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How to Keep Staff Busy While You Are in Surgery

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How to Keep Staff Busy While You're In Surgery

Dear Catherine,

I have two staff members that have been with me for a few years and the rest are new with less than six months with the practice.

I have a feeling when I’m in surgery, there’s not a ton getting done, actually I  know for a fact, one of the staff is spending a lot of time on wedding websites since she’s getting married.

What can I do to keep staff busy ALL of the time – whether I’m there or not?

Catherine’s Answer:

Dear Dr. D,

Thanks for that question. It’s not uncommon for surgeons to wonder what goes on when they are in surgery or at a conference or simply away from the practice..

You hope your staff is as productive without you there as they are with you there but you don’t really know, do you?

And, does it seem like no matter how many staff you add to your payroll, they still say they don’t have time to do what you want and they want to hire more staff?

And since you have to rely on them, its almost impossible for you to know if that’s true or if something else is going on.

But in the meantime, you bring more people on board, then your payroll gets out of hand and pretty soon you are working just to keep up with the overhead.

Here’s what you can do to get a handle on who’s doing what so you have peace of mind:

Define Your Standards

This is when you take off your surgeon hat and put on your leader/visionary hat. Staff looks to you for direction to lead them with clarity and certainty.

You must set standards they live by. Otherwise, you have staff sliding through the day with minimal effort instead of rising to the challenge of being their best.

Tell them what your vision is for how you want the practice to grow. Explain to them how you want to set up your practice to be positioned against your competitors so you stand out as the best choice.
Constantly remind staff what your goals are for the practice and how intricate each one of them is to your success since you can’t do this alone.

That means staff must know what is expected of them – in much more detail than you probably think.

You can’t leave things to chance and you can’t keep saying, “They should know that”. Get it in writing.

The goal is to be specific about the results you expect and let them figure out how to get it done.

This is what engages them, gets their creative juices flowing and raises their standards for themselves as well as for the practice.

Get Staff Engaged
Each person who works for you needs to understand where they fit into the picture and how valuable their position is to the success of your practice.

For example, they are not just the receptionist. They are the ambassador to your practice who is the first point of contact for the new prospective cosmetic patient. They are responsible for setting the stage for the entire experience this new patient has with you.

This responsibility gives your staff person status and significance which can be a great attitude-changer that changes the way they see themselves.
Please get staff input. I guarantee they have lots of good ideas for you if you welcome them. That’s what gets them engaged.

Ask for their suggestions on how they could improve the results for their position as well as what improvements can be made throughout your practice to improve the bottom line.

Join for my next FREE online training called,

How to Keep Staff Busy While You’re in Surgery
Wednesday, May 3rd
8:30 pm EDT / 5:30pm PDT

Here’s what you’ll discover to help your staff help you:

  • How your staff can do 70% of the “heavy lifting” so you have more time to focus on your craft;
  • Turn your staff into your professional “Sales Ambassadors” rather than just an overhead expense;
  • What your staff can do to position you as the BEST choice over your competitors.

This Webinar is no longer available, please check out our online store for tools to  help you with patient attraction, conversion, follow up and retention.

Celebrate the Wins

Staff must feel appreciated for going above and beyond the minimum effort.

They will be more receptive to helping you reach your goals when they feel respected and valued by you. So, acknowledging them for a job well done goes a long way.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be money either, it can also be a simple thank you as they walk out the door for the evening or a catered lunch when you’ve had a great month.

It’s the acknowledgement of your appreciation that tells them they are valued and respected for their role in helping you grow.

How do you hold staff accountable?
How do you incentive your staff to do their best?

ORDER MY BOOK

A Complete Guide to Understanding Your Aesthetic Patient and Growing Your Aesthetic Practice. Catherine Maley, MBA went straight to the aesthetic patient to get the answers you need to succeed with your patients.

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TESTIMONIALS

5/5
"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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