You sit down at your computer, the last time you were here, you had a full week of client bookings. For you, that could mean 20 hours or 10. Either way, you've calculated, loosely, if you can buy that avocado on toast. You are pretty pumped, you have a few new clients and a number of existing clients. Perhaps a client from a few years ago resurfaced. The web page is loading and you log in to your online practice management system.
What do you see?
To your dismay, your full week of client contact hours has turned into 1/2 or worse, 1/3. What do you feel when this happens? Relief that you have time to catch up on your notes? Happiness because you can now write that report? Grief because this is another week in private practice and clients are not attending.
This month, we're going to take you on this exact journey. Our goal will be to help you decrease the number of reschedules and cancellations you have by reviewing the exact steps we have gone through with a client. (Let's name them, Humphrey). Regardless of how long Humphrey has been in Private Practice, he's still susceptible to cancellations and reschedules. For you, these may make or break you in private practice.
What do you do when this scenario happens? There are two of ways to handle clients who reschedule and cancel, ignore it or manage it. We prefer to manage it. We have a cup just right mentality and when that cup isn't overflowing or 1/2 full, then we know that practitioners are happier in private practice.
Grab your notebook
Write down what you'd do in this situation. How do you manage the cancellations and reschedules with these clients? And so we're on the same journey together this month. Let's pretend the scenario is this:
You have 10 hours a week to work in private practice. And when you sat down at your computer this week, 5 of those 10 hours have rescheduled or cancelled.
In our client's story
Humphrey didn't do anything. He allowed the administration team to manage the cancellations. He felt relieved that the clients rescheduled, because he knew that he could see them next week. One thing that puzzled him though, is that he received steady referrals - yet, never quite seemed to have a full case load.
So Humphrey reached out to us (via the principal psychologist) and said, "Help me find stability."
Next time... we walk you through what we did.
