PLEASE GO TO www.realpracticetoday.com FOR THE NEWEST NETCASTS AND BLOGS
Real Practice Today - Podcasts and Blogs
Commentary and Viewpoints
NEW LOCATION FOR OUR BLOG AND NETCASTS
May 6th, 2011Wow and Un-Wow
November 30th, 2010by Dr. Ally Stoeger
There’s lots of good reasons to impress your patient with high quality staff, superior technology and an attractive practice environment. But here’s a reason you may not have considered.
In spite of your recall efforts, some of your patients will stray. Maybe their health insurance or vision plan has changed. Maybe they want to try a doctor with more convenient hours or location. Maybe they think they will save money going elsewhere.
But if the new doctor has a shabby facility, is missing technology you routinely use and doesn’t have properly trained, friendly staff - then the Un-Wow kicks in.
It takes sacrifice and discipline to continue to provide high calibre service that Wows the patient. But in addition to the obvious reasons to Wow your patients, another reason to provide this kind of service is that if they go anyplace else, they will be unimpressed. Disappointed. They may even wonder what else the doctor may have missed.
In many cases, these patients will return to your practice, and hopefully tell at least a few friends about their experiences.
***RealPracticeToday commentary and viewpoints are available on a weekly basis in your inbox. Subscribe on the top right corner at www.RealPracticeToday.com***
Say I Do to EHR
November 1st, 2010by Ally Stoeger OD
Unless you plan to retire very soon, you know it’s inevitable your office will have Electronic Health Records. So free up all that valuable real estate where your files reside sooner rather than later. Take advantage of financial incentives and the fact that during a continuing weak economy you may have more time available for the learning curve. Most importantly, when the “hordes” go to EHR (because they must), that is not the time you will want to shop or implement EHR.
Doctors may be a relatively risk averse population but even so, most of us find a partner and decide to get married in less time than it is taking most of us to decide on purchasing an EHR computer program!
Go ahead. ”Date” a few of those EHR systems by testing them and viewing them at other doctors offices. Don’t go with the program that you hear most people are getting — you wouldn’t marry someone just because they are the most popular.
Do your due diligence, make a decision, and by your first “anniversary” you’ll be glad you did. Look for companies that seriously invest in their future, which means they will be investing in yours.
If it turns out to be a “starter marriage” instead of the real thing, you’ll still have learned a lot along the way.
***RealPracticeToday commentary and viewpoints are available on a weekly basis in your inbox. Subscribe on the top right corner at www.RealPracticeToday.com***
Photo Social
October 18th, 2010by Dr. Ally Stoeger
A couple of days ago Seth Godin wrote a blog that mentioned a “Photoshopped” Ann Taylor ad. Simply put, Ann Taylor’s advertising staff had Photoshopped what was probably a size 2 or 4 model into an even skinnier model that appeared to have no ribs and a cartoon tiny waist.
What we may finally have here is an issue that every woman agrees on! Tea party, conservative, moderate, liberal - I cannot believe any woman is in favor of advertising featuring female models with bodies unattainable without extreme plastic surgery or extreme Photoshop changes. This is especially insulting when the advertising is done by mainstream retailers such as Ann Taylor.
After the recent Ann Taylor Photoshopped model was widely criticized on social media sites, spokespersons for Ann Taylor apologized on Twitter.
But what if the point of the whole episode was to generate social chatter (no such thing as negative publicity?) so that Ann Taylor could then demonstrate what a good social media citizen it is? Was this Photoshop episode (and previous ones that Ann Taylor has also apologized for) set up as a publicity stunt?
Is social media really more honest than traditional publicity?
***www.RealPracticeToday.com commentary and viewpoints are available on a weekly basis in your inbox. Subscribe on the top right corner at www.RealPracticeToday.com***
Love Those Engineers
August 31st, 2010by Ally Stoeger OD www.ConsultingWithVision.com
Heard it again recently – speaker poking fun at patients who are engineers. The comment usually accompanies discussion of multifocal contacts or other technology where happy is more achievable than perfect. There is usually some eye-rolling about patients who want perfection, with engineers being offered up as prime examples of such patients.
Well, for the record, engineers have been some of my best and most loyal patients!
1. Yes they may ask more questions than other patients. But if you’re good at answering, they really like you. Questions tend to be intelligent and engineers appreciate the science behind your answers. They also tend to remember the answer. If you take the time to answer in appropriate detail the first time, you won’t have to do it again and again.
2. Engineers appreciate technology and organization. Offer both and they will remember.
3. Other doctors may treat engineers or scientific types condescendingly because they label these patients as “picky”. But take the the time to explain and answer, and engineers will be your most loyal patients.
4. Loyalty = Income
*In the interests of disclosure - I am the proud mom of a civil engineer and a computer engineer!
