Back to basics
My husband and I shared a good laugh this weekend. A new washer and dryer were installed a month ago. My husband, Tim, bravely installed it with a friend. When the first load of laundry went into its spin cycle, our whole house shook violently. It took several weeks before Tim got back to the installation process. He fortified the floor, set the washer and dryer side by side, even dismantled the machines to look for something wrong. After many hours of frustrating efforts, I called Maytag. The very young female voice on the other end of the phone asked if we had removed the “packing straps and bolts” from the machine when it was installed. I was told that if not, then the machine would shake frantically. “Oh Honey. Did you remove the packing straps?” In looking at the installation manual, guess what Step One says? Remove the packing straps. Problem solved!!!
How often do you feel that you need to complete a lengthy process of trial and error to figure out the solution to a problem? Dentists tend to be isolated in their approach. They don’t really know what is causing their production to decrease or their collections to plummet. I recommend several things:
1) Know your numbers. Set goals and range norms in place to follow daily, weekly and monthly.
2) Have a business agenda at one of your team meetings each month. Discuss the numbers and the problem areas with your team. You will be amazed by what their insight is.
3) Go back to the basics with your systems. There is a good chance that what was step one in a system for phone enrollment, appointment scheduling, your new patient exam, financial arrangements has been missing for some time. It could be that a new employee never got that bit of information or an employee of record just didn’t want to do things the way you outlined them.
Oh, the mystery of step one. Where do you feel that you can go back to step one in your practice? Call me if you would like the help. My number is 8132-251-6401 and my email address is jamisonconsulting@verizon.net.