Ask the Guru

Here are some questions sent in by current and prospective clients.

1. I have a very seasonal practice – is there some way that I can balance out workflow?
John Stacey

Hi John,

Thanks for your question.
First of all let me tell you that your question is a really common one.

There are many practices all over the world that ‘fall prey’ to seasonal influences.
This occurs in large animal, small animal mixed animal and even specialty practices.

This variance in work flow creates many challenges which include;

Understaffing and under servicing in the busy period with lots of missed opportunities and a large opportunity cost at this time of year
Understaffing with the possibility of too many staff and not enough work at the quieter time of the year.

The solution to the challenge is multimodal and includes;

Looking at rostering solutions with the increased use of ancillary staff and casual staff during the busier times as well as scheduling time off or holidays through the quiet times and not the busy times

With large animal practices it includes the use of ‘car nurses’ during the busy times
In all practices the use of extra ‘casual’ or ‘call in’ staff during the busy times is also helpful.
To increase the work flow during the quieter times look at the following;

Create and/or schedule various ‘programs’ which run during the quieter times;

These include dental programs, senior programs, biannual health checks, chronic meds programs, equine wellness programs, equine senior programs and the like.

When you look at and act on all these in conjunction John, you’ll manage to balance out your workflow and have a more relaxed work life.

Cheers,
Diederik

2. My practice is about 6 years old. Up till now we have been growing just fabulously. Now as we are maturing the growth rate is slowing Considerable. Do you know the best way for me to get new clients to increase my growth rate again?

The best way to grow a maturing practice is to concentrate on a referral program.

Statistically only about 8% of your clients originate from the Yellow Pages – even though they may actually have looked your number up there, about 10-15% come from your location.

So there is a huge potential new client base available through a dedicated and documented referral program.

This program involves;

Letting your clients know that you are happy to accept new clients by referral (most won’t refer you – no matter how happy they are with your services)
Training your staff to look for and request referral
Have an escalating level of ‘Thank You for Your Referral’ gifts
Document this system
Train all your Team in the system
Track and measure the results and fine tune.