How many times have you sat in a waiting room or reception area at a doctor or dentist or law office, car dealership, tire store, or wherever? What we mostly find in such situations are magazines...usually not up to date ones...and possibly not of any interest to us. So I suggest you scrap that idea for your waiting area and do something completely different. Here are some ideas:

1. Put up a bookshelf next to the receptionist area (where he or she can keep an eye on it) and put two or three attractive retail displays of things you sell. This can be really simple and can even be empty bottles instead of full ones), but should always include a small plexiglass sign-holder with a little sign stating what this is, why you like it, what the price is or if there is a special offer, and that they should see the receptionist to get some. This could be a special line of cosmetics or skin care products, a line of pain-relief plasters, oils, or liniments, or herbal formulas that are specific to a season or a disease such as hay fever, cold and flu, etc.

2. Put out a notebook with research articles alphabetical by condition (hint: visit our TCM Infoline here at Blue Poppy) and put a note on top of the notebook that says "Would you like to take home information about a specific condition for a friend or relative? Ask for a copy of one or more of these research articles at the front desk!" You can charge a few cents a copy if you need to do so.

3. Another type of notebook to have could include a photo-journal from a trip to China or a trip as a volunteer for Acupuncturists Without Borders, etc. You could intersperse comments about the trip or even testimonials from happy patients (with their permission of course).

4. Racking on the wall should have informational brochures and flyers about what services you offer at your clinic that patients may not know about. This could be about classes you teach, free lectures you are giving, specific products you recommend, brochures about acupuncture, how safe Chinese herbs are, or specific conditions you like to treat.

5. If you do have any publications, make sure they are either acupuncture specific, or at least about alternative health.

6. If you want to really be high tech, you could have a couple of videos that you or others have created about "What Is Chinese Medicine and How Does It Work?" There are such videos available. I recently posted one on my Facebook page that is for public use. Here's a link for that one but I know there are others. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW4Efh4EliY
Or how about a video of you treating and talking about acupuncture? that could really increase your patient's confidence in you.

7. If you have the time and are really organized, place a short article or brochure in the patient's chart, and train your front desk staff to say "Honora would really like you to read this article before your appointment." Alternatively, you can have brief "re-assessing your symptoms" forms for patients to fill out, which may help reinforce that they are improving from treatment.

8. If you have permission to use testimonials from your patients, make them into small posters to frame and put up in your waiting room to increase your new patients' confidence in you. They will get better results, which makes everyone happy.

9. Make sure your waiting room is a clean and pleasant haven where someone would like to wait for a few minutes!

Finally, remember that 5-6 minutes of waiting can serve a number of good purposes, helping the patient relax and slow down, giving them a chance to become more educated about Chinese medicine, or the opportunity to find out about a useful product. However, longer than 10 minutes waiting is not courteous. When you know that you are running more than 10 minutes late, giving the patient the option to reschedule says... "Your time is as valuable as mine. I am sorry that I've kept you waiting. You get to decide whether to stay or come back at a different time."

Hope you find these tips helpful. thanks for reading
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