Podiatry Hive Member Profile – Total Foot Health
Member Profile
Name: Lyndon and Bish Jones
Name of Clinic: Total Foot Health
Where do you operate: The beautiful cathedral City of Salisbury in the UK.
How long have you been in business?
We have both been in practice for 30 years – having met on our first day, in our first NHS job! We have had our practice in its current form for the past 7 years. Before that we were a partnership without employees.
What attracted you to Podiatry?
Bish – I am a very practical person and wanted to work in a profession allied to medicine. Podiatry appealed particularly because of the need for manual dexterity. I also like the relationships that Podiatrists, (or chiropodists in those days) had with their patients.
Lyndon – I always had an interest in the medical field and was particularly drawn to Sports Medicine. In the early 1980s I watched a documentary about Seb Coe, the great British middle-distance runner. I saw that he was prescribed orthoses by a Podiatrist to help with his leg pain; this seemed amazing and sparked an interest in how the foot and its complexity interfaces with the body as a whole.
What are the 3 crucial elements to your success?
Bish – I am a very practical person and wanted to work in a profession allied to medicine. Podiatry appealed particularly because of the need for manual dexterity. I also like the relationships that Podiatrists, (or chiropodists in those days) had with their patients.
Lyndon – I always had an interest in the medical field and was particularly drawn to Sports Medicine. In the early 1980s I watched a documentary about Seb Coe, the great British middle-distance runner. I saw that he was prescribed orthoses by a Podiatrist to help with his leg pain; this seemed amazing and sparked an interest in how the foot and its complexity interfaces with the body as a whole.
What‘s your philosophy on WHY you’re in business?
We are passionate about providing the best care for all of our patients. We believe that no one should have to suffer from the pain and indignity of bad feet and this has extended into our development of MSK services. We also fully believe that Podiatrists should be a part of a multi-disciplinary and multi-level team, as no one professional has all the answers for all the patients.
What has been your biggest OOPS! moment?
Bish – taking on a team member who was very definitely not aligned with our why. Not recognising it and dealing with it soon enough, which ultimately lost us a lot of money and resulted in a lot of hard work regaining patient’s trust.
Lyndon – an over estimation of the NHS changes in the UK that would allow patients to choose their avenue for state funded care. We took on extra space to cope with the work that never actually materialised. Realising that this model was not going to become a reality was a blow to my self-confidence and judgement, as well as being a massive drain on our finances.
What has been your biggest A-HA! moment?
Bish – since joining the Podiatry Hive lots of light bulb moments have occurred around the management of our business. An example being marketing is everything that we do in our work that spreads the word whereas before we felt this was exclusively paid advertising. Aligning our team members to our values has been phenomenal in developing Total Foot Health – now we are definitely all working for the same goals.
Lyndon – my first light bulb moment occurred in the summer of 1986 when I went to my first surgical conference. The chairman stood up and said – Now you have all come here to learn to become better foot surgeons. Until that point I was quite disenchanted with my prospective future, but instantly knew that this was a course I had to take and would devote massive energy to. The second moment occurred at the first Business RESET event I attended with Podiatry Hive in March of this year. That same sense of passion and excitement surged through me as I realised that we now had a pathway that would allow us to save a business that was in very deep trouble and far too reliant on my income.
Can you you share one or two marketing elements or methods you’ve used in your practice, that have been successful, and have provided growth?
Marketing is everything we do that increases others awareness of our abilities and over the years we have developed a strong corporate image that we promote at all opportunities, from our signage, to uniform and to our communication channels. One example of this is that we will always write to GPs and other referrers of patients. All our letters are on headed, quality paper and are individually signed by the member of the team who is looking after the patient; we do this for every new patient and at any significant time during the patient’s care with us. We are never slow to celebrate our successes; e.g. when we cure a presenting complaint, but also we are not afraid to ask for further help with patients. We feel this keeps us in the forefront of our referee’s minds resulting in them recommending us at appropriate times.
If you had your time over again, what would you do differently?
We would introduce systems into our practice from day one as we have already seen the enormous benefits from documenting a process and monitoring its success. A very simple one for us was to introduce an outcome form that is filled in by the clinician at the end of a patient’s treatment. It allows our reception team to book the patient back for their next appointment and provide any recommended products simply and conveniently. This form is reviewed by the practice manager to ensure that any missed billing is caught up with and is also reviewed as part of our KPI when looking at the rebooking rate. This simple step has seen us increase our cash flow by 35% over the previous year.
We would also discuss and embed our why from the very beginning with all of our staff. Part of this would be to take care of the team more thoroughly making sure all elements that make up our team are listened to regularly and are given appropriate training for the job we are asking them to do.
Other than being a fabulous Podiatrist, what do you do outside of Podiatry?
Bish – I love the outdoors and being in our garden which I have transformed from being a wilderness of brambles and ivy to one with fruit trees, natural hedging, bee friendly plants and lots of wildlife. I also love to be out walking, running and cycling, through some of the most picturesque countryside in England which is right on our doorstep.
Lyndon – I am fortunate to have a fabulous life together with Bish and our two university age children Charlotte and William. Eighteen months ago I was undergoing radical chemo-radiotherapy for cancer of my throat. Being well again has given me the gift of a second chance in life and the appreciation of all its opportunities and possibilities. From simply taking time to smell the flowers and listening to the birds in our wonderful garden, to planning time out with family and friends, I now take a deep pleasure from this.
I am still a great sports fan and am steadily bringing back my fitness by using the gym regularly, as well as introducing aerobic activities. I plan to get back to racing triathlon at some point.
You are a Podiatry Hive Black Belt Mastermind Member, can you explain what you have learned from Black Belt and your 3 biggest achievements / wins since joining Black Belt?
We have been members of the BlackBelt Mastermind for just three months, but within that time we have already seen massive change in our mindset and that of the team. Also we have seen enormous strides forward in making our business profitable and eventually a sellable asset that will provide for us well into a long and productive retirement.
Bish – planning a whole year ahead, including holidays and time to work on the business.
Lyndon – to believe in myself more, and fully understand what I have to offer to my team and the profession as a whole.
- Starting the process of systemising our practice and increasing its productivity which has resulted in, by the time you read this, us employing a new third Podiatrist and planning to bring in a fourth Podiatrist by the end of September.
- To ask why? more often: why do things work out the way they do and how can we use our understanding to change this for the better. This includes working more fully with our team, aligning business and personal goals to achieve better results for patients, our business and all the people who depend on us for their income.
We both believe this is only the start of a long and very exciting journey – thank you for allowing us to share it with you!
