Has anyone done a Kid's Day?
Did you only invite current patients or extend it to the community?
How did you advertise it? Send out postcard? Signs? Etc?
Did you do anything else unique? Have snacks? A jumping house outside? Prize drawings?
Thoughts on bringing other vendors to set up in the parking lot like a healthfair?
Do you do a full RYF for each child?
I like to go big or go home :)
Kids Day!
(26 posts) (8 voices)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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Make it as BIG as you like!! Definitely keep it open to anyone. Sometimes the kids are the first patients and then the parents and sometimes never the parents. So no limit. In office advertising with postcards that you can hand out to patients seem to work best for most of these types of events. Balloons in the office, etc. get people wondering and inquiring. I would recommend other vendors though. Clarity of message. This is "chiropractic" so don't muddy the water. Parents get enough stuff thrown at them, let them know what they are specifically coming to check out. Definitely go BIG or go home but that usually means enthusiasm more than major ad campaigns. Great stuff!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ok, excellent advice! In your opinion, is Memorial Day weekend a bad Saturday to do it? Do people have too much else going on on a long weekend? Thanks!
Posted 1 year ago # -
In answer to that I would rephrase your question and ask "do you have too much else going on?" Again it all comes down to energy and presence! One of Dr Sea's favourite sayings is where your attention goes your energy flows! If you are resonating at a higher level you will lift or build someone else - hence the good vibes that we often experience! So if you are genuinely excited about having the Kids Day, and doing it for the right reasons, it does not matter when or where you hold it!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Perfect! I am all for doing it that weekend and even have the bounce house booked, though David was concerned with it being a holiday weekend.
Thanks Dr. Bates!Posted 1 year ago # -
Definitely have some tips :) Overall I was very pleased with the turnout. Being a holiday weekend right after school let out, I was concerned. We saw 11 new kiddos and several current patients that came out for the fun. The only problem (?) was they almost all showed up at once without appointments. Most of the families (I suspect with good reason) just showed up for some free entertainment on a Saturday (which is not necessarily bad, but the quality of patient was not great. They weren't seeking out care for a specific reason), therefore follow-up with the patients has not been great. I certainly would avoid the holiday weekend in the future. The fire truck was a huge hit and they loved the bounce house. We had chiropractic coloring sheets, educational materials, and each kid's pictures went up on our wall with parental permission. Not sure I would still adjust the kids on that first visit. If you do I would make sure you have a solid system down for your one day exam/ryf/adjustment and plenty of staff to assist you. With only one staff, it was very difficult to process that many kids and properly educate them on the care recommendations, etc. If I were doing it again, I would do a preliminary eval and/or consultation and give each patient a voucher for a full exam (and adjustment if you want) to be used within 2 weeks. Hope that helps! Have a great Kid's Day!
Posted 11 months ago # -
Awesome stuff Kelli! Really glad you had so much fun with it. I assume you're in the middle of finishing a video for it right? :) We have ours this Saturday and are super excited. No idea what to expect except that it's going to be a lot of fun. I have to ask...what in the world were they doing with the fire truck and how did you get them to come?
Posted 11 months ago # -
I just called the fire dept and asked if they could bring a truck over for an hour. They are usually used to doing these things. Basically the kids got to crawl around on it and even sit behind the wheel, took pictures, meet the firefighters, and they handed out stickers. The kids loved it!
Posted 11 months ago # -
The local fire department has come to my son's last three birthday parties. When Karen first asked them and volunteered to donate money they told her that they work for us. This is aprt of their community service. They get an opportunity to do a quick educational bit with the kids and the kids get to be more comfortable with firemen in the event that they might need their services down the road. And it is fun for them. Everyone wins.
