For a few months now I’ve been musing over what’s happened at my chiropractor’s office. He has finally lost me as a client and I thought I’d capture the “lesson learned” so we all know exactly what to do if you want to chase clients away.

I should first say that I was an absolute raving fan. This guy is very personable, had completely reasonable prices and I believed his values were truly aligned with making a difference. He also had a great office staff that kept him on time and organized.

Within a two month period I probably referred him to over 20 people. So what went wrong?

First, within a two week period a ton of changes happened. He changed his front office staff to someone really wacky. She scared me and made me feel uncomfortable. Plus she made a ton of mistakes with scheduling. One day I was on a coaching call and she called my cell and home 7 times in a row. I felt like I was being stalked.

Lesson: Always make sure your team is an excellent representation of who you are.

Second, he set up a client mill. He went for the temptation to move more clients through his already very quick adjustment process in record time. One day I walked in and there was just one big adjusting room. He told us that he wanted all the patients to be able to hear what he consulted the other’s on. Yikes! How totally inappropriate.

When we asked for a private room, scary desk lady gave us weird, condescending looks. Double yikes! Note to self, don’t tell her about how scary she is, you never know what could happen.

Lesson: What’s good for your bottom line isn’t always good for your centers of influence and best clients. Remember how to give the VIP treatment for those who you love to work with that don’t fit your “normal” model.

Third, he raised his prices by almost three times. Now, I’m a big proponent of giving yourself a raise. And to be quite honest, he really did undercharge. But there was something that just didn’t seem to add up with a conversation we had about why his prices were so low to begin with.

He told me this long story about a chiropractor who saved his mother’s life when he was a child and how they had no money and that he never wanted ANYONE to ever not get chiropractic support because of money. Then HUGE price increase follows 30 days later.  Hmmmmm…..

Lesson: Be clear and honest with clients at all times so your authentic self shines through.

Last, and this was the cardinal sin for me. He approved a non-traditional office visit time then forgot the appointment. When I asked him about it he blamed his office staff for not reminding him. “OMG!!! He didn’t just blame his staff did he?” Yep, he did. Now granted, they may have made a mistake but I was pissed off that I squeezed in an appointment and took 60 minutes away from him HIGH PAYOFF activities to come meet him and he didn’t have his system in place.

Lesson: Always have systems in place to handle non-routine activities. And NEVER blame your staff. Just own it and ask how you can make it right.

I probably would have been willing to over look many of the issues had he handled that forgotten appointment with integrity. But it was like I got a window into his soul — he’s not in alignment with his truth. He’s scrambling to handle some kind of major “thing” and he’s not on top of his business growth.

Decided to go searching for new chiropractor …again…argh.