Just Audiology Stuff

End Of Year Joy!

Geoffrey Cooling

Figures, Figures, Figures, KPIs & How To Use Them In Your Health Practice

It is that time of year again, the time where you look back at what has passed and plan for what you would like to be ahead. In order to understand where you are going you really, really have to know where you have been. This is a true in business as it is in life, so what does that mean to you.

Now is the time that you need to take stock of what has happened in your practice in the last year. That means the figures, the figures, the figures. So, what figures are important to review, understand and concentrate on?

Revenue: This is basically your topline, exactly the turnover in your favourite currency. How well did you do in relation to last year, how well did you do in relation to the last five years?

Profit: After you paid every single bill, how much was left, how does it compare to last year and again the last five years?

Unit Volume: How many hearing instruments have you sold, again the comparison is one and five years.

Average Selling Price: ASP is the average selling price per unit, yep one and five.

Conversion Rate: This is the ratio of sales to initial consultations, you guessed it one and five.

Return or Cancellation Rate: How many people gave the units back as a percentage of how many people bought, don’t need to tell you one and five any more do I?

All of these figures or KPIs will give you a real idea of exactly where you are, how you are doing and also what you may need to look at as you plan for next year. There are also other figures such as Binaural Rate, Return Business Rate, Service Care Fulfilment etc. Generate these figures and then assess yours against industry norms.

These figures have real value for your business, they can tell you where you are, identify any problem areas and give you a head start on planning for business and personal development for next year. This will allow you and your business to grow where you need to and to consolidate where you do not. The reasoning in comparing over a five year period is in order to identify any changing trends over that period.

If trends have changed, ask yourself why? Are you doing something differently, are you doing something now that you did not before? Are you not doing something now, that you did do before? These can be enlightening questions to ask yourself.

I have earlier mentioned norms, however, they do vary quite a bit across our profession. The figures that would be norms for large Nationals with a large marketing machine would be very different from the norms for Independent Practices. For instance, Conversion Rate for Nationals would be much smaller as a percentage because of the quality of leads that are passed to them from their marketing efforts.

Independents in my experience appear to have much better quality leads and therefore convert at a higher rate. Unit Volumes would also be different, even though Nationals have poorer lead quality, their unit volume tends to be slightly higher than Independents. These are just some of the differences across the industry, but no matter which sector you are in I have no doubt you have a good handle on what are accepted norms.

So, why should you generate these figures and then query them? Because you want your business to not only survive but thrive and these figures will assist you in that goal. You can not effectively have the information you need to survive and excel unless you have the data upon which to base important decisions.

You should generate the data and then honestly query those KPIs, identify your weaknesses if any and then plan how you are going to deal with them. This process can be undertaken as part of the wider RATER process that I discussed earlier this year. In this way, your business will have the foundation to not only survive but thrive. 

These are interesting times, there are many external and internal pressures on our profession internationally. I think that Independent Dispensaries in every country are facing challenging conditions even if those conditions are different from country to country. However, I think the answer to those differing problems are practically the same across the world, change up your business and keep your existing Patient ecstatic with your service.

Regards

Geoff

Similar Posts: The Rater Model

Exit mobile version