Happy Wednesday Recepo Queens! I hope you are all having a fantastic week and are fully pumped and excited heading towards the end of the year! :)
It was so good to see you all join us at the XMAS Party on Sunday evening! We are hopeful that you all had a lovely time and enjoyed the night celebrating with the rest of the Pretzel Fam!
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Thank you to everyone who attended our Reception Meeting on Tuesday 3rd December.
This update will cover our meeting agenda, plus some additional items we didn’t get a chance to discuss. If you didn’t get the opportunity to attend, please have a good read of all the information below, and make sure you come to either myself or KD with any questions that you may have! It is super important that we are all on the same page so we can work together well as a team, and help the clinics run to their full potential!
If in doubt, please ask!
For those of you who did attend, this will be a good recap and refresher!
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Friday 6th December was Erin’s last day as Practice Manager of our Taringa Clinic. She is headed back to the States for a brief holiday, and will be returning in the New Year to work as a therapist for a time. Kel, KD, and I will be working together to cover this in her absence as we work to find a replacement for this role.
In addition to this, Jess is also off on leave at the end of this week and will return in January. She taking off on a well-deserved break in Europe, and will return to her management seat before leaving NMK in Feb/March next year. She has taken a role with Contiki, and will be headed off to the UK at that time to begin her training in her new role! We wish her the absolute best, but grateful we still have her for a little while yet!
Kel, KD, and I will also be moving around to help cover this space too while we find the best person to fill the role! We thank all of you in advance for your assistance and support during these times ahead, as we may find ourselves stretched a bit thin!
In the absence of a PM, all therapists have been advised that they must contact KD with requests for block outs/leave/sick time etc. Please help guide them to follow this process if they are coming to you with requests.
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Phones On Divert
If you are finishing early at Newmarket and Taringa, please make sure that you are always popping the phones on DIVERT – not night mode. We need to make sure that there is someone that clients can reach during the hours that we have advertised. Similarly, please make sure that this process is followed at close on Saturday’s as well. Given that one of our clinics is open, we often have clients using any of our numbers to get through. Please make sure that we are not missing the chance to help these clients!
Shift Times
Most of you are really good at this – but please make sure that you are on time for all of your shifts! If you are running late, there must be a reason and please make an effort to notify whomever you need to. Whatever your start time is, that means you should be in the clinic starting work at this time. Not arriving to the clinic at that time!
If you get a chance to finish early, particularly at the smaller clinics, please notify me of when you end up finishing! If this is the case, please also double check that all clients have arrived and that you are good to go. We have had an instance where a client was locked out of the building in the past! EEEK!
Gift Vouchers
Until Christmas, the Gift Voucher trees will be active in all three clinics. When anyone purchases a Gift Voucher in-store during this period, they get to pick one off the tree. The prizes are written on the cards, but not loaded, so if anyone wins a voucher/credit, please ask them what they would like to do. We want this money assigned to someone/something, with a clear note as to what it is so we can best track it! They can choose to have it on their account or as an actual gift voucher.
Please make sure that all gift vouchers are processed properly AND accurately recorded on the gift voucher register. We have had quite a few gift cards recently that have been difficult to track because steps in the process have been missed.
When processing a gift card – first make sure that the card is blank. Then, once you have put payment through, double check the number in the system to make sure that the payment amount is correct, and the card is active!
Appointment Notes
Please make sure that all notes on client appointments are up to date. If any change is made, or a conversation is had with the client, detail it down in this section! We are still experiencing double-handling in client calls because notes have been missed. This is especially important when asking a client to shift start time. If a client is booked in at an odd time but needs to stay there, there must be a note as to why! We do not want to risk upsetting clients with multiple calls, asking them to move. Similarly, if you can see that a therapist has made a booking, please check with them first before calling the client.
In addition to this, you can add notes such as “requested a female therapist” or “needed 3pm or later appointment”. These notes can help us in making tentative arrangements for clients when we have a therapist call in sick. There’s no point offering an alternative spot with a male therapist to a client who specifically requests only females! This can also be something that may upset clients if it’s a point they have expressed clearly to a previous receptionist.
Notes are so important in helping our team work as cohesively as we can. We need to be able to pick up from where someone else left off as smoothly as possible!
Running Emails
Please make sure that the running email is updated daily, and tasks are completed on the dates that they are assigned! If something cannot be completed on the day required, there must be a why! These emails need to be as succinct as possible, and free of unnecessary information.
Vacuuming
Vacuums are super noisy, so please be mindful of when and where you are! While it is important to be done, we need to cause as little disruption as possible to clients in treatment.
NP Forms
Our New Patient forms are a necessary and important administration procedure, which can have legal implications if not completed correctly.
Our forms contain client consent to treatment, and if these are not completed with a client signature we cannot proceed with treatment. There are currently 40-50 NP forms at Greenslopes from this year which have not been signed by the client. Some of which, have returned to treatment since and we have not followed up on this. This means that there are 40-50 client files in our system with incomplete information! Even for the clients who have only been in one time, we are legally required to hold the information from their treatment for a minimum of 7 years. We can also be asked at any time to produce the notes on these treatments in an insurance claim.
I hope this helps you understand why it is so vital that you ensure that every form is completed in full by the clients before handing it off to the therapists, and that we can work to ensure that we do better with this moving forwards.
