3 BIG Tips for 2024 to Impact Revenue and Patient Care

Experience a revolutionary perspective on the hearing care industry with Kelsey Fleming from Sycle, who joins us to share groundbreaking strategies for private practices. This eye-opening episode promises a treasury of insights, from navigating the sensitive discussions around hearing technology costs to unveiling patient financing options that strike a balance between accessibility and a practice's financial vitality. Kelsey and Blaise dissect the art of dedicating time effectively with patients, ensuring they receive optimal care while keeping clinic operations at peak efficiency. 

Embark on a heartfelt journey through a patient's transition from hearing aids to cochlear implants, as Blaise recounts the lessons learned and the undeniable necessity for ongoing clinician education. We delve into the symbiotic relationship between staff contentment and the success of a practice, particularly in the face of staffing tribulations post-COVID. Learn how Sycle's innovative software is redefining staff training, fostering rapid adaptation to clinic procedures, and enhancing the crucial contributions of front office personnel. Through our explorative discussion, uncover the keys to harnessing staff potential and paving the way for a thriving business in the ever-evolving world of hearing care.

Transcript

Blaise Delfino: 0:06

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters podcast, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices, and a growing national epidemic: Hearing Loss. Before we kick this episode off, a special thank you to our partners. Sycle - built for the entire hearing care practice. Redux - Faster. Drier. Smarter. Verified. Otoset - the modern ear cleaning device. Welcome back to another episode of the Hearing Matters podcast and I am incredibly excited to welcome back our good friend, Kelsey Fleming, VP of Sales and Enterprise at Sycle. Kelsey, great to see you again.

Kelsey Fleming: 0:50

Good to see you too, Blaise. Thanks for having me back.

Blaise Delfino: 0:52

It is always such a pleasure. I always enjoy our conversations. Of course, you are a key opinion leader in the hearing healthcare space and always enjoy talking hearing healthcare, knowing and growing business with you. You joined us on the podcast a couple of months ago, and we took a deep dive into Sycle's high-tech, high-touch patient experience and really Sycle's unique position within the hearing care industry of supporting private practices through all stages and types of evolutions. In this episode, though, we're going to be diving into the most common challenges that Sycle hears from their customers and how these private practice owners and hearing care professionals can really start getting ahead of the curve.

Kelsey Fleming: 1:43

That's right, Blaise. As you know, in our ever-evolving hearing care industry, Sycle's got some really good goals to double down on features that really simplify processes, help yield positive ROI results for providers and business owners and, in turn, really provide a first-class experience for our patients. Thankfully, one of the things that helps us meet those goals here at Sycle is having a large customer base and a really wide variety of different types of business within hearing care that use Sycle. We're so lucky to really have invested customers that share their thoughts and their challenges and their needs with us, which, in turn, really helps Sycle's roadmap and helps us keep our vision in line with this industry.

Blaise Delfino: 2:28

Kelsey, one of the many things that I personally think Sycle does incredibly well is you build, measure and learn really fast. You talk to your customers, take that feedback and make the most appropriate changes for these clinicians to know and grow their business. We're going to be talking about three big tips for 2024 to impact revenue and patient care. Now to our listeners tuned in be sure to pay attention to the first because it is just as important as the last. The first big tip, or big tip number one rethink how you are using patient financing. "That's a lot of money is an objection, kelsey. That countless hearing care providers hear on a daily basis when recommending hearing technology. In a recent financial study, it was found that 45% of Americans have less than $1,000 or more in savings. We understand, as hearing care professionals, that the cost of untreated hearing loss is greater than the price of the hearing technology, but oftentimes we really have to focus on the brutal fact. Tell us about Sycle's financing partnerships and integrations that support practices with this challenge.

Kelsey Fleming: 3:50

You're right, Blaise, I am not a provider, but I also hate to hear that objection. Affordable access to hearing care is more important to us than than ever before. Luckily, we're living in a time where it's also more achievable today than it has been before, so we've really got that going for us. We talk to our customers all the time who are starting to capitalize on this really big opportunity to change patient education and the way that we're having our sales conversations by offering different options to our patients, like patient financing.

Kelsey Fleming: 4:25

We have heard countless success stories from practices who are starting to adopt patient financing into their processes when they are discussing technology. They are starting to run the financial numbers for a patient as part of the treatment recommendation, which I really love, and they're even starting to use patient financing as a bit of a marketing draw to get patients in the door when we're having some slower months, which might actually be my favorite of those strategies. But there are just so many options out there to benefit not just your patients and getting them an opportunity to get into the right technology for their lifestyle, but also to benefit the financial health of your business, too. The great news and the big tip, of course, for 2024 here at Sycle is that Sycle has three different patient financing options available for our customers. They all have a little bit of a different flavor for unique features and benefits designed to meet the needs of different types of clinics and, of course, the different types of patients that we serve.

