A Cup of MDT
Recently, I had the opportunity to present on neck and back pain prevention to all of the employees while on the job at a new local coffee shop located in the Wynwood section of Miami, Florida called OTL.
You may ask yourself, “Employees at a coffee shop? Why even bother?” The answer is that you should ALWAYS look and think outside of the box for referral sources. Since I know the owner of the shop, offering to give a free talk was an easy decision because it is inherently good to provide quality health education in your community. It also creates a win-win. For the business owner, it showed his concern for his employees; the employees gained practical advice applicable in the workplace; and it supported my goal to gain an additional referral source to my office, South Beach Spine Physical Therapy.
The coffee shop employees are in daily contact with customers who may be presenting with mechanical pain. I spoke with the OTL staff about the prevention strategies and self-healing concepts of MDT and how my line of work differs from that of other physical therapists. Furthermore, I guided the staff to detect mechanical pain behavior/presentation and explained to them how to make the appropriate referral to my office. For example, for someone who is a regular customer - a customer the barista knows well - s/he sees that customer rubbing or stretching their neck in discomfort. S/he can then ask “Is your neck bothering you?” If yes, s/he would continue by saying “I know this mechanical therapist who can teach you how to adjust your own neck so you don’t have to deal with neck pain or stiffness anymore…”
By offering large discounts for employees and their family members to see me in my office for evaluation if the need arises, I infused motivation and value to the employees who refer patients my way.
Chasing doctors with invitations for lunch in hopes to gain referrals is not my cup of tea. My primary marketing focus is public education; I immediately help people and any opportunity to expand on my referral sources is a good opportunity. Can you think of a local business that you could approach to teach about mechanical pain, prevention strategies and MDT?
You can find pictures from this event posted on my Facebook page for South Beach Spine Physical Therapy
Feel free to email me with any questions at yoav@sobespine.com
Think outside the box… and let us know about your creative success!