How to Stand Out as an OT clinic
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[00:00:00] Someone literally just now asked me, well, what makes your occupational therapy service different from other, this other person that I went to? My name is Hoang. I'm an occupational therapist certified hand therapist. And this happens so much in my business that I cannot imagine it not happening in your business.
And if you don't have a business, you're going to get this question at some point when, when you do open your business, right? I want to encourage you to open your business, do your thing. create the kind of level of service and company that you, you want to have. And so you're going to be faced with this question and I'm going to share with you exactly what it did.
And this, there's, there's literally just one question that you need to ask in order to get the response that you're, you know, that you're looking for so you know how to respond the best way possible. Um, I've been an occupational therapist for over 20 years and I, I was getting this question [00:01:00] even before starting my business over 10 years ago.
And I think this is relevant whether you're in hand therapy or not. Right. So as an OT, as a CHT, um, They'll say, Oh, there's not that many CHGs around the world, but whatever. There's like a ton of other therapists that do hand therapy and they're not CHGs. Who fucking cares? Um, you're going to get the questions of, you know, what's the difference between you and the massage?
What's the difference between you and PT? What's the difference between you and the Cairo? Let's get into it because literally just happened to me right now at a guy. I'll share the story. Our guy comes in, he's been disappointed in the past with all of his surgeries, his therapy, and before he decides to pay, he wants to know like, are you who you say you are and are you actually going to be able to help me?
So we have in my business, uh, what's called a discovery visit. And we, it's just an opportunity to talk to people. It's just an opportunity to. Build a connection to build a [00:02:00] trust and to see if I can actually really help somebody because if I cannot help them, I'm not going to tell them that they need me.
Right. But everything about what I do is like, if, if this fits with you, then I can help you. So, um, he saw me on, social media, YouTube. I don't know. I completely forgot to ask. Um, they found me on Google. So one, like I thought that we're having a really great conversation. He gave me his histories, told me what he's, what's going on.
He's like, what's he having trouble doing? And, um, he's been disappointed. He's like really skeptical. And you're just going to get more and more people who are skeptical, right? Because people are bombarded with information, nonstop. I mean, you cannot go anywhere without someone telling you about a drug, a service, a brace, you know.
I get, um, whatchamacallit, I was like just in the front office, I'm digressing, [00:03:00] just in the front office and someone had come by and dropped off braces and it has some like, medic fields, blah, blah, blah. That makes it so much different from the other ones. And so when you have things like that and you have, you know, doctors and insurance saying, yeah, go ahead and have the surgery, go ahead and have the injection.
Um, you know, it makes the people who come to us for therapy really confused about what will actually work and what won't work. Right. So he asked the dreaded question, well, I've already been to therapy before and I went to someone who specializes in As a, as a hand therapist, what differentiates you from them?
And, um, so I said, well, so this is my, this is my one question. Pay attention, right? This is my one question that's going to differentiate me from someone else. And I just took the time to say, well, what did you do at the other therapy clinic?[00:04:00]
Rewind, listen to that again. Actually, I'll just repeat it. When he asked me what differentiates me From the other clinic. My question to him was what did you do at the other clinic? so he said well, you know, I went for the carpal tunnel and They just had me doing some some marbles and Moving my fingers around like literally he was doing this.
I was like, oh so they are working on strength and coordination. And he was like, yes. I said, well, did that help? And he said, no. And I, therapy didn't help him. He had surgery and now he still has a problem. I said, well, okay. So then how I differentiated myself, our services, was to ask him that one simple question.
What did you do at [00:05:00] the other place? And because I was able to determine that all they did was focus on his hand. See, I even drew on myself as I was talking to him. Uh, because I was explaining to him, I was like, I understand that you, um, you know, it didn't work and that you're really skeptical that, that, that therapy here won't work.
But here's how we're different. Right. And then I proceeded to explain to him. So I'm sure you're like, well, Huang, tell us what you said. I said, well, so I explained to him about the nerves. And I was like, you know, I had already sort of explained it to him about nerves. I said, okay, well, if you have carpal tunnel and we know the nerve starts at your neck, goes down your shoulder, down your elbow, onto your wrist, anything that is at the, anything that is rated related to the nerve, You feel the symptoms here, but the problem is always above it.
