I’m going to tell you something that might sting: your patients probably can’t tell if you’re a great clinician.

Seriously. They don’t know if your refraction technique is textbook perfect. They can’t assess whether you caught a subtle retinal finding. They have no idea if your contact lens fitting was exceptional or just adequate.

What they CAN tell is whether your receptionist seemed annoyed when they called. Whether the check-in process felt chaotic. Whether anyone actually seemed happy to see them.

Your staff is the face of your practice. Not you. Them. And if that face is tired, disorganized, or indifferent, patients will assume your clinical care is the same way.

So how do you know if your team is actually delivering good patient care? Let’s get specific.

Start With What Patients Actually Say

The easiest data to collect is patient feedback. But most practices do this wrong.

They send out generic satisfaction surveys. Patients give generic responses. Nobody learns anything useful.

Here’s what to do instead:

Ask specific questions. Not “how was your experience?” but “Did the person who answered the phone seem knowledgeable about our services?” Not “were you satisfied?” but “Would you recommend us to a friend who needs eye care?”

Read your online reviews—all of them. Not just the star ratings. Read the actual comments. What specifically do people praise? What specifically do they complain about? If multiple patients mention the same issue (long wait times, rude front desk, confusing billing), believe them.

Ask follow-up questions in person. When a patient mentions something during their visit—good or bad—dig deeper. “You said scheduling was easy? What made it easy?” or “You mentioned you had trouble reaching us? Tell me more about that.”

The goal isn’t just to measure satisfaction. It’s to understand specifically what’s working and what isn’t.

Watch How Your Team Actually Works

Surveys only capture what patients remember to tell you. The real picture comes from observation.

I’m not talking about spying on your staff. I’m talking about spending intentional time watching workflows. Shadow your front desk for a morning. Listen to how phones are answered. Notice what happens during busy moments.

Things to watch for:

How do they handle interruptions? When someone’s in the middle of checking in a patient and the phone rings, what happens? Does one task get bungled while they try to do both? Do patients get put on hold without explanation?

What’s their default tone? Not when the boss is watching—when they think no one’s paying attention. Is there warmth in their voice? Or does it sound like they’re reading from a script?

How do they deal with problems? When insurance doesn’t verify correctly, when appointments get double-booked, when a patient shows up on the wrong day—how does your staff respond? Do they stay calm and solution-focused, or do they get flustered and defensive?

What happens during downtime? Are they prepping for the next patient, organizing, learning? Or are they scrolling their phones?

None of this is about catching people doing something wrong. It’s about understanding how your systems and people actually function in real conditions.

Measure The Things That Matter

Beyond observation, track actual metrics. Not vanity metrics—metrics that correlate with patient experience and practice health.

Phone answer rate. What percentage of calls get answered live versus going to voicemail? If you don’t know this number, you’re flying blind. Missed calls directly impact revenue.

Call-to-appointment conversion. Of the calls that get answered, how many turn into scheduled appointments? If this number is low, something’s breaking down in those conversations.

Check-in time. How long does it take from when a patient walks in the door to when they’re seated in the exam room? Long check-in times often indicate process problems, not lazy staff.

Patient follow-up completion. Are recall calls actually getting made? Are post-op check-ins happening? If tasks are consistently slipping through cracks, you’ve got a capacity or accountability problem.

No-show rate by scheduler. This one’s interesting. If one staff member’s patients no-show at 8% and another’s no-show at 15%, something different is happening in those scheduling conversations.

Check Their Knowledge, Not Just Their Attitude

A friendly staff member who doesn’t know your practice protocols is almost worse than a competent grouch. They’ll cheerfully give patients wrong information.

Periodically quiz your team on things like:

You don’t need to make it a formal test. Just ask questions in conversation and notice the answers. If your staff can’t accurately explain basic things about your practice, patients are getting misinformation.

Actually Talk To Your Team

Here’s the part most practice owners skip: one-on-one conversations with each staff member.

Not annual reviews—those are useless. Regular check-ins. Monthly at minimum. More often for new hires or people who are struggling.

In these conversations:

Most staff performance issues aren’t attitude problems. They’re clarity problems. People don’t know exactly what’s expected, so they wing it. Clear expectations plus regular feedback solves most of this.

Use Technology To Fill Gaps

You can’t personally observe every patient interaction. But technology can help.

Call recording and monitoring—if you’re working with a partner like us, we record calls and flag ones that need review. Patterns emerge that you’d never catch with occasional observation.

AI-powered analytics can identify sentiment in calls, catch missed opportunities, and highlight training needs. Not as a replacement for human judgment, but as a way to scale your attention.

Customer feedback tools that trigger automatically after appointments can capture impressions while they’re fresh.

The point isn’t surveillance. It’s insight. You can’t improve what you can’t see.

When The Problem Is You, Not Them

Sometimes staff underperformance is actually a leadership problem.

If you’ve never clearly communicated your expectations, you can’t blame staff for not meeting them. If you’ve never trained them on your protocols, you can’t be surprised they don’t follow them. If you’ve created a chaotic environment where they’re constantly interrupted and understaffed, you can’t expect calm, attentive service.

Before you decide someone’s a bad employee, ask yourself:

If the answer to any of those is “not really,” start there.

Building A Team That Actually Delivers

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s continuous improvement. A practice that regularly assesses performance, gives feedback, and develops skills will always outperform one that just hopes things are going okay.

At MyBCAT, this is baked into how we operate. Our medical virtual assistants are continuously trained, regularly monitored, and consistently coached. When we handle calls through our front desk outsourcing services, we’re tracking performance metrics and improving constantly. Looking to join our team? We’re always seeking talented people.

But whether you work with us or not, the principle applies: pay attention to how your team interacts with patients, measure what matters, and never stop developing your people.

That’s how you build a practice known for exceptional care—not just clinically, but in every interaction.

Want to talk about how we approach staff performance and patient experience? Happy to share what we’ve learned.

Need help managing your practice’s calls and scheduling? Book a discovery call to learn how MyBCAT can help.