Don’t miss the signs that you’re ready to scale your optometry practice. Check out the five indicators that you need a virtual assistant team to get your business to where it needs to be – fast.
Sign #1: Your Appointment Schedule is Consistently Booked Weeks in Advance
If you find that your appointment schedule is always booked up several weeks in advance, this is a strong signal that your practice needs to expand. While it’s great that your business is in demand, you need the capacity to keep up with that demand.
The Challenge: Demand Exceeding Capacity
When patients call to book a routine appointment, are they told there’s no availability for a couple of weeks? Perhaps emergency slots are being filled with regular check-ups which can have an impact on your revenue.
This situation also means that your staff are constantly working flat out trying to manage packed schedules.
How VA Teams Accelerate This Growth
The services provided by VAs for optometry practices can accelerate your practice’s growth by helping you manage your business admin.
Our virtual assistants provide:
- 24/7 appointment scheduling
- automated confirmations
- efficient waiting list management
- pre-appointment insurance verification
- streamlined intake processes
All of the above will maximize the existing capacity of your business.
Sign #2: Administrative Tasks Are Consuming Your Clinical Time
When doctors are spending valuable clinical hours doing paperwork such as patient follow-ups, processing insurance claims and managing inventory, it’s time to think about an optometry virtual assistant.
The Hidden Cost of DIY Administration
The cost of doing your own administration may not be immediately apparent. But when you consider that, as an optometrist, your time could be better spent on client care or other revenue generating activities, you’ll understand the benefit of delegating the admin.
VA Solutions That Free Up Your Focus
An eye doctor virtual assistant can handle:
- claims processing
- patient follow-ups
- medical record organization
- patient communication
- insurance verifications
- prescription coordination
- supply management
This will free up your time to focus entirely on patient care and growing your business.
Sign #3: You’re Turning Away New Patients or Referring Them Elsewhere
No practice wants to turn away new patients or refer them elsewhere. But if your current capacity is unable to take them on, you’ll have no choice.
When Growth Opportunity Becomes Lost Revenue
Having to turn away or refer new clients impacts your practice in several ways. Not only are you failing to onboard new patients but you may also strain referral relationships.
Your competitors will benefit by capturing overflow patients and your word-of-mouth growth will be limited by your resource constraints.
How VAs Create Capacity for Growth
With a virtual assistant for optometry, you’ll benefit from streamlined new patient onboarding as well as optimized scheduling to increase your appointment slots.
Enhanced communication will improve your show rates and your virtual assistant will implement systematic follow-ups to boost patient retention.
Sign #4: Your Current Staff is Stretched Thin and Showing Signs of Burnout
You rely on your staff, but if they are stretched thin and showing signs of burnout, your practice could be headed for trouble.
The Warning Signs of Team Overload
There are warning signs that your team is overloaded and this can come in the form of high employee turnover, scheduling errors and decreased patient satisfaction scores.
Regular overtime and frequent sick days are clear indicators of work overload and also impact your finances by increasing overheads.
VA Teams as Your Support System
Our VA teams reduce the workload for existing staff and provide backup coverage during any absences. As they are familiar with your systems and software, they will execute routine tasks effectively and efficiently.
Seasonal demands can be handled by scaling support and our VAs can maintain consistency during any staff transitions.
Sign #5: You Have Expansion Plans But Lack the Infrastructure
With a healthy and thriving business, it’s natural to want to expand either in terms of locations or increased business hours, but how can you achieve this if you lack the administrative infrastructure?
Ready to Grow But Missing the Foundation
Wanting to grow your practice could mean offering extra locations, telehealth services, enhanced patient experiences or new equipment. But you need the foundation of solid, consistent and reliable administrative support to do so.
VAs as Your Scaling Infrastructure
VAs for optometry can establish scalable systems across multiple locations, support new service lines and enable extended hours without the costs of physical staffing.
As your practice grows, our VA team will create consistent processes that expand with your business.
