In any practice, and on any given day, there are hundreds of parts all running simultaneously.
In practices I've worked with I've observed this to be confusing and most often, not planned for properly, which can result in lost production, poor service and internal upset. All of which can have the potential of lost patients and lost income.
I've also worked with practices that weren't regularly going over the practice growth goals and did not go over the necessary daily production goals with the staff. As a result, in each practice, potential production was lost.
For any Practice Manager (or owner of a practice) this is a major concern and can take up a great deal of time and personal energy from the manager and owner trying to either prevent or resolve the resulting losses.
There is a solution implemented in a number of practices - the daily huddle or production meeting. It is a simple tool that can have immediate results and improve production and service to your patients.
Implementation is simple:
a) Schedule the daily huddle at the start of the day.
b) Ideally all staff attend, including the Owner, Practice Manager, associate doctors and staff. (If all of your staff can't attend, work to have have as many as possible attend as it will still be very productive.)
c) The Practice Manager runs the huddle.
d) All patients for the day are discussed, with any specific details gone over to ensure great service, like scheduling, coordination on additional coverage, etc.
e) Production targets are set for the day (e.g. how much of a specific service to be delivered, how much in treatment plans to be sold, how many reactivated patients, etc). I will discuss in a later blog how to set production targets and the value this will have in increasing your practice's overall viability.
All of this can be done in about 10 to 15 minutes and will definitely increase staff productivity and service to your clients.
It also results in improved morale and your practice staff working as a team.
Now it may take a bit to get this fully organized, but if you do, you will immediately increase the quality and amount of service to your patients, resulting in a growing practice!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
THE VALUE OF KNOWING HOW TO SELL YOUR TREATMENT PLANS
Training your staff on presentation and teaching basic sales techniques is important in getting patients to accept their treatment plans. I'm not talking about being a used car salesman, but using honest sales techniques that really help a patient see the importance of the treatment.
This also does not replace the quality of the services you've provided and the actual value of the treatment plans you offer.
When training staff on sales, a good technique, is to help the patient understand what might happen if they don't move forward with the treatment plan. Don't do this as a scare technique, but be honest so that the patient understands why you feel they need the treatment.
For those that don't close and don't decide to move forward with the treatment plan and need "some time to think about it" try to schedule them for another appointment so you can see them again and get another chance to tell the patient about their treatment plan and its value to the patient.
Also doing regular calls to past clients that have not been back to the office after a year is a very productive way to finish treatment plans. More then likely they've gotten caught up and forgot about their treatment plan and a reminder might get them back in to actually do the treatment. I call this reactivation calling.
When you do call your patients that haven't been in for a while you should have a dialog that makes it important for the patient to respond and get back in touch with your office or makes them want to come back in to see the doctor. I've worked out a fairly good "reactivation" dialog for this and if you are interested please feel free to contact me.
I would also be interested in any successful "reactivation" call dialogs that you might have. Please share them with me!
This also does not replace the quality of the services you've provided and the actual value of the treatment plans you offer.
When training staff on sales, a good technique, is to help the patient understand what might happen if they don't move forward with the treatment plan. Don't do this as a scare technique, but be honest so that the patient understands why you feel they need the treatment.
For those that don't close and don't decide to move forward with the treatment plan and need "some time to think about it" try to schedule them for another appointment so you can see them again and get another chance to tell the patient about their treatment plan and its value to the patient.
Also doing regular calls to past clients that have not been back to the office after a year is a very productive way to finish treatment plans. More then likely they've gotten caught up and forgot about their treatment plan and a reminder might get them back in to actually do the treatment. I call this reactivation calling.
When you do call your patients that haven't been in for a while you should have a dialog that makes it important for the patient to respond and get back in touch with your office or makes them want to come back in to see the doctor. I've worked out a fairly good "reactivation" dialog for this and if you are interested please feel free to contact me.
I would also be interested in any successful "reactivation" call dialogs that you might have. Please share them with me!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
PUSH THE RIGHT BUTTONS WITH YOUR MARKETING
It is important, when creating effective promotion and marketing for your practice, that you do some very basic research to narrow down the exact "buttons" for potential new clients and those "buttons" that will get past clients to return.
