In this practice building tip of the week Dr. Gay, Chiropractic Business Coach, discusses insurance billing and implementing tracking systems for your chiropractic office.
IMPORTANT FREE TRAINING:Attend our live conference call with Brenda Frederiksen April 11th at 12:30pm PDT
This is going to be a great call for you Doctors and your CAs.
Call-in #: 641-715-3200
Access Code: 421669
Brenda Will Cover:
Telephone Techniques
Keeping a positive attitude
Time management
Multiple Appointment Program (MAP)Don't miss this!Download the entire Chiropractic Assistant Training ManualGrow your practice by 25% in the next 90 days with Ultimate Practice Mastery
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There is an old proverb, "ask and you shall receive". These days, the proverb might be more aptly changed to, "give and you shall receive". In today's working environment, organizations must increase their dedication to staff and levels of leadership if they wish to achieve employee commitment. Employee commitment is not bought with a salary (nor is it expected), but rather earned through the actions of the people who lead the organization."
For employees, commitment is based on a number of factors:
- Sufficiency of pay, benefits and rewards
- Family oriented policies and actions
- Quality of the supervisory relationship
- Favorable developmental training and experiences
- Promotions
- Clearly stated guidelines defining appropriate work behavior and job demands
- Participation in goal setting
- Receipt of performance feedback
- Supportive communications with immediate supervisors and upper management
- Procedural justice in performance-appraisal decisions
- Evaluative and objective measures of performance
When these things are in place, employees are willing to work harder, perform duties beyond requirements, remain in their organization for a longer period of time, and even have fewer absences from work.
Employee commitment is defined as staff being continually motivated to achieve results and satisfied to see their future with the organization over time. The benefits of such commitment are clear. But how do organizations gain and support the commitment of its people?
In order to ensure that company ideology remains the living breath of the organization, it is vital to be able to measure commitment, taking on board feedback and gauging subtle organizational changes. Without measurement, an organization cannot find the gaps in commitment and improve.
With this in mind, we have an Employee Commitment Questionnaire that assesses employee commitment. This will serve to give you a better understanding of what your employees need to be more effective in their position, how you can improve your working relationship, and how committed they are to their role in your clinic.
| Click Here To Download The "Employee Commitment Questionnaire" | | File Size: | 7 kb | | File Type: | pdf |
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1. Keeping up an Immaculate Presentation of the Office
The office should always have an immaculate presentation whenever a new patient or a recurring patient comes to visit. Think as if your family in law were coming to your house to stay the weekend, what would you do? How would you arrange the place? The plants? The front desk? The presentation of the office should be warm, comfortable, and inviting. The presentation of the office on a day to day basis is going to make your chiropractic office that much more memorable to all of your new and recurring patients. Don't slack off when it comes to presentation. Consider hiring an interior decorator or a feng shui expert for a 2 hour consultation one day to show you how you can improve the appearance of your office. It will make all the difference.
2. Complete Focus and "Presence" with All Patients
Alongside your office's presentation comes your CA's presence and how they relate to the patients…new and recurring. What I mean by this is that every time a patient comes to visit the office, your CA should give 100% of their focus, time, and "presence" to that patient. If they are on the phone, they should acknowledge that patient letting them know they have seen them and will be with them shortly. If they are texting, or on the computer, they should immediately stop what they are doing and give 100% of their focus to that patient. What does it take to impress and acknowledge a patient? Oe minute. That's one minute per patient per day that helps show them you are the chiropractic office they SHOULD continue with. The CA should be treating the recurring patients with just as much, if not more, attention, kindness, and presence, as they would any new patient or prospective patient.
3. Building Long Term "PROFESSIONAL" Relationships with the Focus of the Patient in Mind
This is something to be very cautious with. When done correctly, you can have repeat long term patients for a long time to come. When done incorrectly, your patients could leave your office forever, without a second look back. We have to remember, patients don't come to a chiropractor's office to make friends, they come to get their pain and problems fixed. So the type of relationship you build with your patients should be a 95% professional, and no more than 5% personal one. It is ok to talk about "light" personal topics with the patients such as local events, sports, and activities that THE PATIENT is interested in, but pouring out your weekend club hopping extravaganza with patients, is a huge no-no. Also talking about personal problems, life situations, and "drama talk" will only push your patients further away. The best way to build a long term professional relationship with your patients that keeps them coming back to your chiropractic office month after month, is to learn a few topics that the patient likes to talk about, and let them talk to you about those topics, while you listen and converse back with them on a professional level. Do this correctly, and your patients could keep coming back to you again and again, feeling good about referring your practice to their friends and family.
Improving employee retention through training is a strategic management tactic that is frequently overlooked. All too often a business assumes giving people a salary raise or more vacation time will create job satisfaction. Instead, what happens is the staff adjusts their standard of living to consume the raise and are away from their jobs longer due to the increased paid leave time. They remain dissatisfied while at work.
