What is the International Private Practice
Business Summit
The Private Practice Business Summit is an annual business training event tailored specifically to physical therapy practice owners.
It is hosted by Prosperous Physical Therapy, who provides business training and coaching Programs to physical therapy clinic owners only.
Once a year Erika Trimble, the Founder and President of Prosperous Physical Therapy, seeks out speakers and trainers for the Summit who are, and have been, in the trenches of their own business, constantly trying new and innovative things to push their own performance and profits to the next level.
The Purpose of the Summit?
To advance physical therapy practices and businesses, wherever they are today, to the next level.
The International Private Practice Business Summit is an exclusive and dedicated forum for practice owners to learn from other successful practice owners and leading business experts.
The worlds of physical therapy and business are changing and shifting. Previous models and the same old strategies are no longer working. There’s never been a better time to take control of growing your practice in a powerful way.
What makes the International Private Practice Business Summit unique?
- It isn’t just about business growth strategy. It’s about redesigning your way of looking at your practice and how you are doing things.
- It is the only event of its kind uniting purpose, business, and self-discovery to help you build a successful and secure business model that can generate you prosperity for years to come.
- You’ll learn firsthand the best practices used by other successful people to grow their businesses to thriving businesses.
- The International Private Practice Business Summit is designed for both new and experienced practice owners alike – and no matter what level you want to grow to.
The 2011 International Private Practice Business Summit
The 2011 Summit focused on all aspects of customer service excellence!
The customer service experts at this year’s Summit taught participants…
- How to build a unique identity for their business through customer service excellence.
- Customer communication tips and scripts to differentiate you from others in the minds of your clients.
- How to create a team unequalled in customer service, with masterful leadership tips practice owners.
- How to set up the processes and systems to deliver world class customer service.
- How to step up and be world class!
Participants of the Summit say this about their experience….
There were so many things I thought we could implement! Next week, I will have my admin time back, so I will be able to sit down and organize my notes, so I can make a plan. Today we’re having a staff meeting where I will be introducing some of the things we can do right away – like thanking the patients for coming in – such a simple thing but really powerful. I’m thinking of asking 2 or 3 staff to be the customer service team, so I can delegate and give ownership. We already talk about customer service at each staff meeting, and our patient rep gives us feedback on our surveys, but I’m thinking we might need to revamp our survey, and I want to try some of the ideas brought out in a couple of the sessions. I also want to find ways to recognize my staff’s accomplishments. I’ll be looking at the suggestions from one of the sessions for more ideas.
– Elizabeth Sutton, Peak Physical Therapy Ltd
One of the things that I really appreciated about this year’s summit was the format. Having it split into 4 sessions rather than 1 or 2 long days meant I was better able to pay attention and could focus on all the topics. In addition, in Alberta, it included the lunch hour, so it didn’t take away from clinical time.
I really enjoyed the Summit! I found the topic of customer service perfect for me at this stage of the clinic. It really cemented for me that what I believe deep down is true; the best way to ensure longevity in a business is by committing to customer service excellence.
The things that stood out most for me where setting up processes based on customer service and giving other staff enough control to ensure the customer is satisfied, ensure staff satisfaction with incentives for them, and the fact that it is okay to ask clients for referrals, i.e. leveraging those relationships. I will soon get to put all this into practice and am sure I will have more questions, but overall I think the outcome for me will be starting off on the right foot, ensuring the client is happy and tells everyone about my clinic.
I liked the format this year…4 afternoons. In a lot of ways, it was easier to manage scheduling wise, but it also gives time to think about the content from each presenter, and in most cases, to even start implementing the 2 or 3 items that hit home with each seminar. I was so sad when it was all over.
– Clinic Owner, Ontario, Canada
One thing that stood out for me was that all the speakers reinforced my values and ideas of what good service should be. I was able to reflect on why and how we are doing things at my clinic, and then I reviewed it all with my staff. I also clarified roles and authority levels of each staff member to deal with situations that might arise. I needed to remind myself that no matter how MY day is going, to put on my happy face the minute I am dealing with customers.
We have restarted sending our birthday cards and have received several thank you’s for them. I am reinforcing our referral thank you program with all of our patients who say thank you and want to send people, and I am now seeing a great increase in new clients telling me who sent them (if not an increase in new clients). I am tracking these referrals more regularly. I have reworked our customer satisfaction survey to incorporate some of the ideas in the summit. Hopefully, all of this will bring in a more steady flow of new clients, especially during economic downturns.
– Leigh Garvie
Three things that I learned or stood out for me from the Summit were:
1. Customer Expectations and the things that matter most to customers. Each member of my team will be completing this by writing down all aspects of their role within Active Motion and how they ensure we surpass customers’ expectations.
2. Life time of communication with each customer. Treat customers like family and friends. They are our number one referral source, and we need a system to ensure we are able to treat them like family and friends. (eg. following up to see how a particular race went, letting them know we are thinking of them and their family if they happen to be of Japanese descent, etc)
3. Brand Identity and Awareness. What is our brand and how have we (Active Motion) positioned ourselves to be unique. As a profession, I think we need to do a better job of this.
The outcomes I am looking for from the Summit experience are to have systems in place to ensure customer service excellence which will translate into increased ideal customers receiving our services, and therefore, improved profitability.
– Hugh Simson, Active Motion
