Step 6. Practice Health Check

Reviewing the levels of care and service should be ongoing in every practice. However, the implementation of a new professional fee-based charging structure will place a greater emphasis on the provision of care and service – both clinical and customer orientated.

If planning to ask patients to sign up to a professional care scheme in your practice, encouraging them to sign up will be easier if your practice looks modern and professional, and the level of service provided is of a high standard. Generating customer loyalty requires not just meeting but exceeding patients’ expectations. Simply looking at the practice from the front, sitting in the waiting area, and in the consulting room chair for a few minutes each week is a good place to start getting a view from the patient’s perspective. Does your practice give the impression that it is worth paying for professional care?

The best eye examination may not actually be perceived that way by the patient if communication of what is being done does not accompany clinical procedures. Simply telling the patient what you are doing as you do it and recapping at the end of the exam can go a long way to improving the perception of the care provided.

Now is probably a good time to thoroughly review the customer journey through your practice to identify which areas can be improved upon. The following link

http://cibavisionacademy.co.uk/practice_training/index.shtml

will take you to the ‘Customer Journey’ Touchpoints, which have been identified as the key areas that will make the greatest impact when a patient visits your practice. Helpful, practical hints and tips for best practice have been included. These are complemented with PowerPoint presentations and other downloadable templates for each Touchpoint, which will make a practice training session more meaningful and professional. Your CIBA VISION Business Development Manager will be able to assist you and answer any questions you may have regarding the use and implementation of these materials. 'The Customer Journey'; your single source for service excellence. Each stage of the journey a customer makes from deciding which optician to visit, through their visit until leaving your practice, is listed below. Click on the titles to visit the relevant page.

• Recognition of need & choosing an optician.
  The choice of optician is often through word-of-mouth so quality of the journey through practice will bring new wearers.

• Making the appointment.
  This stage is where most opportunities for meeting eyewear needs are lost.

• Getting there, first impressions & welcome.
  Finding the practice, parking and the welcome that the staff give will be important factors in the customer's delight in the whole journey.

• Browsing & waiting.
  Waiting time can be used to discuss needs with the customer and browsing should be in a relaxed and informative environment.

• Handover to the optometrist.
  It is essential that the Optometrist receives all the information on the customer so that they can tailor the eye examination to their individual needs.

• Eye examination and explanation of results.
  The key at this stage is to combine medical reassurance with human warmth to put the customer at ease.

• Handover to dispensing optician.
  The Dispensing Optician will help the customer to choose solutions to their eye wear needs so a thorough handover is crucial.

• Choosing frames and spectacle lenses.
  The choice of shape and colour is an expertise that the practice can provide.

• The contact lens examination.
  This can be an exciting stage, particularly for the new wearer of contact lenses. Reassurance will be required during this new experience.

• Wearing & caring for contact lenses.
  The quality of teaching will determine the customer's success in the early days of contact lens wear.

• Payment and leaving the practice.
  There is only one chance to leave a good impression, so finishing touches like saying ‘Thank you’ and showing the customer to the door are essential.

Of course, first impressions are always important to set the scene and to ensure your patients’ expectations are set at the correct level. These first impressions are influenced by the way the telephone is answered when they make an enquiry or book an appointment, the external appearance of your practice, including the window display and the way they are greeted upon arrival. Remember: you only get one chance to impress. Of course, the appearance of the practice interior will create a level of expectation too. And, the consulting room must be clean, tidy and professional looking if you are to create the right impression for the provision of clinical excellence.

The key Touchpoint, which has the greatest influence upon whether a patient will purchase new eyewear and how much they spend, is the ‘handover to the dispensing optician’. If this is done well practices will maximise their potential, not just in profitability, but patient satisfaction too.

When patients are about to leave the practice thank them for choosing your practice. A ‘thank you’ letter, sent a couple of weeks after collecting new eyewear, is a great way of reminding them of the full range of services available from your practice or any offers that may be available.

Another option is use a business consultancy service. This can either take the form of a ‘mystery shopper’ visit or a visit from a specialist optical business consultant. In both cases you should expect to receive a report after the visit. The consultants report would usually contain suggestions for improving practice performance too. Costs for these services range from around £70, for a mystery shopper visit (or have a friend do it for free), to about £500 for a business consultant’s visit and report. If a detailed practice improvement and marketing plan is required expect to pay an additional £1,500-2,000

For details of:

Practice health check visit & report by a business consultant contact

• Myers La Roche 08700 620 430
• TMR Ltd on 01252 626 137