It is difficult to do any job when you don't have access to the right training. Struggling through a job, or spending time doing a job wrong, results in frustration and often leads to conflict between employees, and employees and managers. The employees feel as if their employer really doesn't care enough about the quality of the job being done if they refuse to invest in training. The result is the staff and the employer are unhappy with the results.
Employees who sense an employer will not invest in adequate training will seek other employment. Staff turnover is an expensive proposition for a business. Anytime an employee leaves and must be replaced, there is a learning curve for new staff during which productivity will drop. In addition, the manager must spend an inordinate amount of time making sure the replacement staff has enough information to do the rudiments of the job. Then the cycle starts all over again.
Increasing employee retention is possible by providing staff training. But it cannot be training just for training's sake. Most people have, at some point, sat through a seminar wondering why they are being forced to listen to information not relevant to their job.
Staff training must be focused, and it must be focused on providing the tools and knowledge staff need to do their job. The training must be relevant on many levels.
* Promote the chiropractic mission and culture
* Increase customer relationship management
* Teach communication skills
* Instruct in use of technology
* Encourage creative thinking
* Develop potential managers
This probably sounds like an ambitious agenda. But an effective training program that is well designed and addresses the very real day-to-day issues employees must be able to handle to do their jobs well, will result in increased employee retention. The reason is quite simple. Well trained employees take ownership mentally and emotionally of a company when they are treated as valuable assets.
Developing an "Our" Organization Mentality
Staff who do not take some level of ownership of their place of employment are normally dissatisfied employees who always keep their jobs at an arm's length so to speak. They never really feel as if they need to be as productive as possible or need to put forth the extra effort good job performance always requires. Eventually, it is inevitable these employees will seek another job.
Employee training builds staff confidence, competence, and a sense of job ownership. The result is a workforce that is knowledgeable and has a high level of job satisfaction. When someone is satisfied, they will stay right where they are, on the job.
The majority of successful businesses put a great deal of time, attention and resources into the recruitment process. These organizations realize that the key to building and maintaining a profitable business is highly competent, efficient, and focused staff. In order to create a harmonious, productive, and efficient workforce however, you must consider more than just which individuals are to constitute the staff. There are a number of factors which have a direct influence upon productivity and general workforce positivity which are easily addressed.
The Office
It is absolutely imperative that your office promotes productivity. This means that it must not only be equipped with fully functioning, up-to-date equipment to facilitate the performance of all tasks required but also be a pleasant environment in which to be based. Although the aesthetics may not necessarily have a direct impact upon profits, they will have a serious bearing upon employee satisfaction. Natural light is a bonus and can go a long way towards minimizing instances of depression or Seasonal Affective Disorder. Equally important is that the furniture you choose ensures that employees are comfortable and all health and safety stipulations are adhered to. If space is at a premium it is advisable to consider office furniture which is tailored to such environments in order to prevent the office space from being cramped or cluttered.
Managerial Prowess
Discrimination on any basis is now subject to government legislation that does not, however, mean that it is not still something which occurs in poorly organized businesses. Fair treatment of all staff is imperative to the development of a healthy 'team' ethos amongst staff. A solid managerial structure is crucial to harmony amongst all employees as well, ensuring that each individual is not only treated as an individual but also pushed to achieve their maximum potential.
Motivation
A well motivated workforce is a focused workforce. Praise and reward can make a world of difference to productivity and efficiency, even if the rewards are just token gestures for good work or hitting a target. Any form of motivation is likely to elicit positive results. A performance based bonus program is an effective way to motivate staff. For more information on implementing such a program, contact Dr. Gay or visit our online members’ site.
These factors amongst others are at the foundation of any successful business and allow for growth and internal career development by nurturing the interests and strengths of all employees. By motivating staff such that they share their aims with the organization as a whole, the chances of all-round success are greatly improved.
Do you have a referral based business? Most doctors would say yes. But realize there is a huge difference between a Word of Mouth Business and a Referral Based Business. Referrals are generated proactively where Word of Mouth is a passive method. Below you will find 5 ways you can generate referrals proactively. Remember, when implementing a system you must be CONSISTENT!
Calls
Have your CA call through your database once per quarter to keep in touch with your patients. A simple “Hey, how is life? We just wanted to check in on you and make sure things are going well. Oh, before I forget… if you run into anyone who is in pain or could benefit from seeing Dr. ________ have them give us a call. We are never too busy for your friends and family.”
Hand Written Cards
There is power in writing cards. It is the only piece of mail that gets opened every time! It is also the only piece of mail people like to receive, short of receiving money for their birthday. Make a lasting impression and take time out of your day to write your patients a note of gratitude.
