Practice Tip 21 – Staff Motivation…

STAFF MOTIVATION AND THE ART OF LEADERSHIP …

Motivating staff is a discussion I have with many private practice veterinarians and managers. Here are some of the questions you may find sound familiar: “How do I get my staff to do the things I need them to do? How do I change them from good to great and beyond to excellence? How do I get staff to take the helm and run the practice for me, allowing me to focus in on what I do best – practice veterinary medicine and surgery.”

Well, the answer to these lie in an artistic mix of 1) finding the correct type of staff member, 2) a good training program and 3) and an ongoing positive leadership style. Let’s have a look at these elements.

THE RIGHT STAFF MEMBER: Many veterinarians have no idea of who or what to look for as the basic building block of a good staff member

Fact: You need to stack your deck of staff with the correct type of staff member that, regardless of their actual training, will be self motivated to win. What’s the key factor? They basically care about what they do.

THE CORRECT TRAINING: Many veterinarians do not train staff well enough to put them in a position to take the reins and really win.

Fact: “On the job” training of people produces poor results. You need to invest in and develop (like every other successful company out there) a professional training program for your practice

THE CORRECT LEADERSHIP: Many veterinarians end up micro-managing staff and complain about lack of staff motivation

Fact: With the right caring staff and a good training program, staff that will be self-motivated and will run the practice for you. You don’t need to micromanage them! Lead with a lot of positive reinforcement and you’ll all win.

So try these steps the next time you need to motivate your team:

1. Start with good, caring people…

2. Train them well and then…

3. Lead them with positive reinforcement to greatness and you and your clients will love them.

Sounds simple? It is. Try it out and watch what happens.

Questions? Give me a call.

I’ll be using all of this material every day...

“Communication is an essential tool in the creation, development and maintenance of most endeavors. These aspects of this communication course; what communication is made up of, what one can do to enhance communication and practicing use of tools to enhance communication, are as useful in handling clients and staff, as they are in communicating with family members. I am sure I’ll be using all of this material every day.”

Paul Hunter, DVM; Practice Owner

Columbia Summit Veterinary Hospital; Kamloops, BC

Improving Business Through Communication

I can have a positive effect on the staff or with the staff...

“Through this course I think I can successfully handle any communication problem that may arise either with clients or with staff. It will also help me in communicating with my children and anyone in my personal life. I have always thought that I was pretty good with my communication skills but with this course it gave me some additional techniques and also made me feel like I can have a positive effect on the staff or with the staff at the clinic.”

Colleen Davis, Practice Manager

Emery Animal Health; Castle Dale, UT

Improving Business Through Communication Course

One of the major forces in the transformation of our practice.

“This MBS course and its implementation have given me hands-on control of so many areas of my practice. It has shown me, through the application of the condition formulas, that there is always something that can be done to turn around a slump or to reinforce a positive trend. For years, before contacting VPS, I would get to year end, look at my plateaued statistic (VSD) and think that if I would just work harder next year I could get out of this stalemate. But it never happened until VPS showed me how to take control and analyze each week’s statistics, allowing for immediate control of any down statistic. Management by Statistics has been one of the major forces in the transformation of our practice.”

Tom Wiles, DVM; Practice Owner

Pittsburgh Spay & Vaccination Clinic; Verona, PA

Management By Statistics Addendum

A great tool to make things run smoothly in our organization...

“How to write effective company policy is a great tool to make things run smoothly in our organization and people are not waiting for the orders for every situation and jamming my lines.

Policies would be in place for all aspects of the business. The staff would know it that they exist and they need to be followed strictly. This prevents staff from setting their own policies and taking wrong decisions which are counter productive and causing chaos.

It prevents my lines from being jammed all the time. Staff does not have to run to me for approval of every decision out there.”

Manjit Jammu, DVM; Practice Owner

Clearwater Animal Hospital; Windsor, ON

Planning & Policy Course

This course was exciting to me...

“The ‘How to Make Planning Become an Actuality’ was a really good course. It pointed out the fundamentals of Planning through the use of programs. This course reflected a bit on leadership and how good leadership allows a business to prosper and grow.

Overall this course provided the “know-how” to get programs into place, how to execute them and how to do it “right” with success. This course was exciting to me, and I feel will be useful at my practice.”

Jen Beaulieu, DVM, Practice Owner

Lakeside Animal Hospital; Tilton, NH

How To Make Planning Become an Actuality Course

Practice Tip 23 - Client Service and the Standing Ovation Practice™

Client Service and the Standing Ovation Practice™

Despite the “economy” and all the doom and gloom there is no question that some people still have money to spend on their pets. However, often there exists a certain fear and restraint about picking up the phone and calling a veterinarian. The result? Uncontrolled floods of clients and patients into our offices when, out of desperation, they finally decide to call in and use our services. This lack of control (Remember the definition of control as your ability to proactively speed something up or slow it down, change it’s direction etc…) results in unplanned high CPMs (Clients Per Minute) that can drop our efficiency, increase our staff over-time costs, and ultimately douse the flames on a Standing Ovation Practice™. What’s a Standing Ovation Practice™? This is the highly efficient practice that runs like a Swiss watch, that delivers the highest quality care in a fun and genuine manner, that results in clients that are happy to hear from us, happy to return, and give us the ultimate applause (acknowledgment) – the referral of their friends, family and neighbors. The problem with the floods of unplanned clients is that our normal friendly efficient staff can get overwhelmed, started making needless goofy mistakes (I.e. wrong meds, not giving estimates...) and be not quite as friendly as they normally are. Your good clients may tolerate this BUT they won’t necessarily give you the standing ovation compliment of a referral.

