What to Do When a Client Doesn’t Follow Your Meal Plan: Business-Smart Solutions
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[00:00:00] Maybe you're wondering what to do when a client doesn't follow your meal plan. In today's episode, I'm giving you business smart solutions to help you grow your brand as a dietician. Welcome back to the Dietician Boss Podcast. I'm your host, Libby Rothchild, registered dietician and founder of Dietician Boss, where we help dieticians confidently lead client sessions and grow profitable practices using counseling tools.
And business strategy. Now, Today we're tackling a topic that every dietician will face, especially in the beginning, and that is my client. Didn't follow the meal plan. Now what if you've ever felt frustrated, awkward, or maybe even unsure of how to respond when a client ignores or abandons your recommendations, then this episode will help.
I'll walk you through how to respond using counseling based language, how to reframe the situation as a [00:01:00] business opportunity, and how to build confidence in handling this type of resistance, even if you're brand new and don't have much or any clinical experience. So I want you to know that you're not doing anything wrong.
This is normal. If a client doesn't follow your meal plan, please know that it's not your fault and you didn't mess up or anything. It's just, it's common and it doesn't mean that your unqualified or that your advice was bad. Clients are human just like us, and they have habits and stressors and busy lives, and sometimes shame about food makes them less likely to follow through with what feels hard.
So instead of assuming failure or feeling like you need to fix them, I suggest pausing and reframing the moment as a chance to learn. Was the plan too complex? Did the client feel overwhelmed and were they part of the planning process or were they just handed a [00:02:00] set of instructions?
Now, I want you to use counseling, not correction when it comes to mindset. So let's say if a client tells you I didn't follow the plan, you might be tempted to fix it, rewrite the plan, or feel like you failed. But here's what I want you to do instead. I want you to pause the judgment because clients aren't trying to fail.
They're just telling you what didn't work. They're actually giving you more data, right? And part of our job as not only clinicians, but business owners, is to figure out how to fit those pieces of the puzzle to better serve our clients. So ask with compassion, say something like, it sounds like this week didn't go as expected.
What got in the way? What part? feels difficult, and you also wanna find the friction. Maybe they didn't shop this week. Maybe they were sick. Maybe they didn't understand the meals that you suggested. So ask questions and listen to what they're [00:03:00] telling you. You wanna offer a micro adjustment, so not a full overhaul.
Maybe you can say something like, would it help to focus on breakfast only this week? Or you could say, wanna pick one dinner that we know works and just repeat that. So this kind of counseling approach that I'm suggesting and that I teach and follow myself builds trust and trust, leads to client retention, referrals, and of course results.
Now inside of the Dietician Bossville Library, that's our monthly membership. Our members get access to mock scenarios where they can practice these conversations and really build confidence. You don't need two years of clinical experience to get good at counseling. You do need guided practice, and that's exactly what we provide inside of the membership.
So there are some business smart framing tactics I also wanna go through with you. So let's take a look at this from a business perspective [00:04:00] as well. If a client feels judged, misunderstood, or ignored, then they probably ghost the session or just cancel. And if they feel heard and supported, then they're gonna rebook, refer.
And then they're gonna keep showing up. So when a client says, I didn't do the plan, you're not handling a nutrition issue, you're building your business reputation. So this is the difference between checklist, counseling, and clinical excellence, right? inside of the library, we provide you with sales simulations, with resistant clients, counseling frameworks to improve your confidence templates for setting clear expectations up front and practice scenarios across 11 different client specialties
So you'll learn how to respond to real life moments with clarity When the session doesn't go as planned, because it never does, I want you to set expectations early, right? So this is a beginner friendly counseling tip. to prevent these situations from snowballing, set those expectations in the onset of [00:05:00] working together from the beginning.
And here's how, even if you're brand new. So check for readiness. Ask how ready do you feel to plan meals this week? Or what's one small change that feels realistic right now? If they say not ready, you can scale back and find a gentler entry point, like preparing two snacks or maybe adding one veggie per day.
You also wanna start smaller than you think. Like oftentimes we overdeliver and this can cause overwhelm. So instead of overdelivering, try asking, would you repeat one? Go to dinner this week. Would that feel manageable? Or is there a lunch that already works that we can build from?
You also wanna use context. So if the client is a busy parent, so just building around what the kid already eats, or if they work nights. Consider meal timing, not just meal type, right? Customize your recommendations. By using a co-creation [00:06:00] strategy, you're doing it with them and based on the context of their lives.
So in co-creating the plan, I want you to ask them, do you wanna map out two options together and decide what's most realistic? when you take this collaborative approach, client is more likely to stick with a plan and more likely to tell you when they can't. And you can practice all of this with more confidence using our mock clinical scripts and case study scenarios inside the dietician boss library.
You don't need to be in a clinical job to build these skills. You can do it right from home. Or if you are in a clinical job and you're anything like me, in my experience, you didn't get much feedback from your boss about your clinical tactics. So that's what this case scenario was built for inside of the dietician boss library.
So in closing, if your client doesn't follow the meal plan, don't panic and don't blame yourself. And don't blame them. It's normal. This is part of nutrition counseling. It's an opportunity to build trust, learn what your client already [00:07:00] needs, and then show up as a confident leader.
Inside of the Dietician Boss Library, you'll get realistic case studies with resistant examples templates to set clear client expectations, mock counseling sessions, so you can practice tough conversations a supportive community and coaching by me to guide your growth. If you're ready to improve your client counseling and your confidence, I want you to join [email protected] and join the library today.
We'll see you next time.
