The regulars you have not seen since spring
Every clinic has them: patients who finished their initial care months or years ago and now come in every six weeks, or every couple of months, or whenever they feel they need it. They are the steady base of the diary. They are also the easiest patients to lose without noticing, because nobody expects them on any particular date.
Someone mentions at the desk that a long-standing patient has not been in for a while. A quick look shows her last visit was in March. She had been coming every five weeks for three years.
Why fixed recall dates do not fit
A dental-style recall, 'see you in six months', works when the interval is the same for everyone. Maintenance chiropractic is not like that. One patient comes monthly, another every ten weeks, another only in the busy season at work. A single reminder rule sends messages too early to some and far too late to others, so clinics either spam everyone or send nothing.
Clinic software can usually show 'last visit date', but not 'last visit date compared with this person's normal pattern'. That comparison is what matters, and it is exactly what a person at the desk cannot do across hundreds of records.
What drifting regulars cost
- Diary gaps that appear gradually, so no single week looks alarming.
- Long-standing patients who may assume the clinic stopped caring about them.
- Chiropractors who lose touch with people they have looked after for years.
- Marketing spend on new patients to replace ones who could simply have been asked back.
How the lapsed-patient list works
- We read each patient's visit history from your clinic software.
- For patients who have finished an initial plan and moved to occasional visits, the system works out their usual gap from the last several visits.
- When the current gap runs well beyond that pattern, by a margin you choose, the patient appears on a weekly list.
- The list goes to the treating chiropractor first, who can remove anyone they know about: moved away, pregnant, seeing someone else, passed a message on through a family member.
- The remaining patients receive a short message in the chiropractor's name, by email or SMS through a service such as Twilio, with a link to book.
- Replies go to a monitored inbox, not a no-reply address, so a patient who writes back gets a person.
- Patients who opt out are marked and never contacted again for this purpose.
| Patient pattern | Usual gap | When flagged (example setting) |
|---|---|---|
| Regular monthly | About four weeks | After around seven weeks |
| Every couple of months | About eight weeks | After around thirteen weeks |
| Irregular, seasonal | Varies widely | Only after a long quiet spell, reviewed by the chiropractor |
The thresholds in that table are examples of the kind of setting you choose, not a recommendation. The chiropractor always has the final say over who is contacted.
What the clinic gets back
Instead of a vague sense that some regulars have drifted, the clinic has a short, specific list each week, already checked by the person who knows the patients. Messages feel personal because they are sent in the chiropractor's name and only when there is a reason. Patients who were simply busy rebook. Those who have moved on are recorded as such, so the list stays clean.
This is different from a newsletter. It goes to a handful of people, for a reason, from someone they know.
Recognise your clinic here?
- Long-standing patients disappear and nobody notices for months.
- Your recall reminders go out on one fixed interval for everyone.
- Chiropractors keep mental notes of regulars they have not seen.
- Reactivation happens in occasional bursts when the diary looks thin.
- You spend on new patient marketing without first checking who has lapsed.