We are also spending a great deal of effort to improve our marketing and reach to clients. Please make sure that you are asking new client’s where/how they were referred to us. This helps us identify where we should be spending our time (and money!) in order to better our business!
Make sure that you check the NP forms when the client hands them in for what they have selected as their method of referral. If they select ‘other’ or leave it blank, please ask them about it! Explain to them that we have an interest in knowing how our clients are finding us.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF A RECEPTIONIST!
You as reception, play a vital part in the daily operations of the clinic for various reasons!
However, you also have a great potential in helping to boost client retention and numbers. This does not just fall on the therapists!
Rebooking
For many reasons, therapists can often struggle when it comes to rebooking their client. While it is important for them to get this right for the ongoing care of the people they treat, as receptionists you have a great opportunity to help support them in this. Before taking payment, make sure to ask every client if their therapist has recommended when to come back and see them. Some clients may jump in and say that they will just book online, or they need to check their schedule. However, if they don’t there are a few options you can take in order to encourage them to get a follow up appointment booked on the spot.
1. You can make a call up/down to the therapist and ask them if they had a time frame in mind of when they would like to see the client again. If you notice that there is a therapist who repeatedly is not making an attempt to rebook clients, please make a note and let the PM of the clinic know J
2. If you are unable to reach the therapist, you can make the suggestion of a follow up yourself. A good time frame is 2 – 4 wks for regular clients, and 2wks for initial clients. Encourage them that their therapist would love to see them for a follow up assessment after their first treatment to see how they have progressed.
Rescheduling
When clients are calling to cancel an appointment, make sure to ask/encourage them to reschedule an appointment with their therapist while they are on the phone. This is particularly important for the busy therapists like Han and Peta, who often book out weeks in advance. Do you best to ensure the client has the opportunity as early as possible to get in to see them. Then proceed to confirm the cancelation or let them know about our MALC policy if warranted.
When the preferred therapist is not available on the requested day, try to encourage and guide the client to make a booking with another therapist, AND book in an appointment with their regular therapist at the next available opportunity.
Cancellation List
Make use of the Cancellation List on days when the requested therapist is unavailable. Encourage clients to book in at the next available opportunity, but also have them on this list across as many days as they want for if something comes available.
Make sure to note the following information:
- Name
- Number
- What appointment they want
- Notice time they need
When booking the appointment, select ‘Cancellation List’ as the client and appointment type. DO NOT make the booking directly under the client’s name. Otherwise, they get notification of the booking and think that they actually have an appointment. In the note section is where you detail all the above information.
If the client is booking across multiple days, put this information in the note section on each appointment also. If they end up getting called off the list, please ensure that they are then removed from every day as necessary.
When we make use of this process successfully, it means that we are able to help keep both the therapists and clients happy. We experience on average approximately 50 cancellations at Newmarket and Taringa EACH across the week, and nearly 100 at Greenslopes. That’s 200 appointment spots we could fill straight away if we had clients on the cancellation list! It helps keep the diary as filled as possible, but also means that the therapists are seeing clients who are specifically requesting them, not just someone who is happy to see anyone.
Recommending with Confidence!
When you are helping a client in choosing an alternative therapist, make sure that you are recommending them with confidence!
If you have seen the therapist yourself you can definitely use that experience, but it’s not required. You can simply choose wording like, “All Hannah’s clients love her” or “We get really good feedback from Damien’s clients”.
Clients can often be nervous about seeing someone new. You can reassure them that their therapist will go over their treatment notes beforehand so that they are aware and prepared with their past history. Even sharing that the therapist is often one that their regular recommends clients to when they are away or off sick (if that’s the case!) can be effective.
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KD will be releasing a video over the next couple of days on our Facebook group to help explain all things further. It is super important that we are across all of the above so if you have any questions please ASK!
We ask that when the video is released, that you each like/love it so we know that you have viewed it and understand. For those that miss doing this, we will assume that you haven’t watched it or don’t understand and we will chase you up!
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Client Situations
If you ever experience a difficult client situation where they are unhappy or confused about the pricing of our services, please use the information below as a guide for how to answer.
Therapists at No More Knots are not your average massage therapists. They are industry professionals, who have spent at least 1 year minimum studying the practice of Remedial Therapy, and developing an understanding of the human body to be able to assess and treat client complaints. Some of our therapists have completed further education in myotherapy, health science, or exercise physiology.
We do not offer relaxation massage as a service; however, you do not need to have a complex complaint to have a remedial treatment. The level of our prices for our services are average within our industry, and because we are a recognised allied health profession, we accept health fund rebates.
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Make sure to keep checking with yourself on how confidently you can answer the following questions. The bolded 3 are SUPER important in understanding the actual services that we provide at NMK.
* Pop Quiz Questions :) *
- Do you know what to do in case of a power blackout?
- If you sense a storm coming and a potential power outage, is there anything you can do to prepare for this?
- What are the first steps to take when a therapists calls in sick?
- What is most important thing to do when a client complains or is angry about something?
- Which are the most important spots to fill on the diary and why?
- What do you say when a client asks where a therapist has gone when they have left NMK?
- What is the difference between an RMT/SNR/MYO
- What is dry needling?
- What is cupping?
- Do you know the story behind how NMK started?
- If you are sick and you cannot get a hold of Emma, who do you call next?
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Stay Fabulous Team! Enjoy the rest of your week!
EM x
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