THE VALUE OF HAVING A DAILY PRODUCTION MEETING TO IMPROVE SERVICE TO YOUR PATIENTS

Coordination is one of the most vital functions of running a successful practice and can often be a turning point for a practice in improving service and working as a team to deliver exceptional service to patients.

I recommend starting each day with a fast, 10 minute, production meeting to provide an opportunity for all staff to get in communication and get coordinated with regard to the following.

1. which patients are coming in
2. what the production looks like for the day and what needs to be produced to make financial benchmarks.
3. any special announcements that all staff should be aware of
4. monthly promotions
5. who is going to be working on reactivation calls to get past patients back into the office
6. coordination on existing or new protocol

All staff, including office manager, owner, associates and general staff, play an active role in this meeting by being:

1. on time
2. prepared with relevant charts and information
3. focused on what needs to be accomplished for the day
4. Keep the meetings up beat and positive

A good example of how a staff member could greatly contribute during this meeting is as follows. 

A patient who is coming in today has a lengthy treatment plan but was only scheduled for a small aspect of the treatment plan today.  You just found out there is a cancelled appointment and/or free time in the schedule.  You suggest that the patient could be quite willing to extend the time of the visit to have more treatment done. By conveying this to the entire staff at the meeting, everyone can act in coordination.  When the patient arrives, a concentrated effort can be made to motivate the patient to complete more treatment during today’s visit. 

This approach is of benefit to the patient and the practice.  It is always best for a patient to complete his/her treatment plan as soon as possible to avoid additional problems and costs.

Another example could be the office manager using the meeting time to go over a promotion that the office is running and role play drilling the staff on how to inform patients of the promotion so that the staff feel comfortable and can provide all the information necessary to scheduled patients.

You could also use this meeting, if you are the owner, to go over any new treatment protocols and can drill the staff so they are comfortable with the new protocol, ensuring that patients receive the best possible service.

These are just a few examples of the value of the morning meeting.

Implementing a daily morning meeting can establish a better team, improve service and care to patients and increase the financial viability of the practice as a result!

CREATING A PRODUCTIVE REFERRAL SYSTEM FOR YOUR PRACTICE

Happy clients and word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective methods to fill your practice with new patients. An internal referral campaign to get your existing patients excited about telling their friends and families about your  the way to actively create new patients and is very important and very inexpensive.

This is one of the first things I start when working with a practice:


1. Encouraging referrals – when a new patient calls in, find out who referred them.  This of course is done by the receptionist over the phone.  Make a point to acknowledge the person whom referred the new patient.  For example, if Sally Smith referred the patient, the receptionist would say something such as “My, Sally Smith’s such a nice lady, isn’t she?  It was so kind of her to recommend our services to you!”  This if the first time the new patient hears about referrals.

 

The new patient then comes into the office and fills out a New Patient form on which it has a question, “Who may we thank for referring you?”  This is the second time the new patient’s attention has been directed to the idea of “referrals”.

 

Finally, the Doctor introduces himself to the new patient, looks at the forms, and notes who the patient has been referred by and says, “I see Sally Smith referred you.  We all really enjoy her.”  This is the third time the patient has thought about referrals.  This impresses upon the new patient the fact that referring new people to the practice is very much encouraged and is appreciated.

2. Put a tastefully bold sign you waiting area - "We would like to help as many people as possible with their health needs. Please feel free to tell your family and friends that we are accepting new patients!" or a similar wording.

3. Survey your employees and patients for an award or discount you can give them for getting new patients into the practice (obviously can't violate any local laws on referring patients). This can be a Starbucks card, gas card, or something similar for each new patient gotten from referrals and can increase with the number of referrals a patient or staff member gets.

4. Create simple referral cards with the practice's contact information and stating that your practice is accepting new patients. Offer a special for new patients. Something significant, but not at a loss for the practice.

5. Hand out two (2) referral cards to all patients as they leave. Tell them how many people don't take care of their dental needs and that you want to help provide needed dental care and that you would like them to tell as many of their friends and family as possible about your practice. Let them know what special the new patient will get and what award they get when someone comes in with a referral card.

6. The staff should initial the cards they hand out so they can be awarded too.

7. Also recommend drilling your staff on this so they are comfortable doing it.

I have had real success implementing the above steps in many practices, though I have found that for each practice they have different response times before they start seeing an improvement in new patient numbers, but it does work.