What Clients Are Really Looking For Right Now: Ep 97

If you've been wondering why enquiries feel different, why clients are taking longer to book, or why people seem more cautious than ever before, you're not imagining it.

In this episode, Cassandra explores the biggest shifts she's seeing in client behaviour and what they mean for practitioners in today's healthcare landscape.

From information overload and AI to trust, clarity and communicating your value, this episode will help you better understand how clients are making decisions—and how you can position your practice to meet them where they are.

In this episode:

•  Why clients are feeling more overwhelmed than ever before 
•  How AI, Google and social media are changing client behaviour 
•  Why trust has become your greatest competitive advantage 
•  The difference between certainty and making unrealistic promises 
•  How simplicity builds confidence and credibility 
•  Why clients are still investing in their health—but more intentionally 
•  Practical ways to make your website and messaging clearer 
•  Small changes that can help clients choose your practice with confidence 

Key Takeaway

Clients haven't stopped investing in their health.

They've become more thoughtful about where they invest their time, money and trust.

The practitioners who communicate clearly, build trust and make their value obvious will continue to stand out in an increasingly noisy marketplace.

The Abundant Practitioner is the podcast for naturopaths, clinic owners and wellness practitioners who want practical conversations for practice success. Each week, Cassandra shares grounded insights, practitioner mentoring and real-world strategies to help you build a thriving practice. 

FREE RESOURCES TO BOOST YOUR PRACTICE

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Visit the website www.cassduffill.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Hi everyone, thanks for joining me on the latest episode of the podcast. I'm so grateful to have you here. Today we are talking about clients. It's something that's coming up a lot. I'm getting a lot of messages. It's coming up a lot on connection calls and my mentoring calls with you guys about clients. This year has been quite different, and we've talked about that a few different ways already on the podcast. But what I want to dive into today specifically is clients because I've had practitioners say to me, Cass, I just don't think there's any clients looking for what I do. Or it doesn't matter what I do, clients don't seem to be choosing me over others. Um, or maybe, you know, maybe it's just dried up and there are no clients left. I've heard all sorts of versions of that, but I wanted to talk about it because a few things that I have noticed and that I am seeing within my business, within businesses that I'm working with. So I want to give you a heads up of what's going

Why Client Enquiries Feel Different Now

SPEAKER_00 1:59

on. What I want to start with though is have you noticed that clients feel a little bit different? A little bit different. That maybe inquiries are taking longer. Maybe they're asking more questions before they book. Maybe they're asking for more examples of clients that you've helped. Maybe they're shopping around a little bit more and they're comparing more practitioners than they used to. These sort of things are happening, and it's easy to assume that when things seem to be taking a bit longer, they're not converting as readily as they used to, it's very easy to assume that people have stopped investing in their health. But by and large, I don't actually think that's what's happening. But I do think there's been a change. And I think what's changed is what clients are looking for from us. And that change has happened for a few different reasons. And I know you're all going to be thinking, oh, economy. Now, you know I don't like to just sit here and point fingers at the economy because there's always more than one factor. So today I want to talk about some of those bigger shifts that I'm seeing and what I think they mean for practitioners. Because when you're aware, you can make changes. Okay, we can address it. So that's what we're going to do today. So the first thing I want to talk about in how our clients have changed is probably the biggest shift really. Our clients are overwhelmed. They're overwhelmed. Ten years ago, if somebody had digestive issues, they would think about it for a bit. They might ask a friend, a neighbor, a relative about it. They probably had a little bit of a Google, because 10 years ago we had Google, didn't we? They might have bought a book at the bookstore. Do we even have bookstores everywhere anymore? I'm not really sure if they all still exist. We've got a couple here, but they investigated their situation in a different way. And they would do a lot less seeking before they booked a naturopath or a nutritionist or a homeopath or a kinesiologist, whoever they picked to help with their digestive problem. What they would generally do is pick the one that somebody recommended. So if their friend, a relative, a neighbor said, Oh, you should go and see Jane Doe, they go, right, that's the recommendation. I'm not going to look any further. Off I go, I'll go and see Jane Doe.

