How to Manage the “Karens” in Your Practice

Episode #331 with Xaña Winans

Sometimes, it’s better to let people believe they're right — whether they are or not! But what do you do when the crazies get out of control? To help you manage the “Karens” who storm into your practice, Kirk Behrendt brings back Xaña Winans, owner and founder of Golden Proportions Marketing, to talk about the three types of crazy people you may deal with in your practice. To learn when to take the air out of the fire and when not to engage at all, listen to Episode 331 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Don't feed the crazies. They thrive off of your energy!

Be proactive. Prevention is better than the cure when dealing with these people.

“Karens” are looking for attention and a fight. Don't engage.

The “easily offended” are looking for validation. Give them some power.

Prepare answers to questions from “vaccination hall monitors”. Show them you care.

Take caution with how you respond to “Karens”. They can take down your business.

Quotes:

“I think we have gotten way more sensitive to pretty much everything in this society. But people are definitely crazier, and we’re more aware of the crazy. So, it multiplies. You see someone acting completely bananas, and it’s funny to you, so you're going to throw it up on social media, on Twitter, Facebook, wherever, share it with all your friends. It goes viral, and all of a sudden, you got this massive problem on your hands. So, these “Karens” have an outsized impact for the thing that they're doing. Like, they're getting way more attention than they deserve, in my opinion.” (06:18—06:54)

“There are a couple of really distinct type of personalities that we have to be prepared for, and they each have a different strategy that goes with them. So, there are “Karens,” which are basically the, ‘I'm going to do what I think is best, and I'm going to tell everybody else that they're wrong.’ There's what I'm calling “vaccination hall monitors,” the people who are calling your practice and asking if everyone in the office is vaccinated. And then, ultimately, this is the group that we can't control, it’s the people who are easily offended. You could do anything that seems slightly controversial, but you didn't mean it to be, and they will go off and make it their personal mission to destroy your business.” (09:48—10:28)

“It is really common for a patient to call a practice and ask, ‘Before I come in, is everybody in your practice vaccinated?’ And well-meaning front office managers are literally just answering the question. They're saying, ‘Well, most of our team is vaccinated,’ or, ‘Our doctors decided that they're going to wait a couple of months to get vaccinated,’ or they just say, ‘Oh, it’s really none of your business. I can't share it.’ And because they haven't done it in a well-scripted way, what happens is these hall monitors — and this is why I'm calling them hall monitors — they feel it is their responsibility to now tell the entire community that nobody should go to your practice because your inability to have your entire team vaccinated is putting everyone at risk, like you're going to personally be killing people when they come into your practice. So, you've got to be careful.” (11:58—12:51)

“In advance of getting these kinds of questions [from “hall monitors”], put together a video that shows your patients and prospective patients all the things that you are doing to keep patients extra safe. So, you can do fun stuff. You can show the doctor and the hygienist holding a six-foot long ruler away from each other so they can make sure that they're socially distanced. Or you can show the assistant having 17 layers of masks on. Show everybody what you are doing, seriously and with a little comedy in it, and put