Dr. Kelli sounds like things went pretty well. A couple of things that stood out to me in your post, in large part because they reminded me of my past, is that you mentioned sound a bit disappointed in what you got out of it from a new patient standpoint and even al little "annoyed" that people came by for some "free" entertainment. Basically that you were used. That all would indicate that you were focused on all the new patients YOU were going to get from this endeavor. :) Bad. As hard as it is, you need to just give for the sake of giving. It is the vibe that we give depending on the frame of mind we are in that will attract or not attract people in general. Particularly with kids, I think it would be alot of seed planting versus a large amount of follow up unless there was a perceived "problem" that needed fixing by the parents. And that is where the education comes in and if you gave not great RYF's then a bit of opportunity lost but the biggest thing I would hope for is people getting a sense of liking you and trusting you. So that the next ear infection down the road or sports injury, etc. They might give chiropractic a whirl. Also, didn't you and your husband work that day to account for the potential volume of exams? One thought, to add is to pick a time to do a group RYF that was in the middle of all those folks. Taht way it could be a brief informational moment in the midst of all the activities and the kids don't even need to stop playing. Most of the information is the same and then you can jsut focus on the details of each kids case versus trying to give the whole stroy over and over. Last, appreciate the opportunity to struggle with keeping up. You and your staff got a taste of pressure. Look at what went right and look at what went wrong and come up with what you would do different. I woudl avoid going primarily with slowing things down but instead first look at how you all might keep up better. These are the best opportunities. When do you ge the chance to do that many exams in a short period of time? You really don't so don't worry about what you got out of it from direct patients but instead the learning opportunity. That will gain you far more over time than you ever could have had in one day. Way to push the envelope.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Dr. Perron, I see your point. And you said a lot of things I can resonate with. "You and your staff got a taste of pressure. Look at what went right and look at what went wrong and come up with what you would do different. I would avoid going primarily with slowing things down but instead first look at how you all might keep up better." Right on! I told Dr. Sea I had visible stretch marks from Saturday :)
It's no secret that my natural tendency is to want immediate results from energy put in...bad! though I honestly don't feel annoyed at all that people came out for Free entertainment and was just happy to have so many people in our office enjoying the fun. (This is why we stopped doing screenings... the very act of screenings is to force people into your time frame instead of theirs or to sell them on care). Don't make your Kids Day about that! Maybe that was my mistake. Truly, I was hoping the patients would follow through because they need the care. I've thought about this a lot this week and for several days, all I could think of was a little boy who bangs his head on the wall and his mom cancelled his second appointment and the little girl who WAS potty trained but now has accidents every night. And the little boy who has cerebral palsy and NEEDS chiropractic. Still me centered because "I" want to help them I guess. But as Dr. Sea reminded me, maybe she cancelled because he stopped banging his head or his ears felt better. Or maybe she stopped wetting the bed at night, therefore the perceived need is gone...Next. Stop making it about me and how I performed on that day. Bottom line, is that it made me realize what we can do better to serve each person better from now on and the next time we have a Kid's Day. But 11 kids got checked for subluxation and that is a success!Posted 11 months ago # -
Absolutely! And it is not an me centered to want to help people. That is the whole point of all of this. The boundary is that they need to come to you. So when they are not with you don't keep them with you. They need the freedom to choose and you need the free space in your head to focus on the people that you are currently seeing. I and I bet we all have the same thoughts and wonder what is going on with so and so but the truth is it only gets in the way of helping the "next" person. Very subtle differences, which is why it takes some time to grasp these things. We all still are in that process.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Great job on the Kids Day Kelli! Loved watching the excitement you were carrying in to it on facebook. ;)
Just wanted to jump in here with the whole concept of really wanting the kids that you KNOW need the help to come in, and when they don't being disappointed for THEM & their future. I can totally relate to that, and I can honestly say that that was one of the biggest obstacles which was getting in the way of my ability to help more people. I think it is totally natural to think about your patients, but you need to have a way to "let them go". For me, it often comes out in my morning pages exercise, so if you are still doing them, you could slot out a portion for releasing patients who are "stuck" in your consciousness.
