I talk about getting therapists in private practice “online” a lot but I really want to clarify what I mean. Whether you work with your clients solely online, Face-to-Face or a mixture of the two getting your practice online can have massive benefits to you.

Getting your practice online means that you use systems and platforms to complete the administration of your practice. They are accessed via passwords and you can add different users to allow additional access. Below I outline what the benefits of getting your private practice online are.

1. Streamline Processes

I think one of the biggest benefits of getting your practice online is streamlining your processes. If you have a system for everything you do it takes the guesswork out of it. Onboarding clients, booking appointments, rescheduling and cancellation policies, invoicing, medical insurance etc. If you have a system and a process for every task you will see a time and cost-benefit. There will also be fewer errors and delays in getting the work completed.

 A good process to do is to create a simple flow diagram for each task you currently do. Is there a system you can put in place that will remove, streamline, speed up or save you time? You can check out my blog on the 8 Online Platforms for Private Practice to see if any of them would help you with this.

2. Clear Procedures

Once you have streamlined your processes by introducing online systems you will have clear, robust procedures. The implementation of online systems creates this without you even trying as you will usually have to follow a certain process to do a task.

This can have huge benefits to your practice, both for you and the client. The client will know the outcome each time they start a process. They will know…

• how and when they will get their appointment booking confirmation and reminders

• where the link for the online call will be

• how to pay

• how to request a reschedule or cancellation

Clear procedures give consistency and peace of mind to everyone involved.

3. Safe & Secure Personal Data

Whether you see clients face-to-face or not using an e-signature platform is the best way to obtain all your clients personal information.

• It’s simple to set up

• It’s convenient for your clients

• You can add reminders so it’s not forgotten about

• A copy is emailed to both parties

• It’s legal!

You don’t want paper copies lying around even if you do have a secure locked cabinet. You can accumulate a lot of paperwork over the years! Once received you can save on a secure cloud-based system for added security. If you then use an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system like Power Diary the required details can then be added to this. That way you always have access to clients important information. You can read more about the benefits of Power Diary for Private Practice and how it can improve your private practice.

A client will start working with you for your skills, personality and whether you click but they will stay with you if it is easy to work with you.

4. Practice Looks More Professional

At the end of the day, your private practice is a business. A client will start working with you for your skills, personality and whether you click but they will stay with you if it is easy to work with you. Is it easy to book and reschedule appointments? Can they pay you easily? Do they understand your cancellation policy or will they get a nasty surprise if they need to cancel?

The first therapist I moved to Power Diary has noticed a significant increase in how long her clients stay with her. Onboarding your clients correctly can have a huge impact on client retention. You can read about my client onboarding process but the main thing is to create what works for you and stick to it.

5. Easier Payments

There are lots of ways you can invoice your clients. I have a free download about this but the most successful in terms of getting paid on time are those that ACTUALLY invoice. That means creating an invoice in some way for the client to physically receive and see. That can be an invoice created yourself in word or it can a system generated one.  

Using a system like Power Diary or just using Stripe is even better as there will be a payment link for you client to click and make easy payments. The easier it is for clients to pay the more likely you are to get them to do it without reminding them.

6. Easier to Hand Over

If you have online systems in place it will be much easier to hand the admin tasks over to a VA if and when you decide. If all your client information is on a cloud-based system like Google Drive there’ll be far less back and forth requesting information. All you’ll need to do is share your folder and your new VA will have access to everything they need.                                                                            

Those were the benefits of getting your private practice online. If you’re ready to move your practice online there are ways we can help you with this. You can have an admin audit call with me. This includes us going through your current admin procedures and discussing where improvements could be made. Each practice is different so it is not a one size fits all when it comes to systems. There are 8 platforms that I recommend in general and will work for most practices. The processes and procedures within those systems may be different depending on how you work. 

If you wanted help with migrating your practice admin to these online systems we can also assist you with the setup, training, and best practice procedures for your private practice. This is tailored specifically to you and your practice. We would start with a FREE 15-minute discovery call. Based on that call I will then send you a proposal of how the project would run from start to finish. 

If you would like to discuss either of these options please get in contact at kim@virtuallyirreplaceable.co.uk