By Michael Tetreault, Editor-In-Chief
JUNE 23, 2014 – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken to a concierge or direct care doctor from a different part of the country that tell me the same story … ‘I had an employee who didn’t believe in my medical practice model and they were telling patients to go somewhere else. I should have done something but they’ve been with me for years.’
Well, did you know that we’ve found (CMT) that one of the top ten reasons why patients leave their concierge physician is because they don’t like your staff?
That’s right and while passionate employees produce better results – keeping someone who has been loyal to you for years but you know deep down isn’t good for business can cause more harm than good to your bottom line. The best way to spark passion in your concierge medicine front office employees, nurses and other staff is to demonstrate your own passion — but don’t be a cheerleader at staff meetings. Here are three simple ways to authentically show your enthusiasm and inspire others:
- Have everyone share a success story once a month at your staff meeting. This will help build comraderie among your staff as well as lasting memories that help foster the kind of stories that you and your staff want to achieve from month-to-month.
- Focus on the positive. Author and business consultant Marcus Buckingham wrote a book about this. He writes … Unfortunately, most of us have little sense of our talents and strengths, much less the ability to build our lives around them. Instead, guided by our parents, by our teachers, by our managers, and by psychology’s fascination with pathology, we become experts in our weaknesses and spend our lives trying to repair these flaws, while our strengths lie dormant and neglected.Too often we focus on the bad thing(s) that went wrong. While this is necessary to discuss at times in our business, we need to learn as managers of businesses to encourage and help employees grow and use their strengths at work. Employees know when a doctor truly cares about his or her practice. Passionate concierge medicine doctors can’t help but talk about what’s working well and try to find ways to fix what isn’t. So, help your employees nurture their strengths month-to-month — you’ll be glad you did!
- Set goals and expectations. One of the reasons that mega-churches are growing so fast across the U.S. is that they have set expectations with their audience week in and week out. It’s no different in a doctor’s office. You should know exactly what to expect when you walk in and if you’re going to be greeted with a smile, an ill-tempered staff member that needs to find another job or you’ll be given a bill. Which scenario sounds best to you?This doesn’t mean unattainable workloads. Passionate concierge physician entrepreneurs should inspire and challenge their employees and patients to do their best, without overloading them. A great tip is to break your goals and expectations into little tiny goals creating easy wins for your team and your patients. This constant state of winning will be a guaranteed formula for success. Everyone wants to be with the winning team. Success breeds success and it is infectious.
- Encourage everyone on your staff to be part of the relational, healthy lifestyle process. I believe that in order for sustained, healthy lifestyle change to occur, we have to grow together with those we surround ourselves with. This happens best inside a doctor’s office when together, patients, employees and the doctor(s) are prioritizing intentional relationships and we’re all seeking the same goal. Walked out, this means that if a patient is struggling with a weight problem, broken their arm or coping with a more serious chronic condition, they want to know that it’s not just the doctor who cares — but the receptionist on my way out who asks me if I’m okay too.
Interested in more helpful business tips from successful healthcare entrepreneurs, check out CMT‘s our INNOVATORS PANEL or visit www.ConciergeMedicineToday.com.
