Wednesday, October 13, 2010

10 Core Values of Zappos

This is from the book Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos):

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More with Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Have You Seen Bob Lately?


Initial Patient Presentation:
• 53 year old Male
• Cable repairman
• Last visited your office 2 years ago
• Bob is due for a vision check probably new glasses/contacts
• Bob is overdue for a glaucoma check

Patient Report:
• Bob has been in for a visit every year for the past 15 years until recently
• At last check, Bob had 20/200 vision
• Bob's family has a history of glaucoma
• Bob is nearsighted AND wears reading glasses
• Bob is married and has 4 grown children; all with their own families

Current Treatment:
• Wears soft daily wear contacts, glasses and readers
• Follow up plan: Annually

Bob is a prime example of your typical patient who needs to return for a check. He is also a personal reference for your practice through word of mouth to his spouse, children, and grandchildren. Practices today have thousands of patients who are overdue for their appointments, but simply have not made the effort to call and schedule.

Although most practices will send letters in an attempt to rebook overdue appointments, many patients do not make the effort to schedule on their own. While these practices may have a plan in place to reactivate patients, the results aren't meeting their full potential. Each patient represents an opportunity for thousands of dollars to your bottom line.

OptiCall's Patient Reactivation Program, aka Boomerang, powered by Brevium, identifies these "lost" patients in your system. Our professionally trained team of phone counselors will personally call your lost patients and schedule them directly into your practice management system.

FACT:
• Traditional recall efforts <50% response rate
• Cancellations and no shows add another 8% in lost monthly revenue
• A new patient costs a practice 5-6 times more than it does to retain an existing patient

OUR SUCCESS RATE:
• In 2010, our average practice has experienced in excess of 150 reactivated scheduled appointments each month.
• At a value of $150-$500 value per appointment, this program can generate up to $22,500 or higher each month!
• With similar results, you will have the ability to generate up to $270,000 or HIGHER annually.

MULTIPLE BENEFITS:
1. Offset recent Medicare reimbursement cuts.
2. Offset Refractive Surgery slump.
3. Fill gaps in schedules.
4. Increase surgery volume.
5. Improve patient outcomes.
6. Increase optical sales.
7. Review and update patient records.
8. Powered by BREVIUM Totall Recall Software, we set the parameters by the appointment type, and provider, which you would like called.
9. Measure results through detailed reporting
10. "Plant the seed" for LASIK and Premium IOL's for the cataract and eye exams we schedule for your office.
11. Low monthly fee with guaranteed positive return in your first full month, or your money back!


Testimonial from Melanie Boyd - Administrator: Eye Consultants of Texas:
"The Boomerang Program has been very successful in filling our schedule. We booked 276 new appointments in our first 4 weeks of the program!"

Testimonial from Nancy Shipley - Chief Executive Officer, Ophthalmic Consultants of the Capital Region:
"Our practice has averaged approximately 140 new patients per month from the Boomerang Program. Our practice, to date, has had a 660% return on investment from our relationship with OptiCall. We started the program in mid December, 2009, and continue to run the program monthly. We are sending all current recalls to OptiCall monthly as they continue to call the remaining available people."

Don't Leave Your LOST Patients Hanging! Live Web Demo August 18th at 4 pm EST

Click Here to Register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/529438970

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

OptiCall Patient Reactivation (aka Boomerang) Testimonial

From time to time in every administrator’s mind, there is a nagging awareness that there are “missed opportunities” of recapturing all the patients from the routine recall system. As in most practices, the intentions are good, however the resources in personnel and time always seem to eliminate the ability to effectively follow-up with patients that receive a written reminder, however never call in to get an appointment. We ran a recall of all the patients that had not returned to the practice in 4 years and the results indicated 40,000 patients. This quantity is probably a bit unusual as the previous administration neglected to monitor that the receptionists were appropriately putting in recalls when the patients were last seen. Also, the practice did not schedule out longer than 6 months so almost every patient was to leave with a “recall” in the system. In one way, this was a great opportunity to reach out to former patients of the practice and get them to come back. I knew our existing staff and telephone capacity would not handle this additional project.


I was familiar with professional telemarketers as part of an effective LASIK marketing strategy. So, I sought out Opticall, as they had years of experience in ophthalmology and LASIK marketing. I requested Opticall to help us quickly and in a dedicated manner to perform telephone follow-up to a letter we were sending to 40,000 patients. The letters had a dedicated telephone number directly to Opticall. Our marketing manager trained the Opticall call center personnel to be able to use our patient scheduling system. Also, our staff trained the call center personnel about the practice, the 5 locations, directions, specialties of each of our 7 providers and what type of appointments we wanted scheduled with each provider and which payors each provider participated with. Opticall answered the telephones as a seamless part of our practice. Not only did they answer the telephone of patient initiated calls, the call center personnel placed daily outgoing calls to the patients from the recall mailing list proactively and personally invited the patients to schedule an appointment.


