Interviewer: I’m here with Lauren, a registered dietitian from Boston. Lauren, I wonder if you could explain to us a little about your practice.
Lauren: Well, I started my practice about eight months ago. And I specialize in digestive health. So I see a lot of people with irritable bowel syndrome, bacteria overgrowth, acid reflux, inflammatory bowel disease. I would say that’s about half my clients and the other half come in for weight loss and various other conditions. And I have two different offices. One in Boston and one outside of Boston. And I work with a group of therapists
Interviewer: Now you touched on it a little bit but, what are some techniques you use to get new clients?
Lauren: A lot of people find me online from websites such as healthcareprofessionals.com and Yelp. And also just by reaching out to doctors and therapists, that’s primarily how I get people. And also from the insurance panels people find me through there.
Interviewer: And that leads to my next question, how do you market your business?
Lauren: I wouldn’t say that I do too much marketing. I think the online sites are really a good way to market and then really just reaching out to other practitioners whether they be therapists or doctors. I think following up with client’s physicians is a good way to market as well.
Interviewer: So really leveraging referrals as well?
Lauren: Mm-hm
Interviewer: OK. Now, I know we talked about this a little bit but how do you efficiently manage your time?
Lauren: Well, this is definitely something I struggle with everyday. So, when I’m not with clients, I really try to plan out my day. And make to do lists based on priority. And I really try to structure and plan out the time using a calendar for the whole day. I would say it doesn’t always work like that because I get sidetracked with either client calls or you know I get caught up with insurance companies. But it’s something I’m continually working on.
Interviewer: Lauren, you have an interesting way of having clients check out their insurance coverage before they come see you. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Lauren: Sure. Yea I think that’s really important. I generally send people a form that has them call their insurance and ask their insurance questions such as: do they need a referral?, how much is their co-pay?, how many visits do they get? Then they bring that form in with them to their first appointment and then I don’t have to call the insurance to find out all of those answers to the questions.
Interviewer: Yeah, and I bet you that saves a lot of time on you end going back and forth with the insurance company.
Lauren: Definitely.
Interviewer: And finally, what’s the one thing that you’d change about your practice if you could?
Lauren: I’d really like to work directly with more Gastroenterologist. Ideally someday I would like to be in the Gastroenterologist office because I think that where you can really cure the patient if the dietitian and the Gastroenterologist are really working together. So that’s something that I really hope for.
Interviewer: Great. Lauren, I want to thank you so much for coming on The Call with us and sharing some of what you do in you practice.
Lauren: Yeah, thank you.