Last year, second week of December, the email finally went out.
“Use your benefits before they reset.”
Three patients called. Two couldn’t get in before Christmas.
The third wanted to know if you were open the 30th.
You weren’t.
So let me ask you straight. By the time that email landed, what was already gone?
The money. Most of it went to Christmas before Thanksgiving was over.
The open slots. You closed a week, and what was left of December was full by the 10th.
The energy. Nobody starts anything in December. They survive it.
Not one of those is a problem with the email. You wrote a good email. You just sent it after the answer was already no. I get it. December is when the deadline feels real to you. It’s not when it’s useful to them.
The benefits email isn’t a December email. It’s an October email that most offices send eight weeks late.
When should a chiropractic office send the end of year benefits email?
The second week of October. The email doesn’t fail because it’s wrong. It fails because it’s late.
In October the money’s still there and the calendar still has holes in it. Same email, same patient, different month. And in October you’re the only one saying it. By December you’re the fortieth, and yours reads like the other thirty-nine no matter how good it is.
Try this: Put your benefits email on the calendar for the second week of October. Not the first week of December. Not “after Thanksgiving.” Send it whether it feels early or not. It will feel early. That’s the point.
What should a chiropractic benefits reminder email say?
What’s expiring and what they have left, said plainly. It’s not a promotion. It’s a care plan with a deadline the patient didn’t set.
The doc who writes “Don’t miss out! Use it or lose it!” sounds like every other December inbox. The doc who writes “You’ve got visits left on your plan, and the benefits you’ve been paying for all year reset January 1” sounds like a doctor. No offer. No exclamation points. Just what’s true, said plainly, by somebody who’s paying attention.
Try this: Write the one sentence that says what’s expiring and what they have left. Read it out loud. If it sounds like a coupon, start over.
What does the front desk need ready before the benefits email goes out?
The answer to “how many do I have left?” for every patient mid-plan. The email opens the door. Your front desk has to be standing there when they walk through it.
The first thing a patient asks after that email is “how many do I have left?” If your CA has to put them on hold and go look, the moment cools. If she has the answer before they finish asking, they book. That’s the whole difference between a good email and a good October.
Try this: This week, have the desk pull every patient mid-plan with visits remaining and keep that list next to the phone. When the email goes out, the answers are already there.
What This Means for You
- ✅ The patient who got your email on December 12th had already said no before they opened it
- ✅ A benefits email that sounds like a sale gets deleted with the other forty
- ✅ The question after the email is about their plan, not your hours, so have the answer before the phone rings
- ✅ October is the only month you're the only one saying it
Pro Tip: The day this one goes out, put next October’s on the calendar. Same week, same list pull, every year. The offices that never send this late aren’t more organized. They’ve got somebody whose job is the calendar.
Inside CC with Nerissa: I Told the Whole Chicken Festival I Look Up to Myself. It’s the Only Thing I Said at 14 That Aged Well.
Picture it, 30 years ago…1990something. The emcee wasn’t supposed to ask us a question on stage. 🎤
The Miss Teen World Chicken Festival is underway, I’m 14 standing on stage, and somebody mixes up our program with the main event. Instead of walking off, I get a microphone and a question. “Who do you look up to the most?”
I can still see my family in the audience. They knew me. They knew what was coming.
“Myself,” I said. Why would I look up to anybody more than me?
I did not win.
Thirty years later, the whole town still shuts down for this thing. School’s out Thursday and Friday. There’s a frying pan 11 feet across that cooks 600 quarters of chicken at a time, and it takes a crew of locals to run it. My mammaw was one of them. The Colonel himself was a native. The first KFC is five minutes from my house, and there’s always somebody out front taking a picture of the sign. When I was a kid this was the biggest weekend of the year.
So Saturday, Greg and I paid $10 to park in a fundraiser lot and walked into it.
We passed the stage first. Same stage. Greg was 14 that year too, playing drums in a local rock band and thinking about the day he’d get me. I was stuck up.
Then I did what I always do at this thing. I went looking for the stuff that used to be here. When I was a kid, local people made things you could only buy at the Chicken Festival. That was the point of going. This year I walked five booths and the sixth one was the first booth again. The same $20 shirts. Halloween stuff. Temu junk. $32 minimum for a kid to ride the rides. Crazy!?!
Monday I was back at my desk doing the same thing, just with a different pile. Greg’s got the agents reading every client report we’ve pulled since day one, looking for what chiropractic patients actually open, planning next year’s calendar. 🖥️
One thing was clear…They open the stuff that sounds like them.
I walked right past every booth on Saturday because none of it sounded like my town. Your patients do the same thing in their inbox. They show up for the thing that’s theirs, and they scroll past the fifth one selling the same shirt. Turns out I’m the patient in this story. Funny how that works. 🎪
I keep thinking about that stage.
The festival tried to be everywhere else and quit being ours. I never did that. Not at 14 with a microphone and my whole family wishing I’d said literally anyone else. Not in 2023, which would’ve been a death sentence for anybody else. For me it was a starting off point.
I’m still the baddie I look up to. 💅
What does a Chiro Connect newsletter actually include?
Every newsletter ends with a Week of Wellness, a simple daily calendar that gives patients something to check and use all week, and a reason to open the next email. Here’s the one that went out with this issue.
FAQ
When should a chiropractor send an end of year insurance benefits reminder?
The second week of October. The money’s still there, the calendar still has holes in it, and you’re the only office saying it. By December patients have spent the money and your schedule’s full.
What should a chiropractic benefits reminder email say?
One plain sentence about what’s expiring and what they have left. “You’ve got visits left on your plan, and the benefits you’ve been paying for all year reset January 1.” No offer and no exclamation points. If it sounds like a coupon, start over.
Why do patients ignore use it or lose it emails?
Because by December yours is the fortieth one, and most of them read like a sale. Patients open the stuff that sounds like them and like their own doctor. Same rule as reactivation emails that feel human: say what’s true, the way you’d say it at the front desk.
What does the front desk need before a benefits email goes out?
A list of every patient mid-plan with visits remaining, kept next to the phone. Note each plan’s reset date while you’re in there. Most reset January 1, but not all. The first question after the email is “how many do I have left?” and the CA who already has the answer books the visit.
Want this running for your practice? Let’s look at what’s already in your list.
