How Tao Chiropractic Added 252 New Patients and $126K in Care Plans in 6 Months

Opening highlights

Dr. Gary Tao: We worked with two other companies beforehand, and over time things just kind of dwindled. They didn't have the sort of communication back and forth that we really liked. We just didn't feel like they were listening to us. And then at a certain point we kind of plateaued. They were thinking more of themselves rather than trying to work with us to actually make our practice better, rather than to make them look better. Just wasting our time, twiddling our thumbs in the back, wondering why these people weren't coming in. We weren't growing. We have so much capacity, and we were maybe around half or so, and we wanted to get into that second half of what we're capable of.

Chris Beale: What made you decide to say, “Hey, let's actually give this thing a shot. Let's try something new”?

Dr. Gary Tao: We had a call with you, and we're like, “Okay, we like everything that you're saying. Let's give this a shot.” And since then, everything's been going really well. We felt like you really wanted us to grow. It felt like you had listened to us, and it felt like you were actually present with us. You were trying to teach me the sales process and how that should go. Obviously I don't do all of it, but I did learn a good chunk that helped me reframe how I approach things and how I am with patients when they first come in as new patients. My conversion rate isn't the greatest, but I do feel like we've scaled to the point where the people who really want to be here are going to be here. When we first started, we were around 100 visits a week. Now we're around 170, and over 90% of our available new patient spots each week are filled. Before, per month, I think we were at around 30,000 in collections, and now we're pretty comfortably collecting over 10K a week, and some months we've gotten up to $60K, which is really nice.

Chris Beale: Yeah, that was last month, right?

Dr. Gary Tao: Last month. Yeah, we did have over $60K in collections. Last week we had $17K.

Chris Beale: Dang. Okay.

Dr. Gary Tao: And it's been pretty consistent, which has been really, really awesome. We got a house. That was a lot sooner than we were expecting to get a house, because we thought we'd have to save up for a little more time. But we've been having back-to-back-to-back really good months and growing, and we're like, “Yeah, let's do it.”

Full interview

Dr. Gary Tao: I'm Dr. Gary Tao. I'm a chiropractor in Pasadena, California.

Chris Beale: Can you walk me through the situation before we met? How was the practice doing before? What were some of the things you were encountering? I'd love to know, kind of setting the scene for the story.

Dr. Gary Tao: Since we started practice, I've basically always had some sort of marketing team. We worked with two other companies beforehand, and over time things just kind of dwindled. They didn't have the sort of communication back and forth that we really liked. We just didn't feel like they were listening to us. And then at a certain point we kind of plateaued, and we didn't really like where we were at. So that's when we were shopping around for somebody else. We had a couple of other friends who had tried you guys, and it didn't work out with their style, but they thought it would work with ours. So we said, “Okay, let's give this a shot.” We had a call with you, and we're like, “Okay, we like everything that you're saying. Let's give this a shot.” And since then, everything's been going really well.

Chris Beale: Let's go. Circling back to the before: what were some of the things you were experiencing in practice? What made you realize something needed to change, looking at the numbers and how everything was looking back then?

Dr. Gary Tao: It was mostly that a lot of the people being sent our way through our previous marketing team were just duds. They wouldn't show up. We didn't like that. They were really against taking deposits. The deposits have increased our show rate. Now just a handful of people will cancel or reschedule, and it's really not a big deal at this point. Before, it was basically the majority of people, and that was really draining.

Chris Beale: So much wasted time.

Dr. Gary Tao: Exactly. Just wasting our time, twiddling our thumbs in the back, wondering why these people weren't coming in.

Chris Beale: So that's what you had before, and then we get introduced and say, “Hey, let's try this thing out.” What was going on in practice at the time? Were the numbers dropping, or were things still pretty steady?

Dr. Gary Tao: They were pretty steady, but we weren't growing. We have so much capacity, and we were maybe around half of it. We wanted to get into that second half of what we're capable of, but we just weren't anywhere near that.

