Step Eighteen to a Hundred a Day

Step #18 to a hundred a day is actually Advanced Success Principle #8 (Practice staff motivation and use staff incentives) and it causes the most curiosity among doctors. My philosophy has been that most employees don't want to be twice as busy for the same pay, so why would they want to double you practice for the same hourly wage.

By Dr. Rick Wren

Step #18 to a hundred a day is actually Advanced Success Principle #8 (Practice staff motivation and use staff incentives) and it causes the most curiosity among doctors. My philosophy has been that most employees don’t want to be twice as busy for the same pay, so why would they want to double you practice for the same hourly wage.

First of all you doctors have to realize that the number one thing that your employees want is to be appreciated. Money and job security fall about number five and six on the list. So start finding ways to show appreciation for your employees. Tell them daily what they do right. Hand them twenty bucks and say lunch is on you today. Show up with breakfast occasionally. Tell them what you love about them. Be thoughtful and regular with your appreciation.

For over twenty years I have had daily, weekly, and annual incentives in place to allow my staff to be emotionally attached to the ebb and flow of practice. In other words when the practice is up or down, they feel it in their pocket book and bank account just like I do. Having incentives keeps your staff more focused and involved with your practice. Then it becomes “our” practice and the term “our” should be used regularly.

Patient Volume and New Patients are 2 of the best incentives you can add to your staff’s pay check. It should be done on a weekly basis, so your staff feels immediately financially what that week feels like. When you walk into someone’s home that just found out there was a death in the family, it has an emotional feeling. When you walk into someone’s home who just won 20 million dollars from the lottery, has an opposite emotional feeling. A successful and less successful week in practice have similar feelings, then the paycheck on Friday or Monday will have an attached feeling to that week.

When paying for patient volume you want to pay for increments of patients, not for every patient that walks in the door. For example don’t pay 25 cents for every single patient, because at 5 minutes till closing that is only 25 cents walking in the door. Try paying ten dollars for every 25 patients that the volume is up and that person coming in at 5 minutes till closing might be an extra ten bucks to your employee. Start your patient volume incentive at your present level when you hire them. So if your average week is a hundred, so your scale could look like the one below.

Patient Volume 100 — ten dollars total extra / 500 dollars a year extra
Patient Volume 125 — twenty dollars total extra / 1000 dollars a year extra
Patient Volume 150 — thirty dollars total extra / 1500 dollars a year extra
Patient Volume 175 — forty dollars total extra / 2000 dollars a year extra
Patient Volume 200 — fifty dollars total extra / 2500 dollars a year extra

When you hire a new employee you start them where your average has been the last 2 months. So you may have an old employee that gets paid from a hundred up and a new one that gets paid from 175 up.

Paying for new patients makes that extra work seem more fun. My staff loves to do those new files, exams, and x-rays. You can pay one or two dollars for each new patient. I pay more for new patient number five and up. We like to have an average of ten new patients each week, so if I pay 2 dollars for the first four and five dollars for the next six, that is an extra 34 dollars that week or 1700 dollars per year.

The last important part is to pay the above 2 commissions based on collections. When you add up the 2 above incentives you then multiply it by your collection percentage for that week. If you adjusted a 175 patients, had ten new patients, and collected 90% it would calculate like below.

Patient Volume 175 — Forty dollars
New Patients 10 — Thirty four dollars
Collection % — 90%
Commission — 40 + 34 = 74 x 90% = pays 66 dollars that week

Before I added the collection step, I had a staff member that would not collect money over the counter just to keep patients coming out and boost her commissions. The collection % pays even if it is over a hundred. So it may pay 60% one week but 120% the next week.

You can pay daily incentives occasionally to makes things more exciting. When you have a party or promotion you can pay for each patient that comes in that day. I suggest you do not set a number and only pay when you reach that goal. Consider things like paying 25 cents for each patient on that party day, but when we see over a hundred pay 50 cents for each. This prevents an emotional let down in the evening when the goal looks unreachable.

You should also have an annual goal such as taking your staff to the Las Vegas Parker Seminar in January each year. There again make it a win-win situation, not an all or none plan. So if it costs a thousand dollars to take one staff member, set goals that puts money towards their trip. When you are about 8 weeks out discuss with them if they will pay the difference. Still allow them to earn credit over the next 8 weeks. If you are averaging a hundred per week your scale could look like this one below at the end of the year.

Parker Las Vegas Seminar Bonus
Patient volume avg. 100 — 23 times — 0 dollars each — Pays zero dollars

Hit Patient Volume
125 — 20 times — 25 dollars each — Pays 500 dollars
150 — 5 times — 50 dollars each — Pays 250 dollars
175 — 2 times — 75 dollars each — Pays 150 dollars
200 — 1 time — 100 dollars each — Pays 100 dollars
Pays 1000 dollars total towards trip

Obviously you should be careful as to what you pay. You should start low and go up if you need to. You can always go up, but you cannot take away. Your employees will love to see your practice double, when their pay goes up also.

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If you would like to study the 21 Steps to a Hundred a Day more intensely consider purchasing our 18 CD set from the Planet Chiropractic online store and listen to them daily.

Dallas Parker Seminar is only 4 weeks away (www.parkerseminars.com) so get your arrangements made quickly. Depak Chopra is scheduled for Friday and it is cool to hear him give us credit for keeping “Innate” alive. See you soon.