Posts Tagged ‘dental management’
Wanting to bring in new patients for the new year?
January 3, 2012 | 
Author Low Cost ways to Increase New Patients Numbers
Rhonda R. Savage, DDS
Every dental practice can increase new patient numbers by connecting and staying connected with their patients.
How? You’ll need key staff, a systematic approach, a budget, a personable doctor(s) and consistency.
The method: Put your patients and the relationship ahead of your product (the dentistry). Deliver quality care in a warm environment, going above and beyond what the patient expected.
How many new patients do you need? It depends on your demographics, your type of practice and your practice philosophy. For a general practitioner, you need 10-20 new patients a month just to maintain your patient base. If you need to grow your practice, you’ll need, minimally, 25-40 new patients/month/doctor. A specialist or a general dentist that provides comprehensive care will have a higher need for new patients.
Internal Marketing:
Value the relationship: The number one determining factor is warmth. Maintaining a good relationship will set you apart and patients in your practice. A relationship means you need to “give them a little piece of you” at every appointment. As you talk with them, be sure to tell them something small that is about you personally. To the patient, the relationship is more important than your product, “the dentistry”.
When your patient receives great service in a warm, caring environment, you then have the ability to ask for a referral. Say: “If I can help you in any way, just let me know! And if you happen to know any friends or associates that could use my services, I’ll treat them just as I’ve treated you. This is how I do business.”
Here are some marketing ideas to implement in your practice. These ideas will help you develop “The Warmth Factor”:
1. Have a nicely decorated cork board in the reception area and the team puts up personal pictures. Pictures may be of travel, family, hobbies, pets, staff events or sports participation. This gives the patient something to break the ice and start things off on a comfortable personal level.
2. Deliver quality care in a warm environment: Warmth and connecting is very important throughout the practice and especially at the chair. I understand how hard it is to be the boss, deliver the dentistry and manage a business. Stresses can add up, coming out in frustration with your employee. You will anti-market the practice, however, if you let your frustrations boil over at the chair or come out with negative body language.
3. Listening skills: Good listening skills make your patient feel special. Great eye contact, smiling and taking the time your patient needs will increase your case acceptance and referrals from patients. Toast Masters International is a resource for becoming a better case presenter, increase your listening skills and learn to answer questions under pressure.
4. Be an on-time doctor: Patients today are more impatient than ever before!
If your patients are waiting on a regular basis, you’re actually anti-marketing your practice. If you do keep them waiting, give them a small token of appreciation for their time: A $5.00 Starbucks card, a gasoline card, movie tickets or ice cream coupons are some ideas.
Do not routinely move patients appointments to fit your own schedule.
5. Stay in touch (newsletters, recall/reactivation, calling recare patients and sending cards/gifts.)
Have a graduated system of staying in touch. Develop a budget and don’t be cheap! 80% of your referred patients will come from 20% of your patient base. Paying $60 for a gift when a patient spends thousands is nothing!
6. Send thank you cards, get well cards, birthday cards, Happy New Year cards, 4th of July and Thanksgiving cards. Use Plaxo.com to send cards by e-mail inexpensively. It’s a great opportunity to routinely collect email addresses from patients and increase your ability to contact them.
In today’s world, you cannot be 1000 times better than your competition, but you can be better in 1000 small ways. How is your practice different than the competitions.
Getting new patients is always a good thing, but what about maintaining the current patients within your practice?
To learn more be sure to register and attend our upcoming webinar “Total Recall“ which will be:
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 @ 1:00PM(Eastern)/12:00PM(Central)/11:00AM(Mountain)/10:00AM(Pacific)
Staff or staph: asset or infection?
Staff or staph: asset or infection?
By Rhonda R. Savage, DDS
You have heard the old saying “Walk a mile in another person’s shoes before you criticize them.” Here’s a fun twist: “Walk a mile in another person’s shoes before you criticize them. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes!”
I’d better start walking now, because I plan to be critical. I’ve heard people say, “Don’t call them staff. That’s an infection.” I respectfully disagree. Walk with me and let me know what you think.
As a former dental assistant and front office person, I know how hard the dental staff works. I also know the challenges dentists face daily. As someone who’s been in nearly all levels of the profession, I personally don’t understand what’s wrong with the word “staff.” In fact, I believe the term staff should be a badge of honor and worn proudly. Patients trust staff opinion and follow their directions. Doctors cannot do what they do without the staff. Staff is a great word.
Read the rest of this entry »
Dental Practice – Developing a Preventive Periodontal Protocol
By Rhonda R. Savage, DDS
Click here for Audio
Part 1
Do you place your dental patients’ best interest first? If you do, the money will follow! You’ll lower your risk of malpractice and increase your income! But most importantly, your patients will receive the care they deserve and expect!
Times have changed with regards to periodontal disease. Most people now agree that there is a connection of the mouth to the body! Hurray! While science isn’t exact, the majority of research agrees that periodontal disease is linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, low birth weight babies, hormonal changes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, smoking, nutritional deficiency and autoimmune diseases. Is your practice “up to snuff”? Patients are more knowledgeable today than ever before because of increased publicity surrounding periodontal disease.