Chris Beale: I know you tried multiple companies before, trying to figure out what you needed to shift in the marketing. A lot of docs will resonate with the emotions that come with that. How were things feeling for you and Christina at that time, working with different companies and trying to piece together what you needed to do differently?

Dr. Gary Tao: It was mostly just frustrating. We would have ideas that just made sense to us, like the deposit, and they'd say, “No, let's not do that. It's going to drop the numbers.” I'm like, sure, it'll drop the numbers, but if we can get people to show more, that's more important. It felt like they were thinking more of themselves rather than working with us to actually make our practice better, rather than to make them look better.

Chris Beale: Gotcha. So there was a misalignment in what the goals were.

Dr. Gary Tao: Yeah. Just frustrating.

Chris Beale: For sure. Now transitioning to when we met: what made you decide to say, “Let's actually give this thing a shot, let's try something new”?

Dr. Gary Tao: Everything that you said was polished, but it just felt like you really actually wanted us to grow, to help us grow, and that was a huge part of it. It was more the personal connection. It didn't feel like you were helping thousands of offices and your attention was scattered everywhere. That was a big part of it. We felt like you really wanted us to grow. It felt like you had listened to us, and it felt like you were actually present with us.

Chris Beale: I love that. Thank you, that means a lot. I'm glad it felt that way. Now transitioning forward: we get started. Walk me through your initial reaction and how things have grown, maybe starting with the first couple of months.

Dr. Gary Tao: Onboarding is always a little more stressful because there's more stuff to do, whereas right now we're just on cruise control. It's really easy. In the beginning, I remember when you were trying to teach me the sales process and how that should go. Obviously I don't do all of it, but I did learn a good chunk that helped me reframe how I approach things and how I am with patients when they first come in as new patients. My conversion rate isn't the greatest, but I do feel like we've scaled to the point where the people who really want to be here are going to be here. And we're finding enough of them that it doesn't really matter if some people say, “I'm not really sure, I have to think things over.” They'll come back later if they feel like this was the best place. We have enough people coming in who see the value and want to make changes that the people who don't come back don't matter.

Chris Beale: It's not a stressor anymore. Walk me through some of the objective metrics now. Where were we when we first started, and where are we now as far as new patients and revenue? If you need any help, I have some of the numbers pulled up here too.

Dr. Gary Tao: When we first started, we were around 100 visits a week. Now we're around 170-ish, and over 90% of our available new patient spots each week are filled. It's nice because I'd rather have more volume. We'll have some people who are just there to check it out because it's a deal, but there are enough that we don't worry too much about it. Currently we're doing just day ones, but we probably have to switch to day one, day two soon to allow ourselves to grow more. That's kind of the limiting factor, and that's something I've got to figure out on my own end.

Chris Beale: Open up more availability, is what you're saying.

Dr. Gary Tao: Yeah. Before, per month, I think we were around 30,000 in collections, and now we're pretty comfortably collecting over 10K a week. Some months we've gotten up to $60K, which is really nice.

Chris Beale: Yeah, that was last month, right? We hit $60K last month.

Dr. Gary Tao: Yeah, we did have over $60K in collections. Last week we had $17K.

Chris Beale: Dang. Okay, so we're on pace for $50K to $60K right now. Let's go.

Dr. Gary Tao: And it's been pretty consistent, which has been really awesome, because earlier this year we got a house. That was a lot sooner than we were expecting, because we thought we'd have to save up for a little more time. But we've been having back-to-back-to-back really good months and growing, and we said, “Yeah, let's do it.”

Chris Beale: That's awesome. So that actually sped up the timeline for getting a home. That is so cool.

Dr. Gary Tao: Everything over 20, 30,000 a month is just straight profit at that point. So it doesn't take that many months to get a down payment.

Chris Beale: For sure. I have some of the numbers pulled up here as well. Over the last six months, and this is since we doubled ad spend, a little under 17K was spent on ads, 252 new patients were generated, and a little over 126K was signed on in care plans. That's initial, not counting retention, just whatever that initial care plan value is. So that's where some of the numbers are sitting for the last six months. And it sounds like you've actually been able to feel that in your life too, which is so cool.