The first thing you have to understand is - what is a "button" and how does it work?
A "button" is that message or idea that gets a potential patient to react, it's that thing that perks their interest and makes them want to come to your practice (or at least makes them want to find out more about your practice).
Each area has a general "button" and you want to know what it is so you can push it and fill your practice with patients.
The research you need to do is actually pretty simple. The first step is to determine what general mindset and styles dominate your particular city or area your practice provide services to. If you're from the area, this may be even simpler as you will probably have a pretty good idea of what the general mindset and attitudes are. Regardless, I would recommend doing a rapid survey with people you know from the area and see if each of you share the same opinions on this.
Now, if you're not from the area you need to ask people from the area to get this information. Here are some example questions that can elicit the information:
- What do you feel is important to this area?
- Tell me what best describes this city?
- What is important to you?
- What about _____________ (based on your field of medical practice) do you
consider important?
There are also online resources you can use to get demographic information that may help you determine your area's attitudes and mindset.
Additionally, I've found that it's very useful to survey what the more successful practices are doing (promotion and marketing wise), as it's working for them and there might be some things you can incorporate into your own promotion and marketing that will also work for you. Take a look at three or four successful practices. Checkout their websites, blogs, online marketing, their Facebook page, LinkedIn page and any traditional marketing that they're doing. You'll want to note their designs, colors, messages, any particular "buttons" they're pushing, etc. Obviously, you're going to be original in creating or improving your marketing, but doing this simple research will help you with ideas.
Once you've done the above you'll want to review what you've done in the past with your own promotion and marketing. Look over advertisements, brochures for your practice, newsletters, slogans, logos, your website, billboards, client word of mouth successes, social media and any other internet marketing you've done that has resulted in increased patients.
Check this by reviewing the dates of when specific promotion and marketing actions were being done, against dates that showed increases in office visits and new patients. This will show you the pieces and actions that were successful.
Once you've collected all the above information you'll have a general idea of what your area's "buttons" are, where to go with your online and traditional promotion and marketing and will be making good strides towards filling your practice with new and returning patients.
The first thing you have to understand is - what is a "button" and how does it work?
A "button" is that message or idea that gets a potential patient to react, it's that thing that perks their interest and makes them want to come to your practice (or at least makes them want to find out more about your practice).
Each area has a general "button" and you want to know what it is so you can push it and fill your practice with patients.
The research you need to do is actually pretty simple. The first step is to determine what general mindset and styles dominate your particular city or area your practice provide services to. If you're from the area, this may be even simpler as you will probably have a pretty good idea of what the general mindset and attitudes are. Regardless, I would recommend doing a rapid survey with people you know from the area and see if each of you share the same opinions on this.
Now, if you're not from the area you need to ask people from the area to get this information. Here are some example questions that can elicit the information:
- What do you feel is important to this area?
- Tell me what best describes this city?
- What is important to you?
- What about _____________ (based on your field of medical practice) do you
consider important?
There are also online resources you can use to get demographic information that may help you determine your area's attitudes and mindset.
Additionally, I've found that it's very useful to survey what the more successful practices are doing (promotion and marketing wise), as it's working for them and there might be some things you can incorporate into your own promotion and marketing that will also work for you. Take a look at three or four successful practices. Checkout their websites, blogs, online marketing, their Facebook page, LinkedIn page and any traditional marketing that they're doing. You'll want to note their designs, colors, messages, any particular "buttons" they're pushing, etc. Obviously, you're going to be original in creating or improving your marketing, but doing this simple research will help you with ideas.
Once you've done the above you'll want to review what you've done in the past with your own promotion and marketing. Look over advertisements, brochures for your practice, newsletters, slogans, logos, your website, billboards, client word of mouth successes, social media and any other internet marketing you've done that has resulted in increased patients.
Check this by reviewing the dates of when specific promotion and marketing actions were being done, against dates that showed increases in office visits and new patients. This will show you the pieces and actions that were successful.
Once you've collected all the above information you'll have a general idea of what your area's "buttons" are, where to go with your online and traditional promotion and marketing and will be making good strides towards filling your practice with new and returning patients.
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