October 28, 2008
PRACTICALLY SPEAKING

	Photo: Getty Images

Simple Works

Getting back to the fundamentals.

By Ginny Hegarty

Now more than ever it’s essential that you and your team focus on the fundamentals that will create success for your practice. Stop looking for the next secret to success or magic bullet that will transform your practice. There are no more secrets; there are just good habits and old-fashioned work. So, get to work doing what most every successful business does exceptionally well – the basics.

Prepare:  Take a good look at your current systems and figure out if you are prepared to create success. Bring the team together to discuss these questions to determine how well prepared you are to create a successful day each and every day:

• Do you pre-block your schedule to ensure timely new patient entry into the practice?

• How many pre-blocks do you set and why?

• Do you have a scheduling plan to achieve your daily production goal?

• Do you have written payment options that provide flexibility for patients without putting the practice at risk?

• Do you track case acceptance to evaluate success and determine if additional training is needed to improve performance?

• Does the clinical team review every patient chart the day before the patient’s scheduled appointment so everyone can be alerted to outstanding treatment and be prepared to assist the patient to accept treatment?

• Do you track performance each day and discuss it the next day to keep the team focused, aware and effective?

• Does the team know which reports to generate to track all key indicators throughout the month? Are they doing it?

Exceed Expectations:  The Gallop Organization released poll results that show that a satisfied customer is as good as gone since they are the ones that will jump ship as soon as your competition catches their attention. Notice I didn’t say as soon as another dental practice catches their eye. A patient who is simply satisfied with the care and service they receive in your practice can be easily enticed to forgo future treatment and instead choose a vacation, big screen TV, hot tub or any other purchase more exciting than going to the dentist. The key for you and your team is to realize that to create loyal patients you must exceed expectations…every time the patient visits your practice. Now there’s a great team meeting idea. Bring everyone together and brainstorm what you can do to wow your patients at each visit.

Work the Phones: This begins first with the team understanding your philosophy of care and embracing the tone and words that reflect your values in every conversation. Your team needs and deserves this type of training to deal with the challenges of answering the phones. There are great resources available to get your team up to speed very quickly. Second, return patients’ calls as soon as possible and definitely within the same business day. Nobody likes being ignored and when calls go unreturned or promised calls are not made, your patients feel ignored. This is an easy way to shine! Third, follow up with patients who have fallen behind with their care. Use current recall lists and unscheduled treatment lists to keep your patients active and your schedules full.

Manage Well: Remember three things: 1) you will get what you accept, not what you expect. Give each employee a crystal clear blueprint for success in their position and then hold them accountable. Adopt a coaching philosophy so you can give timely feedback on what is going well and what needs to be improved. Don’t accept poor performance, it’s contagious. 2) A team leader or office manager can assist you but it’s your practice so you can’t completely outsource management. You’ll find that by simply managing, management becomes much more simple and doable that avoiding it until the problems occur. You ultimately spend the time once the fires get started; get out in front of them by managing well. It sure makes life simpler. 3) You have tremendous influence on the team attitude and morale so exercise that influence for the good of everyone. Do you have a practice mantra to lead the team even when you’re not right there? How about TNT: Today, Not Tomorrow – think how much more would get done if everyone adopted this philosophy! Put an end to office drama, simply don’t allow it or buy into it. Reward good performance, focus on the winners, give them your positive attention, let the slackers go quickly and you’ll build a team of high performers.

Spread the Word: Don’t underestimate the power of internal marketing in building your practice. Once you’re already exceeding expectations at every opportunity, take it one step further and put some internal initiatives in place and watch the new patient referrals grow. Not sure what to do, contact me and I’ll share my most successful initiative yet. External marketing is an investment; without it you are invisible. Budget for marketing and put an annual plan in place. It’s critical that your team track referral sources so you know which programs are most successful.    

So there it is, simple… but not always easy since this very basic plan takes focus and consistency, it takes the right people with the solid leadership. Avoid the noise, distraction and drama that can easily creep into your days and complicate things. Stick to the basics; simple works.