Dr. Gary Tao: Yeah. Extra expenses pop up, and we're not really worried too much about it.

Chris Beale: Right. Just keep pushing forward in the business, and all the expenses are going to be covered.

Dr. Gary Tao: Exactly.

Chris Beale: How does that simplify the mental bandwidth of thinking through your personal life versus the business? With the increased funds, it's probably less stressful when personal things come up financially.

Dr. Gary Tao: Yeah, exactly what you said. If there are more funds in the office, we just keep making sure things are good at the office, and that makes sure we're secure for everything else.

Chris Beale: Walk me through how things are feeling in practice now, and in general, for both of you. I'd love to start with the practice, based on finances, and the overall feel of the practice.

Dr. Gary Tao: Overall, the practice feels like it's becoming more streamlined, more systematic. We're getting to the point where we're probably going to have to hire another front desk person.

Chris Beale: Oh, dang. Okay.

Dr. Gary Tao: For the front-end load of the paperwork and stuff like that. On my end, it's nice because I have less downtime. I'm just going patient to patient to patient. I'd rather be doing that than sitting in the back waiting for the next patient.

Chris Beale: That makes a lot of sense. How has the collaboration between us and you guys felt? Walk me through the experience working with us and how the flow has felt different or more streamlined compared to previous times you've tried to market.

Dr. Gary Tao: With communication, everything is not perfect, but sometimes patients will come in and say something happened in a communication with you guys to start things off. Whenever that happens, we reach out to Jenna: “Hey Jenna, this happened, this happened, this happened.” She's right on top of it. Very quick communication, usually within a few hours if not sooner, definitely same day. She'll say, “Okay, let me go look into it,” and then she reports back: this is what happened, we're going to make some changes, I'll talk to the team. She's extremely on it, so everything is very quick and we don't have to worry about that situation coming up again. With our previous teams, the back and forth would take days, and at a certain point we'd just say, forget it, let's move on. It doesn't feel good when they're not working with us to make things happen.

Chris Beale: And have you felt the entire time that we're working together in the same direction, fighting for the same goal?

Dr. Gary Tao: Yeah.

Chris Beale: Awesome. That's amazing. I remember that was one of the biggest pieces. I think it was the first or second time I talked with Christina before we started working together. She said something really important to you was making sure it doesn't feel like two different teams. You wanted to actually partner with someone to build a practice. I'm glad it's felt that way, because that's something we fight really intentionally to do. Is there anything else you'd want to share with someone who's wondering, “Do I give this a shot?” What else could you share about your experience working with us?

Dr. Gary Tao: Marketing is one way to grow the practice, and especially when somebody is just starting out, it's pretty much essential to get your name out there. Just give it a shot, basically, because the communication's good, the quality of work is good, and the quality of patients overall is definitely pretty good. And then, Chris, like I mentioned earlier, in the beginning you were trying to help me be better when I'm communicating with patients, so that they see the value more and are more likely to sign up for care. So there's that aspect as well, which was a little added bonus.

Chris Beale: The way I think about it is that we're really trying to partner. It's not just the things you might think are the problem. It's: what do we see objectively behind the scenes based on what the numbers are saying, and what opportunities do we have to bump the numbers up so you get whatever return you're looking for in the practice? So I'm really glad that's been impactful, as far as conversions and how we're framing some of the conversations. I'm super excited to see what the future has. This has been a crazy year, and I'm like, let's keep going.

Dr. Gary Tao: Let's keep going. If we can find the availability, that is, but I'm sure we will create more space. We're reaching the point where we have enough existing patients filling our time that we have to knock off some of what used to be new patient slots, or switch to day one, day two, to allow a little more flexibility.

Chris Beale: 100%. That makes a ton of sense. Thank you so much for popping on and sharing your experience. If you're watching this, just go book a time, and we'll see what's going on in your practice and how we might be able to help you out.