E737 | What You Can Learn From Camp Counselors

The Power of First Impressions: Insights from Summer Camp to Physical Therapy

In this episode, Dr. Danny explores the profound impact that first impressions can have, drawing parallels between summer camp experiences and physical therapy practices.

He shares a personal story about dropping his kids off at camp, where a seasoned counselor taught him a valuable lesson: making both kids and their parents feel secure and welcomed from the moment they arrive is essential.

Why First Impressions Matter

Dr. Danny emphasizes that in physical therapy, just like at camp, the initial interaction sets the tone for the entire experience. Regardless of your expertise in clinical skills or digital marketing, how patients feel during their first visit can greatly influence whether they decide to return or recommend your services.

Strategies for a Great First Impression

Throughout the episode, Dr. Danny offers actionable strategies to enhance first impressions and create a positive, ongoing patient experience:

• Clear Communication: Set expectations before the first appointment to ensure patients know what to expect.
• Acknowledge Delays: If there are any delays, promptly acknowledge them and apologize.
• Treatment Summaries: Provide detailed summaries of treatments and encourage patients to involve their loved ones in the process.
• Follow-Up: Check on patients the day after potentially uncomfortable treatments to ensure their well-being.
• Warm Atmosphere: Create a welcoming, positive atmosphere in the clinic that fosters engagement and reinforces care.

Why This Matters

Dr. Danny stresses that these thoughtful gestures can significantly transform how patients perceive their care. A positive first impression, coupled with a supportive ongoing experience, can encourage patients to seek treatment and become passionate advocates for your practice.

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Podcast Transcript

client success or customer success is proactive. And, for me, like to think about the importance of that first interaction of that first moment that you're meeting this counselor or that the kids are It's so similar to the first interactions you have with a patient. Hey, are you a physical therapist looking to leverage your skillset in a way that helps you create time and financial freedom for yourself and your family?

If so, you're in the right spot. My name's Danny Matay, and over the last 15 years I've done pretty much everything you can in the profession. I've been a staff pt, I've been an active duty military officer. Physical, the. I've started my own cash practice. I've sold that cash practice. And today my company physical therapy business helped over a thousand clinicians start growing scale, their own cash practices.

So if this sounds like something you want to do, listen up. Cause I'm here to help you. Hey, what's going on? Dr. Danny here at the PT on for our podcast. And today we are talking about. Why the first impression is so Important so backstory to this week. I dropped my kids off at summer camp so sleep away summer camp which is obviously you're going to stay in cabins and whatever they're going hiking and zip lining and whatever else they're doing in north georgia right now Probably having an amazing time.

Hopefully have an amazing time, but the guy that I trained with and my workout partner, he was a camp counselor for I think it was like seven or eight years. I never went to camp. I never went to like a summer camp or whatever. It just wasn't in the cards with my family to pay for something like that.

But it's something that it was like a really impactful part of his life and especially like leadership and a lot of things that he uses, he's in sales today he really, learned as a camp counselor. And he said something to me that I thought was really interesting this morning when I was talking to him about.

Dropping our kids off at camp. And he said, how was the how was the drop off? How were the counselors? And I said, they were great, man. They seemed really enthusiastic. They seemed very like great communicators. They were connecting the kids. They were introducing the kids to each other.

And he said, the most important thing that we learned. As a camp counselor was that the first interaction is the most important thing that you can possibly do. And the way he explained to me was that it's not just the kid, right? And a lot of kids go to camp and they feel a little bit Hey, they're a little bit anxious about it.

A little bit nervous. They are meeting people. They don't know, they're not sure what they're going to do if they haven't been there before, all kinds of stuff. And, but he said, it's not just the kids, it's the parents. And the goal of the first interaction. Is that the parents leave and they feel completely safe with who their kids are going to be around for the next week.

And I gotta be honest, like I felt like they did a good job of that. That's how I felt, but it makes me think of just the importance of first impressions with everything. And I think about this with our businesses all the time. And we talk about this in terms of. Success. So this idea of like client success is how can you proactively leave a great first impression or leave a positive impression on interactions that people have with you in a proactive manner, customer success or customer retention really comes down to pro or reactive.