What I also think is an important piece is how we react to that patient if they do come in again. Sometimes our tendency is to judge the fact that they have missed a few weeks of care, and question whether they really "get" what you are trying to do with them (or is that just me?). Or we are so excited that they are back that we just jump on them with information about how important it is that they get adjusted. Their opening and closing needs to be as "clean" as any other regular visit. And the thinking in our head ("how can I convey to them the importance of this kids adjustments, or how can I talk to them about how important the frequency of their adjustments is") while we are checking them and adjusting them doesn't help. It then feels to the patient like there is a "disconnect" that they don't really understand, and "a confused mind always says no".
Hope that helps! Great job planting seeds :)Posted 11 months ago # -
I think it is okay to speak to a patients behavior at given times like not follow a care plan and you see that it is impacting their level of results. BUT!! it needs to be done in the right tone and most importantly intent. Maybe they are clueless that it requires repetition at first to retrain patterns in their bodies that have been in place for 40 years. So educational, not "I told you so." or "I can't believe you didn't not trust my recommendations enough to revolve your entire life around chiropractic for the rest of your life. Were'nt you listending in the RYF." :) If you feel emotional then that would be a red flag that you are NOT in the right frame of mind. I say things like, "That hip just really does not want to stay on its own. If you really want to get things more stable we will need to check it more often for a period of time. It will only learn to stay in the correct place if it is there in the first place. So if we adjust it and it holds for a day then shifts out at this point of time and we don't check you for a week it will spend one day learning the right thing and 6 days reinforcing the bad. Kind of hard to get ahead of the game that way." Then I truly don't give a !@%$ if they decide to do it or not. It's not my back. Might sound harsh but I see my role as educating and providing opportunity. That is it. It is an offer to help someone help themselves. We offer a gift of empowerment to people. That also requires a level of accountablility that is sometimes not strong.
Posted 11 months ago # -
We just had ours on Saturday and it was a friggin blast! Our number one focus during our huddle was to simply have fun. Parents and grandparents even ended up seeing us as new patients that morning because of the kids because our focus was on the kids and just providing a good time for them. It really brings a totally different level of energy when the focus isn't on trying to get new patients. Anyhow lots of stuff to talk about later.
Posted 11 months ago # -
So when are you guys doing your next one? I wanted to do one today but everyone tells me it's too soon :) We had some patients already ask when we're going to do it again because they had a great time, or weren't able to bring their kids/grand kids in. Got off a chat with Dr. T and we talked about how huge of a difference it makes just concentrating on giving the kids a great time. In our morning huddle before the festivities, we discussed how the day was not about getting new patients and that the focus was strictly on having fun with them. Not everything went off without a hitch, but we were just okay with it and focused on the fun. During what we thought was the chaotic time, we saw 6 new patients in a 50 minute door to door time total for all of them--can we say reason to celebrate? We had an awesome talk about how to improve it next time, but still focused on how awesome it was. Again, focus on fun was so much better than practice past of getting new patients. Did I mention that focusing on fun was way better? I could repeat that a few more times :) I found it incredible how many current patients just showed up that day, and then proceeded to go home and get their kids, or brought in their spouse as a new patient--also grandparents came in as new patients that day too just because of the fun we were having. Anyhow, next Kids Day is set for September and I'm already stoked for it.
Posted 11 months ago # -
That sounds fantastic Dr. Huynh!! Awesome job with the headspace. One thing that I have done after my now annual end of year COW is to extend the offer based on in a targeted fashion. For instance a patient stating that they really wished they knew or that they heard about it and it was too late to bring their kid over in time. In the spirit of the event I tell them that if they are interested they can bring in their child and I will extend the offer to them still. Remember that our income is not from exams, it is from adjustments. So if you keep that door open a crack when they are expressing a desire to explore chiropractic for their family then keep it open for a moment longer. But very short term and it should feel like it is in the spirit of your event versus a never ending event.
