A practice in Washington state’s beautiful Kitsap Peninsula region was experiencing challenges on multiple fronts. Revenue was down by 44% due to the owner-operator struggling to run two offices and experiencing a drop in patient opportunities. With the addition of the second location, daily operations had become too great for the owner to handle. Further compounding the difficulties, members of her team were not communicating effectively with each other.
Captainships & Communication
Following an on-site assessment, Audigy’s Strategic Business Unit (SBU) helped develop captainships for team empowerment and accountability. Individual captains were identified for opportunity data, patient billing and collections, financial performance, and key-performance-indicator analysis. The SBU team also reviewed communication styles using Audigy’s exclusive communication assessment, giving everyone a clear understanding of how to best connect with one another.
Feedback and follow-up were crucial parts of the process:
- Captainships were established within two weeks, after which the team spent the next two months refining the look, feel, and details of captainship reports. This was crucial to striking a balance between providing the owner needed data for decision-making and avoiding information overload.
- All captains reported directly to the owner, with weekly updates to keep the owner apprised, reinforce communication within the team, ensure the practice hit its budget target, and allow staff members to achieve their compensation plans.
- The main obstacles encountered were learning to effectively communicate with the team, sending out reports on a weekly basis, and maintaining expectations. All reports were shared with the owner and SBU by email. The owner’s influence helped drive the process and keep everyone accountable.
Team engagement helped turn the practice around, yielding remarkable results:
- Practice revenue soared 85% over the prior year.
- The business was able to hire a second provider to help manage both offices.
- Opportunity flow and units have doubled over the prior year.
- With greater clarity around the opportunity data, the staff now thinks ahead when looking to book appointments for the following month and can better identify gaps throughout the month.
Looking ahead, the SBU will reinforce the employee-engagement strategy — including daily, weekly, and monthly touch points — to continue driving results to the practice. Key steps include helping set expectations, hold staff accountable, and increase employee recognition.
Reaching Your Dreams Through Your Team
In an era of corporate consolidation and big-box retailing, how do you stay independent and thrive as a private practice owner in the audiology industry? There’s just one way: through your people.
Reaching your personal, professional, and financial goals requires an engaged, empowered team. We can help with that:
- Get clarity and an action plan on how each member of your practice can generate the greatest level of impact.
- Achieve alignment between your employees’ core values, knowledge, skills, and abilities and your business goals.
- Experience transformational growth through a culture of team engagement that yields a higher level of effectiveness.