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Considering new software for your group? If so, then you understand the unique set of challenges it brings.
Back of the house items such as a new CEREC or Solea laser mainly affect only members inside the practice. A new whitening treatment is the same in all your locations; some may sell more than others, but the process is replicable regardless of patient demographics.
Software is a different story. It touches every single person in your group’s locus — from patient to executives, and all points in between. No practice, nor the socioeconomics of their patients, is the same; however, the software needs to cut a broad enough swath to meet all their needs.
At RevenueWell, with our Enterprise product, we’ve seen a sales cycle can extend upwards of two quarters. This is to be expected, since a new software changes processes for the entire organization. There must be full buy-in from all stakeholders.
While there is a myriad of factors to evaluate when looking at new software, the following are the three that we have found most impactful for multi-location practices.
Personal Support
We cannot stress this area enough.
Who do you turn to when you have a question, want extra training, or need system support?
How accessible is the support team? Do you have a dedicated success representative? What are the outlets you can reach them on — direct line, hotline, email, live chat, Facebook Group?
Beyond this, how reliable is the support? Do you walk away, every time, feeling like this company has your best interests at heart? Or does the support sound more like an upsell to a new product?
Few things are ever 100% perfect in life, let alone software, so you must have a baseline of trust. Your provider should be more of a partner than a vendor.
We preach this throughout the marketplace, but especially so in the group practice sector. Again, one error doesn’t affect a handful of people; it has the potential to reach thousands. With that impact radius, you must have a direct line to support and trust they will solve your issues in quick fashion.
Centralized Login
At its best, software maximizes your efficiency.
At its worst it adds a step (or many) to your already refined process.
This is why we find such a great value in centralized login for group practices.
Centralized management from a single dashboard allows you to knock out all of your tasks in a single sitting. You gain a holistic view of your organization, and are able to pull the appropriate levers.
This is not to say that systems without centralized management do not provide good results. They certainly can. However, they do not present a streamlined way of doing business. Thus, as you view your time as a monetized commodity, it lessens the ROI you achieve with that software.
ROI
Speaking of ROI, it is the final, and perhaps least surprising, consideration when evaluating software. In such, there are two ways to evaluate.
The first comes with implementing a new service. In this instance it’s best to list all your goals, and how you see the software helping achieve them.
What are your production goals? Your patient retainment goals? How about employee retainment? How do you value time, and how do you quantify it? How important is risk mitigation to you? Do you have goals that extend beyond money, and if so how do you measure them?
Once you understand what your goals are, decide what tools you need to achieve them — marketing automation, centralized login, user access controls, multi-touch communication, etc.
From there, look for the software that meets a majority of these goals, and subscribe to the one that best fits your group.
If you already have a software in place, start again with your goals. Does the solution meet all of your needs? Are you paying for what you expected? Does it provide a holistic solution to incorporate other facets of the office?
Once you know all of this, do you have full team buy-in? If not, is there a path where you can get it? And from there, what is the monetary return for what you spend.
At RevenueWell, we’ve seen an ROI of 18x and an additional 900 appointments in the first year. For a 35-location group practice, that could result in roughly $2.6 million of added revenue.
To ensure you’re getting your money’s worth and to read a full analysis on the ROI provided by RevenueWell, download our full internal report here.
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