Tips on How to Build an Effective Team for Your Optical Business

To grow your optical business and ensure customer satisfaction, you will need to build a team that is both highly effective in carrying out tasks and passionate about helping your business grow. These can be easy to achieve as long as you set the right base for your team’s operations. The best way to get everyone on the right page and have them start working effectively is by following the tips outlined below. These five tips can help your team function better and elevate your business performance.

1. Goal setting

Whether you have a singular goal or multiple goals within the year, goal setting can help the entire team realign their position and encourage them to collectively work and persevere. Apart from giving your whole team something they can all aim for, goal setting can also provide the grounds for open communication as each team member can share their thoughts about how they think they can contribute. If everyone is focused and clear on what they need to do, everyone will operate more effectively.

2. Strong leadership

Much like goal setting encourages team cooperation, a strong leader can motivate any team to keep pushing and reaching goals. Especially in times of hardship, having a good leader can help your team stay on track or reassess the position of your optical business so that you can maximise profits and go where the market is moving. In establishing strong leadership, you will also want to encourage open, honest, and transparent communication so that potential conflicts within the group can be solved quickly and positively.

3. Defining roles and tasks

Very commonly, with optical businesses, several people will be responsible for carrying out tasks that often overlap. If this is the case with your team, especially in the reception area, make sure to let your staff understand that you want tasks done quickly by those capable and available rather than waiting on each other. At times, others may need to step in if another staff is not available. For optometrists, since they have highly specialised roles, if they are not available then other staff members should know how to properly assist customers by noting down their questions if there are any. Have clearly defined roles for each staff member but identify scenarios where these roles overlap to avoid confusion and conflicts.

4. Recognising all team members

Recognising the contributions of every team member is a must. People like to feel valued at work and to be made aware that their efforts are seen, felt, and acknowledged. You can schedule short one-on-one talks quarterly or twice annually. During these talks, highlight their achievements, but you can also discuss items for improvement as well as your suggestions. Reassure them that these are given as you want them to succeed and become more effective in their jobs.

5. Maximise each member’s contributions

A big mistake that many businesses make has to do with underestimating how much each person can contribute. This does not just include workload but also skill. If you know that a certain member of your team has a particular skill that can help you grow your business, then you should enable them to take on new tasks for them to be challenged provided of course, that they are willing and that they understand that these new tasks are for helping them maximise their potential. Send them to training, talk about the possibility of an incentive or additional compensation, or the possibility of promotion to motivate them further to step up. By taking full advantage of what each team member can contribute, you can increase your company’s output and your potential greatly.

Every optical practice has its own techniques for building an effective team, and one clear proof their techniques are working is if their team has remained intact throughout the years. Many successful optical businesses are usually comprised of team members who have been working with each other for very long and have grown to become friends, sometimes almost like family. Another proof is if a practice is loved by its patients. When a team is effective, their combined efforts only result in better service, therefore, amassing more happy and satisfied customers.