Customer Retention Tactics for Melbourne Chiropractors: Keep Patients Coming Back

Why Customer Retention Matters for Melbourne Chiropractors

Recruiting new patients in Melbourne’s competitive market isn’t cheap—acquiring a new patient can cost 5 to 25 times more than keeping an existing one. (https://blog.alphawhale.com.au/acquisition-vs-retention-which-matters-more-to-your-business)  Meanwhile, Safe Work Australia logged 20,200 serious musculoskeletal injury claims in 2024, costing employers an average of $23,457 each. (https://data.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/insights/key-whs-statistics-australia/latest-release)  You might be leaving money on the table!

Retaining patients therefore drives both substantial profit and injury-prevention impact. Below, we share our battle-tested playbook that we've repetitively implemented and won customers for our clients, ensure the best come-back pipeline for the clinics.

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Step-by-Step Playbook

1. Roll Out Subscription & Membership Care Plans

- It's often a good idea to sell care plans/subscriptions to your clients as it helps them to have a guided journey on how to optimize their health, on top of that, it's also great for your retention! We suggest to build tiered monthly packs, where you can start with something basic such as $149/mo for 2 adjustemtns, and $249 that adds rehab on top of it.

- You could also try to Offer family or corporate add-ons to encourage group retention. This is also a great initiative to spark more word of mouth referrals for you.

- (Advanced) Build out a "visit more, save more" subscription for your customers, this works well for those who needs extensive care.

2. Show That You Care

- You can try to automate SMS/email requests two hours post-visit asking for a Google review,

- Offer a quarterly WHS checklist PDF as a thank-you ---> This works very well as not many Chiros are doing this right now.

- (Advanced) Reply to every review within 24 h, be very personal — signals active care.

3. Reactivate & Refer with Mate Rates

- We love our mates, so do our clients! Try out “Bring-a-Mate—both save 50 % next visit” campaigns & SMS, word of mouth referral is the best when it comes to trust based businesses such as Chiro.

- Try to reactivate dormant clients by sending them a 30-day no-show recall sequence: a personalized short email/SMS/Loom video+ booking link.

- (Advanced) Track offer codes for pipeline management.

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For any of the above steps, if you would like a free strategy call to discuss how to best implement them, feel free to!

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Additionally, you could also try to partner up with other businesses to drive revenue further. Here's how to do it:

Partner Up & Multiply Referrals

Leverage these allied-health and corporate networks to widen reach, if you need help on these, let us know during our free strategy call! 

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Average ROI: Clinics using our retention & referral funnel add 12.6 repeat customers/month within 90 days, that's an additional ~$885 /month

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FAQ

Q1. How soon should I ask patients for a Google review?

A1. Within two hours—while relief is top-of-mind and the link is still in their SMS.

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Q2. How should I word it?

Ensure it's very personal, be detail orientated, if you want this system to be as frictionless and effortless as possible while remaining high quality, we are here to help!

Q3. Do referral promos devalue my service?

A3. Not when framed as “mates rates”. Limiting to one use per patient preserves perceived value.

Q4. Which suburb keywords bring fastest SEO wins?

A4. Start with mid-density areas like Richmond and Southbank; less competition than CBD yet strong search volume.

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Why Flowyth?

Built by a team of SMB owners themselves who bootstrapped service businesses to millions of dollars, we understand first hand what it means to generate leads and optimize workflow for your business. Our team combines those experience with engineering experts from Microsoft, Cisco, Tiktok, Stanford, Oxford etc, we aim to be your go-to local solution for making your company more profitable.

Book a free call today to earn more while doing less busy work for your business!