Top 10 Optometry Practice Management Mistakes
To have a successful optometry practice, you need to have goals for the practice and implement systems to complete those goals. However, the hardest part about managing an optometrist clinic can be to stick to the action plan. While trying to implement the plan, there are some common optometry practice management mistakes you could be making.
Here are the 10 most common optometry practice management mistakes that are made.
1. Failure to Take Control
If you fail to take control of your practice, your personal life and happiness can be affected as well. You need to make a total commitment to the practice. When you set out to make changes in the clinic, you may notice a dilemma that the staff is not really ready to make these changes. If they aren’t willing, nothing will happen.
If the staff is not committing to the new program and the new culture it initiates, they will not understand the dedication that is necessary to take the office to a whole new level. If you really want the optometric office to make those changes, you need to step up. The cost begins with creating goals for the clinic, implementing them through action plans, and measuring the result.
Take support from your family and your staff. The staff should carry your program on their shoulders and become partners in moving the practice along. Be assertive and take control!
2. Bland Office Image
The first impression your office gives is crucial to making the patient see value in your office appearance. By offering them a comfortable and appealing appearance, you are ensuring that they look forward to getting the care they need. Having a visually aesthetic clinic that you take pride in is necessary to provide the staff support in offering patients good-quality care.
3. Under-Utilization of Techonology
Hi-tech equipment can help make patients perceive the clinic as a state-of-the-art practice and result in optimal performance. Equipment can help create a more efficient and effective system that helps you provides better care. Investing in such equipment can be a step in the right direction.
4. Unable to Project a Positive Image
While your office décor and environment can be aesthetically pleasing, it may not project a positive image as you intended. Your patients should know that they stepped into the right place when they enter through the doors. The office needs to have a ‘successful’ look; hence, all the staff needs to look professional too.
5. Not Treating Staff Members As Partners
If you want a successful and productive office, you cannot get one without a group of strong people who give you support. Treating your co-workers with the utmost respect and professionalism is necessary. Treat them like partners in the clinic and initiate a bonus plan to keep them motivated.
6. Lack of Control of at the Front Desk
If you don’t pay attention to how your staff is dealing with patients, you are making a very common optometry practice management mistake. You need to be in control of front desk training and interactions. Your staff must be trained to properly greet and accommodate patients.
7. Failure to Emphasize and Understand New-Patient Experiences
Every patient that walks into the practice has a monetary value. Have you calculated this value so that you know the exact value of new patients? Knowing these metrics and be very important for your practice.
Their experience of the new patient begins from the first phone call they make to book an appointment or ask for details. How are the calls handled at your practice? Do you ask so much information that you drive the patient away, or do you tell them you are happy they called you?
Making a patient feel welcome and special can be quite a game-changer when it comes to having a successful practice. Make sure you are able to accommodate walk ins and same day appointments.
8. Failure to Cultivate a Proper Team
You need to have the support of a group of dedicated, talented people who believe in the goals you have made for the clinic. While it can take serious effort and time to develop such a team, it can be totally worth it to have such a team.
The team members need to think that the optometrist can deliver the best care to sell it to the patients too. This attitude and self-esteem of believing in the practice can make it fulfilling, exciting, and fun. Remember your vendors are your partners as well. They will help to grow your team as well.
9. Lack of Great Attitude
Optometrists need to believe in their practice and have a great attitude as well. They may have a tendency to become too comfortable in the current environment. This can limit their ability to make any necessary paradigm shift. However, the world is constantly changing around you, and the clinic needs to keep up with it. Materials and procedures that worked 2 decades ago may not be the best options right now.
Hence, you should believe in yourself and your clinic.
10. Confidence
The biggest optometry practice management mistake is lack of confidence.
While optometry school may have given them adequate knowledge to provide great patient care, we don’t get a lot of practice management. An optometrist who can share the treatment plan, value, and benefits of the plan clearly will be perceived as valuable by patients. Becoming more confident in billing, coding and marketing will help grow your practice.
If you want a successful practice, you can’t make optometry practice management mistakes. If the management is perfect, everything else will fall into place as well.
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