I Am ChiroTouch: Dr. Tami Howard
Meet our expert, Dr. Tami Howard, Product Strategy Manager at ChiroTouch
Your practice management software can significantly impact how your patients feel about your practice. It is, after all, the first and the last touchpoint of a patient’s engagement with your practice. An intuitive digital patient experience can affect satisfaction ratings, improve patient retention and referrals, increase revenue, and reduce billing and claims hiccups.
We sat down with Dr. Tami Howard, ChiroTouch’s Product Strategy Manager, to learn how ChiroTouch improves the user experience (UX) for everyone — patients, providers, billers, and front desk staff.
What follows is an edited transcript of our discussion.
Question: How does what you do help make ChiroTouch a better solution?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
I help our product and development teams understand our customers’ needs and pain points, which helps to deliver a product our customers love. Understanding how customers and patients interact with our software and paying attention to the things that might be confusing have helped create a user interface design that minimizes steps and clicks for providers and billers and delights patients.
Question: How does that improve the customer’s experience?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
One of the things I do is advocate for the customer voice with our development team. It’s my role to help them understand a day in the life of a chiropractor and their staff. I’m always looking for ways to improve that experience, so our providers, patients, and billers receive the best experience. I help our team tailor solutions that meet the needs of the chiropractic profession.
Question: What achievement are you most proud to have been a part of at ChiroTouch?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
Helping to prepare to launch our new cloud-based offering last year was an exciting time. We had many teams preparing to release our solutions, so it took a lot of collaboration to make everything come together.
Question: How did you get started in your career?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
I was interested in exploring a career in chiropractic, so I sought employment in a chiropractic office while doing my undergraduate studies. I was lucky to get a job as a chiropractic assistant at a busy clinic that gave me a ton of exposure to chiropractic and fueled my desire to become a chiropractor.
Question: What led you to ChiroTouch?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
ChiroTouch had an employment advertisement seeking people who had worked in a chiropractic office to work in their support organization. They knew that people with chiropractic experience would be better equipped to help their customers. The job combined two things I am passionate about, chiropractic and technology, so I applied for the job — and never looked back.
Question: How does what you do day-to-day enrich the ChiroTouch solution?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
First, I spend a lot of time meeting and communicating with other departments and teams. For example, I meet with our product and development teams to ensure we hit the mark with the features and products we deliver to the market. I also spend time with our cross-functional teams, including marketing, sales, and customer support, to help them understand what we are working on. Engaging regularly with these other teams ensures they have all the information they need to support, market, and sell our solutions.
Question: What do you like most about working at ChiroTouch?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
One of the things I love most about my role is solving problems that make a difference to our customers — identifying what’s causing a challenge or what’s working well and trying to scale what we do to resolve an issue — that makes what I do satisfying.
Knowing that what I’ve done has helped our customers become more efficient, productive, and successful is fantastic. As someone who is a problem solver at heart, it gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
What I do helps the chiropractic profession by creating the tools they need to run a successful practice and care for their communities. That is incredibly rewarding.
Question: How relevant is the patient engagement experience to the patient’s perception of a practice?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
Any negative experience — whether it’s during the clinical service, registration, or appointment setting process — can hurt an otherwise good patient experience. The whole experience shapes a patient’s perception of a practice or clinic — every step in the journey matters.
For example, the financial transaction is the final touchpoint for patients. If a terrible bill pay experience is the last thing the patient encounters, it will be the first thing they remember.
When users interact with ChiroTouch, their experience helps shape their perception of a practice overall. We want everyone engaging with our software to feel happy and satisfied. That’s why we strive to provide the best service for our customers and their patients.
Learn More
ChiroTouch’s philosophy is very much about customizing experiences to meet individual needs. Every patient, provider, and biller is different. And every ChiroTouch user deserves to have the best experience possible.
To learn more about ChiroTouch, contact one of our ChiroTouch Specialists.
Question: How is ChiroTouch bridging the gap between what consumers experience in their day-to-day lives with what they encounter in a chiropractic clinic?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
At ChiroTouch, we want everyone’s experience to match the expectations of the best experiences in more consumer-oriented industries, such as financial services, hospitality, and retail.
Our customers set the bar high, comparing their practice’s digital experience with their financial services partners and consumer-focused giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Dell. As a result, when patients and providers interact with our software, they expect the same high-quality, intuitive experience.
Patients continue being consumers when they need an adjustment. Comparing patient satisfaction and experience against best-in-class service organizations operating outside the industry is just as crucial as benchmarking within the industry. Taking an insular view is an obstacle to improving the end-to-end patient experience because it sets the bar too low.
Bringing that insight into our design drives continuous improvements in a practice and patient’s digital journey — making it faster, more efficient, and more comfortable for users interacting with ChiroTouch, no matter who they are — a provider, patient, biller, or someone working on the front desk.
Question: How do you enjoy spending your free time?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
I live in Michigan, where there are many lakes. I enjoy exploring them and love finding new areas around great lakes. In summer, you will often find me on a kayak or stand-up paddle board, enjoying the tranquility of one of the beautiful lakes here.
Question: What’s a fun fact about yourself?
Dr. Tami’s reply:
I jumped out of a perfect airplane once — and once was enough.
Dr. Tami Howard is ChiroTouch’s Product Strategy Manager, although she has worn many hats over the years at ChiroTouch.
Dr. Tami’s tenure at ChiroTouch started in 2006 when she worked as a customer support representative while finishing pre-requisite courses to attend chiropractic school.
When Dr. Tami was in chiropractic school, she continued working for ChiroTouch, representing the company at many chiropractic conventions.
When she finished chiropractic school, Dr. Tami returned to work part time for ChiroTouch, training customers on how to use our solutions while also helping manage the practice she co-owns with her husband. Fast forward to today, and we are fortunate that we can still rely on Dr. Tami’s experience and knowledge as she helps to shape our solutions by guiding our product and development teams.
Ready to start your ChiroTouch journey?
Book a demo with a ChiroTouch Specialist to discover why more than 35,000 DCs rely on ChiroTouch.
