What do most successful offices have in common? They start their day with a daily huddle to prepare for a strong execution and to navigate occasional hiccups. A well-orchestrated morning huddle channels great communication between team members, adds thousands to your bottom line and reduces stress.
So why is it that almost 60% of all dental practices don’t have morning huddles? The most common reason is that huddles are unproductive. This is because employees don’t prepare in advance, they don’t contribute, the schedule does not work out and it’s expensive.
Everyone knows that in order for huddles to be productive, every team member must come prepared. Unfortunately, for most practices taking 20 minutes every day just to prepare is simply not an option.
This is where YAPI’s Virtual Huddle comes in. The Virtual Huddle feature is an interactive tool that keeps your team connected and on the same page every day. It was designed to allow your team to have a virtual huddle with minimal work and little time investment. So now you don’t have a reason not to have a daily huddle!
How to Have a Great Huddle
- Start every day with a huddle.
- Appoint a huddle leader.
- Make the commitment to show up on time. Always start and finish on time.
- Stand.
- Be positive! This is the time to discuss the game plan for the day to make the most of it, not to vent or settle old gripes.
- Use a checklist to guide your morning huddle.
- Briefly review what happened yesterday and what needs to be done today to tie any loose ends.
- Create a game plan for how you will navigate through the bottlenecks and take advantage of the opportunities that today presents.
- If the discussion goes off course, use the checklist to redirect. Put the topic that came up on the agenda to discuss at a later team meeting.
- Use YAPI to make your huddles productive.
YAPI requires no preparation for this informal, but powerful meeting.
Using the Virtual Huddle with YAPI
Simply open the app on any device and click the virtual huddle icon on the dashboard. Select the date you would like to view in the huddle.
Remember, any past or future date can be accessed. This is an extremely useful tool if someone is not present. Anyone who missed the huddle can review the Daily Huddle Report at a later time to catch up. Also, a person who might be out the following week can still contribute to the conversation by adding notes to future huddle dates.
Useful notes can be added by anyone, at any time.
Any updates or last minute schedule changes will be updated in real time with YAPI. Tons of useful information can be viewed for each appointment including:
- Confirmation status
- Medical history
- Premedication need
- Appointment notes
- History of broken appointments
Patients can be contacted via text or email directly from the report. Any team member can create patient notes in the huddle that will be visible to all.
The huddle can be filtered to show only past due patients or those with balances. These filters can help you fill openings in the schedule or plan time to investigate a patient’s missed payment. Also, you can best decide how to handle unconfirmed appointments.
For instance, if there is an unconfirmed appointment for a patient with a history of broken appointments, they will probably not show. You can then adjust the schedule accordingly. If there is an unconfirmed appointment for a loyal patient who has never missed a cleaning, you can send another quick reminder text from the huddle.
View production goals to motivate your team.
One way to get the team motivated for the day is to view production goals together. The office can see how close they are to meeting a goal, how many days are left to meet the goal and how much needs to be produced today to stay on track. This might be the extra push needed to encourage the scheduling coordinator to fill every opening on the calendar.
Related: 5 Ways to Wow Your Patients
Getting everyone excited about a common goal sets a good tone for the day. So start every day right! Begin by viewing the virtual huddle report with your team to encourage team building and productivity. Your team will reap the benefits and you will wonder how you ever lived without it!