Information Overload And Decision Paralysis

SPEAKER_00 4:29

But now we are in a different age, different space, different stage, aren't we? Because before that person has even reached out to contact you, even if they've had a recommendation from somebody, they have probably Googled their symptoms extensively. They've asked Chat GPT. And I know that makes a lot of us a bit infuriated, me included, but this is what they're doing. They're hopping on chat going, I have this problem. What's going to be the thing that fixes it for me? So that's a little bit tricky. They have likely watched YouTube, they've watched people online. And that again is a bit tricky for us because who is all over? Things like YouTube, influencers. And influencers aren't necessarily practitioners, are they? And they're not necessarily qualified to be giving the kind of advice that they're giving. They probably have also done something like follow three influencers. You know, there's a probably a handful of people, one, three, five of them, that they've noticed on Facebook or Instagram or something else, and they've followed them and they've binged all their little videos and all the little tips and tricks that they're saying, and they've taken dozens of screenshots that they'll never look at again. They've probably also been in some Facebook groups because how often now, when you're searching, do you come up with a Facebook group or a Facebook page as one of a search option? They've probably also tried supplements. A lot of clients coming at the moment are coming in with an arsenal. They've bought stuff over the counter, they've been in the chemist, they've been in the supermarket. Then because they've been looking for things online and watching certain content, the algorithm knows that. And next thing they're getting given, you know, the hormone supplement or the gut supplement. And some of them are pretty basic things. I remember a client coming with me going, I bought this U-But thing that I saw all over Facebook. And it was just a capsule full of dried turmeric. They're trying supplements, and the other thing that they're also doing is they're listening to podcasts. So they're looking for information, they're looking for authority, they're looking for credibility, and they're looking for someone that can give them the next forward steps. And why are they doing it? Because they're overwhelmed by their problem, but they're overwhelmed by the amount of options that are available now. So when they finally come to you or reach out to you to discuss and have a discovery call, for example, they're already exhausted. They've done all of those other things. So they've got a brain full of information, half of which they don't know what to do with, they don't know how it all links together, they're exhausted, they're frazzled, they're fried, and they still have a gut problem that started the whole journey. So this is the hard thing. So when they come to you, they're already burnt out on an information overload. They've had a little information tsunami. And if they don't proceed to book with you, it's not because they don't care. It's not because they don't think you're a good practitioner. It's none of those things. It's actually a lot of a time to do with they've just hit the overwhelm and they cannot make a decision. You've heard me say before, probably many, many times, an overwhelmed mind says no. We can't assess more than three options. It's neurological fact in research. We cannot assess more than three options, but we've already looked at, haven't we? This person's looked at Google, they've been on ChatGPT, they watched YouTube, they followed some influencers, they hopped in a Facebook group, they tried some supplements, they listened to podcasts. Already in information overload before we ever talk to a qualified professional. So this is what's really difficult. More than that, conflicting opinions, because you know what it's like online. Everybody's got a different opinion. And I must admit, I find this pretty difficult at times when my clients come in and they've got a really set opinion because they've been watching somebody online who may or may not be qualified talk about something, and they come in and they're trying to show me what they know, and they're going, no, I think I should be treated this way or that way. I've got a lady at the moment and she's lovely, but she's not on the right track. What she's looking at, and the things that she's decided is wrong with her is actually not what's wrong. And it's really difficult to support her right now because she's not willing to entertain any other options. So I'm helping her and supporting her the best way I can without actually saying I disagree or I agree with you. Um, so that's really tricky. You've also got to consider here all that confusion with social media, you know what it's like being hammered by that algorithm, real after real after real after real. And the things you start to see a lot of, you start to think of truth. But I always say social media is literally an echo chamber because the algorithm is tracking you. The algorithm is watching what you're doing. And to keep screen time up, to keep you on that phone or on that device, they're giving you more of the things that you click on. We start to think in our rational brain that this is very popular, everybody's doing it because we're seeing so much of it. But what it actually means is that's just the echo chamber that they're in because of what they've previously looked at, what they've previously watched, sourced. Try this out for yourself. If you are, you know, got a partner, have a look at their phone. And you pull up your feed on Instagram or Facebook and get them to pull up theirs. You will be surprised how different those things are. I did this with my husband the other week. On my feed, I'm seeing lots of homemade products, how to make a garden bed, lots of photos of cats doing silly things. And on my husband's, it's all about building boats, woodworking, all the stuff that he's into because that's what he watches. So you can see how it can be really easy for us to think that, oh, everybody must be watching this because this is what I'm seeing. When it comes to AI, AI is a bit of a tricky one. We have to take some care with, I think. And I know there's a lot of people out there talking about getting found with AI, and I think that's a great thing if you can build that into your process. But what we have to be careful of is that people are starting to follow that advice and believe that advice over and above that of a qualified, trusted, credentialed, practicing practitioner. Case in point, the lady I just told you about. So we have to tread lightly because we need people to be able to trust us, we need them to be able to listen to us. And if we turn around and go, oh, no, no, no, that's all faffy, that's all faffy rubbish, then we're going to lose that trust, aren't we? We're going to break that connection. So I think AI is going to continue to be a bit of a tricky old tightrope for us, I think. So where we're at right now with our clients, you know, and the fact that they are in this information overload situation. What our clients don't want