******RealPracticeToday blogposts are written once a week . If you’d like RealPracticeToday conveniently showing up in your email Inbox just fill out the info on the top right corner at www.RealPracticeToday.com . We do not use our email list for any other communications.******
Recent Articles
Dueling Vision Plans
Hemlines and Frame Sizes
July 19th, 2010By Ally Stoeger OD www.ConsultingWithVision.com
As per myth, hemlines rise and fall with the stock market. So all those ankle length dresses we are seeing in stores and on some chic women could be a bad sign. But what about frames sizes - do they have anything to do with the economy?
Well they’ll definitely have something to do with the economy of the eye care professions! Yesterday I saw a very stylish young woman wearing a super large frame - and I have recently seen a few others (male and female) wearing the look also. Have even seen a few optometrists wearing them. The young woman I spoke to yesterday said she purchased these frames in Manhattan because she could not find ‘the look’ in the DC area suburbs. Now that everyone is wearing small rectangular glasses, the trendy are poised to express themselves differently.
Frame sizes may not predict the stock market, but they can surely predict our future –more use of ultra high index lenses along with patient explanations why finished lenses will not look like the demo lenses or like the patient’s lenses in their last pair of small frames.
Big frames are coming - get ready!
www.RealPracticeToday.com is a resource for the eye care community.
Just Cause You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should
July 6th, 2010by Ally Stoeger OD
There are unintended consequences to everything. Yes, you can earn more income by seeing patients during your dinner hour. But if you miss dinner with your family every night, or if you gain weight because dinner is at 9 pm every night, there are going to be consequences. Is the long term result of late stressful dinners and missing out on family time going to make you more or less successful/profitable over the long term?
Here’s a list of other activites that just cause you can doesn’t mean you should. (JCYCDMYS)
The Edger – If you’re edging lenses because you like it, keep doing it. Maybe you find edging while listening to favorite tunes on your Ipod relaxing. But if you’re just doing it because you don’t want to pay someone to do it, reconsider.
That Old Equipment – it still works. But new equipment performs better (usually), looks better, and makes you feel better when you use it.
Sending staff home - hey you’re the boss! You can send them home on Tuesday afternoon because there were a few cancellations. But you’ll find no faster way to lose trust with your employees (unless they really do want to go home early without pay). Now sending them home early, with pay - that will make you a hero.
Billing a “marginal” medical insurance claim — just cause you get paid doesn’t mean that you won’t have to give it back + penalty. It’s like lying on your tax returns - it works until you get audited.
Spending too much time with a patient. Patients like your attention and they don’t like to feel rushed. But if you go beyond a reasonable test time on an initial visit you will either be scaring the patients or they will think you don’t know what you are doing. ’Reschedule’ should be your mantra.
Buying cheap products and marking them way up. The optical cemetary is full of retailers who thought they could do this. Deconstructing quality is a slippery slope.
Just cause the frame manuacturer guarantees it for life doesn’t mean you should. The manufacturer can just ship out a new frame. You or your staff might be seeing the patient in the office every few weeks…during your peak business hours…forever.
www.RealPracticeToday.com is a resource for the eye care community.
Staging Your Practice
June 23rd, 2010by Ally Stoeger OD
If you’ve recently sold a house (or tried to) then your real estate professional may have talked to you about “staging”. Some agents do this themselves, some recommend professional stagers, but either way, the advice you will probably get will consist of:
1. Get rid of clutter. Then get rid of some more.
2. Paint walls in neutral colors
3. Get rid of personal photos and 80% of your artwork. Stagers will replace it with all kinds of pieces that you had never considered. Amazing how good a print from the Bed Bath and Beyond art collection can look when it is exactly the right color and proportion for a particular spot.
4. Your stager will remove about half of your furniture. She will move around the remaining furniture and you won’t believe that you lived in the house all those years and didn’t think of that arrangement. She’ll add a few pieces of furniture. My realtor actually brought in some items from her own house to fill things out.
If you are married, I can almost guarantee that the wife will tell the stager how great her ideas are–and the husband will say they are dumb. But ultimately, husband and wife will do 80% of what the stager recommends because the stager will convince you both that it doesn’t matter what you like - you won’t be living there much longer. What matters is whether the newly staged home will trigger the dreams of potential buyers.
Practice owners can learn from stagers. Ask a decorator or professional stager what color to paint the walls. I bet it’s not the color you would have picked. Declutter often. If your wall decor consists of mismatched vendor marketing materials and art that ended up in your office cause you no longer wanted it in your home, consider hiring a decorating professional or stager to purchase art in the right colors and proportions. Add cabinetry so that desks and counters are neat. ”Staging” your practice may not trigger your patients’ dreams - but it may trigger their referrals.
***www.RealPracticeToday.com Information and Viewpoints are brought to our readers as a resource for the eye care community. Please share with anyone in our community who might be interested***
