As chiropractors, we all have the burning desire to create and work in an office that sees a lot of patients, makes us good money, has a reasonable stress level and really is just genuinely an enjoyable environment for staff and patients.
So, what if you are not there…at that place that I just described.
Well, if that is the case then most of us would agree there are a few key areas you must assess to break down the barriers that are holding you back from the practice you envision.
1) Front Office Protocols
2) Doctor Protocols
3) Marketing
Now, granted there are many more factors that go into creating an ideal practice such as money management skills, adding additional profit centers, etc; however, for our purposes right now I actually want to just zero in on one area. We will explore overcoming obstacles in other areas of your practice in future articles.
I am choosing this particular area because it is the first one I assess with all chiropractic consulting clients when trying to figure out what is holding them back from truly creating a powerhouse practice.
And that key area is…(drumroll please!)…The Front Desk…(and queue cymbal crash!).
Now before you ‘x-out’ of this article or click on the next email in hopes of landing on some cool new marketing tactic give me a try on this. I get it that this topic is
1) Elementary
2) Not exciting
However, remember this: All the effort you put in to get a lot of new patients through the door and build a big practice is all for nothing if the patients aren’t sticking around and you aren’t enjoying your day. And having a well oiled front office is one of the biggest factors to ensuring your clinic grows like you intended.
Your goal when assessing your own front office should be to uncover any factor that interrupts the turnkey flow aspect of the clinic, and a ‘turnkey operation’ is what you should always be striving to create.
Examples of key steps for your front office might include:
-Return messages in the morning (you’d be surprised at how often that one is missed)
-Call missed appointments within 10 minutes after appointment time
-Recalls made to every patient that missed the previous day
-Appointment confirmation calls or texts completed daily
-Insurance verified on all new patients
-Prepare paper/electronic forms and charts for the next day
-Restock paper in machines
-Balance out the day’s income
-Enter daily statistics
-etc
The way I like to think about the front office is as follows:
The front office dictates the pace, cohesiveness and effectiveness of the other clinic team members.
The bottom line is this…If the front office staff takes shortcuts or forgets key steps in their protocols, which they often naturally will over time, then the rest of the clinic that follows behind every move they make is not going to flow well.
Now, once you identify any responsibilities that you feel are getting overlooked, not fully completed or are just flat out being ignored, you can now bring those to light so that you can get them integrated in as a habit once again.
One of the simplest and yet underutilized ways that accomplish that is by using a ‘Did You’ duties form.
Whether you have a new front office employee or the same manager for the last 15 years, incorporating a ‘Did You’ duties form works great to help remind them of anything you need improved upon or that you introduce as a new responsibility.
Below is an example of a Did You duties form. This particular example is obviously geared more towards a new employee so that they don’t miss the key responsibilities.
I recommend you have the employee check the box next to each task as it is completed and you can even put a signature line at the bottom that the person could initial at the end of every day. That holds them even more accountable to making sure they completed their required training tasks for the day.
While you will want to shorten or lengthen this form depending on the focus, this is where the ‘art’ of using a task list like the Did You duties form really comes into play.
Logically you would think, ‘OK, I want to write down everything that needs to be done in a given day so I’ll create a very long Did You duties cheat sheet for them.’
That’s actually the opposite of what you want to do, and especially for a new employee. With a new staff member, you actually want to give them 5 or 6 key elements to try to accomplish say, the first week or two. Put those in a Did You duties format; then you can slowly add to it or replace it with new tasks as they become adept at accomplishing the previous tasks that you had on it.
You want them to become proficient at a few things and then add more verses having them haphazardly trying to accomplish everything. As well, they obviously don’t need reminders for something like answering the phone, greeting patients or giving a new patient their paperwork. Those are givens and are perfected in role play training, not by writing them down.
Rather you want your list to focus on those elements that might easily be forgotten because they are not obvious in the attention they require like a ringing phone or person walking in would have.
It is a given that your Did You duties forms will be modified over time. Any employee that has worked for you longer than a few weeks will likely no longer need to be reminded to restock paper into the machines. And for that reason you will continually be adding new tasks on every week or so.
As well, you don’t want to take the chance that an employee comes to believe that these written duties are the only ones they will need to accomplish in a day. The list should always be growing so that they continue to be challenged and busy!
A common mistake I find with business owners is that they limit the use of a task list to only the new staffer. I still use them often with employees that have been in the same clinic for years. Some doctors will shy away from the use with the office manager that has been in there for two decades and I totally understand the hesitation. After all you don’t want to offend the dedicated employee. And truth be told, he or she may be so good that they just don’t need any reminders.
However, if you feel there are a few aspects of their job they could improve upon (patient reactivation calls, insurance follow up, a new responsibility, etc) then a simple way to introduce the concept without ruffling feathers is to create a task list for everyone…including you!
After all, aren’t there a few aspects of your new patient protocol or daily patient education and retention process that you could use a little reminding on each day?
As I said earlier, I realize this concept of assessing the effectiveness of your front office and using a task list to get them up to snuff is a little boring and seems very elementary. Nonetheless, let this article serve as a reminder that you must occasionally take action to sharpen one of the most important tools of your clinic success.
