Caring for clients is the name of the game for you and your practice; it’s why you do what you love and love what you do but we all get caught up sometimes in the flurry of day to day activity and forget to look at how efficient we really are. Your business doesn’t always grow naturally so you need to seek out new opportunities and when they come you need to adjust to the rising tide and find the time to practice your profession properly.
Here are 7 tips to promote growth and manage your practice development:
1. Sharpen your Scheduling
If your practice doesn’t have a clearly defined schedule of appointments, tasks, shifts and other events coming up each day, week and month then your clinicians and administration have to take each day as it comes. Reacting to clients and office requirements as they come can be stressful, inefficient and ineffective so make sure you employ the right tools and make the time required to be prepared.
2. Clear Up your Clinicians
The clinicians in your practice are specialists at what they do and need to be focused on their clients to ensure they offer the level of treatment needed to bring customers back into the business. Relying on clinicians for heavy administration, office upkeep or people management creates an environment that promotes hasty consultations, unclear diagnoses and inadequate treatments. Like any member of staff, you should not allow clinicians the time to work on tasks they are not specialised for. Remove obstructions from their day, and let them provide a product your business is proud of and renowned for.
3. Organise, Optimise, Customise
Promoting efficiency is a practice wide movement that should be constantly undertaken. Organise your work spaces including paperwork, computer files, client notes and details, furniture, rubbish and tools. Optimising your office space to ensure all of your patients and staff can sit comfortably when waiting or working and checking there is ample space to provide a full spectrum of diagnoses and treatment, as well as to move about the practice is essential. Take patient notes and contact details directly into your practice management software as you work to optimise your workflow, reduce the administration time taken for each client and minimise catch up admin which can cause stress. Customise your client detail forms and patient clinic notes to ensure you are capturing all of, and also only the details required for your practice to succeed and run at maximum efficiency.
4. Handout Helpful Homework
Providing your clients with take home information in the form of links or handouts, tools and plans and other useful materials connects that client to your clinician and practice and offers a great service that brings longevity to the value you offer. Your clients are actively taking steps to improve their health and if you can help them at their home as well as in your clinic they will always think of you along their journey and their loyalty will last.
5. Serve Up Surveys and Request Reviews
You should be proud of the hard work you put in and expect positive feedback, however it’s important to know when something doesn’t feel quite right for your clients as well. Surveys and reviews give you and your team positive reinforcement, or constructive tips to help you grow, and learn to manage your business more effectively. Don’t be afraid of public reviews, your improvements will quickly out number any fallbacks and your prospective customers will notice.
6. Make Time for Marketing
Finding the time for your team to promote your business and find new clients can be a challenge, especially if you don’t need a full time marketer to be responsible for growth. Making time for marketing can come by being more efficient in other areas of the business, or outsourcing the work to a part timer, a casual or free-lance marketer for relatively low cost. Planning is the key with marketing and in most cases you can utilise social media sites and emailing platforms to schedule ahead of time meaning you can set aside minimal hours and prepare on bulk for the week. Interact with your existing customer base to increase loyalty and remind them of appointments and their motivations for visiting you in the first place. Looking for new business and chatting with potential clients on social media and through blogs feels natural to consumers. Running promotions can be a high exposure and low cost way of introducing new referral business, e.g Bring the one you love for Valentines Day for a free booking each!
7. Company Culture is Key
Finally, ensure your practice is a great place to work. This comes from everyone in the business and ensuring the environment is one of harmony. Hire those with a passion for the industry and create avenues for growth into new areas that make sense. Don’t make overtime the norm, and utilise staffing schedules to alternate weekends and give people the time they need for important dates, like birthdays or exams. Lunch room surprises can make anyone’s day and staff events build relationships – just think about what you would love to see at work, and think about how you can make it a reality. A nice working environment means your team is motivated and productive.
Contact the Gensolve Practice Management Software Team to find out how we can help you with growth and practice efficiency.