Are Your Staff Your Most Valuable Asset?

It pains me to see how some optometry practices  continue to struggle with personnel problems. I realize that personnel can be unruly, troublesome and downright problematic.  An effective practice management system will always put a lion’s share of attention on making sure your staff are a valuable asset.   Our senior practice management consultant, David Sanders, has proven to me that by taking control of this vital - even crucial - area, I am cultivating my greatest strength, and the very foundation of greatly increased profits. 

My staff are my greatest asset.  If they are the source of your headaches, there is something amiss in your practice.

Let me give you an example of how I view my staff. Recently, my practice management consulting team were at the Florida Optometric Association Convention in Miami to  meet and greet about 400 optometrists from all over the state.

Their whole purpose for being there was to get the word out that bigger profits really do stem directly from happier patients — the more the better.  This is the crux of the practice managment system we use, and David and I started Vision Practice Management to help you get your patient volume into stunning ranges and get you actively and enthusiastically using a practice management system so that this does occur.

The first thing you would have noticed had you been an Optometrist in the exhibit hall in the Fountainbleau Hotel, was that the entire time all three of my team (most exhibits had two folk on hand) were on their feet and engaged with attendees at the convention.  They were interestedly engaging each and every optometrist taking in our bold message, “More Profits from Happier Patients.”

By the time the seven hours of exhibiting time were over they had directly contacted nearly half of the 400 Optometrists attending the conference.

At the end of the show, another consultant exhibiting there told our team that he was so impressed with our professionalism and what we had to offer that he had decided he was going to offer his services to other types of businesses and leave the optometrists to Vision Practice Management.  I took that as the highest of compliments.

My point is, that Vision Practice Management operated as a tight team.  They knew why they were there, what they were to accomplish and how they were to go about getting it done.  Of course the mastermind behind the strategies was CEO of Vision, David Sanders.  He approached the trade show environment with the same eye for production that he approaches every optometric office he works with, including my own.

Here is another example that perhaps is more relevant.  Recently David did some work with my office staff.  It may seem odd, but I do get consulted by my own consulting company, and I pay the same fees as any other practice would pay.  I find it is the most cost-effective thing I can do when I can see things are not running as they should.

David put in place a very innovative incentive program that has resulted in repeated highest ever production within a week of starting it.  I not only got a great return on investment, but production from that area remains the highest it has ever been week after week, even during what was once our slow season.

This kind of predictable results does not come because a colleague made an interesting-sounding suggestion.  It came from a master applying precise principles and fundamentals of management to a specific real-world situation in my practice right now.

And that’s my point.  I want you to have a high value staff for your practice by taking advantage of these principles and all the rest of the battery of management tools that await you. This is how to have a highly profitable practice.

I invite you to sign up for the Vision Practice Management newsletter and start benefiting from the useful data that it contains.  I created the DVD, “Why Not Learn from My Mistakes,” as a way of encouraging all my colleagues to find out how valuable truly good management can be to your practice.  It is my gift to you when you subscribe to our newsletter.  Now is the time to ensure your most valuable asset is truly an asset.

Yours for prosperity,
John L. Brinkley, O.D., FCOVD