Handling Misinformation Without Losing Trust

SPEAKER_00 11:36

right now, or what they don't need, is another opinion. What they do need, though, is somebody who can help them to make sense of all the opinions and all the information they've already heard. I've always said, I don't believe it's our job to try and teach them everything and try and squash everything. I've had discussion with prackies who've said to me, gosh, my consults are going overtime now because I'm having to explain to my clients all the things that they're bringing and why they're not right. That's not your job. That's not what they're paying you for. You don't have to do that. But what you do have to say is, right, this, this, this, they're good things, we can work with those. These things over here, they don't really fit what we're trying to achieve with you, and we need to be able to put those to the side. So helping them make sense of understanding why something fits within their health picture and why something else doesn't. The other thing I want to talk about is right now, clients, they're looking for certainty. And it's not certainty that you can cure them, okay? That's impossible. That's impossible. But they are often very, very hopeful, aren't they? That you're going to get good resolution. And above that, they're looking for certainty that you know what you're doing, that you have a clear plan, that you've seen people like them before, that you've gotten results for people like them before, and that you're going to guide them on the journey. Now, this does come back a little bit to the economy, obviously, because when we're tired with our money, we need to make sure that the money we're spending is going to give us the outcome we're looking for. We don't want to waste money in this market, do we, as a consumer? So we need to make sure that we're giving our clients the certainty we can without false promises, without trying to tell them, yes, we're going to cure you because that's just not the case. But what we can do is give certainty in other ways. How can we give certainty? Well, first thing that comes to mind is your website. You can have a clear website that makes sense. Don't make people have to guess what you do. If all your website says is I'm a practitioner in XYZ modality and I've done it for X amount of years, that tells me nothing. I need to know when I look at your website what you do, who you help, and why you help those people. Because the thing is, as a website visitor, they don't have enough information yet to be able to look at you and assess whether you're for me or whether you're not. Your website needs to tell them that. So you need a clear website. Part of that's also really clear the navigation. Don't make it half a minute a book. You know, if I'm coming on there as a visitor, I need to be able to do what I need to do easily, promptly, quickly. But like I said too, messaging is really important. Certainty shows up in messaging. And it's not messaging of I'm going to cure your problem. It's look at these results that I've had before. Yes, I'm very experienced in gut because I've been a practitioner for 20 years and I've done these up-level trainings and certifications. That could be a great way to get some certainty for people. It's also about the confidence you show. They will see the confidence in the words that you write, the way things are written and crafted. They will see the confidence in things like the social media that you've got out there when they come to check you out, maybe videos you've got on YouTube, whatever you have. Confidence breeds confidence. The other thing you can do to give certainty though is explain your process. And I see a lot of prackies skipping this. Explaining the process. That means talking about what actually happens. You come in and you book a consultation. What happens in that consultation? Now they don't actually need to know or understand that I'm going to put together herbs or I'm going to choose homeopathics or how I do that. That's out of the realm of what they can really understand. But what they really need to hear is I'm going to listen to what you've got to say. I'm going to take copious notes and be very comprehensive so I don't miss anything. I'm going to take the time to put the pieces together and see how all these different elements fit into your health picture, into your symptoms. I'm going to help you understand what's going on. The other thing in explaining your process is beyond the first consult, I see a lot of practitioners losing clients. They might come in for a first appointment and then they drop off. That has to do with the fact that you're not explaining your process well. If you're not keeping people long enough for them to get well, tell them that from this point, we normally do two weeks and then you come back. And then we'll do three weeks and you come back, or we do four weeks and you come back. In my practice, I always call

