7 Tips For Improving Your Optometry Staff Management Style

Your optometry staff members are the front line of your practice. First impressions mean everything, and your staff is just that to every patient before they ever sit in an exam chair.

Running a successful optometry practice means you need to recognize your staff as key drivers of patient satisfaction and revenue growth. You also need to be a strong leader with a vision—and focus more energy on your team to inspire better performance. When your team performs better, your optometry practice succeeds and grows.

Happy and loyal employees create happy and loyal patients. How can you keep your staff motivated, engaged, and satisfied with their jobs? These actionable tips are here to help you improve your optometry staff management style.

1. Prioritize optometry staff training and development.

PECAA reminds us that every optometry practice must prioritize staff training and development to ensure success.

If your optometry staff is undertrained, they will feel unsupported and frustrated. This costly misstep can escalate employee turnover rates. Alternatively, a well-trained and knowledgeable staff feels more confident in their roles to serve your patients expertly.

Optometry billing is complicated and demanding. Be sure your staff is thoroughly trained in the latest methods and technologies. Consider partnering with Fast Pay Health billing consultants to help get the billing process down to a science and eliminate employee frustration and costly errors.

2. Inspire better performance through employee recognition.

Did you know that 79% of people quit their jobs because they feel a “lack of appreciation?” It’s impossible to see the best performance from your optometry staff if they feel undervalued. That billing specialist working overtime needs to know you care.

Avoid costly turnover, and the potential liability of errors and poor customer service, by recognizing your staff’s hard work. Even the smallest gestures create a big impact.

Motivate your optometry staff with incentive programs that offer gift cards or paid time off. Remember to say thank you sincerely and often. When you express appreciation, you’ll inspire better performance in your eye care staff.

3. Actively engage staff in problem-solving.

Your optometric practice is hectic. Everyone hustles and juggles multiple tasks and roles on a daily basis. Your staff experiences all of the issues and inefficiencies first-hand. Which means they are full of ideas when it comes to suggestions for improvement.

Meet with staff regularly to brainstorm potential solutions. Find out what your key problem areas are in your billing processes. Once you know the details, you’ll be ready to reach out to an optometric billing consultant for real, profitable solutions.

4. Mentor new optometry staff with a buddy system.

Gallup has done extensive studies on employees with a “best friend” at work:

“Our research revealed that just 30% of employees have a best friend at work. Those who do are seven times as likely to be engaged in their jobs, are better at engaging customers, produce higher quality work, have higher well-being, and are less likely to get injured on the job. In sharp contrast, those without a best friend in the workplace have just a 1 in 12 chance of being engaged.”

Create a mentorship program as a buddy system to help new staff members feel a sense of belonging from day one. They’ll feel supported and invested. Try to select a compatible mentor, someone who will quickly establish rapport by relating to the new staff member’s challenges and interests.

5. Provide employee perks.

Showing you care about your staff’s health is a great way to earn loyalty. Offer complimentary vision exams and discounted eyewear to show your appreciation and engage your optometry staff.

Your staff gets to live the experience of being satisfied patients themselves when they go through an exam and purchase discounted eyewear. Such patient simulation increases optometry staff knowledge of eyewear products and services and boosts their confidence with customers.

6. Evaluate staff productivity levels.

Take the time to assess your staffing levels and productivity levels. Evaluate whether you are hiring and scheduling the proper ratio of all the various staff members in your optometric practice, from management to front office, technicians, opticians, scribes, and medical staff. Eliminate office inefficiencies and run a well-oiled machine.

When evaluating productivity levels, assess inefficiencies in your billing processes and consider outsourcing this to an optometry billing service.

7. Improve efficiency with an eye care revenue cycle management and billing service.

Does your staff become overwhelmed whenever new coding, reimbursement, or staffing issues arise? Productivity suffers when they are faced with managing claims submissions, eligibility and benefits verification, claims rejections and denials, payment posting, collections, and other tasks. The pressure mounts and frustration peaks, all impacting your optometry practice.

How can you overcome inefficiencies? Outsource the whole billing process or find a billing solution that suits your practice best. You’ll have a team of specialists working for you, submitting claims quickly and accurately. Outsourcing frees up more time for your staff to focus on patients.

Running an optometry practice is a complex, demanding job. Give your optometry staff more patient focus time by outsourcing your billing process.

Learn how Fast Pay Health helps you intentionally cultivate a loyal and satisfied staff so that you can achieve success together. Start here.