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Assumptions are Killing Your Practice [Blog]

If this has ever happened to you, you know that bad business assumptions are killing your practice:

  • Leads are down
  • Referrals have stopped 
  • Consult conversions decreased
  • Supplies are out
  • Lab work is incomplete

Why is this happening? I was talking to a client just like this and he couldn’t imagine why his staff wasn’t following processes he thought were in place.

Top Bad Business Assumptions that are Hurting Your Practice

I quickly learned he “assumed” SEO and Google AdWords weren’t working anymore, so he quit them and hired a social media person to do his Instagram instead.

So now he was “assuming” his new hire was creative, had an eye for aesthetics, knew about video editing and keywords and was responsible. (Within 2 months, he realized she didn’t have the skills she boasted about and she was inconsistent with her posting and attendance).

He also “assumed” his front desk was good at converting callers to appointments and his coordinator was good at converting consultations, so why were his numbers down?

Obviously, his assumptions were off, so he was fixing the wrong problems. 

I told him rather than “assume”, try this instead…..

Whose Job is It? Daily Duties Sheet

Just because you have a job description for each staff person, doesn’t mean they follow it to a tee. Things change. People change. Circumstances change so this will help…

fix bad business assumptions - duties sheet

Use this Daily Duties Sheet to have each team member jot down all the tasks they actually do throughout the day and how long it takes them.

Have them do this for one week, from Monday through Friday, and they should be detailed since the little things take up a lot of time once you add them up.

Duties At-a-Glance

Now, add all the duties of each role on a page so you can see all roles and responsibilities at-a-glance. 

You are looking for missing tasks, as well as duplicates where you have more than one person responsible. You also want to address any confusion about “who does what” that comes up from this exercise.

bad business assumptions

There is a popular story in the business world about 4 people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.

Hold Staff Accountable with KPIs

To help your staff stay engaged and “own” their piece of the practice, give them a few Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) they are responsible for reporting on weekly. 

This way, they have a clear, tangible list of results to report on so they are clear what this job entails and what is expected of them. 

Here is an example for your front desk:

But don’t leave them to “wing it” and “assume” they know what to say. A professionally run cosmetic practice wins because they are consistent. 

Give your front desk the exact script to follow so they sound friendly, professional and skilled at booking callers to appointments.

Then do the same for your patient coordinator, MA, marketing person and so on. 

This structure gives you and your staff clarity you don’t have now and will cut down on mistakes, missteps, bad business assumptions and “I didn’t know that was my job” excuses. 

If this makes sense to you and you could use help setting that up, so you no longer “assume” what you want to happen is actually happening, let’s talk.

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"Catherine outlined a plan that put key metrics in place, gave us a clear plan to follow throughout the year and trained our staff to increase their conversions by at least 10%. Since engaging with Catherine, I’m happy to report that revenues are up 15% over the last three months - 22% in the last month alone! I highly recommend Catherine’s consulting services to any practice looking for “best practice” additions to their operation."
Robert Sigal, MD
Robert Sigal, MD
"I have finally tapped into the most efficient way to grow my cosmetic practice and that is to “fish in the pond of my own patients”. When patients return to my practice, over 85% will purchase another service, product, or procedure. Not only was it worth over $200,000 in revenues this past year, it also reminds my patients I’m still around so they don’t wander off to my competitors. Catherine’s group has far exceeded our expectations and goals we had set up for them to achieve."
Victor Ferrari, MD
Victor Ferrari, MD
"Our consult conversions were running at 40-50%. Then we attended Catherine’s online training and implemented her strategies. They immediately increased conversion rates to 75-80%."
Anthony Corrado, MD
Anthony Corrado, MD
"I know how to run a profitable practice; however, it was not without major staff issues, inefficiencies and unproductive drama. With Catherine's guidance, I reorganized staff, set up processes for them to carry more of the workload and hold them accountable so I have more time to focus on patient care. The changes we put in place and the staff training to convert more callers and consultations will easily increase my revenues by 15% as well as save us time, money and costly mistakes. "
Evan Sorokin, MD
Evan Sorokin, MD
"Working with Catherine and her team has been very profitable. We’re only half way through the year and I’m up $200K and I’m booked out for the next 2 months even though we typically go into our slow summer months now. Her recent promotion brought in an extra $63,782 with more surgeries scheduled. I never realized how much money was sitting in my patient list but I’m a believer now!"
Robert Langdon, MD
Robert Langdon, MD
"Catherine Maley has one of the best Marketing Minds in the aesthetic industry, bar none. She understands the aesthetic patient and she also understands the challenges and frustrations we face as aesthetic surgeons. You will benefit from Catherine's tools whether you are new in practice or a seasoned professional.Turn to Catherine for guidance - she knows what she's talking about."
Edwin Williams, MD
Edwin Williams, MD
“Catherine’s Cosmetic Patient Marketing Service has been a great addition to our practice-building overall plan. While we still invest in our online presence, we also found immense value in the internal marketing efforts. We especially like that all results are tracked so we know we are getting a great return ... last year it was 1,148% and no staff time was used. That’s a much easier way to grow my cosmetic practice.”
Mark Mason, MD
Mark Mason, MD
"Catherine Maley turned our practice around. We converted more consultations in one week than we did in an entire month. Our practice went from a painful 50% no show rate to a remarkable 85% show rate. Even more impressive was our close ratio - from 35% to 80% and still increasing. We would recommend her to any practice that’s looking to not only increase their profits today, but sustain a healthy flow of income for many years to come. Thanks Catherine!"
Sam Assassa, MD
Sam Assassa, MD
"Catherine found me the best patient care coordinator I could have asked for. She worked out a payment plan that was fair to me and motivating to my coordinator. She also provided training tools to help my coordinator convert better, even though she was already experienced. The results have been phenomenal. So good, in fact, that my income increased 250% and I’m booked out for 3 months. Don’t waste any more time or money doing it yourself. Outsource to someone you trust!"
Andrew Lofman, MD
Andrew Lofman, MD
"Since we’ve been working with Catherine and her team for the past 5 months, we’ve brought in $79K in surgeries and have booked an additional 17 surgical procedures and 20 non-invasive body procedures since then. This does not include the additional new patient referrals and revenues we are seeing from the on-going nurturing of my current patient database."
Verne Weisberg, MD
Verne Weisberg, MD
"I had given my staff the goal to convert at least $35K per week in surgeries AND I gave them the tools to help which was Catherine’s Online Learning Center at More Patients Academy. They watched Catherine’s modules and implemented her strategies and converted $80K! That equaled a 2,550% ROI. Nice!"
Adam Stein, MD
Adam Stein, MD
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Catherine Maley

Catherine Maley

Catherine is a business/marketing consultant to plastic surgeons. She speaks at medical conferences all over the world on practice building, marketing and the business side of plastic surgery. Get a Free Copy of her popular book, Your Aesthetic Practice: What Your Patients Are Saying View Author Profile.

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