Opening a chiropractic office means you have big decisions to make.
One major decision is what hours to be open.
Of course, people want to come in early in the morning or at 8pm, and on Saturday mornings, or even Sunday mornings. But you cannot accommodate everyone.
If it were up to your patients, you would be in your office 24 hours a day and they could come in anytime any day of the week. So we must have a balance between availability and you creating a life for yourself.
Not to mention we must prevent you from destroying yourself physically.
We have a physical job and I know MANY DCs who are physically beat up from pushing too hard for too long. Especially the “volume chasing” type of doctors.
Here at WINNERSEDGE we understand the clinic schedule, doctor schedule AND CA schedule must superimpose perfectly for maximum clinic performance and longevity.
I have also seen many offices where every time I visit they have a different CA.
If you want employees to stay with you long term you can’t have them be there at 7am and leave at 6:30pm. Normal people have a 9 hour workday. 8 hours plus maybe a 1 hour lunch. We cannot expect to retain good people if we have them allocate 12 hours a day to work. And having a long lunch does not gain them anything. It is the span of the day where they are tethered to their job that matters.
If you want a smooth running office you will NEVER have a different front desk CA in the morning and another one in the afternoon. The low productivity mess this causes is so obvious it requires no explanation.
Would a pro football team have one quarterback for the first half then a different one for the second half of the game, because the first guy needed to get home to his kids?
“Tory, my main CA, who is great, wants to leave on Wednesdays now at 4:00 to pick up her son. What do I do?” Uhh, if you allow this, you are allowing her son to run your office, aren’t you?
If a person cannot meet the hours requirements then they are no longer qualified for the position are they? The needs of ALL your patients outweigh the needs of the one or the few. So we must always staff our office for maximum performance!
9:30 to noon and 3 to 6pm has been a proven winner. There is a lot of “time technology” here.
9:30 means you are ready at 9. Noon means you are there until 12:30.
3 means you are ready at 2:30.
The doctor arrives at 8am. CA arrives at 8:30, you meet around the GOAL and STAT sheet behind the front desk at exactly 9am for the Team Huddle. Door unlocks at 9:10 as people scheduled at 9:30 will be early.
Of course the properly designed WINNERSEDGE office has flip shades and a mirrored front door so nobody can ever see in the office. This is critical if you want CAs to get any work done during non business hours.
We also never have goofy hours. 8 to 1 and 3 to 6 on Monday. 9 to noon and 2 to 7 on Tuesday. Wednesday 10 to 2 etc.
9:30 to noon and 3 to 6 Monday Thru Friday can be considered. We have a special system for how we handle Saturday hours, if any at all. We also have a system for when to back off hours or shifts as you grow.
An ultimate schedule is Monday and Wednesdays mornings then Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for a 16 hour work week.
Another ultimate goal is to go in 2pm to 6pm Mon, Tues, Wed and that is it. Of course this happens after a doctor is a multimillionaire and is simply practicing for satisfaction.
I one had a new doctor who had not even starting making student loan payments, was not saving a penny, had no real momentum yet ask me: “Tory, can I start taking Fridays off?”
The answer is NO, you have done nothing to deserve any schedule refinements. I started in 1996 going 7am to 7pm five days a week and 3 hours on Saturday. Try that for a while.
We must get your hours, the team hours, and clinic hours all set perfectly. Do this the WINNERSEDGE way and your growth, referrals, collections, staff longevity, happiness and just as importantly, your own health and lifestyle, will thrive!