Posted 11 months ago # -
At the park this weekend I ran into one of the moms that brought her little boy to Kid's Day in May. Had been having ear infections and was head banging. I got discouraged after they cancelled his second adjustment and I never heard from them again. Here is where we need to say next and mean it, which I had a hard time doing. The mom approached me at the park and said her son hasn't complained about his ears and hasn't had an infection since the day he was adjusted and the little boy I saw running around with a smile on his face was a different little boy than the one I saw in my office on Kid's Day. She said he had stopped complaining of ear pain within hours of being adjusted and has not since then. As far as they were concerned, the problem was gone... why follow-up? Why get him adjusted again? It's fixed right?
Posted 10 months ago # -
If you do feel he needs to at least be checked again. I would say something like: Great to hear he responded so well to this type of treatment. Kids do respond so well and fast. Unfortunately, just because the symptoms are gone doesn't always mean the underlying problem is completely corrected. (An example I use is saying if this is our normal distance apart (the distance from me to person) and I come over and put my finger on your arm, it bothers you. I move just a little back, now the finger isn't bothering you, but our distance isn't where it should be and could still be uncomfortable (because still close to person), so checking and adjusting if necessary to get the distance back to where it should be can work to make it harder for the problem to return easily.) I would say my method of treatment has an assessment process that allows me to find problems even if there isn't symptoms. That's what I would recommend for little Johnny, so if you want give the office a call. If not, ok. If the ear aches ever return, call right away so we can get him in and get him feeling better quickly.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Why not just celebrate with them and leave it at that! "That is brilliant news, I am thrilled he responded so well, you know where we are if you think he needs help in the future!" They got what they wanted, so why risk pissing them off by lecturing them and making them wrong?! Now if they had asked for your opinion as to whether they should quit, well that is a totally different matter. But they were happy ....... so next!
Posted 10 months ago # -
But are you really risking pissing them off by dong so? It just seems like a really good opportunity that could be missed based on fear, rather than seizing the opportunity in the best interest of the child. The fact that she approached to tell about how her son is doing seems like an awesome opportunity. It just seems like one of those really good times to express your excitement for how well he's doing, and have the chance to remind her the goal of checking him is to make sure he doesn't need to get adjusted. I feel like she must have been dying to tell you the exciting news so you can be so excited about how well he's doing. Why not be just as excited to let her know that you can't wait to check him again?
Posted 10 months ago # -
My take falls between the two angles, probably more towards Ed. Celebrate as the primary course but I tell parents, in or out the office when things are "resolved". "Now this is certainly up to you but what alot of parents do and I certainly do with my own kids is check on them once in a while. Kind of like going to the dentist to see what little things we may have happening but don't really notice yet because one of the top way kids get things out of place is doing (then point to the playset :) As you go to experience firsthand, children rarely need alot of care so if he is getting sick it would be a great time to get checked or if he takes a tumble that really gets your attention other than that if all appears okay once every 3 months is a good "safety net" timeframe to clean up all the little things that are bound to happen. This helps to ensure that as his body grows it literally clear and set up to grow correctly versus needing to grow around and adapt to problems."
In writing it is a lecture, it is all in the presentation as well as reading whether the parent actually appears interested in what you are saying as soon as they are not then wrap it up. I have found most are into taking in the brief amount of information and a different perspective to think about. No right or wrong answer.Posted 10 months ago # -
I think in general, my preference would be to say something. He needs to be adjusted again, it just didn't seem right to say in the situation. I was caught a little off guard and found myself celebrating with them. She didn't ask my opinion and it didn't flow naturally to that. So in this situation I did not say anything and I'm ok with that.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Dr. Julie
MemberI am glad this post came alive again as we will be hosting our first Kids Day this Saturday. I can tell you don't plan a Kids Day in the middle of a remodel, but oh well, we are going to have a GREAT time. I also called on some of my friends to help me. I have some face painting, someone to play games with the kids, and my husband is drawing posture chalk outlines for the kids to take home with them. I recruited someone else to help me with my MyoVision since I am in the middle of hiring a second person (of course I will interpret). I think it will be the beginning to a long time of practice fun.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Congrats on the new office build-out and you Kid's Day!! I'm sure it will be a blast :) Have fun and plant some seeds!
Posted 10 months ago #
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