Answer · The Practice
How do I create more referrals?
Make referrals the job, not an awkward ask when someone feels better.
Dr. Ben Lerner’s answer is a staff-driven referral experience: culture, tactics, and systems working together so referrals happen at a reliable clip, not when the doctor happens to feel brave.
Most clinics fall short because referrals are episodic (someone says they feel better, then we ask) or temporal (we wait for a special event or a symptom to vanish). That is not a plan. It is hope wearing a lab coat.
The shift
Great teams are built, not merely found.
Ben tells the story of walking a high-performing referral operation as a patient: clear outcome, trained language, follow-up without friction. When he praised “amazing staff,” the founder’s reply cut through: success was not luck of personality; people were trained to a standard. For chiropractic offices that feel uneasy about “being salesy,” that is often the missing piece. Referrals are the job, the same way care is the job.
Method. Mission. System.
Three words Ben wants offices to walk away with: the alternative to waiting for someone to feel better before you invite the next person in.
1
Method
Referrals are not a mood. When someone walks in, this is simply what the office does, the same way a kitchen makes the meal. The team knows the outcome they are responsible for.
2
Mission
People are hurting. Waiting until a miracle lands before you invite someone else in is a strange standard for a healing profession. You and the patient are on a mission to make lives better; names and outreach belong in that mission.
3
System
Scripts, training, follow-up, and proceduralized moments in care, not hope. Early visits should include designed referral moments; by re-exam, the principle is clear enough that leads should already be part of the rhythm.
A useful benchmark
Offices that do this well often land near 10 referrals per 100 visits in a month. At a few hundred visits a week, that is a serious pipeline, and still something many otherwise strong clinics never reach, because referrals were never made the team’s job.
Teaching
Staff-driven referral experience
Watch Ben walk the story, the friction, and the method / mission / system shift in full voice.
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