Category Archives: Goals

The Phone Experience and Your New Patients

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I just read about a new study sponsored by a tech company (Invoca.com*) that sought to understand the buying habits of consumers better.

It revealed that as inflation increases, the expectations of customers do as well.

It pointed out that inflation has consumers rethinking their more expensive purchases, including health care. However, almost two-thirds (63%) report that they’re still willing to pay more to get better customer service.

While consumer shopping is based on price, they’re also demanding better experiences. The survey found that more than three-quarters of respondents (76%) said they would stop doing business with a company after just one bad experience.

When respondents ranked the possible reasons why they would stop doing business with a company, a bad phone experience was second only to high prices.

Another interesting fact I noted was that most consumers ranked the phone as their preferred channel when they needed help regarding a purchase. They may go to your website, but the vital moment occurs on the phone. Not texting, emailing, or even visiting the office in person, but the phone call is the preferred method of contacting you.

And the preferred use of the phone in the 2022 survey was up 8% since 2021.

How your patients and potential patients are treated on the phone has an enormous impact on your weekly practice numbers. I would estimate that up to 20% of your volume could fluctuate based upon the great experience or poor experience someone has with your front desk.

The ebullient nature of the staff person you have plays a key role, but so is that staff member’s experience while working in your office. For example, I have seen visits go up when a new happy-to-be-hired front desk staff member takes over the front desk, only to see the numbers dip after they become discouraged a few months later.

The front desk is the most demanding role you have in your office. They need to always be “on,” eager, and interested in phone calls while at the same time checking people in, collecting money, and chatting with patients as they can.

I have spent occasions rehearsing with the front desk on answering the phone. It is simple, but done correctly, it is an art.

Even if your front desk team are pros, positively rehearse with them now and then – tell them even the experts practice daily!

Constant improvement is the road to excellence, and excellent service is needed in our post-Covid world.

And in the end, all this study points to is that common courtesy, genuine interest in and care for each other, being authentic, and kindness are more valuable than ever.

Ed

*https://experience.invoca.com/2022-invoca-buyer-experience-report/p/1

Goal Driven Job Descriptions

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playbook goal chart

In a Goal Driven Practice, Goal Driven Job Descriptions are short, fast, and to the point.

And they are used!

They help improve the quality and quantity of services and are motivational.

So, how is this different from other job descriptions?

Most job descriptions are usually a hodge-podge and catchall of unrelated tasks. For example, the front desk job description may include getting supplies, taking x rays, calling attorneys, and scheduling patients. Billing may include marketing and equipment repair.

Staff will do the tasks assigned but end up zigzagging from one function to another, losing focus on what they are doing, and often disengaged in their activities.

In typical job descriptions, the goals are not clearly defined, measured, nor are the expectations stated. Further, employees don’t always see or get recognized for the results of the work detailed on their job descriptions.

Yet another failing of most job descriptions is obvious – they just aren’t used.

Let’s look at how to power up job descriptions so that they are Goal Driven.

Many job descriptions contain the duties of several different roles. A role is an assumed identity. For example, in a restaurant, there are the roles of a server, cashier, dishwasher, and chef, or cook. In a small restaurant, one person may take on a number of these roles, and all these roles would be their job description. Hence the idiom: “chief cook and bottle washer.”

But to be effective, each role needs to be separated, well defined, and organized with the other roles.

In a Goal Driven Practice, job descriptions are broken down into different roles and described in job checklists.

The job checklist begins by clarifying the goals. This includes the mission, the outcomes, what is used to measure performance, and the level of performance expected of that role.

For example, for the role of Patient Accounts, the mission might be something like: “To help the patient pay for all of the services they received in such a way that they will continue to receive services.” The outcome might be a zero balance or “no accounts receivable more than 30 days.” The statistics used to measure this role could be the “percent of collections to adjusted services.” And finally, the expectation might be something like: “All patients very happy with the encounters with Patient Accounts and continuing with their services, with a collections percent of at least 95% of adjusted services average.”

We now list the most important procedures to achieve this goal. The CEO of the office defines WHAT the goals should be – that is leadership. But the manager and those working in patient accounts would work out HOW the goals would be achieved.

Encouraging the team member to define the best procedures to achieve their goals empowers them and gives them autonomy and responsibility for their role. According to Self-Determination Theory, real motivation is intrinsic. It comes from one’s desires and needs rather than external rewards or threats. Edward Deci, in his book Why We Do What We Do, says people “strive for personal causation.” (This is more fully covered in my book, The Goal Driven Business)

If the cook understands that their goal is to make tasty meals that the customers enjoy and for which they will pay, they can be more responsible for how best to achieve that goal.

