Practice Success and The Physician’s Role: It’s About Leadership Not Management

I have successfully lead individual medical spas and cosmetic practices with teams of 10 to large multi-site organizations with 37 locations and teams of 1,000.  To be a great leader is very different than being a great manager.  Both are needed within a medical spa or cosmetic practice.   In benchmarking best practices I find that the successful locations have a Medical Director (typically the physician/owner) who embraces their role as the leader of their business.  They drive their business culture and team to success.  In addition, they typically have a great Practice Manager that takes on the day-to-day responsibility running the practice.

The following identifies the difference between managing and leading.

What defines a manager:

• Makes things happen
• Implements policy
• Responsible for the team’s actions
• Insures accountability

What defines a leader

• Influences the team with respected authority
• Provides guidance
• Shows people what it should look
• Inspires the team to want to achieve

Attributes of a Manager vs Leader

Day-to-Day Operations
Manager: Administers
Leader: Develops

Problem Solving
Manager: Focuses on systems & structures
Leader: Focuses on people

Team Management
Manager: Relies on control
Leader: Inspires trust

Planning
Manager: Short range view
Leader: Long range perspective

Strategy
Manage: Asks how & when
Leader: Asks what & why

Business Boosting
Manager: Eye to the bottom line
Leader: Eye on the horizon

Research & Development
Manager: Imitates success stories
Leader: Creates success stories

Manage by the Numbers: Top 10 Data Points You Need to Know

As owners, physicians and/or managers of cosmetic practices and medical spas you have a very demanding job.  First you need to insure the safety and care of all patients, second you must lead the team with a service culture while maintaining a sales focus, and third you have to be a great marketeer consistently implementing a marketing program that drives leads into your business.

In addition to these three responsibilities it is imperative that you manage your business by the numbers.  At any given time, you need to know the answers to the following 10 questions (without having to request a report from your accountant):

1. What are your month-to-date sales?
2. What were your sales for the same month last year?
3. What were your sales last month?
4. How much are you currently spending on your marketing program?
5. What is your current break-even?
6. What is your sales goal for this month?
7. What is your current pace for this month?
8. Are you currently on pace to hit this month’s goal?
9. Are your expenses in-line with your budget?
10. What are your current closing ratios?

I realize it is not easy, but if you are going to create sustainable growth for your business you need to focus on these top 10 data points to measure your success and insure that your business is holding the course you have planned.

FXA

Building a Customer Centric Cosmetic Medical Practice

The Acara team visits Aesthetic Medical Practices nationwide on a very regular basis.  Most often the first visit is to assess the business and the marketplace.  Almost 100% of the time the quality of clinical services is outstanding.  Almost 100% of the time the quality of the customer service is mediocre to poor. (for the purposes of this post I am using the term customer: a person whom exchanges money for goods or services versus patient or client)

This is a difficult problem to fix because most of the time it is cultural; deep rooted customs or practices in which business is being conducted day to day.  This is not a situation where a set of protocols will solve the problem.  So how do you implement this change?  What is the solution? How do you create a Customer Centric Medical Practice?

Here are a few steps to begin the process:

1. It starts at the top, do not even attempt to spend time improving customer service unless you, as the physician or manager, are willing to completely embrace the process and lead by example.  You must become a Customer Centric Leader.
2. Practice makes perfect.  You need to show not just tell your team what excellent customer service looks like.  Script each interaction that your team has with your customers (phone and in person).  Then hold a team meeting where everyone is involved in the role playing of the scripts.
3. Make every business decision based upon the customer.  Hours of operation, quality of care, accounting practices & principals, phone system, staffing levels, equipment purchases, facility management, etc.  Each time you make a business decision ask yourself and your team: “with this decision will customer service improve, remain the same or be reduced?”  Based upon the answer to the question you should have your decision.

Customer Centric Organizational Chart



FXA