Training Your Pediatric Practice Staff to Exceed Expectations

As a practice owner, you already know that exceeding your customer’s expectations builds strong relationships and increases your practice success. But your staff may not have learned this lesson yet. You’ll need to train your staff how to exceed expectations if they are to achieve this higher standard of production and behavior. 

Here’s why it has to be a training topic: Under the pressure of the day to day, staff can slip into wanting what is best for the practice and not what’s best for the customer. Therefore, you have to be very careful that you and your staff are always thinking about the customer when they’re there. They’re the most important people to you. They’ve managed their schedules to arrive and are paying for your time. For that reason, you need to make sure that you’re exceeding their expectations. 

To do this, you’ll need to develop new habits among your staff so you’re all exceeding expectations all the time, not just some of the time. These habits must become part of who you are and who your staff are because your standard is to always exceed expectations.

Show Your Staff How to Exceed Client Expectations

As a leader, you must model, train and reward the behavior of exceeding expectations for your staff. That’s because you should recognize and reward what you want more of. We’ve talked about that over and over again—always recognize and reward what you want more of. 

Your staff have to know that rewards exist. You have to celebrate good performance publicly. But you have to be careful. Some people don’t like to be recognized publicly and you should be very respectful of that. If you have staff who are sensitive about being recognized publicly, maybe you can mention them in a newsletter or another way that doesn’t embarrass them, 

Still, the acknowledgment needs to be presented in a way that staff know that some people are exceeding expectations. 

Have Staff Protect Your Brand

Each clinic protects their brand by providing the best customer service experience ever. It should be part of your culture that each person on your team takes personal responsibility for protecting your brand. Have the courage to hold your team and yourself to the highest of standards. You just say, “That’s not how we do things around here.” 

It’s not punishing or demeaning anyone; it’s just educating and inspiring. Tell your staff, “I want you to take personal responsibility to hold our brand to the best level of customer service and make sure that we are doing things right around here.” Inspire your staff to consistently hold your brand to the highest level of customer service experience.

Light a Fire of Purpose in Your Staff

I know clinic management is tough. After all, I served in that role for 25 years! I can help you light a fire under your staff and inspire them to truly protect your brand and exceed expectations. Check out my videos in our Lemonade Library. Get registered and look for Lemonades that help you elevate the level of service in your practice. 

About Diane Crecelius

Diane Crecelius is a physical therapist and founder of a multi-million-dollar, multi-location practice with well over 3,000 visits per week and 200 staff! In the past several years, Diane has worked tirelessly to support Peds-A-Palooza™ Community & Conferences and the success of Private Practice Owners. Diane has presented at nearly every Peds-A-Palooza™ live and virtual conference since the first sold-out conference in 2018. Her extensive knowledge derives from her decades in practice and from being trained and consulted by Survival Strategies, Inc. She uses this training to help Private Practice Owners learn how to thrive and expand while keeping their stress low.