Blaise Delfino: 5:27

Kelsey, I want to dive a little bit deeper. I really love what you shared there in terms of implementing financing as a marketing draw. Now, what that does is it allows private practice owners and hearing care practices to say, "better hearing, starting at $149 per month. Because, yes, we understand hearing technology - the different levels of technology are at different price points and most likely, when patients come into the clinic because I remember this every single day, new patients coming in the number that they have in their head is $6,000, typically. But that's not the case for every line of technology. In our practice. We have different levels of technology for every lifestyle and every budget. So, what that financing allows you, the hearing care professional to do is understand number one, financing is a cost of doing business, but also, number two, it's really important for most patients because they may want to reserve some of their liquid cash, if they will, with economic forces, things of that nature. So, implementing financing is not only healthy for your business, but it's healthy for your patients too, and I love that your partners and the hearing care professionals you and your team work with are making it part of the protocol when they're working with patients and really bringing it home. And I also have to reiterate and highlight your statement that it is a benefit to the financial health of the business as well. So, big tip number one - implementing financing. It is healthy for the business but, most importantly, it is healthy for your patients. Big tip number two, drumroll please - spend the right time with the right patients.

Blaise Delfino: 7:25

Now, hmm, what does this mean? Where are we going with this one, Kelsey? The primary goal when working with patients who present with hearing loss is to assist them in making an educated decision regarding their hearing loss and ensuring that we, as hearing care professionals, work with them to move forward with the best solution possible. Now, notice how we said best solution possible. It may not be hearing aids, it might be CIs. For some, hearing aids may not be an option. Okay, so some of our patients may need medical referrals or would be better suited with solutions like cochlear implants. Kelsey, tell us how Sycle's CI candidacy tool really helps practices better identify patients, you know, who might not be a good fit for traditional hearing aids.

Kelsey Fleming: 8:23

Yeah, it's such an important topic and one I don't think we talk about enough. It's really about not just patient care, but it's also about making sure that we have efficiency and time-saving measures within our business, and I think I can pretty confidently say that most business owners, providers, front-office staff, you name it, pretty much everyone using Sycle, not using Sycle, is very interested in how to save time in their practice and be more efficient. So, as you said, Blaise, ensuring that we spend the right amount of time with the right patients is critically important to the business and often very overlooked. One way that Sycle supports our clinics in helping to identify exactly who these patients are and how we should be investing our time with them is, like you said, our cochlear implant referral workflow. Simply put, I'll give you the lay of the land here.

Kelsey Fleming: 9:21

The workflow looks at three different data points collected in the diagnostic exam.

Kelsey Fleming: 9:26

It looks at our PTA of 70 dB or greater, it looks at our word recognition of 40% or less, and it looks at a loss level of severe, severe to profound or unaidable.

Kelsey Fleming: 9:40

So, any patient who meets one or more of those three criteria in one or more ears is then flagged as a potential cochlear implant candidate.

Kelsey Fleming: 9:51

It's then totally up to the provider to use their discretion and their professional expertise to decide if they believe that patient could be a potential CI candidate or not through a series of different prompts and ultimately, if they so choose, the patient can then be led to being contacted by the cochlear concierge to learn more information about implant opportunities.

Kelsey Fleming: 10:14

So, my biggest tip and, like you said in the beginning, even though this is tip number two to implement in 2024 is really to just explore this workflow. After collecting data for a number of years now, Sycle is seeing some very not to tip my hat, but interesting data just around where time should be spent in the clinic, how where we're spending our time really truly does have an impact on the number of returns, how many exchanges we're seeing, the number of fittings and adjustment appointments that we might be spending with patients, and more very serious KPIs that are critical to the health of the business. So, it's a simple process embedded right inside of Sycle, which offers a very quick way to help you and your staff identify, like we said, those patients that you have the biggest impact on.

Blaise Delfino: 11:05

Speaking from personal experience, this is where ensuring that the correct data is implemented in Sycle but that patients file because it really is - it gives you that digital landscape, and understanding that if a patient that you're seeing, whether they be new or a current patient, how are you going to have that conversation with them? And if you are a newer clinician in the field, or if you are a clinician who may have never had to have this conversation, maybe leaning into some CEU opportunities of understanding how to start that conversation with the patient, because hearing aids are noninvasive. Cochlear implants, that is an invasive surgery and there's going to be a lot of potential grieving with that aspect. But love, love, love this integration, Kelsey. And when I was practicing full time, I actually had a patient who fit with traditional digital technology, after a few years, went the CI route. But we knew enough, this is who we need to partner with. That is out - while it may be in our scope, I wasn't familiar with CI mapping, so we wanted to ensure that this patient got the best care that they could get. But love this integration and getting those CEU opportunities to really train yourself up would be absolutely appropriate and in the best interest of the patient.

