Mastering operations: The key to business success

In today’s competitive business world, mastering operations is key to being an efficient, productive and profitable organization.

No matter the industry or size of your business, effective operations management is essential to business success. To help you better understand the value of repeatable and measurable processes and procedures, here are seven strategies for mastering operations to help you gain a major competitive edge.

#1. Train your team efficiently and effectively

Key to mastering operations is following standard operating procedures. If you do not have a standardized operations manual dictating everything from greeting the patient as they walk through the door to processing insurance claims, training a new team member not only becomes an almost unbearably heavy lift but also puts the entire responsibility on you, the owner, trying to pass down the process that lives in your head. When you have a set, documented operations manual, the new team member can begin their onboarding process by studying the manual, and other team members can assist in the onboarding process.

#2. Keep quality in check

Mastering operations means quality control is non-negotiable. Setting clear quality standards and having solid quality assurance processes ensure your services are consistently good. By continuously monitoring and improving, you can quickly catch and fix quality issues, saving money and keeping patients satisfied.

#3. Measure outcomes with key performance indicators

When you want to influence a key performance indicator (KPI) or measure a function of your business, you must know what behaviors influence each metric. Establishing KPIs is key to mastering operations. Without having a set, established and proven process to run the day-to-day operations of your business, it is impossible to know what behaviors need to be altered to impact KPIs positively. For example, if you want to increase your collections percentage, you have to be able to tie that back to the set expectation on payment for the patient, the process in how you submit third-party insurance claims, and how you dismiss a patient from care.

Choosing the right KPIs for each role of the team can be a challenging task. However, with technological advances, most EMR or EHR tools have robust reporting mechanisms. There are companies that provide reports that break down those collection percentages mentioned previously to see what the trend data looks like. Many systems can show your conversion metrics from contact to close to a care plan and more. These are all essential things to review when shopping for software tools for your business.

#4. Provide clear expectations for your team

Nothing frustrates a team member more than not having clarity on what is expected of them in their role and knowing how they can influence outcomes within their specific job details. A-players expect clear expectations and accountability. According to the Hawthorne Effect, people perform better when they know they are being observed and measured, but only if they know exactly what is being measured.

Setting proper expectations is another place where KPIs and mastering operations are important. Using the right KPIs helps you articulate your outcome expectations for each team member and the business as a whole. If your company goal is to grow by five percent in a given month, you would feather out specific KPIs from your reporting metrics and assign specific goals to team members that directly impact overall goals. For example, if you have someone who is primarily responsible for new patient communications, you would want to assign a “show rate” to them, which is their responsibility to increase. These responsibilities give them something to constantly measure their performance on their own and with their team.

#5. Fine-tune consistent processes

It is much easier to identify which areas in your day-to-day process and procedures need fine-tuning if your process is consistent each day. Tweak one thing, then observe the impact of that one change. The more variables there are, the harder it is to evaluate the effectiveness of the change. If your day-to-day operations change on a whim, measuring the impact of a deliberate change is next to impossible.

Remember to allow enough time for mastering operations to take hold and show results, whether positive or negative, before making another change. Constant changes can lead to frustration on your team as well as confusion for your patients because they don’t know what to expect.

#6. Make decisions based on data vs. emotion

Repeatable processes and procedures allow you to easily track performance by measuring outcomes. By identifying and monitoring KPIs, you’ll uncover valuable insights into what is working well and what needs improvement. Mastering operations involves using data to make informed decisions and drive improvement initiatives is just smart business.

#7. Create freedom

Establishing operational excellence is necessary to scale your business, serve more patients and add more doctors to the practice. It can be a scary thought to place your practice with all its patients in someone else’s hands. Mastering operations enables you to establish clear, repeatable processes and procedures so another provider can provide a service equal to the service you have provided as the sole doctor/business owner. It also allows you to audit their performance to provide the assurance you need to step away (even if it is only for a short vacation) and know that your patients are being well taken care of.

Final thought on mastering operations

Mastering operations provides value that goes well beyond the effort it takes to slow down and invest the time and energy to document procedures. Established and documented operations allow your team to be easily trained, audited and appropriately measured. Achieving operational excellence can help you gain a competitive edge in your business and ultimately allow you the freedom to engage in other hobbies and endeavors.

CRISTINA ESPOSITO, DC, earned a B.S. in mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1998 and graduated Summa Cum Laude and Valedictorian on an accelerated track from Life University with a Doctor of Chiropractic in 2006. She currently serves as the director of operations and director of corporate clinics of AlignLife, LLC, assisting in the creation of the foundational structure of the organization. Her extensive leadership/management experience, dedication to excellence and commitment to chiropractic are the driving factors behind her success with AlignLife. For additional information, visit alignlifefranchise.com, email cesposito@alignlife.com or call 877-977-7802.