Within your clinic everything needs to be systemised, and this is quite a daunting job when you think about all the different activities that your clinic undertakes. In fact it’s quite often the one thing that gets left as the immediate benefits aren’t clear, but having systems is absolutely essential.
Plus you’re doing them anyway so you might as well get it onto paper while your actually doing it, if you ever want to be in a position where you can walk away from your business and it will keep running without you, or if you want to sell it.
Some time ago I was doing some investigative positioning research, ringing round a variety of different businesses to learn more about their pricing structure, posing as a potential client that wanted some work done. Out of 10 businesses I phoned, only one asked my name, email address and phone number.
One, out of ten. And I started by explaining that I was a prospect. Even this one business failed to follow up on my phone call though, or stay in touch with me using their monthly newsletters. What a huge failure in their systems, but what a great learning for us.
Whoever is answering the phone in your clinic should have a script to work with and know exactly what to do in certain situations. Ultimately, if a potential client calls, at the very least they should take a name and phone number, add them immediately onto your CRM and attach the appropriate tags, and get an appropriate person to call them back – promptly.
And why stop there – every part of your clinic should be systemised. Start by getting your team together and make a list of every single task that is done. Agree on a format for writing out these tasks and then delegate each out amongst your team.
Once all of these are written out, you should be able to produce a flow diagram for each task, with each box relating to a certain page in your supportive folder. And don’t hesitate to use resources like Elance to outsource the production of the diagrams – it’s about using your time most effectively, so make the call.
By Alan Adams The Clinic Coach
