Looking back over my last 22 years as a Practice Manager (PM) and as President of a PM Association I am often asked what makes a great PM. My answer always includes: a great principal/principals and a team that shares the same values and goals.
PMs and Principals must work together and build a trusting relationship to create a successful, happy and thriving practice.
I decided to ask one of my principals that I have worked with side by side, through ups and downs and thick and thin over those 22 years.
Steve Lomas from The Old Surgery Dental Practice in Cheshire shares his thoughts…
One of the biggest but best decisions is to get a PM on board with a vision of the practice and to entrust them to help grow that business. Resist the urge to micromanage and control, when working in surgery all day. There is not enough hours in the day to perform dentistry and run a business well, on your own anymore.
- I need my PM to:
- Manage advertising, website, social media out put and content.
- Liaise with the marketing team, web designer etc, during the normal working day, taking our ideas (dentists, PM, rest of the team) and turn them into output for our final approval before releasing whatever it is we wish to promote.
- There are so many different strands to advertising now, the PM can orchestrate the team to provide content.
- Manage the advertising budgets, KPIs, assessing what works best, ROI (return on investment)
- Manage the reception team, it is vital to have front of house all delivering the right message to ensure the new patient contact is converted into a new client, and make the existing patients feel valued etc
- KPIs – Financial stuff, accounts, bank reconciliations etc etc etc that all take the pressure of the practice owner.
- HR, primary contact for dealing with staff issues, conciliator, shoulder to cry on, iron fist in a velvet glove and all points in between. A vital shield to protect the practice owner from having to deal with many problems and niggles.
That’s just for starters, how any dentist can manage that lot and do dentistry as well is beyond me. A trusted PM who shares the vision and ambition will build the success and profitability of the business, at this present, testing time, able to put an arm around the team, reassure them etc.
- Contact suppliers, suspend, reorganise finances, spread sheets, encourage team to stay engaged with each other
- Organise appropriate social media content during this time
- Try and keep plan patients on the plan
- Plan the marketing for when this is all over
Without doubt, the very best practices that I have the pleasure of knowing all have one thing in common, an empowered PM and management team that all have a specific role to play in practice… by committing to these roles. Having a PM doing too many other roles will dilute the success and happiness of your team.
Utilise them properly and see the results.
…Steve also forgot to mention most importantly, Chief Party Planner!