7 Tips that Will Help Your Practice Thrive During the Busy Holiday Season!
The holiday season is a busy one and now is the time to start planning for it. Being proactive will ensure that your practice thrives this holiday season, rather than just surviving it. Success is all about finding a balance of patient care, operational efficiency, and team morale. These strategies will help you have a more successful season.
1 | Communicate Holiday Hours Early
Update your website, socials, and Google Business Profile with exact dates and modified hours. Then be sure to send out an email and/or text blast to patients with closures and modified hours. Don’t forget to include emergency on-call details and to make this information highly visible.
2 | Optimize End-of-Year Scheduling
Proactively reach out now to patients who have remaining insurance deductibles or flexible spending account (FSA) balances and remind them to use their benefits before the year is out. Remind patients that with the busy time of year and reduced holiday hours, setting an appointment now rather than later will ensure they can get in before the New Year. Then be sure to utilize automated appointment reminders through your practice management software to reduce no-show rates for this busy time period.
3 | Prevent Staff Burnout
This can be a time when burnout really rears its ugly head. With busy work and personal lives, it can lead to quite a bit of stress. Start working on clear guidelines for requesting time off during the holiday season and establish those guidelines with staff as soon as possible. You might consider rotating shifts so that no single employee misses every holiday. Then work on boosting morale by celebrating with a team holiday lunch that is catered (potlucks can add more stress as employees would have to make something to bring outside of work hours, so avoid this type of celebration). Then make sure to celebrate your staff in fun ways by handing out awards or gifting them with a holiday bonus.
4 | Encourage Mindfulness and Breaks
The holiday season can be overwhelming in a practice. So encourage your employees and staff to practice mindfulness and to take breaks, like stepping out for a short walk or doing some breathing exercises. Encourage your staff to carry these practices forward into the New Year to promote health and well-being year round for your staff!
5 | Streamline Administrative Tasks
Streamlining administrative tasks can be something to help optimize your practice in general. And you’ve probably already done things such as institute an online scheduler. But during this time, it can be important to encourage patients to use their online scheduling and digital intake forms even more. So send booking links in email newsletters and send texts with a link to the digital intake form for patients who are due for their appointment soon. This will free up your staff to take care of tasks that can’t be automated.
6 | Plan Your Tax and Financial Checkup
We all know the end of the year is looming, so don’t wait to start working with your financial advisor to prep for year-end billing, reconcile accounts, and identify any equipment purchases needed before the end of the year. You’ll thank yourself for not waiting until the last moment!
7 | Plan Your Holiday Marketing Now!
Finally, now is the time to start planning your holiday marketing strategies. Will you have any discounts or specials? Do you offer gift cards? Will you be promoting the use of FSA benefits? All of these things need to be considered so you can start planning your marketing campaigns now. And don’t forget about referral marketing! You can take what comes in your door, or you could fill your schedule more efficiently and fully with referral marketing.
We know that referral marketing takes time–time that you could otherwise be spending with patients or day-to-day tasks of running a practice. That’s why Physician’s Liaison is here for you. We’ve been helping practices just like yours for over 20 years with their fractional marketing and referral marketing needs. We take a dynamic approach and tailor your message to the unique needs of your prospective referrers. While we spend our time promoting you, rest assured that your Physician's Liaison is also listening attentively to what the prospective referrer has to share. Our reps pay special attention for competitive information that can put your practice ahead.
Learn more about our fractional marketing and referral marketing services that help you build relationships that last!