakes they have made in running their businesses and what they learned from them. (We’ll be publishing what they told us in an upcoming issue.) One of the recurrent confessions was not taking the time to hire the right person.

 Please take time, and then train them in your expectations for good customer service. I suspect your patients are no different from me. They just want the courtesy of being acknowledged.

Until next time,