MBA Intelligence - How to Make Pre-Appointment Work

Sticky Situations

Dr. Dave Zeigler

A doctor asks...

“I have an employee who knows everything about the office, making her very valuable to me. But she's not a team player and creates conflict with nearly every other staff member. Should I fire her or keep her?"

Sometimes staff members have been around so long that they think it's their practice, and they run things the way they want. These individuals, who often are cross-trained and highly valuable, can be toxic to the work environment.

All too often, the doctor is afraid of what would happen if they lost the skills of this person. Optometric practices often don't have large numbers of staff, and they believe that losing just one skilled employee leaves a big hole in the practice. Also, many optometrists outsource a lot of the administrative tasks to office managers and other key employees, so they may make themselves vulnerable by being unaware of all the things that this staff person does every day. So the doctor puts up with the trouble that this person causes because they imagine things would be even worse without them.

These are times to exert your leadership and remove this person sooner rather than later. No amount of training will make a surly person into a nice person. Kindness is either in their personality or it isn't. There will be a rebuilding of the staff to replace that person, but the longer you wait the harder it gets.

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Dr. Dave Ziegler, who lectures and publishes regularly, is a member of the MBA Faculty.

Super Service Pearls

Make Patients Feel Smart and Sophisticated When Purchasing Expensive Eyewear

Over the past 30 years, as the discretionary income of Americans has grown, premium products have captured a larger share of market in categories ranging from automobiles, refrigerators, clothing, housewares, food, wine and eyewear.

Demand for premium products, unlike traditional luxury goods, is not based primarily on status or exclusivity, but rather on technical superiority, higher functionality or greater reliability. People buy premium products not only for rational reasons, but also because purchase communicates to the world the knowledge, sophistication, style and economic success of buyers. Use of premium products can also relieve people of petty annoyances and become a form of pampering.

The same dynamic occurs in eyewear. A pair of high performance eyewear is more than a vision correction device. It is a non-verbal statement about the wearer's self-image, style, taste and sophistication. Premium eyewear confers emotional benefits well beyond acuity.

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"Hiring Top Talent" with Daniel Abramson

Daniel Abramson, who lectures at the MBA seminar "Building a World Class Staff," cautions that a "bad hire" can cost a company three times a person's salary. He recommends a "try before you buy" step in the interview process, and he suggests that employees who recommend good candidates be rewarded with a referral bonus and also become engaged in mentoring the new employee.

How Does Your Practice Compare?

Independent Practice Optometrists Source More Than 70 Percent of Soft Contact Lenses from Distributors

Seventy-one percent of the contact lens purchases of established practices is from soft lens distributors. With new practices, that figure is and 76 percent. Distributors' share of OD soft contact lens purchases has steadily increased over the past decade. Larger practices source a slightly smaller share of soft contact lenses from distributors.

Market Facts

Most Eyewear Buyers Spend 15-59 minutes in Selection Process

The table provides guidelines for soft contact lens inventory required by size of practice. Smaller practices should stock the two most frequently prescribed spherical lens brands, assuming that 10 or more patients purchase each brand monthly. It is cost-effective for larger practices to stock additional brands. A minimum of 300 boxes of soft contact lenses, including 200 of the most frequently prescribed sphere, should be stocked to achieve a 40-percent exam day fill rate.

MBA Updates

2012 MBA Seminars:

Vision Expo East, NYC, March 25

Texas Optometric Assoc., San Antonio, July 28

Vision Expo West, Las Vegas, September 8

California Optometric Assoc., Monterey, November 8

More dates to be confirmed.

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Ask Neil

Dr. Neil Gailmard

A doctor asks...

"In your experience does adopting EMR slow down patient flow? How can that be minimized?"

There are many advantages to EMR systems, but speed is not one of them, at least not at first. In my experience, recording data on a PC takes longer than doing so on paper for the first year or so. After that, it becomes pretty close to the same efficiency we had with paper records for several reasons:

• Patients are much faster when they are returning and have already had an exam record in the EMR system. Much of the data can be carried forward, and small changes can be made.

• The doctors and staff have learned many shortcuts after a year of practice.

• Exam templates and drop-down lists have been refined.

• The office systems and protocols that relied on paper have been re-invented.

The important thing is to push through the learning curve and don't give up.

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Dr. Neil Gailmard, who is widely known for his practice management advice, is a member of the MBA faculty.

MBA Seminars Highlight a Banner Year for MBA

Several recent MBA seminars concluded a busy year in which MBA programs were held all across the United States and Canada.

MBA II: Disney Principles of Customer Service

Thirty optometrists gathered in Orlando, Florida, on November 8-9 to attend "D'Think Your Way to Success: Disney's Approach to Quality Service." This 1.5 day symposium included lectures by Disney Institute personnel on delivering world-class customer service, as well as field trips to Disney theme parks. Dave Ziegler, OD, of the MBA faculty, delivered a lecture that connects the highly acclaimed Disney service principles to an optometric practice. Participants also received teaching modules to pass along these Disney principles to their staff. A PDF version of this is available at MBA-ce.com.

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December 30, 2011