HUMAN RESOURCES

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Managing a Remote Location

Strategies for managing when a manager isn’t always present

NATALIE TAYLOR, C.P.O.T., PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Remote or “satellite” offices are becoming more common in optometry. Some serve small communities that would otherwise not support a full-time optometrist, while others operate as optical boutiques that host a doctor on a limited basis.

As many of these offices operate without a dedicated manager on location every day, creative problem solving is required to maximize a manager’s impact to ensure the practice is functioning properly, the company and brand are accurately represented and that patients are provided with great service.

Here, I discuss the tools and key support staff that provide a manager with timely and accurate data regarding staff and practice performance.

Time clock

Your payroll company should offer a way for staff to clock in and out via the Internet. Be sure to have this feature set up to accept only entries from your remote location’s IP address. Otherwise, staff could clock in via a smartphone or even from their home.

Daily logs

It can be difficult to create the perfect staff mix for a remote location when you are not there to witness the natural flow of traffic firsthand. Therefore, daily or weekly logs are great tools to help you schedule appropriate coverage.

Specifically, have a staff member track events, such as incoming phone calls, occurrences of walk-ins, dispenses, appointments made or purchases. Make it the staff member’s duty to fax these at the end of each day or week for the manager to review. Then, use the collected data to schedule staff, tweak office hours and more.

A cash point person

Consider instructing staff to organize and hand in all payments, receipts and logs to a central book keeper or accountant, and instruct him or her to audit and report to the practice manager any mistakes or other concerns. This individual should also keep a running tally documenting every time a staff person’s cash drawer doesn’t balance.

Using both your EHR and credit card software, run reports to reveal how many credits or discounts each staff member gives patients — in particular, if many “returns” end up in the same account.

Your billing department should also weigh in at least quarterly on its observations of the coding skills of satellite staff to ensure company policy compliance. This is a great way to pinpoint topics for additional staff training.

A “secret” shopper

A major duty for any hands-on manager is guiding staff to consistently deliver your brand and excellent customer service. When you can’t be there in person to oversee this, a great way to gauge performance is to utilize a secret shopper. It’s a good idea to first exhaust your own supply of friends and family members before paying for professional “patients.”

Specifically, create a short checklist of behaviors for the secret shopper to evaluate. Choose a few new policies and a few current ones that you know are weak. Examples: Do you want your technician to offer an out-of-pocket screening visual field? Is there a new script all patients must hear during their confirmation phone call? Should all opticians explain lens features at a dispensing encounter?

Alert your staff that they could encounter a secret shopper at any time. This important exercise is meant as a measurement tool — after all, measuring allows an individual and a company to improve.

If the results are largely positive, consider sharing with the whole team as a morale booster. For negative reports, it is best to discuss them privately with the employee(s) involved, allowing for further training without creating embarrassment.

Patient surveys

If working with secret shoppers seems like a hassle, an alternative is to ask patients to complete a post-visit survey. These can provide great insight into your patient’s perception of the office, but consider your method carefully.

If you prefer pen and paper, postcards can be handed to each patient upon exiting. For these, the return address should be a P.O. Box or your main location, not the satellite office. However, a return address is usually required, and this could prevent some patients from being honest.

For truly anonymous feedback, the best platform to use is the Internet. If you have an EHR and are gathering patient e-mail addresses, it should be easy to e-mail them a link to take the survey. Consider including staff headshots and bios below the survey, as many patients will forget the names of each person with whom they came in contact.

A closed-circuit security system

This sounds like an ugly, intimidating and complicated solution, but it doesn’t have to be. Security cameras can be purchased online for less than $150 and installed by a techsavvy staff person.

All cameras should be positioned thoughtfully: one catching the face of every person entering the office, one around the front desk where money is handled and two more in the optical showroom.

Connect the cameras to a recording device (such as a DVR) and also to a computer with Internet access, allowing you to monitor the location in real time from your computer or smartphone. You may consider installing a screen in your lab, so staff can more easily monitor the showroom.

Computer monitoring

If your practice has a policy regarding Internet use, systems should be in place to actively ensure this rule is followed. Computer monitoring equipment comes in varying degrees of detail, but most offer the ability to block sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Inexpensive software reports general data, such as a list of the websites viewed, while more comprehensive (and expensive) monitoring makes it possible to view your satellite office’s computer screens at your own computer, in real time.

Frame inventory management

Consider having all frames shipped to, checked and priced in the main location, not to the satellite. Even then, only a senior staff person should be allowed to open boxes. Invoices should be checked as soon as the box is opened, then signed and dated at the bottom to attest that all items are accounted for. These invoices will be used by the bookkeeper to ensure all frames paid for were received. Frames should then be transported to the other location by a manager or doctor.

Your monthly sales reports will allow you to track trends and adapt the board mix to that location’s patient base. A monthly inventory of both boards and back stock can be completed and faxed over by any staff person, but a full inventory involving your EHR or other inventory system should be done quarterly and checked in person by a manager.

Alert staff

It is strongly advised to alert staff of all new practices. For example, develop a page in your office policy manual regarding acceptable uses of the company computers, what happens when misuse is discovered. Issue a form for staff to sign acknowledging and agreeing to the monitoring.

Reassurance

In an ideal world, a highly skilled and trusted manager would be present in your satellite office every day. When that is not possible, these tools will come in handy to reassure every owner that both his or her company and brand are safe and sound. OM

Ms. Taylor is an optometry consultant and speaker and an AOA-certified paraoptometric technician. Send comments to optometricmanagement@gmail.com.