Lesson 6 · 17 min
Without numbers, in a bad week the owner's impression becomes "it's not working." With numbers, you show what has changed since the baseline. Follow-up is a short, fixed ritual: 20 minutes at the same time, five numbers, one adjustment, and a one-page report. And three signals that call for a visit, not a discount.
Start the lesson
Goal: run the 20-minute check-in, measure 5 indicators against the baseline, and react to the 3 alerts.
Same time, same agenda, every week. Click each step.
A short, fixed ritual holds the clinic together better than a long meeting when something breaks.
Five, not thirty. Collected in a few minutes by the champion, checked by you. No ready-made target: the comparison is with the number from before.
How many messages the assistant prepared or answered. It shows whether it's being used.
On its own it misleads: lots of volume with lots of editing is not a gain.
Time between the patient's message and the first reply, during service hours.
In phase 1 it includes approval time: that's what shows whether the queue is weighing things down.
Contacts that ended the day with no reply at all. It's the metric from the lesson 1 sheet at Vila Serena (fictional).
It's the number that shows patients lost to delay.
Appointments booked that started in a conversation with the assistant, checked against the schedule.
It shows whether the conversation turns into an appointment, not just a reply.
The champion's estimate of how much reception time was freed up during the week, stated as an estimate.
It's the number the owner feels; that's why it goes with how it was counted written down.
Each indicator needs the value from before, measured the same way and in the same kind of week. Without it, the report shows movement, not results. For a deep dive on measuring 30/60/90: Professional 2030 · Consultant, lesson 6.
Any one of them calls for a visit, a consultant's rule of thumb: in person if possible, within two days, free of charge.
Canceled two check-ins in a row, stopped filling in the log, or doesn't answer messages, even while saying everything is fine.
Often it's overload or an exit in sight: go back to the sheet of roles.
An indicator plunged to near or below the baseline for no reason (holiday, vacation, schedule change).
Usage quietly dropping often comes before quitting.
"I'm deciding whether to continue," "it's weighing on our cash," "I'll check with the team."
When this phrase shows up, the conversation needs to happen face to face, and soon.
Listen before defending the system, ask directly "is something bothering you that I'm not seeing?" and leave with a two-week plan. A discount right away doesn't fix the reason.
Follow-up loosens as the clinic matures. Timeframes are a rule of thumb, adjusted case by case.
In the first weeks, a check-in every week: the clinic is still unsure and the playbook is still changing.
With phase 2 stable and few new questions, every two weeks, with a short message in the week without a meeting.
Stable phase and a confident champion: one conversation a month and a monthly report in place of the weekly one. This is where follow-up turns into maintenance (lesson 7).
New employee, change of service, red alert: back to weekly until things stabilize again.
Agenda, spreadsheet and report. The tab next to this one shows 4 simulated weeks for Vila Serena, with made-up numbers for the exercise.
CHECK-IN · <company> · <day> at <time> (fixed) · week <n> 0–5 · NUMBERS The 5 indicators next to the baseline. I read them, the champion confirms. 5–15 · QUESTIONS AND ADJUSTMENTS Log of the week's questions. Adjustment made on the spot, with the screen open. Playbook change: v<from> → v<to> · reason: <...> 15–20 · NEXT WEEK 1 proposed improvement: <...> 1 risk to watch: <...> Red alert? <no | which one and response> Next check-in: <date and time> After: 3-line summary for the owner.
INDICATORS · <company> Baseline measured in <period>, by <who>, like this: <how it was counted> | Indicator | Before | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | How to measure | |--------------------------------|--------|------|------|------|------|-----------------------| | Replies per day (average) | | | | | | assistant log | | Time to 1st reply (min) | | | | | | assistant log | | Contacts unanswered same day | | | | | | champion's count | | Bookings from the assistant | | | | | | calendar + log | | Front-desk hours freed | | | | | | champion's estimate |
WEEKLY REPORT · <company> · week <n> · <date> NUMBERS (before → this week) - Replies per day: <a> → <b> - Time to 1st reply: <a> → <b> min - Contacts unanswered same day: <a> → <b> - Bookings from the assistant: <b> - Front-desk hours freed (estimate): <b> DONE THIS WEEK - <adjustment> (playbook v<n>) NEXT WEEK - <1 improvement> · <1 risk to watch> PHASE: <1 | 2 | 3> · red alert: <no | which one>
Made-up numbers for the exercise.
Before W1 W2 W3 W4
Unanswered contacts/day 12 9 7 8 5
Time to 1st reply (min) 95 60 40 45 30
Bookings from the assistant - 6 11 9 14
Math shown (W4 vs. the baseline):
unanswered: 12 − 5 = 7 fewer per day
time: 95 − 30 = 65 min faster
W3: went up from 7 to 8 unanswered → seen at
the check-in: local holiday missing from the
questions list → adjustment in playbook v1.3.
Not an alert: it has an explanation and went
back down in W4.Use the made-up Vila Serena numbers or those of the business you serve.
Adapt the 20-minute agenda and fill in the "Before" column of the spreadsheet with the 5 indicators and how to measure each one.
Done when: the agenda has the 3 blocks with minutes and a fixed day and time, and the 5 indicators each have a before value, who measures it and how it's measured.
Write 4 one-page weekly reports, one for each simulated week. In one of the weeks, include one of the 3 alerts and write the response.
Done when: the 4 reports have the same format, the 5 numbers next to the baseline, 1 thing done and 1 next; in the week with an alert, the response is written out (visit, listening, 2-week plan) and no report offers a discount.
4 questions. The explanation appears after your attempt.
Question 1 of 4
Why does each indicator need a before value?
Question 2 of 4
The champion canceled the last two check-ins, but says everything is fine. What do you do?
Question 3 of 4
In week 3, the contacts with no reply went up from 7 to 8. Is that a red alert?
Question 4 of 4
The clinic has been stable for months and the champion feels confident. What's the cadence?
Choose an option. The explanation appears after you answer.