Blaise Delfino: 12:36

Now, the third tip for 2024 that is absolutely going to impact your revenue and patient care is happy employees equal business success. Kelsey, we're both on LinkedIn. I don't know if you've seen this within the past three years, happy employees equaling business success has been the cadence for quite some time now, and I'm really happy to see that, because if you take good care of your people, your people are gonna take good care of your business. And one challenge that has certainly been on the rise since the COVID pandemic is employee retention and turnover. Attracting and keeping good talent really is a full-time job and it's critical to support the day-to-day operations of a business. What is Sycle doing to help business owners in this case, private practice owners and hearing care professionals support their business and employees?

Kelsey Fleming: 13:36

Yeah, I, in preparation for this podcast Blaise, I was doing some reading and I was gonna tell you I don't know if you knew this in 2023, nearly 38% of employees decided to leave their jobs within the first year of employment.

Blaise Delfino: 13:55

Oh, wow.

Kelsey Fleming: 13:56

Um, I didn't know this either that the costs of replacing an employee average approximately about 33% of that employees total salary. So, not only is employee retention and turnover high, as you mentioned, it's also costing our practices additional thousands of dollars to get people in the office and get those positions filled. So, the last time when I was on this podcast, we talked, of course, a ton about how Sycle was built and how it's easy to use, and we're really proud to have over 8,000 clinics that use Sycle for really good reason. We have over 20 years of audiology clinic knowledge and experience that is reflected in our software. All of these things are huge gold stars that we wear very, very proudly.

Kelsey Fleming: 14:49

But one thing that is going to become more important to us in the coming year and Is certainly an area of focus as we look to support our businesses, is really that ability to deliver immediate digital and comprehensive training to new and, to be quite honest, our existing staff who might need a refresher that really just solves their problems and gets them off the ground in days, not weeks, so that when we are spending the thousands of dollars to get the right people in our clinics, it's not taking months to get them up to speed, or weeks to get them up to speed, really, days to get them up off the ground and operating. You know, Sycle can't necessarily solve employee turnover in our space. That might be just a tiny bit too ambitious for us in 2024. But we've got some really exciting updates coming that I think are going to help our practices make sure that if employee turnover occurs, the training we offer will make a big and quick impact on your new staff.

Blaise Delfino: 15:52

This I'm very passionate about.

Blaise Delfino: 15:55

The third tip because when we think about Sycle, this is your, it's you know, SaaS CRM. It is what you use to really provide the best patient care. And it really is communication. And in a day and age where there's different modes of communication, how are we communicating? Of course, most patients would like to be communicated via mobile or mobile, I really had the hard articulation on the " there. So, who is using Sycle most often? And that is your front office staff. You've heard me say this time and time again on the Hearing Matters podcast, being a former private practice owner, your front office staff, they are the glue to your practice.

Kelsey Fleming: 16:45

Oh, champions, 100%, you name it.

Blaise Delfino: 16:48

Like they are the glue. When you're training and onboarding a new team member, in this case, front office staff.

Blaise Delfino: 16:55

I am so excited for this new integration because we remember how we would onboard and you really need to ensure that you're coaching the correct way. You want to ensure that this new employee is going to have the best experience possible that first 90 days. What we did is we had some training modules that we would have our new front office staff watch, and then what we would do, Kelsey, is we would sit down at the end of the day and say, "tell me some of your highlights, how can you apply that in this new position? And that's really nice, too. So, if you are the owner or you are the director of operations, taking that extra time to sit down with these new employees at the end of the day or every other day their first 90 days, I can speak from experience, it's going to help your business, but most importantly, it's going to help the patient because they're now getting that new lingo. You have to think they're learning a whole new language, Kelsey, most often. Not only from the audiology standpoint, but from a SaaS and CRM standpoint, too.

Kelsey Fleming: 17:58

Yeah, I think the other thing, too, is ensuring that all your staff have been trained the same way and understand the process and are doing it every single time, so that each patient that does come in is getting the best experience every time, no matter who they're working with, and everybody has all the working pieces of the puzzle.

Blaise Delfino: 18:18

Thank you for touching upon that, because when we are all rowing in the same direction, that's when the patients are going to get that same experience every single time. Kelsey, today we discussed the three big tips for 2024 to impact revenue and patient care. And to our hearing care professionals out there, please be thinking about affordable hearing care and rethinking how you are using and implementing patient financing. Optimize your business by spending the right amount of time with the right patients or patients that you really can impact. And number three, remember engaged and happy employees make the best employees. Kelsey, before we sign off for the day, do you have any final thoughts you want to share with our incredible audience?

Kelsey Fleming: 19:09

No, mostly I'm just looking forward to 2024. I think there's a lot of really bright things on our horizon in this industry and I can't wait!

Blaise Delfino: 19:17

And we look forward to continuing to partner with Sycle and for anyone, if you have any questions, please contact us at the email address in the show notes and until next time, Hear Life's Story.