Fact: You need to exert better control on the arrival of clients and patients to build a Standing Ovation Practice™. Obviously you can’t predict when an emergency will occur BUT here are some simple things you can do for the everyday things:

1. Book every departing client with their next visit in your calendar – this gives you some prediction of client and patient flows in the future…
2. Book ample time for appointments – 30 mins is a good place to start…
3. Don’t book BIG elective surgeries on typical high traffic days (I.e. Mondays…)…
4. Always call 12 hours before to remind them of their appointment…
5. In busy times protect the friendliness and good client communication by getting the incoming phone calls off the front desk by having someone in the back take calls. This will allow uninterrupted communication with your client that will have them leaving happy and likely to refer friends and family…

Sounds simple? It is. Try it out and watch what happens.

EXPLAINS IN DETAIL WHAT IS NEEDED...

“The Ethics for Business Survival course is the meat and potatoes course
that uses our foundation courses and explains in detail what is needed to
determine what, where and how to survive in the business environment.
The skills learned here will be used to manage in a way that will produce
the expansion every business needs to survive”


Evelyn Bock, DVM; Practice Owner
Southwick Veterinary Hospital; St. Louis, MO
Ethics for Business Survival Course

WHAT AN AMAZING COURSE!

“What an amazing course! What I thought I knew and when I
was finishes, what I learned was incredible.
Will use this information at work but also as an individual.
I love statistics!”

Althea Caveney, Practice Manager
Lakeside Animal Hospital; Tilton, NH
Formulas for Business Success Course

FBS WAS AN AWESOME COURSE

“‘Formulas for Business Success’ was an awesome course. It really lays
out how to apply the formulas to our conditions and utilize them to make
the statistics improve. I got a bit more comfortable with interpreting our
statistics and changes in them over time. I feel confident I can apply the
formulas in my business and in my life!”

Gayle Roberts, DVM; Practice Owner
Northwood Animal Hospital; Irvine, CA
Formulas for Business Success Course

I'LL BE USING THIS MATERIAL EVERY DAY

“Communication is an essential tool in the creation, development and
maintenance of most endeavors. These aspects of this communication
course; what communication is made up of, what one can do to enhance
communication and practicing use of tools to enhance communication,
are as useful in handling clients and staff, as they are in communicating
with family members. I am sure I’ll be using all of this material every day.”

Paul Hunter, DVM; Practice Owner
Columbia Summit Veterinary Hospital; Kamloops, BC
Improving Business Through Communication

NEW CLIENTS: The Lifeblood Of Your Practice

I spoke with a DVM new practice owner recently that was simply following the "build it and they will come" business adage and painfully waiting for new clients to arrive, all the while his practice expense meter ticked away in the background! A nail-biter? Absolutely. A couple of things needed correcting with this situation…

01 The viewpoint of the owner. It’s too passive.

Fact: Simply hanging out your shingle or just physically being there is not sufficient enough in most cases to attract the right amount of attention to your practice. New Clients are the life blood of your practice. You need 30–40 of them each month for each full time DVM. Don’t ever forget this. (If you have lots of new clients and are the only game in town, then just wait until you get some new hot-shot DVM move in.) So don’t wait! You need to pro-actively market (I.e. do things to turn up the spotlight on your practice and drive new clients in.) Your external marketing division is one of your key 7-divisions of practice management.

02 Your marketing needs to be effective in bringing in new clients.

Effectiveness is the key word here. I am not against Yellow Pages or any other form of advertising or promotion if they are effective. So how do you know if your promotion is effective?
Count the number of new clients separately from your regular transactions. Track where they come from. Ask them “Where did you find our phone number to call us today?” You may be very surprised.

Remember: A healthy practice should be bringing in 30 to 40 new clients a month for each 40 hour per week DVM.

03 An effective marketing program creates a strong emotional response in potential clients by “pushing their button.”

A button is something you push that produces a response. The response you want is obviously for new clients to choose you as their veterinarian. What’s not so obvious is if you fail to properly align even one aspect of your marketing & presentation—your pricing, positioning, quality, presentation, design, staff friendliness and so on—you won’t hit your client’s button. These buttons can vary within different communities. There’s not just one standard method. You have to do your own market research for your area.

If you are at all interested in learning more about this subject, then consider signing up for our 2011 Online New Client Builder Workshop.

It’s a 3-part workshop that gives you an excellent overview of veterinary external marketing and a step-by-step program to follow.