The practice has averaged approximately 140 new appointments per month from this program. The practice, to date, has had a 660% return on investment from the relationship with Opticall. We started the program in mid December 2009 and continue to run the program monthly. We are sending all current recalls to Opticall monthly as they continue to call the remaining available people from our 40,000 piece mailing.


Nancy Shipley, CEO

Albany-Troy Cataract & Laser Associates, PLLC

(dba) Ophthalmic Consultants of the Capital Region

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Bring Back Lost Patients to Your Practice

Bring Back Your Lost Patients Now!

Tips for More Effective Recalls

Provided by Brett Gerlach, President of Brevium:

Keep recall notices brief. A brief card will generate twice as many appointments as a long letter, so don't mix practice news or new doctor introductions with recall notices. Just remind patients it's time for a visit to take care of their eyes and ask them to call your office.

Send out recall notices frequently, in small batches. Sending recall notices out generates incoming calls. Big, infrequent batches generate big spikes in call volumes that will tie up telephones and turn off patients. Divide notices into small, frequent batches to smooth out the load on scheduling.

Schedule appointments 12 months or more into the future to avoid overusing recalls. Once an appointment is made, the probability of a patient returning for a visit rises significantly, so avoid using recalls unless absolutely necessary. If you can, always schedule a return appointment before the patient leaves the office.

Follow up with patients who don't respond to recalls by developing an outbound calling system. Also, follow up on patients who cancel appointments or fail to show up for a scheduled appointment so these patients return for needed care.

OptiCall and Brevium have partnered to help you identify and bring back your lost patients. Utilizing Brevium's specialized software, our team of highly qualified phone counselors will personally call to reactivate these missing patients in your existing patient database.

Our Success Rate:
• On average, 100 reactivated scheduled appointments each month
• At an average value of $150 per appointment this program can generate $15,000 or more each month
• An expected $180,000 or higher generated annually

You don't want to miss our next webinar on May 26th, presented by Bill Mercier of OptiCall and Steve Gottfredson of Brevium.

Increase Practice Volume By Bringing Lost Patients Back
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/711582634

Friday, April 9, 2010

Headed to ASCRS?

This has been an exciting year for Opticall! We have expanded our services into several patient service venues within ophthalmology.

Since inception, our specialty has been managing patient communication calls for new refractive inquiries, either on a full or part-time basis, and converting those inquiries to consults for our clients.

Our team is now strategically aligned with many health care service organizations with an emphasis on delivering business tactical solutions to your practice.
Hoya Surgical Optics is hosting a Business Tactics Experience Room at the upcoming ASCRS. There are several "invitation only" seminars that we believe can provide great value and insight for all ophthalmology practices.

We would like to recommend that you review the following seminars and let us know which of these may interest you. Each addresses:
• Enhancing the overall quality of care for your existing patient base
• Adding health care benefits as a service to your patients
• Maximize profits from existing patient services you may now be offering
• Adding additional services that provide revenues from today's patients
• Optimize staff time and your time, resulting in greater patient care and efficiencies

Saturday, April 10, 2010:
• Business Tactics for the Eye Care Industry 8:45 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
• Dual Sensory Loss: Vision and Hearing 12:30 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
• Adding Hearing to Your Practice 4:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 11, 2010:
• Maximizing Profits with Premier OptiCal Services 8:45 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
• Adding Hearing to Your Practice 1:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
• Benchmarking your Practice 2:45 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
• Business Tactics for the Eye Care Industry 4:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Monday, April 12, 2010:
• Dual Sensory Loss: Vision and Hearing 3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
• Maximizing Profits with Premier Optical Services 4:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Click here to register for the sessions

Upon hearing back from you, we will place you on the seminar schedule and will also personally confirm your attendance once we are all in Boston.
We look forward to seeing you in Beantown! You can learn more at booth #2550.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Recording to "Elective Surgery Phone Trends And Tips On How To Improve Conversions"



Thank you to all that attended Wednesday’s webinar “Elective Surgery Phone Trends and Tips on How to Improve Conversions”.


Here is a link to the recording of the event: http://www.box.net/shared/552ev4i5jn

You can also get the slides at www.slideshare.net/opticall.


Here are the stats from the live polls on the call:


How does your practice handle elective surgery calls?


74% Dedicated staff member/surgical coordinator

19% Multiple staff members/anyone available

0% Surgeon takes them

7% Answering service


How do you track phone leads at your practice?


4% Paper form

31% Excel spreadsheet

42% CRM (i.e. Goldmine or ACT)

19% No formal system

4% Not sure