Happy New Year! It is my favorite time of year because we get to dig into numbers. Not everyone feels this way, of course, but it is one of my absolute favorite things to talk about. But once we’ve tracked our numbers and have seen our data, how can we discuss them with non-number people? We have to be able to translate the numbers in a meaningful way to see growth, but how?

 

To answer this question, I’ve asked David Liss to speak with us for this episode. David has a background as a Veterinary Technician Specialist working in an ICU practice for more than ten years. He also was an ER department and hospital manager for two 24-hour practices and led the Platt College Veterinary program as Program Director. Today, he and I talk about numbers and how these numbers can be meaningful to specific team members. They can boost energy and are a fabulous tool to boost numbers for the new year.

 

Show Notes:

[1:45] - Debbie and David love this time of year because she loves working with numbers and spreadsheets.

[2:37] - The problem for managers is to translate these numbers to those who don’t “speak the language.”

[3:14] - It is recommended to think about the 5 W’s when giving information to your team.

[4:29] - As a manager, David likes to zoom way out and look at the biggest numbers.

[5:18] - David likes to see qualitative data and explains what this looks like for him when he digs into numbers.

[6:19] - The translation of these numbers is the most important thing because specific points of data are important to different team members.

[8:48] - David and Debbie discuss lab revenue data and the changes coming with where revenue will be coming from this year.

[10:16] - There’s two ways to make more money. You can do more or charge more and Debbie points out that there’s a cap to how much you can charge before you lose clients.

[12:20] - To the people who are medical, these talks about numbers also include talks about clients and compliance.

[13:26] - These conversations turn into an eye opening experience for many employees and David says it can boost energy for them to try to get clients compliant.

[15:26] - The staff already knows the gross income, but the costs are even more important.

[16:57] - David describes an exercise he did with his team and the kind of point it made regarding costs. The exercise made a big impact on staff understanding.

[18:49] - Share enough of the numbers that makes it apparent where that income is going.

[20:18] - To tell staff that they need a certain percentage of visits in a year, it seems unattainable. But to tell staff that 1 or 2 more of something per day is doable and adds up in a year.

[22:08] - Debbie and David discuss the high costs of new equipment and how to translate numbers to technicians on paying for it through services.

[23:01] - David expresses why managers tend to feel guilty when talking about money.

[24:10] - The purpose of the vet clinic is not to make money. It is to care for animals. But you have to make money to do that and you have to step into power a little bit in order to achieve that goal.

[26:32] - The message is to break down these numbers to match the team member. What job do they do and how can these numbers change how they approach their job?

[28:46] - The cool thing about KPIs is you can develop your own. Every practice is different and the KPIs that you track depend on the needs of each practice.

[30:18] - There’s a lot of meaning when you track certain numbers for specific doctors, techs, or office staff.

Thank you for listening. Remember you are not in this alone. Visit our website for more resources.

 

Links and Resources:

 

• VHMA Web Page

 

• VHMA Coronavirus Resources
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• About David Liss
• David Liss, RVT on Facebook
• David Liss VetBloom Web Page