Right? So my job is to look at how you're moving, how your shoulders moving, how [00:06:00] your elbows moving, how your nerves are moving. And I wouldn't just look at that one nerve because all the nerves, they're kind of bunched together. There's three of them. We're going to make sure all three of them move really well in order to be able to figure out where your problem actually lies.
Now, I have a certain idea of where it is. But the full evaluation is to actually look at all the ways that your whole body moves so I can figure out what's wrong and then I'm going to give you one or two things to do and we're going to see what works and what doesn't work, right? We're going to see what works and what doesn't work.
So the way I was able to differentiate myself from another clinic is to find out what the guy actually likes and what he didn't like about it. And so when you, here's a key phrase that someone, when they say it to you, you're going to know that what you said, [00:07:00] like they understood. Right. And it's like, he goes, Oh yeah, that makes sense.
And I said, yeah, if they're only focused on your hand and they didn't focus on where the problem lies, then you, you can't fix the problem. Right. And so. I'm simplifying it because he had more issues. He had on both hands, both shoulders, he's got some other stuff going on. And the way I differentiate it is by saying what, what did you know, what did you do with the other clinic?
Another way you could say it is what helped and what did not help at the other clinic. Now he's also going and getting other work done. Like he's getting chiropractic work. And so I have to have an understanding. of other people's services so that I could now focus more on my own. I don't bad mouth other people's [00:08:00] services.
I think it's great that you went and did those other things because now it gives us a chance to figure out what else is going on. Um, but understanding other, the way other people practice can help you understand what you need to do. Either to say or to do that's different, right? So he was telling me that he was, he goes to a chiropractors, um, you know, for, for his other stuff, like for his neck and his back and stuff like that.
And I was like, okay, great. Um, how's that going? How's that going? Um, does it help? And he looked at me and he was like, he didn't know. I said, well, does it feel good when they're doing it? And it goes, yes, it feels good. I was like, okay, does it last, right? Because therapy, dude, it's gotta last, right? So, um, to a certain extent, it's gotta last.
So he was like, Oh [00:09:00] no. And so then I explained what, what that cracking is all about. So you have to have a certain understanding of other businesses or other services in order to then differentiate what you're trying to do. So what I'm trying to do here is to get to the root cause of this problem and giving lasting results.
Right. So my, that's my goal. So, um, if you're looking to differentiate your OT services from other people, and mostly from physical therapy, from other OTs, from other hand therapists, you want to understand what other people generally are doing. And then you have to know how you do your stuff. Right. So I know how I.
run my clinic and how I provide my therapy services. And I look at the whole person and I look at what are you doing? What are you doing during the day? What are you doing at night? [00:10:00] You know, it's very specific and I simplify what I'm talking about. So when I can simplify and they understand that I understand them, they say to me, Oh yeah, that makes sense.
As soon as they say that makes sense. I'm like, okay, great. Well, how would you like to book an appointment? It's it's taken me a long time. I don't want to say it's simple. It is simple It is so simple that it's mind boggling how simple it is. But until you really immerse yourself into that world until you, you know, practice that all the time.
It is, it is actually counterintuitive to how you're already working. And it's because the outside world, corporate world, Hospital world, everything, OT, university, everything that they have taught you is counter intuitive [00:11:00] to what you actually need to do to run your business. And that's why it's so important to like, this video isn't going to be enough.
it's important to keep learning and to keep looking and to keep, um, kind of like immersing yourself into the world of what you need to do, who you need to surround yourself so that you are having the best conversations from a business point of view and not just from a therapy point of view. Cause if it was therapy point of view, you, you would just be working in the corporate world.
You would just be working, you know, You know, at the same place where you're frustrated with seeing, overseeing, seeing like a shit ton of patients, no support, you know, that kind of stuff. That's why you want to go out into your own business. That's why you want to differentiate yourself and start your own business or grow your business and, and hire other therapists who, you know, want to do what you're doing.
Maybe I'm just projecting at this point, but. But [00:12:00] yes, uh, I am sharing my perspective. It can be easy to differentiate yourself. It does take some effort and work on your part in order to learn and to differentiate yourself. But you totally got this. You totally got this. Let's go out there and rock it in the business world.
OTs, you can do this. If this video has helped you, Leave me a comment, click the subscribe button, whatever you need to do, but, but, and open your business and do it. Alright, I'm, you know, I don't know why this thing has like gotten me fired up in my mind to do more conversations like this. But yeah, let me know if this helps you because it will let me know that this is what you need to hear more.
Alright, until next time. Thanks for watching.