Build Certainty With Clear Messaging

SPEAKER_00 16:07

that time in between consults the healing phase because they need to know that that's an important phase. It's important for them and important for you because that's the time where they're going to fall off the wagon, they're not going to get results, they're going to stop taking their supplements and their herbs. So they need to know how to do those things on their own. So that's really, really important. It's about being able to confidently say to them, look, this is how I would generally approach a case like yours. Okay, we don't want to say, oh yes, I know I can fix you and you're not going to have this problem anymore. Okay, we can't make that kind of promise. But you can say, this is generally how I would approach a case like yours. And this is generally the kind of results that I see. People go from this to that. People experience this and then they change to that. It's a very different way of approaching it, but it has honesty, it has integrity, and most of all, it has that certainty that they're looking for. And let me tell you this: what I've found over the years that has always surprised practitioners is your clients aren't expecting a certainty of outcome. They are looking for improvement, okay? And by and large, you get that. There's very few people you work with that you don't get improvement for, is there? But they want certainty of the outcome from that point of view, and they want certainty that they're in capable hands. There are so many fraudsters out there, there's so many scams out there. They want to know that you're that you've got them, that they're in capable hands, that you're qualified, that you're experienced, that you're credible. The third thing I want to talk about on here is trust. Trust. And I know it can sometimes feel hard. Like, how do I build trust? How does that actually happen? And I think we overcomplicate it because so often I see prackees thinking, to be more trustworthy, I've got to explain things more. I've got to spend more time in the consult, I've got to have a website that goes into extreme detail. And we often think that more detail equals more value for the client, but actually it's the reverse. It's actually the reverse. The more simple we can be, that simplicity builds trust. It builds trust because they can understand it, because it makes sense, because they can remember it. Okay? More detail is not more value to our clients. So what we want to consider here is treatment plans. Are we putting together treatment plans that not only make sense and are going to address the issue, but are they as simple as we can make them? Are we not overwhelming the client? I saw a practitioner last year or year before whose treatment plan, initial treatment plan, was normally about 20 pages long because this person went into so much excruciating detail. Now detail's great, but your client doesn't need pictures of muscles, pictures of gut lining, explanations of the Krebs cycle. They don't need to know any of that. They just want to get better. So keep it as simple as you can without being overwhelming. Within that, too, think about how you're prescribing right now. And in this market, we don't want to be doing too many supplements, we don't want to be doing too many herbs. We want to be keeping clients' budgets front and center in our minds. We don't want to be wasting money, do we? So no overwhelming treatment plans, not too many supplements, not overly explained. And that's how a lot of you are leaching time in your consults right now. A lot of you we're discussing how your consults are running over. Less explanation, more time saved, okay? And also think about simplicity in terms of your website. Is your website complicated? Everything from the functionality of it to the words on the page. Is it as simple as it could be? Could it be more simple? Okay. We need to make sure that that's right. Sometimes I find that as a practitioner, we can be so hard to or trying so hard to demonstrate our expertise that we're accidentally creating confusion. And sometimes it actually decreases trust. Have you ever noticed how when people are lying, they overexplain? If you're a parent, like I am, you might know straight away what I'm talking about here. You can tell your kid is lying because the kid that's normally short, sharp sentences all of a sudden has finite detail about every single factor of whatever that situation is. You know, they're lying, there's too much information. Yep. Sometimes it can happen with our clients. If we are overly explaining things, they can feel that, yeah, we're trying to justify something, we're trying to make up for something, we're trying to cover up something. And it can actually diminish trust. Okay. So tell me this: have you ever walked out of an appointment of your own thinking, I actually don't know what I'm supposed to do now? I know I have. Over the years before I was a practitioner, I remember seeing naturopaths and walking out, going, hmm, I got this bag of stuff. I remember seeing one guy and he saw me, my boys when they were very small, and my husband. And we walked out of there, the bill was nearly $2,000. We walked out with two huge bags of rattling supplements. I was completely overwhelmed, and I had no clue what I was actually supposed to start doing with these two bags of very expensive stuff. That's a tough thing, and I know you guys aren't doing that, but you know, that's an extreme scenario. But other appointments, how often do you walk out of something like a chiropractor? And you're in there for 10 minutes, it's not very long, and while they're doing the adjustment, they're describing this stretch, that stretch, do this, do that. The amount of times my chiropractor has said stuff like that to me over the years, and I go home and I'm like, I have no idea what he said. I can't remember that in that quick 10-minute backcrack appointment. And they're not giving me a flyer, they're not showing me anything so I can remember it. And I

