I’ve been a Sterling client about two and a half months. I just wanted more growth in my practice. It was growing but I wanted it to grow faster. I went out to California for the Sterling program; it’s called the Executive Booster. The program was awesome! It changed both me and my practice. I really like Sterling’s approach of dealing with me as an individual first and then using that as a tool to better the practice. The help they gave me was really incredible!
The coursework at Sterling helped me realize how I am able to control much more of my life and my practice. That was the biggest thing—control—especially when we dealt with ups and downs. The second biggest help was probably the executive training on management skills. That allowed me to turn over different aspects of my practice to separate individuals so that they can then manage those areas themselves and just report to me. Before, I was trying to do a lot of it myself. This system is working much better.
As I look at the graphs right now, production and income are about 40% higher than they were two and a half months ago. We are basically looking at doubling this place in about three or four months total!
The quality of service to our patients is much more complete now. We are doing a better job when patients come through of letting them know what’s available and what they actually need, so the number of services that we offer has increased. As a result we’re delivering more services to each patient.
The communication system I implemented along with better organization and a raised control level has helped quite a bit with the flow through the office—through the ten staff and myself. Organizationally it just runs a lot more smoothly. It did take a bit of adjustment because we were so used to our old, less efficient ways.
I was very sketchy before with the amount of training manual we had per job. We’re implementing a lot more training now. That’s been a big help. Now that everyone can really focus in on their valuable final products and their statistics, the control level in each area has really zoomed. As I look at the stats, we are seeing more new patients than we’ve ever seen before, we’re seeing more returning patients than we ever saw before and we’re providing more services per patient. So if you add all those three up it’s awesome!
When each of us gets to focus on our valuable final product, then we can really concentrate on getting that product out there in both quality and volume. Everyone’s concentration on their stats has really turned this place around.
The consulting from Sterling is excellent. Actually, I’d call it awesome! The biggest thing my consultant got me to really understand was that all of the different facets of the practice are actually under my control, rather than the control of the season or the economy or the third party insurance companies. That was the biggest factor—a change in attitude and control on my part.
I actually came into this relationship with Sterling with a growing practice and I was only practicing three and a half days a week. So neither of those were stress points. I’m still working about the same hours. Stress was never really high in my office—it wasn’t a pressure point for us; but even so, stress has been reduced.
I figure it will take 90 days total to make back what I spent on the Sterling program. It is amazing stuff!
I like the Hubbard management technology. I’m very comfortable with it. When it is implemented exactly the way it is stated, it works!
I definitely know that I’ve also increased the quality of my relationships with my kids and my wife as a result of doing the training. Our relationships were good to begin with but they are much better now.
If another optometrist asked me about the Sterling program, I’d say, “Do it! Do it now. And don’t look back.”
Dr. Joe Falbo, OD
