Is your optometry practice currently overwhelmed and understaffed? If so, there’s help available in the form of a virtual team that can fill the gaps in your business.
The Reality of Modern Optometry Practice Challenges
Many optometrists face difficulties balancing a busy practice with a consistently optimal staffing level. The demands and pressures of a growing business means that burnout can often lead to high staff turnover.
Recruitment difficulties can add to your woes, as you struggle to find the right people to manage your administrative tasks. Add to this the ever-increasing demands of patients and you end up with an extremely challenging staffing situation.
Signs Your Practice Needs Virtual Support
So, how do you gauge when your practice may need virtual support?
Quite often you’ll have one or more of the following signs, which are a good indication that a virtual assistant is needed in your business.
- Appointment schedule is booked weeks in advance
- Doctors are spending clinical hours doing administration tasks
- You’re turning away or referring on new patients
- Your staff are showing signs of being overextended, e.g., increased sick leave, high employee turnover, scheduling errors, etc.
- You want to expand your practice but lack the administrative infrastructure
What Virtual Assistant Services Can Handle
Now that you know there’s help at hand through VAs for optometry, what tasks can they handle for your business?
Our virtual assistants are trained in all your business operations and can tackle any aspect of your practice management including:
- 24/7 appointment scheduling
- Patient communication
- Waiting list management
- Automated confirmations
- Pre-appointment insurance verification
- Stream-lined intake processes
- Patient follow-ups
- Claims processing
- Medical record organization
- Prescription coordination
- Supply management
By taking over many of the tasks that are overwhelming your in-house staff, we can help your practice focus on patient care and generating new business.
Remote vs. In-Person: Breaking Down the Myths
There are many circulating myths about using remote staff rather than in-house employees – such as virtual assistants lacking niche experience, but this isn’t true.
The wide pool of talent available means that your optometry virtual assistant will be a perfect match for your business. You will also have the benefit of being able to scale your support requirements according to the needs of the practice.
A virtual assistant will also integrate seamlessly with practice operations, so there is no loss of productivity.
Cost-Effectiveness of Virtual Teams
The cost effectiveness of an eye doctor virtual assistant is clear. There are fewer overheads in terms of office space and you have the flexibility of being able to scale hours on an as-needed basis, further reducing your costs.
Another bonus is that there is no requirement to provide benefits such as retirement plans, health insurance or paid time off.
Scalability and Flexibility Benefits
A virtual assistant for an optometrist gives your practice the flexibility and scalability to meet seasonal demand. When the needs of your business insist on extra support, we’re there to step in. Similarly, when times are quiet, you can scale down your requirement – something that isn’t possible with in-house staff.
This approach not only saves you money but also time spent training new hires and the need to manage staffing levels depending on client demand.
Training and Quality Assurance
Our virtual assistants are trained specifically for optometry practices. Their comprehensive training includes practice management, patient communication and insurance processes. They work with your existing systems to ensure smooth operations as well as provide real-time updates.
We use AI-powered training to provide the highest quality instruction and to ensure that every interaction meets our standards of compliance and service.
Implementation: Getting Started with Virtual Support
Implementation of our virtual assistant plan consists of four phases. Phase one is the initial engagement and hiring of agents where we concentrate on hire criteria, your process flow and SOP. Phase two involves cultural training as well as process specific and industry training.
Phase three includes quality and performance audits as well as corrective plans and uptime monitoring. Phase four may include customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and/or Service Level Agreement (SLA) adherence monitoring.
At all times, we are committed to providing the very best virtual assistant service for your optometry practice.