Simplicity Builds Trust And Saves Time

SPEAKER_00 21:57

go back to my next appointment and they say, Oh, have you done your exercises? And I've got to say, Oh no, I didn't actually remember what they were. I've gotten to the point now I'm lying to my chiropractor, saying, Yeah, I'm not much, not much, as yeah, I would like to do it more, but yeah, I've done it a few times. And he's just always saying, Okay, we'll do it a little bit more, okay, keep it up a bit more. I haven't done it at all because I have no clue what I'm supposed to do because he didn't tell me. So if we can be feeling like that, I think it's important that we put on our client glasses for a second and understand that our clients feel the same. So something I like to try and keep in mind all the time with regards to simplicity is simplicity is going to reassure your client, whereas complexity is going to confuse them. Complexity, though, is something that we get wrapped up in in our industry because complexity it impresses practitioners. It does. It's like, look at me, look what I know, okay? And we've come from a school of learning that's a little bit that way inclined. So we've got to come back down. You know, and just be as simple as we can, simple, honest, straight to the point. Point four. Clients are still investing. Okay. I want to challenge this belief that so many of you seem to have right now. Oh my God, no one's got any money. They can't come in. They can't afford to see me. I'm hearing that every which way. And please let me challenge that belief for you, okay? People still have money to invest in their health. You just have to be doing those things I outlined. There are people out there with plenty of money. And have a look. Really, look online. People are still traveling, people are renovating, people are buying cars, people are investing in things. People are investing in property. People are investing in Bitcoin. They're doing all sorts of things. So people are still investing. And I've always said, you know, health is one of the top three things people will invest in. It's a very, very important pillar in people's lives. So what's happened though is our potential clients have just become more intentional. They're asking themselves questions like,

Clients Still Spend But Choose Carefully

SPEAKER_00 24:05

why this practitioner? Who is this practitioner? Why now? Is this the right time to invest? Should I wait till later? Is this the best time for me to be getting involved? What makes this different? Because a lot of our clients have done things and got not results from it before, haven't they? They've failed before. I hate to put it that way, but they've failed before. So they're thinking to themselves, well, what makes this different? I've tried to heal this before and I've done supplements and I did an elimination diet for my gut and I've tried this and I've tried that. Why do I think this is going to be any different? And that's a great case in point, though. Think about your website and your content. Tell them up front why this is going to be different. Because you have them, because you support them through the journey, because you're going to give them all the resources that they need. You're going to explain every single step that whatever it is that you do differently, make sure you're sharing that. While we're on the topic of money, I want to bring one other thing up as well. Because like I said, clients are still investing. If you are having a phase where things are a bit tighter, the flow's not as good, not as many clients, not as much revenue. I think it's really easy to think, oh, I should drop my prices. Should drop my prices. No, please don't do that because it's not about discounting. People are buying what they value, buying what they value. And it's an interesting little idiosyncrasy. The less we pay for something, the more we don't value it. Isn't that the truth? When you're discounting, it's not communicating the value that you offer. It's not communicating the outcome of your service. So it's not the time to be discounting. If you do want to try something, it's a great time to try like a value add. And maybe if they have a consultation, there's an extra add-on. Maybe you've got some free resources you can add in there. All sorts of different things that you can be doing. Every practitioner is different. Everyone's got different skills and abilities and things in their wheelhouse that they can be adding on. But I think it's definitely the market to be value stacking a little bit, not over the top, but a couple of little things might help you. But by and large, I don't believe in discounting. I don't want you to discount your value like that. So people haven't stopped investing in their health, but they're just being a bit more selective about who they trust with that money. And that's why, leading into point number five here, this is why you've got to make your value so blinking obvious, okay? This is where we get really practical because tell me this if someone lands on your website right now, today, this minute, would they immediately know who you help, the problems that you solve, what it's like to work with you, and why should they choose you? Can they answer those four questions when they're looking at your home page? Or do they kind of have to work it out for themselves? All right. Let's look at an example here. Let's just bring it home with an example. And I know, please don't be offended. I know some people have things like this on their website, so please don't be offended if you happen to have written this. But if your website says, I support optimal well-being, you're going to be losing more clients in this market than you're attracting. Because what the heck is optimal well-being? Is it for men? Is