How do you evaluate your periodontal protocol? Ask yourself these questions:
Dental Practice Management – Teams, Part 4
Why Some Dental Teams Click and Some Don’t
Click here for the audio: Teams Part 4 Dress for Success
Part 4 – Dress for success:
Image is critical: Dress for success! You’ve heard this a million times; what does it mean?
Project a positive, can do, confident image. Get the training you need and if necessary…fake it until you make it!
If you need to, get an expert to help you with your image. Image contains SO many variables.
One example: How do you shake hands? Is your handshake weak? This projects a lack of confidence. Is your handshake too strong? Do you hurt the other person’s fingers? Not good! Where is your thumb placed during the handshake? A thumb up during the handshake expresses dominance and confidence.
Or, another example, for male doctors: Are your eye glass frames current? Men seldom update their eyewear. The new eyewear, just like your new Cerec or E4D, says “I’m current with the times.”
Dental Team Retreats – Increase Morale
Hot off Rhonda’s Iphone she talks about Dental Team Retreats. You asked for it, now call us today to find out more 877-343-0909
Bringing synergy to the inner workings of your practice
Dental Consulting – 20 Marketing Tips to Get New Patients
By Miles Global, The Leaders in Dental Consulting
Here are 20 marketing tips you can use to obtain new patients to grow your dental practice. If you have questions or want to know exactly how to implement these techniques please do not hesitate to call us today! 877-343-0909 ext. 1
- The State Board on Advertising needs to critique ads and brochures prior to publishing. Be sure that the mailing list that you are using is also approved.
- At the end of the day, the doctor, hygienist or assistant should telephone patients who received extensive treatment to see how well they are doing.
- Personal business cards should be printed for each staff member.
- Offer to serve as the dentist on call for hotels, offering their employees a courtesy (Your name will be listed in the hotel directory for out of town emergencies).
- Offer to serve as the dentist for retirement and nursing homes (often the staff and family members of staff and residents become patients).
- Plan a trip overseas to do volunteer dentistry—great publicity.
- If you have evening and Saturday hours, publicize them as executive or convenient hours.
- Offer a complimentary prophylaxis and exam to couples who were recently engaged (a pre-nuptial prophy).
- Offer a 10% courtesy if patients agree to be on your Special Call List for short notice appointments. These patients live or work within a two-mile radius of the office.
- Be respectful of your patients’ time. If they are kept waiting, apologize and offer movie, car wash, gas/telephone cards or ice cream certificates.
- Have a children’s corner or kiddy theatre in your reception area.
- Conduct children’s tours of your practice. Contact local day care facilities, schools and churches.
- Go to a Children’s Hospital dressed as the tooth fairy to give oral hygiene instructions.
- Offer a $500 scholarship to a student patient who goes into dental hygiene, dental assisting, or pre-dental. The doctor should present the scholarship and have photos taken for the paper.
- Give portrait studio certificates to patients who have received extensive or cosmetic treatment.
- Send dental baby gifts to new or expectant parents (baby toothbrush, teething ring and baby bib).
- Send certificates to new parents stating “Congratulations on your new arrival. This entitles you to your child’s first dental exam when they are 2 years old. Compliments of Dr. — and staff.” associates
- Place pamphlets on baby-bottle syndrome and pregnancy gingivitis in the reception areas of OB-GYN offices.
- Take before and after photographs of extensive treatments.
- Use an atlas of modern cosmetic and restorative dentistry in the reception area and in each treatment room. (Call Smart Practice to order 800-522-0800.)
© Copyright Miles Global • 3519 56th St. NW Suite 240 Gig Harbor, WA 98335 • 877-343-0909 • www.DentalManagementU.com
Dental Consulting – How to Coach for Success
By Rhonda R. Savage, DDS
What Does Your Dental Staff Want? Oh No! More Feedback! Yet daily coaching can have a very positive effect on your practice’s team. Tough to do, but well worth the effort: daily positive and negative constructive criticism will build a well functioning, dental practice.
How do you give feedback without your female staff dissolving into tears? There are three techniques to implement that will allow you to give your team the kind of feedback that they not only want, but deserve.
1. Don’t let your frustrations build. Too many of us let feelings build and then past frustrations spill out into today’s problem. If you’re angry…anger either leads to silence or to an unreasonable outburst if we haven’t dealt with issues and let them build up. Everyone knows when someone is upset. Staff, dentists and office managers want to know, not wonder, what’s wrong.
2. Express how you feel daily. Female team members want to go home at night and know everything is ok. Wait until you are not upset. Start by evaluating what you really want out of the situation. Focus on your heart: what are your motives? Do you want to prove the person wrong? Belittle them? Or affect a change that will have a positive result?
Read the rest of this entry »
No Raises this Year? Secrets to Dental Staff Retention in Difficult Times
By Rhonda R. Savage, DDS
Across the U.S., dentists, dental practice managers, and their dental staff alike are struggling. The dental practice is fortunate if it experienced growth in 2009 and 2010. Many are flat in growth or have declined and dental practice managers are faced with these tough choices:
- Lay off employees or cut hours
- Decrease benefits
- Reduce pay
- Freeze salaries
By far, the most appealing of the four is freezing salaries. The problem is, no hard working dental staff wants to hear these words “times are tough…no raises this year.” The question is how do you keep employees happy and productive during tough times? In addition, key employees may have the opportunity to move to another company. How do you retain, challenge and motivate these key dental staff to stay with you during the hard times?