Economic Strategies

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by Brad Rourke in Insights & Advice

Written by Brad Williams, O.D., F.A.A.O.

How are things going these days? With this economy having a bad hair day, there is one thing for certain – nothing is certain. Rather than wringing your hands and being on the verge of wigging out, I would hope you are proactively seeking ways to keep your practice incomparable to your competition.

After all, these economic conditions will drive some of your leads and patients towards inferior eye health and vision care. Rather than getting the best, so to speak, they may settle for less and go else where. Needless to say, patient retention and getting new patients are certainly a greater challenge in these down times. It’s important to review what you can do to keep your patients.

The goal is to brand a perception of unforgettable and incomparable value in the minds of present and potential patients at every cycle of service. You want them to perceive the value they received from your services and products exceeded what they paid. Let’s go back to the basics and then provide a format to fulfill that goal.

I’ve heard our VP of Client Services, Bill Nolan, ask many audiences, “Colleagues, what kind of business are you really in?” After several incorrect answers, he will tell them, “You are in the people business!” In other words, you are in the perception business. When patients go through your primary cycle of services listed below, they are developing a perception in their mind of the value they received for your services and products.

1. Gate Keeping (Phone Reception)
2. Physical Reception/Welcome
3. Data Collection/Case History
4. Pre-Examination
5. Examination
6. Treatment/Prescribing
7. Product Selection
8. Patient Dismissed
9. Follow-Up
10. Recall

I’ve heard our VP of Sales, Tom Bowen, tell audiences, “It’s not what you do when the patient goes through your cycle of services; but it is what they understand you’re doing.” Thus, educate, educate and educate! After a patient has been through your cycle of services, a perception of value will be branded in their mind one of three ways.

1. They will be excited and tell relatives, friends, co-workers, your garbage man, etc., what a wonderful experience they encountered in your practice. They will encourage and refer others to visit your practice.
2. Others, when asked, “How was your eye exam today?”, will respond in a rather “oh hum” manner. The perception of their experience was just okay and nothing special to brag about. They may or may not return some day to your practice, but don’t expect new patient referrals. No loyalty of any significance was branded in their brain.
3. Some will be upset about the bad experience that occurred at one or more cycles of your service. They will tell everybody about their bad experience. Many times you or other staff members may or may not be aware a patient is not happy. One thing is for certain…they are not coming back.

There is an old AOA statistic out there that is probably fairly accurate to this day. It basically points out over sixty percent of the patients leaving your practice do so because of a negative attitude or indifference of a staff person!

We all want to prevent those last two perceptions from being branded in your patient’s mind. In order to fulfill your goal of branding unforgettable and incomparable value in the minds of present and potential patients, try this on for size:

Take the time to develop a “Perception Training Manual” for your practice. This will become a tool you will utilize for the rest of your practicing years. Your reward will be an increased perception of value, increased revenue/patient, more patient referrals and better patient retention. Here is the format for getting it done:

Dedicate some time completing this project.

1. It may take several weeks to compete.
2. Meet periodically with your staff approximately 30-45 minutes each time until it is finished.
3. Finish it! I promise your time and effort will be repaid over the future. It will put you in the best position to differentiate yourself from your competition.

Develop your Cycle of Service Objectives

1. First, using a flip chart or white board, simply list your perception objectives for each cycle of services. In other words, what do you want your patients to perceive at each cycle?
2. Define the desired final product at each stage/cycle. Define what is valuable to your patients.
3. Determine exactly what is to be said/done and by whom at every stage/cycle. You should already have some of this information in your Office Policy and Procedures Manual, Office Training Manual, etc., so just take it to the next level.

You say you don’t have a good or complete Training Manual? This project will help you either up-date or complete this invaluable task. Complete this assignment once, and all you do is up-date it once a year.

1. Develop scripts for rehearsing and training. Put the final product into a “Perception Training Manual” for continued use throughout your practicing years.
2. Finally, use your finished product for training/reviewing purposes; definitely for all new employees and current staff when needed.

Trust me, it is one of the best training tools you can have for practice success. Nothing good is ever easy.

Here are a few examples to get you started….The most time consuming part is developing scripts, etc., to implement the branding impressions, but once they are done, you have them forever.

Gate Keeping

Objectives

Maximize callers perception of eye health and vision care

Branding Impressions

• Caring attitudes
• Knowledgeable
• Informative
• Persuasive

Physical Reception

Objectives

• Warm welcome
• Data collection
• Mission
• Education process begins
• Entertain
• Caring attitude
• Organized
• Pleasant décor
• On schedule

Pre-test

Objectives

• Gather diagnostic data
• Determine needs process begins
• Education process continues
• Caring attitude
• High-tech
• Eye health cares
• Competent staff

Exam Room

Objectives

• Warm welcome
• Two components
• Explain what doing
• Recommend
• Pre-appoint
• Pass baton
• Caring attitude
• Excellent eye health and vision care
• Knowledge
• On-schedule
• Great experience

Pass Baton

Objectives

• Eye health
• Vision products
• Recall
• Referral request
• Caring attitude
• Complete understanding of treatment plan
• Know when/why to return
• Enthusiastic

Product Selection/Dispensing

Objectives

• Repeat recommendations
• Demonstrate
• Educate
• Close
• Pass baton
• Caring attitude
• Good selection
• Guarantees
• Great deal
• Excited
• Great experience

In summary, brand your patients loyalty. If you finish and implement this perception training tool, your goal of branding their hearts and minds with an unforgettable perception of excellent eye health and vision care is practically assured. They won’t think of going anywhere else when you put their needs first.

Tags: Customer Service, Economic Advice, Economic Strategies