Today, we are going to combine two Luck Factors into one so that you can fully grasp the power of them both. That way, you’ll experience this week’s Huddle in an applicable fashion as to what you live through and are responsible for every single day in your Practice with each other (team members, doctors and patients).
We have talked about the Luck Factors of communication, expectations, preparation (morning huddles), demonstration, illustration with pictures and of course the most underused Luck Factor of TRUTH TELLING.
So, you are ready for the combination of two Luck Factors wrapped into one: Value Building through the use of my “Triangles of Trust” for patient progression through your experience (regardless if new or old, specialty or general, emergency or hygiene).
Of course, this is obvious review for you. As soon as I say “Triangles” you know and understand what I mean. The bigger question is: how many Triangles exist and are happening in your practice every single day? Oh and let me add the words “ON PURPOSE” and “EFFECTIVELY.”
Gotcha, didn’t I? Because we can literally count them up to see how you are doing.
At the very least you have X# of Patients Triangled Clinically with the Doctor; subtract any patients the Doctor isn’t seeing today and you have at least the most basic number of Triangles.
You have the Clinical Team Member in a Room with a Patient setting the ground work for the Doctor. Doctor walks in and… BAM! Luck Factor Execution. A beautifully orchestrated Triangle of proper introduction, pleasantries, backstory, photograph engagement, main objective and big picture treatment discussion then off we go.
Still, it’s impossible for me to extrapolate a Triangle without the exact type of patient, vision, and objective but you get the idea.
You’ve got at least that many every time a Doctor walks into a Room with a Clinical Team Member and a Patient (which should be every single time – no exceptions).
Then you have X# of Patients exiting the treatment room usually focused on the ones with treatment to secure (even still, hygiene or other ancillary visits still matter), Triangled out to the Treatment Coordinator. Who is in the room ideally for anything of substance and for every new patient, directly to the consult room, up front worst case scenario; or if the Front Team is busy even the reception area to wait until an effective Triangle can be executed. Because it’s the most important part.
Every Triangle matters. The fact is, more treatment gets lost, leaves or loses VALUE (next point) because it wasn’t properly, proactively, verbally translated and passed off (“TRIANGLED”) out to someone to bring it to a close, schedule and collect money.
Now, why would I bring up Triangles as this next to last LUCK FACTOR? Because it ties everything together and, above all else, it is the ONLY way to completely control every aspect of the patient experience and prevent any gaps from existing. This includes that we are controlling the patients’ focus, attention and awareness. Done properly, we are using the triangles to BUILD VALUE every step of the way.
And in addition to your assessment and discussion over what you can do to improve your Triangles and make them MORE PURPOSEFUL, EFFECTIVE and CONSISTENT – I am asking you to really think deeply about WHAT you are accomplishing with your Triangles. Just doing them will help, no question, and a bad triangle is better than no triangle.
That said, the real magic is when you are using the Triangle to build value in the patients’ minds by reinforcing what’s been talked about, discussed, decided and why it’s important. Value equals importance, timely, relevant and beneficial. All of these things have to be built up and not taken for granted during each phase of your patient experience as they move through your practice.
I’m writing about Value Building in our Weekly Reports right now so consider this in conjunction with that.
Next week, we’ll finish up this series of Luck Factors. For now, I ask you to see who and how many triangles are done in the first place and then let’s go to work to improve the effectiveness and the value building in the patients’ minds.
Without this being committed to, done deliberately, becoming a part of your culture and built into your patient communication systems then you are missing the power of these combination Luck Factors that ultimately result in the complete control over case acceptance and patients’ value perceptions.
