Neil Gailmard's recent Tip of the Week, number 440 got me thinking about both Customer Service and what is required of management. Those of you who have been around me for any length of time will hear me say that I believe that providing excellent care to your patients is 50% of the job. The other 50% which provides you with a dynamic and growing practice and a high compensation is managing the practice correctly. You CAN deliver great care and end up with an average or below average income.
The Tip of the Week is worth reading in its entirety -- but so is the last paragraph:
What if you don’t have time?
You simply have to make time for management if you want a successful, fast growth practice. I think it requires the practice owner in addition to a good office manager. The eye care professional/owner has a huge effect on the practice culture, so management and marketing cannot be completely delegated.
Most practices actually see accelerated growth when the ECP schedules more time for management. And that is the best way to correct the hundreds of little flaws that exist in every practice. Schedule time for it. Of course, no practice is ever perfect, but we must keep trying to reach perfection. You may naturally be concerned about reduced productivity if you take a day or two for management. In my experience, most practices are extremely inefficient and if you began a new plan to delegate more and speed up the exam process (without sacrificing quality or stressing out the staff) you could compress all the patients you currently see in five days into three or four days.
If you have unmet patient demand of more than a week or two, hire an associate optometrist to see some of the patients so you can work on management!
One of my favorite quotes is by Zig Ziglar and it sums up this philosophy very well: “You can get anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.”
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