Business Lunch Meetings
Do you know who your top referring patients are? If so, take them to lunch. You need to acknowledge those who help your business. Imagine if everyone that you referred business took you out to lunch. Would you refer them more business? I know I would.
Quarterly Gatherings
Schedule Quarterly Gatherings for the remainder of this year. This should be an easy task as there are numerous opportunities to “Get Together”. Put them on the calendar, have your CA create an invitation, and start letting your patients know when you’ll be holding them. Create community in your database of patients. Have them invite family and friends. You will be astonished by how many new patients you generate.
Monthly Newsletters
Open up your Marketing Manual! You have an entire years worth of newsletters sitting there asking to be sent out. Remember “Knowledge does not equal power. Knowledge is worthless unless put into application.” So send those letters out and generate some new patients!
In this tip of the week I will share with you how to effectively use your time to market your practice on Facebook to local residents in your area, without getting sidetracked by all of the flashy objects and distractions.
Step 1. Be productive, not distracted.
Many Doctors spend hours upon hours on Facebook answering questions, checking out flashy objects, and wasting time. Facebook is designed to be distracting so more people will spend more time on their site, but in the end, all of the flashy time wasting objects can actually hurt your practice. So understanding what's productive, verses distractive, will help you take the first step to utilizing Facebook in a way that will help you generate more brand exposure and potentially pull in more new patients.
Step 2. Setup your business page for your practice, and don't mix business with personal.
Not everyone knows that Facebook allows you to have a personal profile and a separate business page. In your personal profile, you can talk about personal things like vacations, ideals, and events, but try not to get too personal. You have to remember that your prospective patients, and current patients, will see your personal profile along with your business page, and if you are talking about personal issues that in no way bring value to your prospective patients, then the overall perception of you as a Doctor could be diminished. Keep it light, and focus on adding value. You can setup your business page by going to Facebook.com, and then clicking the small blue link at the bottom that says "Pages." In your business page you want to input as much information about your practice as possible, and offer a subscription to your newsletter or an attractive offer to entice your prospective clients to come into your office and meet you and your staff.
Step 3. Market your business page, not your personal profile
The goal of the business page is to get prospective patients in your local area to go to your page and click the "like" button. The more people who click the "like" button, means the more opportunity you have to spread your message about your practice further out into the community. One way to get people to click your "like" button is to offer them something valuable for clicking the "like" button, and then market your business page on Facebook using the Facebook Ads, which can be found at Facebook.com, and then clicking the "Advertising" button at the bottom of the page. With Facebook Ads you can geo-target your ads to a specific city so you know you are investing your marketing budget in your local area.
Remember, Facebook can be distracting and take you away from what you should be doing to help more patients. The good ol' speaking engagement or patient orientation class will produce more results in a shorter period of time, than a facebook campaign will, but if you spend a maximum of 10 minutes per day on Facebook, you can build up your brand and web presence over time, ultimately reaching out and potentially helping more new patients get better through chiropractic care.
The CA plays a part in the chain of public relations that starts as soon as a patient opens the door to the office. First impressions made on the patient as a result of office appearance and staff behavior are lasting impressions to others.
You represent the office to patients. Since you are building an image every minute of every day, your duty to yourself and to your profession is to build an image of friendliness, sincerity, professional “know-how,” and respect. Your image should be one of pride in accepting a responsibility and fulfilling a need. You should be recognized as a community-minded citizen who aids in the health and welfare of human beings.
Your every act, your every statement, your every conversation, your attitude, your every contact with the public should demonstrate prestige, restraint, good manners, and professionalism. This is the image you should want to build and carry out. It starts in the morning; it stops when you go to bed at night. You represent all Chiropractic Assistants, the chiropractic profession, and especially your office at work or in your leisure time. You have a responsibility to be a positive image in public relations.
Methods to Achieve Good Public Relations:
- Know people and show an interest in them. Try to learn their interests, hobbies, likes, and dislikes; find out what motivates them. One of the best ways to do this is to become a good listener. By seeking to understand others, others will understand you.
- Treat people with respect. Be courteous; be understanding; try to be patient. Acknowledge and respect the rights and opinions of others. Treat people as you would like to be treated, and you have every right to expect the same in return.
- Use a giving, instead of a taking, approach. Build respect by becoming a contributor of your time, effort, ideas, and understanding. Don’t become burdensome with your conversations or requests. People should be happy to see you when you call knowing that your visit has purpose and meaning. If you accept a job or a project, do it. Don’t expect someone else to carry you.
- Welcome the visitor. Make them feel welcome, be cheerful and to the point unless you are meeting socially. Be friendly and conversational. Be down-to-earth and practical in your conversation. Give other people a chance to voice their views. Develop the ability to know when to terminate a conversation and leave.
- Don’t force yourself on people. Whenever possible, try to be professional in your approach and not “pushy.” Aggressive social behavior does not fit the dignified image of a professional person.
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