So customer service is reactive. Client success or customer success is proactive. And you want to be as proactive as you can, because then on the back end, you don't have as many problems to deal with. And, for me, like to think about the importance of that first interaction of that first moment that you're meeting this counselor or that the kids are meeting this counselor, It's so similar to the first interactions you have with a patient that are coming to work with you, And little things you can do around that leave them with such a positive First interaction and what that does is it gives you so much grace for some shit You might fuck up like you literally might screw things up you might mess up scheduling you might not get them a super bill as fast as they want they might not get an outcome as fast as they want But I can tell you this much if you have a great first interaction with them, they will give you far more You Leeway that will give you far more grace because you have now established the relationships up a positive way You've developed so much reciprocity from that first interaction that they're gonna go ahead and be like, that's okay I'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna give them this one and you know Just act like it's totally fine because I really appreciated this first time interaction This just must be a mistake versus if you don't do that.

They expect that's the norm And that they're in the wrong place and that you are not good at what you do. And they're not going to give you any leeway with that. They're going to be quick to leave either a bad review or just leave and not come back. And that is something that you have to really combat proactively as a local service business, because whether you like it or not.

You could be the world's greatest digital marketer. I maybe you're just a Facebook and Google ninja, right? And you don't have to do a single marketing event or anything like that. You just live and die off of just your wizardry. When it comes to paid ads, here's what you can't change with that. You can't change what people are saying about your business when they're not there.

And that is the importance of a local reputation and more than anything that comes down to the direct Interactions you have with people and what they have to say about your business after they work with you And what most people get is this they get that they're pretty good. They're all right Yeah, they're not you're not so bad that they're going to say something negative about you But you're not so good that they're going to put their Reputation on the line to recommend you and this is the difference between clinics that are they struggle to get new patient volume.

They struggle to get new people in the door. They struggle to retain people and clinics that don't have to work nearly as hard to get people in the door and those people want to stick around for forever. They don't leave. They want to work on ongoing problems. They want to work on performance stuff.

They want to send their spouse. They want to send their kids because they finally found a trusted healthcare provider that will listen to them, help them solve their problems and that they really enjoy working with. That's the key. You have to be outcome has to be good. That's check the box. Number one.

And on the other side of that, just important. They have to feel awesome while they're there. They have to enjoy being there. That's your clinical, culture. That's the way that you set up the practice. So for you, you got to think of the importance of that first interaction. Little things like how you're messaging with them, you know how you're informing them about the first steps in the clinic of what to expect where they can find your clinic, you know what they should wear what they shouldn't expect you being on time You apologizing if you're a minute late you making sure they're very clear on The, the prognosis, what's going on expectations and the things that they need to do and or not do when they leave the clinic.

It's you following up with them with a detailed summary of what's going on just to the point where maybe their spouse wants to read it and you say, Hey, please share this with your spouse. This should explain everything really well. If you need anything else, please let me know checking in with them the next day.

If you do some sort of manual therapy that might, be a bit uncomfortable. A little things like this are the difference between a amazing first. Interaction at first impression that are going to, that's going to allow you to take a bit of pressure off of trying to deliver, and also set the stage for you to create an amazing client experience that they want to tell all their friends about, not just that you help them with their knee, but you help them with their knee.

And this place is so fun and they make the best latte. And I love going in there. It's the best hour of my week when I get a chance to go there because it's so positive and everybody there is. Is rooting for me to get better. That is the difference between an amazing clinic that is going to have a viral, word of mouth.

Reputation behind all the marketing that you might do behind all the efforts that you do And you just getting people in and it's churning them through your clinic and they never come back and never tell anybody else About you so think of it like camp Be that excited counselor that by the time that person gets dropped off, that patient, let's say the kid, that kid is just so excited to be there.

They feel so comfortable and they're going to have an amazing time. Don't let don't squander that first interaction. It's so important and it can make a huge difference.

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