Customer Service Tips for Therapists

I am sure that you regularly think about your clients and how to help them but do you ever think about 'customer care' in a more business-oriented sense? No? You are not alone. Google 'customer care for therapists' and most of the sites that come up are aimed at physical therapists rather than psychological ones. But we are business owners, and it's something we need to consider. So, with that in mind, I thought I would share a story about customer care.

How to get word of mouth referrals

Many successful therapists will tell you that they get a significant number of clients via 'word of mouth' referrals, meaning that new clients are referred to them by previous ones. It’s a great system since it means someone else is doing your marketing for you - and for free - but when you’re new or trying to build your business it can be a challenge to get the ball rolling.

Do your clients tell you lies?

The simple answer is that yes, some of them do. Maybe even most of them, although, of course, there's no real way to tell. Or is there? 

 

A study of 547 clients done by Blanchard et al [1] showed that around 93% of them had lied to their therapists, on issues ranging from minimising the extent of their distress, exaggerating how well they thought the therapy was going, and hiding information even if they were asked a direct question about it. Martin [2] found that of  109 psychology students undertaking therapy, 37% admitted to lying.

What to do when clients don't turn up

This is a topic that comes up regularly on social media and in discussion with other therapists, so I thought I would look this month at the issue of 'no shows' - clients who fail to turn up for their appointments, without giving you any notice.

GoodTherapy.org[1] cites studies which say that 20 to 57 percent of people in therapy do not return after the initial session (Lambert). Another 37 to 45 percent only attend therapy a total of two times (Schwartz), so if your stats are lower than this you may be doing better than you think.

Therapists: can your empathy get you down?

'Compassion fatigue is caused by empathy. It is the natural consequence of stress resulting from caring for and helping traumatized or suffering people'

Dennis Portnoy [1]

You might also find compassion fatigue referred to as 'Caregiver Fatigue', 'Vicarious Stress' and 'Secondary Traumatic Stress', and it most often appears in those who help others, provide them with support and/or listen to their upsetting or traumatic stories.