Stop Rupturing the Therapeutic Alliance

Raise your hand if you've lost a client (or a few) because you or (worse) your admin team tried to charge a cancellation fee and the client stopped coming.

Well, you aren't the only one. Humphrey had the same issue. So, he found himself NOT charging the fee out of fear of rupturing the therapeutic alliance. What he found though, he still had clients continue to reschedule or cancel. Some were outside of the standard policy time. Others were within. Either way, Humphrey was too worried to charge a fee.

His feelings around that was the that the relationship was too important and thus if the client didn't like the fee, he wouldn't make the client pay.

Grab your notebook!

What we discovered in working together is that the clients that continued to reschedule and cancel regardless of been reminded (several times) weren't making as much (or any) progress in their therapy. The client and Humphrey would ultimately feel frustrated about their sessions together. This wasn't helpful for Humphrey or the client.

So, we worked on ways to build the relationship, discuss the importance of attending, provide a pathway to attend and only booked in clients that were ready and committed to attending. This mean a few changes had to happen in the client's journey with Humphrey.

We did away with the cancellation fees

Instead, Humphrey spoke to the client about a session fee policy. By explaining how to attend (even if it's not in person) and that if the client booked in an appointment, regardless of the cancellation policy, the client will be expected to attend their appointment. If they are unable to attend in person, then the session can be attended via video or phone. However, if that still doesn't work, then the client is responsible for the session fee.

We focussed on client attendance

By working hard to get the commitment of the client, we ensured that the client would attend their appointment. We stopped avoiding the fact that the client may not attend and instead, raised it as a part of the journey. By shedding light onto it, we removed the elephant in the room.

We built a more solid base

We worked on slowing therapy down, reviewing the clinicians style and providing transparency with the client. When the client has the right information in front of them, they can make informed decisions about their journey. They know what to expect, how to expect and what to do with their expectations.

If you're interested in some of the techniques we used, you can review our 5 Days to Fill Your Books, online course (it's free) here.

In our next post, we tell you how Humphrey went from working 5 days of sporadic client contact hours, to 3 and still earned the same amount of money. #workingsmarternotharder