A team member may have five or more roles, each with a job checklist, as part of their job description. As the doctor and owner, you may have 25! (And if so, that could be a big capacity barrier right there!)

Once the goals are clearly defined … and kept in mind, the rest of the checklist can be easily worked out.

Once per month or more, you or the manager can meet with each team member and do what we call a Coaching Review. This is a fast review of employee performance: at what they are excelling and at what they need to improve. In addition, the job checklist can act as an assessment.

But it is all geared around the goals of their roles. You also ask them what could be added or changed to improve both the quantity and the quality of their outcomes. They can make the changes to the job checklist and make sure you have a copy.

None of this takes a long time to do each month.

Management of your office is not just about getting procedures done. It is about constant improvement in the quantity and quality of their goals.

You may have told your patients something like: “If you do not make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness.”

The same applies to managing your business. “If you do not take time to improve your procedures and your people to achieve the goals in their roles, you will be forced to make time to rebuild your practice.”

Steven Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People put it simply and best:

Begin with the end in mind.

 

Ed

The Cathedral, Stone Blocks, and Your Goals

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stone cathederal

(This is the third in our series on goals.)

The Cathedral, Stone Blocks, and Your Goals

Christopher Wren was one of the greatest English architects. He designed 53 different churches in London before he died in 1723 at the age of 91.*

There is a story about how he walked unrecognized one day among the men who were at work upon the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral — which he had designed. St. Paul’s Cathedral sits on a hill and is one of London’s most famous and recognizable churches.

“What are you doing?” he inquired of one of the workers, and the man replied, “I am cutting a piece of stone and working hard so I can feed my family.”

As he went on, he put the same question to another man, and the man replied, “I am an expert stonemason, and I am building a solid wall.”

He walked a little further, and around the corner, he asked a third man what he was doing. “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build a beautiful cathedral that will be a place for worship, where people can come to pray, where the poor can come for clothing and food, for the Almighty.”

This is a parable that has some measure of truth, but I have not been able to find any credible verification. But the point of a story such as this is to illustrate an idea or moral.

All three workers had goals. They expressed these to Sir Christopher when asked what they were doing. We can assume that each stone cutter was skilled, worked hard, and did the same work as the others.

One can guess that their goals kept them motivated. But each viewed their goals differently.

The first two workers had immediate tangible objects as goals – a cut stone block and a well-built wall. However, the third stone cutter’s goal was a purpose, a vision of the future he was working to help achieve.

From this, we can look at all goals at two different levels: at a higher level, such as a purpose, and at a tangible level, which is a practical manifestation of the purpose.

In your practice, these two levels of goals might look something like this:

Higher Goal: Our mission is to help as many people as possible in our community become healthier, relieved of discomfort, and better educated so that they continue to improve their health and those around them.

Practical Goal: A person who completed a program of care, whose pain was relieved and is now healthier and incredibly happy with their results and of the service they received and has enrolled in a wellness program.

stone mason building a wall

Practical goals are quantifiable in a set period. For example, how many new patients can we generate, how many visits can we achieve, and how many programs of care can we complete next month?

There must be an equal emphasis on the higher goal, often called a mission, and the tangle goals, often called quotas or objectives.

Too much attention on the mission, and we live in a dreamland and go broke. Too much attention on production quotas, and we eventually feel like we are on an endless assembly line, find no meaning in our work and lose our motivation.

Like the stone cutters, dream about the cathedral but also set a target for how many blocks you will cut and how many walls you will complete next month.

Both echelons of goals should be viewed, reviewed, revived, and recalculated as needed at each team meeting.

Goals are your future – where you want to be. And, where you want your patients and your community to be. So, nourish them both as a mission and as outcomes, and the work to achieve them will come much faster and easier.

Carpe Posterum (Seize the Future),

Ed

*Wikipedia

Why Goals Work and How to Harness Their Power for Greater Prosperity

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Goals are the 20%of efforts thatWhy do goals work?

We all know the obvious: they help keep you focused, and as Yogi Berra, the baseball catcher, said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up somewhere else.”

We have all heard about their importance.  But we may not have heard or understood WHY.

What is the underlying principle behind goals, and why do they work?  What gives them their power? And can you harness it improve your business and its bottom line?

Stick with me and find out…

==   ==   ==   ==   ==

It was one of those September days in the Midwest when the leaves were turning orange, and the wind was blowing.  I was in Chicago – the Windy City – where I attended a seminar downtown at one of its plush hotels.