Make Your Value Obvious Fast

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it for women? Is it for CEOs? Is it for someone who's athletic and wants peak performance? I don't know what that means. Okay. And neither does the person landing on your website. But if someone lands on your website and it says, I help busy women struggling with chronic fatigue to regain their energy, you've just said exactly what it does on the 10, and I can self-eliminate. So if someone's on your website who is a man looking for a peak performance coach, they're gonna go, this person's not for me. But the woman who is struggling with her energy, she's gonna know she's in the right place. Clear and straightforward always wins. Don't make your potential clients do the work of a detective just to try and get a booking with you, okay? So I've given you five different points there. I hope that that's been really helpful. I just looked at the time, so I'm gonna start to wrap this up. But in closing, there's one thing that I really want you to take away from this episode, and it's the fact that the clients ourselves haven't become harder. They're not harder to get or harder to attain, but they have become more thoughtful. They become more thoughtful because look, they're overwhelmed, they're more cautious, they're looking for someone they can trust, they've had a lot of misguided hope, they've tried things that have failed. Now, all of that though is actually really good news for us as practitioners because trust does not come through gimmicks, does it? Doesn't come through gimmicks. It comes through clarity, it comes through consistency, it comes through communication. And that's things that we can all do really, really, really well. Those are things that are going to show people that you understand what they're going through and that you can actually help them. So this is something that you can do very, very easily, and you will always have something there that AI, social media, the latest marketing guru trend can never replace because you are being you in your marketing and in your communication. You're being clear and you're being consistent. Okay, AI can't replicate. All right, so let's end with a couple of action steps, some things that I want you to have a look at this week. I want you to go and have a look at your website and ask yourself with fresh eyes, pretend you haven't seen your website before, and ask yourself, is this website clear? Yep. Is this website clear? Would a new client understand exactly who I help? So a new person coming onto your website for the first time, are they gonna get it? Am I explaining things here simply enough? Okay, or am I using jargon? Am I using words that don't make sense? Am I using cliches? Okay, if you've got Thrive and Survive dropped on your website, might be trying to pull those off and just start using some basic terms that people understand. And overall, when you're looking at this website, are you making it easy for someone to trust you? Because that trust is the next step to working with you. So, what I want you to do is pick one thing and improve it this week. If you need to improve the navigation,

Action Steps And Membership Update

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maybe it's the messaging, maybe it's adding some information on your website about the process that you follow. Whatever it is, just pick one thing that's going to help you build that trust with potential clients and those website visitors, going to help you transition into more clients in your practice. And I want you to work on that one this week. So, friends, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm going to leave it there, but it's been great to have you here, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. As I wrap up, just a few little things, housekeeping-wise. Now, I do have the membership. The new membership is opening uh later in August. You'll see that come through the Practitioner Circle. So please keep an eye out for that. And the new practitioner community group will be coming out then as well. So I look forward to seeing you in both of those spaces. And until next week on this podcast, have a great week, everyone. Bye for now.