Many physical therapists (PTs) would agree that working purely as a clinician and managing a practice are two entirely different careers. As clinic owners, PTs need to manage day-to-day and long-term processes with business acumen—a skill that is usually not taught in physical therapy school. PTs who are passionate about providing quality care in their own clinic may not know how to market themselves or how to establish a distinct identity from their competitors.

During the last week of October, members of the Private Practice Section (PPS) of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) converged in Phoenix for the annual APTA PPS conference and exposition. The conference offered a variety of educational sessions geared toward helping PTs establish better business protocols, and the exposition hall featured the latest products and services on the market today—all aimed at providing PTs with the essential business tools needed to run a successful physical therapy practice.

In a humorous and motivating keynote address, Rick Barrera, author of Overpromise and Overdeliver: Secrets of Unshakable Customer Loyalty, offered PTs tips on how to market their practices and distinguish themselves as the top providers of physical therapy services within their communities.

According to Barrera, PTs should “overpromise” the services they provide. This does not mean they should lie about what the patient can expect from the clinic; rather, they should positively highlight every aspect of patient interaction. Spread the word that your clinic offers the highest quality of care given at each point of patient contact—such as scheduling appointments, providing treatment, and dealing with payments—and patients will be drawn to your clinic as their first choice. Barrera also advised PTs to “overdeliver” by emphasizing that promises about services and treatments should be met with utmost quality and assurance, and by going the extra mile to satisfy patients.

Barrera then asked PTs to think about how every aspect of their practice’s protocols can be improved to provide a better patient experience. He urged PTs to look at three main points of patient interaction: (1) the first encounter, (2) the most frequent encounter, and (3) the most significant encounter. Using examples of success from well-known national companies that have applied this framework to better understand their customers, Barrera showed PTs that their clinics could prosper by using this lens to better understand the patient experience. During a patient’s first encounter with your clinic, is your front-office staff friendly and informative? During a patient’s most significant encounter—treatment—are your staff PTs providing quality care and treating him or her with respect? What is a patient’s most frequent encounter at your clinic? Figure this out, and make sure everything the patient needs is at his or her fingertips.

Whether you are strictly a physical therapy clinician, or a PT running your own clinic, you can find many pearls of business wisdom in Barerra’s message. Just as a clinician would take the time to understand and analyze his or her patients’ conditions, PTs who own their own practices need to take the time to understand and analyze every aspect of their business. “Overpromise and overdeliver” should be the new golden rule of successful physical therapy business and treatment practice.