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How To Set S.M.A.R.T Goals For Your Medical Aesthetic Clinic?

Setting specific goals is crucial for any business, including an Aesthetic Medicine Clinic. Yet, often, unrealistic targets can hinder progress and result in frustration. Enter the S.M.A.R.T. system – a solution to streamline goal achievement. Discover the 5 steps in this article. Keep reading!
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1. S for Specific

If you do not have a clear plan of action to follow, how are you supposed to make it succeed? Let's say your overall goal is to attract more patients to your clinic. This is not a specific goal. Instead, it would be better to break it down into smaller targets that you know how to achieve. For instance:

  • Target: Get new patients
  • Plan: Run an advertising campaign on my clinic's Instagram and Google Search
  • Target: Collect more patient reviews on WhatClinic.com
  • Plan: Prompt patients after treatment and send email reminders
  • Target: Create a friendly and professional clinic image
  • Plan: Plan a series of social media posts introducing individual staff members and highlighting their experience and skills

It immediately sounds more specific, right?

2. M for Measurable

How will you know if your goal has been achieved? It is a good idea to include a specific number in your plan. This could be a concrete date, a sum of money, or the number of appointments booked per month. With this information, let's update our example goals.

  1. To get 5 new patients per month, I will run an advertising campaign on my clinic's Instagram and Google Search.
  2. In order to get 60% of my patients to leave reviews on WhatClinic.com, I will remind patients of this opportunity 5 days after each treatment and will send reminders via email.
  3. To build a friendly and professional image of my clinic, I will plan a series of 10 social media posts introducing individual staff members and highlighting their experience and skills. Read our article for more ideas for your clinic's social media content "What Type of Online Content Attracts New Medical Aesthetic Patients?".

If your goal is measurable, you will clearly see the progression and know when you have achieved success.

3. A for Achievable

"If There's a Will, There's a Way"

We would all like this saying to be true. However, in the world of business, challenges often arise—financial constraints, hurdles, and more. There are often difficulties that may force you to put some of your goals on hold. While ambitious goals are inspiring, reality demands caution. Make sure your objective is not only challenging but achievable. Striking a balance is key.

Setting goals that demand effort motivates your team. It fuels accomplishment and satisfaction. However, the path to positive change must also be realistic. Assess your current resources—are they sufficient to ensure your goal's success? Staying motivated while ensuring attainability is the key.

4. R for Relevant

In the previous paragraph, we mentioned a clear and positive change. This is what it means to make a relevant goal. Ask yourself: Will it enhance the entire clinic? Is it timely? Also, ensure your goal aligns with your responsibilities.

Suppose your clinic aims for better customer care and that the percentage of phone calls answered should be increased by 25%, this is really addressing the front desk assistant. Your goal may therefore be to provide communication training and raise awareness of the importance of efficient communication with potential patients.

Learn from our article about 9 Tips on How to Improve Your Communication with Patients. Or you can simply delegate this area to a dedicated InDesk agent and focus your attention on other duties.

5. T for Time-bound

If you do not establish an end date for your goal, you may never achieve it, as daily responsibilities can push it into the background.

Therefore, it is important to:

  1. Set a realistic completion date for your project
  2. Create a weekly or daily plan of activities that will contribute to it.

Long-term goals can be more complex, and a good organisation will help you to remember all the necessary steps. It is helpful in organising your work without feeling tired or burnt out.

These 6 Time Management Tips will help you do so.

Following the above steps will allow you to carefully plan your activities in order to achieve your goal. However, it is good to remember that not everything can be predicted and to leave yourself some flexibility if you find that your initial concept does not work out.

Sources
Written by:
Maria Kamińska
Maria is a copywriter and a student of Applied Linguistics. She puts the knowledge of the team working at WhatClinic and InDesk into words to convey it to the audience in an approachable way. She is passionate about foreign languages, especially English, German, and Spanish. In her free time, she meets with family and friends, drinks good coffee or… writes.

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