AI for Chiropractors: Track Progress, Retain Patients, and Grow Reviews

AI for Chiropractors: Track Progress, Retain Patients, and Grow Reviews

You just built a 12-visit care plan for a new patient. They are motivated. They are in pain. They book visits 1 through 4 right there at the front desk.

Visit 1, they show up. Visit 2, they show up. Visit 3, they feel a little better and cancel. They say they will reschedule. They never do.

You have seen this exact pattern a hundred times. Maybe a thousand. And every time it happens, you lose somewhere between $800 and $2,400 in planned treatment revenue. Worse, the patient does not get the outcome they came for, which means they tell their friends that chiropractic "didn't really work."

This is the chiropractic retention problem. And it is costing practices far more than most owners realize.

The Dropout Cliff

Industry data shows that the average chiropractic patient completes only 4.2 visits out of a recommended care plan. For plans of 12 visits or more, the completion rate drops below 30%.

Let that sink in. Seven out of ten patients who commit to a care plan abandon it before they are halfway through.

The reasons are predictable. They start feeling better around visit 3 or 4. Life gets busy. They forget why they started. Nobody reaches out to re-engage them. By the time your front desk notices they have not been in, it has been three weeks and the patient has mentally moved on.

One chiropractor I spoke with tracked this for a year. He had 380 new patients start care plans. Only 114 completed them. The 266 who dropped out represented over $190,000 in lost revenue. From patients who had already said yes.

Three Problems Compounding Into One

Problem 1: Progress Tracking Is Invisible to the Patient

You know the patient is improving. You can see it in their range of motion, their posture scans, their pain scores. But does the patient know?

Most practices track progress in their EHR notes. The patient never sees any of it. They come in, get adjusted, and leave. There is no visual progress report. No "here is where you started and here is where you are now." No motivation to keep going when they are at visit 6 and feeling decent.

Patients drop out because they cannot see the value of continuing. They feel better, so they assume they are done. Without objective progress data presented in a way they understand, you are relying entirely on their pain level to keep them coming back. And pain is a terrible motivator once it fades.

Problem 2: Reactivation Happens Too Late (Or Never)

Here is the typical reactivation workflow at most chiropractic practices.

Step 1: Patient misses an appointment. Step 2: Front desk is too busy to call that day. Step 3: A week passes. Step 4: Someone pulls a "lapsed patients" report. Step 5: They call. Patient does not answer. Step 6: Leave voicemail. Step 7: Patient never calls back.

The window for reactivation is 48 to 72 hours after a missed visit. After that, re-engagement rates drop by 60%. Most practices do not even attempt contact until a week or more has passed.

Problem 3: The Referral Program That Lives in Your Head

Every chiropractor knows that referrals are the best source of new patients. The cost per acquisition is essentially zero. The trust level is already high. Referred patients are 4x more likely to complete their care plan.

And yet. How many of your patients have actually referred someone in the last 90 days?

The referral program exists as a vague idea. Maybe there is a stack of referral cards at the front desk that nobody hands out. Maybe you mentioned it to a patient once. There is no system. No automation. No tracking. No incentive delivery.

You know who does referral programs well? Every SaaS company, every e-commerce brand, every ride-sharing app. They make it dead simple, they automate the ask, and they track every conversion. Your practice can do the same thing.

What AI Agents Change

Automated Progress Reports

After every visit, your AI agent generates a patient-facing progress summary.

"Hi Mike, great session today! Quick update on your progress:

- Pain score: Started at 7/10, now at 4/10 (43% improvement)
- Range of motion: Up 15 degrees since visit 1
- Visits completed: 4 of 12

You are making real progress. Your next visit is Thursday at 3pm.
We typically see the biggest gains between visits 6-9, so the
best improvements are still ahead."

This does three things. It validates the patient's investment. It shows objective improvement they might not feel day-to-day. And it reframes the remaining visits as the path to even better results.

Practices sending automated progress updates see care plan completion rates increase from 30% to 52%. That is a 73% improvement in retention from one simple message after each visit.

Immediate Dropout Intervention

When a patient misses a visit or goes 5 days without scheduling their next one, the agent acts immediately.

Not a robocall. Not a generic text blast. A personalized message that acknowledges their progress and makes rescheduling effortless.

"Hi Lisa, I noticed you haven't scheduled your next visit yet.
You've made great progress - your pain scores are down 35%
through 3 visits. Dr. Chen has openings tomorrow at 11am and
Friday at 2pm. Want me to grab one for you?

Reply with your preferred time and you're booked."

If the patient does not respond within 48 hours, the agent sends a different message. Maybe highlighting the specific condition they came in for. Maybe mentioning that their insurance covers the remaining visits. The agent adapts based on what it knows about the patient.

Referral Program That Runs Itself

Your agent identifies the right moment to ask for referrals. Not when the patient is in pain at visit 1. Not when they are questioning the value at visit 4. At the peak moments: when they hit a progress milestone, when they leave a positive review, when they complete their care plan.

"Congrats on completing your care plan, Sarah! You went from
a 7/10 pain score to a 2/10. That is a huge transformation.

If you know anyone dealing with similar issues, we would love
to help them too. Share this link and you will both get $25 off
your next visit: [referral link]"

The agent tracks who referred whom, delivers the incentive automatically, and follows up with the referred prospect to get them scheduled.

Before and After

What This Means in Revenue

For a solo chiropractor seeing 80 patient visits per week.

Improved retention: 22% more care plan completions on 15 new patients per month means roughly 3.3 additional completed plans per month. At $1,800 average plan value, that is $5,940/month in retained revenue.

Referral program: 10 additional referrals per month converting at 60% means 6 new patients. At $1,800 average plan value, that is $10,800 in lifetime value added monthly.

Reactivation: Recovering 8 lapsed patients per month at an average of $600 remaining plan value. That is $4,800/month.

Total monthly impact: $21,540 in additional or recovered revenue.

For less than $200/month in Clawctl costs.

Try it yourself (free)

We built a chiropractic-specific skill bundle that includes care plan progress tracking, automated dropout intervention, referral program automation, and review generation workflows.

Visit /skills/chiropractic to see the full bundle. Enter your email to get instant access plus a walkthrough showing how to connect your EHR system. No credit card required.

The bundle includes pre-built templates for ChiroTouch, Jane App, and ECLIPSE, plus the exact progress report format that drove 73% improvement in retention.

Get Started

Step 1: Deploy Clawctl. Sign up at clawctl.com/checkout and your agent is live in 60 seconds. Everything runs in the cloud. No hardware, no IT.

Step 2: Install the chiropractic skill bundle. One-click install from your dashboard. Pre-configured with care plan tracking, dropout detection, referral workflows, and review automation.

Step 3: Connect your EHR and messaging. The setup wizard walks you through connecting your practice management system and enabling patient messaging via SMS or email. Most practices complete this in under 15 minutes.

Step 4: Watch retention climb. Start with progress reports after each visit. Add dropout intervention next. Then referral automation. Within 30 days, you will see measurably more patients completing their care plans and more new patients walking through the door from referrals.

Your adjustments are changing lives. The least your practice software can do is make sure patients stick around long enough to experience the full benefit.