The program was kind of out of my league – at least then.  The fee for three days was $7,000.  I was only attending the first day, which was $1,000 – still a lot of money.  But I was drawn to the subject, and I was familiar with the person who was putting it on.

There were aggressive young MBA types flying in from around the country and the world.  On the night before, at the hotel where the seminar was to be held, I saw several small groups in lively discussion around laptops – as if they were in the middle of inventing the next Big Thing.  I remember talking to one young man from Singapore and learning about the high-energy atmosphere of entrepreneurship there.

The seminar focused on building, buying, or overhauling a business.  The speaker was a self-made billionaire, a former management consultant, so his teaching fees did not come cheap.  This was not a seminar for dabblers!

The subjects discussed on the first day and, as I learned, on the other two days, were surprisingly uncomplicated.  They discussed the key ingredients to look for when deciding what business to build, buy, or grow.  These few key factors were introduced on the first day of the seminar and then expanded upon the other two days.

But it all started around one principle: the PARETO PRINCIPLE.

Many of you know the Pareto Principle and the Rule of 80/20.  This Principle has been used over the last 50 years by major manufacturing companies to improve the quality of their products.  The concept is easy to state but often difficult for entrepreneurs to apply.  It predicts that roughly 80% of valuable results come from just 20% of efforts.  In some cases, the ratio can even be more extreme so that 10% or even 5% produces 90% or 95% of the results.

Not all efforts are equal: there are the “vital few” efforts and the “useful many” efforts.  Workaholic entrepreneurs can struggle to put this concept into practical use.  We find that delegating a $20 an hour task is risky, so we will spend time organizing a bookshelf or driving to get office supplies ourselves instead of taking care of a potential $1,000 an hour task, or even a $10,000 an hour task.

As a non-business example of the 80/20 Rule, consider all the clothes in your closet.  I bet you wear just 20%, or less, 80% of the time.  Then, consider how you get to work – out of all the choices of roads to take, you use just a few of them.

Look at a winning athletic team.  Just a few players are responsible for 80% of its success.  This does not mean that the other players are not important – just not THAT important.

All efforts are just not equal or average.

How might this apply to your business?  Well, for example, 80% or more of customer dissatisfaction comes from 20% or less of your patients.  On the other hand, 20% or less of your patients account for 80% of your patient referrals.

As the CEO of your business, what are the vital few actions you can take that will produce the most results?  I suggest that defining the business’s goals, ensuring that your team understands them, and keeping these goals alive each week is key.

As Stephen Covey advises: “Begin with the end in mind.”  Goals are simply the end you have in mind.  On the higher end, they would include your mission, vision, and reason for them – your WHY.  They would also include the values you hold as standards of behavior and performance.

These greater goals would be manifested as products or outcomes.  For example, if your mission included helping people have healthy teeth, then a practical manifestation of this goal would be “Jim,” a patient, having his teeth cleaned today.  If your vision were a healthy and pain-free community, the practical outcomes would be 100 patients adjusted today.

As a doctor, what would be the 20% of your actions that account for 80% of your results?  I suggest letting the patient know that you understand their goals and work to help them achieve those goals at each encounter.

As the manager of your business, ensuring each team member knows the goals of their roles and helping them achieve these goals, with good coaching and communication, will produce 80% of their successful efforts.

It all goes back to goals.  

They are the leverage points that direct and amplify all your efforts.

But here is the truth you must understand:

A small amount of time consistently spent defining the goals of, and within, your business — and working out how to achieve them — are the vital few actions that produce most of your excellent outcomes.

Know before you go.

If you and your team routinely define and redefine your goals, both the higher ones and the practical ones, and work out how to better achieve them, you will have a more prosperous and stress-free business.

Get the goals right each day, and all else will follow in your favor.

Working towards a better future,

Ed

If you don’t have it yet, get my book to learn more about how to use goals in your practice. The Goal Driven Business.

***New Training Program***

Also, stay tuned for a new training program we will be offering on the Goal Driven System. It will be limited to just 10 offices and last for 6 months. Its goal is to train the business owner and manager/senior staff member on the Goal Driven System to transform their practice into a Goal Driven Business. A Goal Driven Business is a team of Goal Drivers. That is what this program will teach you to create. (What is a Goal Driven Business? )
If you are interested in taking the training program on the Goal Driven System, for you and 1 team member, please go here to schedule a time to learn more about it. Schedule a meeting with me.

Goal Driven.com
Petty Michel & Associates