How To Create a Safer Environment Post-COVID Shutdown by Streamlining Your Business Operations

Last Updated on May 13, 2021 by Owen McGab Enaohwo

Dr. Olesya Salathe and Alex Jacks run The Dentist off Main as head dentist and office manager respectively. Driven by a common goal of delivering excellent dental services to patients, they recognized the need to streamline the operations at the clinic. They started out documenting their business processes on Word documents but soon realized that it was not of much help.

The emergence of COVID-19 reaffirmed the need for well-streamlined business processes at the clinic to ensure maximum safety. They sought the help of a business process consultant who introduced them to SweetProcess. Olesya and Alex give us insights into how SweetProcess has helped them to operate safely post-COVID and enhanced the efficiency of their employees.

About The Dentist Off Main

The Dentist Off Main is a dental clinic committed to improving patients’ dental experience. Driven by the mission of love, health, and connection, the team at The Dentist Off Main prioritizes the customer’s well-being via a customer-centric approach in its service delivery.

Based in Molalla, OR, the organization has strong ties with members of its community and has established itself as the go-to dental clinic in the area. 

The Dentist Off Main holds its employees in high esteem and creates a conducive work environment for them to thrive both personally and professionally. 

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SweetProcess Came Highly Recommended 

Olesya and Alex had a prior interest in systematization and had been following the EOS business model for over two years. They were fascinated with the idea of streamlining their operations but did not want to undergo any new struggles. In a bid to simplify the process, they engaged the services of Adi Klevit, a business process consultant, and she recommended SweetProcess to them.

“We follow the EOS business model. We’ve been doing that for about two-and-a-half years, and our implementer was Eric. We always felt like he always had a little tidbit for us at every new meeting…he actually introduced us to Adi, a business consultant.” 

Adi had a track record of successfully helping several businesses to streamline their operations with SweetProcess, and she was going to replicate her success at their organization. 

The Moment of Truth

The team had started streamlining their operations, but they had not done much until the pandemic emerged. Resuming operations without standard operating procedures was not an option because both staff and patients could be exposed to the virus and they were determined to fix it.

“We started the process with her, but we didn’t dive in so deep until the pandemic hit, and then we were shut down. The idea of coming back without clear processes when the scary virus is out there really solidified that we literally cannot work without systems and processes. We needed our whole team to be on board.” 

They had to change a lot of things in their operations to ensure the safety of their patients and employees, and SweetProcess helped to achieve that.

How SweetProcess Improved the Operations at the Organization 

Oleysa and Alex were sold on SweetProcess. They were optimistic that their business operations would improve for the better, especially as they were working with a specialist such as Adi who was well-grounded in systematizing operations. How exactly has the system improved their business? They give us all the details.

1. Effective documentation for patient care

The management at The Dentist Off Main wanted to reduce physical touch at the clinic to the barest minimum due to COVID-19 to prevent the virus from spreading. They wanted to create skeletal patient touchpoints in the delivery of patient care and were able to work around it by outlining the touchpoints in SweetProcess.

“What is the patient going to touch and what are they going to say? Who are they going to interact with? It helped us to dial in our processes too because we wanted to see the patient and deliver the most comprehensive care in the most efficient amount of time with the least physical touchpoints, and that really helped us dial in and got a lot of creative energy going and identifying the most important steps.”

2. Seamless employee training and onboarding

The employee training and onboarding process, which used to be a lot of work in the organization, has been simplified with the implementation of SweetProcess. It has been a booster for established staff—they can now work better and faster by accessing the procedures and processes outlined in the system at any time. However, the most impact has been on new employees. The burden of learning so much about their roles under pressure has been taken away from them. They simply study all the procedures and processes documented in the system to learn all they need to know. 

“Prior to the shutdown, I had this intern. She was on an assisting program and it was slow getting her in the chair… Explaining everything verbally was just time-consuming. Once we came back, there were some changes in a couple of positions and I really needed this intern to jump in, and we had SweetProcess. Here was the same person, same intern pre-COVID, same intern post-COVID shutdown. Within a month, she got the systems and processes. It’s not that she changed and it’s not that I changed, we just used a different tool to help her learn.”

3. Accessible knowledge base 

Providing employees with all the information they need on their jobs helps them to be more efficient as opposed to when they suffer a lack of information. It is common practice for employees with limited information to seek help from others who are more informed, and that slows down the workflow. It gets even worse when the go-to persons are indisposed—everyone is left stranded. The team now has all the information that they need at their fingertips in SweetProcess. The system’s cloud-based storage allows for authorized remote access, allowing team members to work remotely.

“With our staff, who’s had experience, I think most of them have found it very helpful especially with some of the changes but with new staff that we brought on since we’ve come back from COVID, they have said how much they have loved being able to have a tool that they can access easily. It’s readily available. They can repeat tasks and I can assign them tasks to review things.” 

Advice for Streamlining Business Operations

If Olesya and Alex had to give a word of advice to anyone who wants to streamline their business operations, what would it be? Both of them agree that working with your team members is very important. 

“Adi was essential to getting us going but I think for us too, it’s having the teammates. That doctor doesn’t feel like she has to document all these processes. She and I are able to delegate those to other staff members to actually create some processes and then request our approval,” Alex says.

“My recommendation is to find key team members on your team that want to do this with you because you can’t do it alone. You can start identifying the most problems and start with that process first.” Olesya shares the same thought.

Streamlining Your Business Operations Made Easy

Streamlining business operations might be tasking. But as Oleysa and Alex found out, it is a lot easier with the right system. They were able to keep the clinic running smoothly after the COVID shutdown by streamlining their operations with SweetProcess.

You too can enhance your business operations just as they did. Sign up for a 14-day free trial of SweetProcess. No credit card is required. 

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