First impressions count

The new patient assessment is the patient’s first impression of your dentists, so it’s the time to really showcase your clinical abilities.

However, lots of practices see the new patient assessment as a loss leader and therefore the dentists can often provide a rushed experience. This then doesn’t provide the excellent experience that we really need to wow that new patient.

Get your sums right

The trick is to think differently about your costings. If you’re clever with diary zoning you can ensure that every hour in your practice is profitable by adjusting your hourly rates for all other clinical work to make up for this lost rate in the new patient assessment.

What is diary zoning, I hear you ask… this is a method of implementing a really effective structure into your appointment book that will dramatically support the way you want to work and the profits you want to make. This is an area I have covered extensively in Practice Club, the content is ready and waiting for you!

How interested are you?

How many of your dentists start off by telling the patient to ignore all the things they say during the assessment because everything will be explained later on? In doing so, you are asking the patient to switch off completely and then when you have the discussion about their oral health, they are not motivated or in the right mindset to listen.

I love the quote by Stephen Covey, ‘Be interested, not interesting’ and believe that this relates perfectly to new patient assessments: it’s all about being interested in the patient with regards to their current health and any past treatment that they have had.

I love the co-discovery technique and the way this can completely transform the new patient assessment. You will find this offers superior results, an improved consent process and, most importantly, really happy and motivated patients.

Your chance to shine

Your new patient assessments give you the chance to shine, they should be all about giving the patient a memorable experience so they leave feeling wowed. We know they’ve had a mouth cancer screening, a BPE, and a base chart before but it’s just never been communicated effectively to them.

You don’t need to change anything you do clinically to transform your new patient assessments, you just need to add communication. How can you do this? I will share all of my secrets in Practice Club this year, so join me there to find out more!

The new patient phone call experience

Perfecting new patient phone calls

 

When was the last time you called your practice? What was the experience like? How would you rate it? Have you ever carried out mystery calls? If you record your phone calls, have you ever listened back to them?

 

I’m not asking these questions to catch you out; I’m asking them because patient phone calls and the way they are handled by the front desk is an area that is often overlooked. This can be a real blocker in your business, and you may not even realise it yet.

 

Think about the patient

It is important to consider the mindset of the new patient. We all have things we need to get around to but we don’t. For a patient to pick up the phone and call you is a big deal, believe me when I say it has been on their list for ages.

 

With this is mind, think about their phone call experience; it should actually be an experience. At the end of call they should be left feeling really excited and hopeful.

 

PPE

Due to PPE, it is simply not possible to give patients the experience that we are all used to in practice. This is why it is even more important to provide a fantastic telephone experience that represents the usual service you would love to be giving them in clinic.

 

Your front desk team have a more important role than ever, so you need to ensure the telephone serve they are providing is on point.

 

Rushed phone calls

All too often, the front desk team are busy and phone calls are over very quickly. The team might talk about features of your practice offers but patients can find this information online (and they probably have) so why tell them what they already know.

 

Instead, your team should be sharing benefits and unique selling points to really entice these new patients. There is a Seth Godin quote that really sums this up: ’The reason it seems price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about.’ Think about it!

 

Personalities

Does your front desk team talk to every patient with the same telephone manner? It is very common for staff to not take into account the personality of each patient that they are speaking to. However, doing so can create a more engaging experience that leaves your new patient already feeling welcomed and excited for their first visit.

 

The solution

I’m not saying this to be negative on your team, it’s a fact that the front desk is rarely given investment, especially in terms of training. This is a real problem because they are the first human impression of your practice. If you would like to learn the tools of creating a fantastic first impression, join me in Practice Club where you’ll find an entire chapter on this, check out my Reception LIVE course later this year that covers new patient phone calls or contact me to discuss team training in your practice.

 

Laura

 

 

Why you need to take a break now to avoid burnout

There is a huge problem in Dentistry right now.

I have never witnessed such immense burn out like this, throughout the entire practice team, in most of my clients’ businesses simultaneously. Ever.

Morale is down, people are moaning, the atmosphere is dire.

Yet is there is a simple solution to this:

Take a break.

Team members and dentists alike are not taking time off. They are saving holiday and waiting to see if they can use their time off for a real-life holiday abroad.

I do understand this but for years now I have been writing about the importance of regular time off.

If the owners and clinicians are not taking time off, it makes it harder for management to take time off.

Out of all of my annual coaching and training clients, there is only one practice that has had every single person take a minimum of week off. This practice is huge, with well over 30 staff. The managers have also permitted me to share this with you:

Going into March morale was down, the atmosphere was difficult. No one was full of beans. Since everyone has taken time out the change has been immense and as the coronavirus restrictions start to ease too, we are finding our workplace is happy once more.

The main worry as an employer right now is knowing what you can, and cannot do, as an employer. Can you ask your team to take annual leave? Yes, you can.

I am sharing an Instagram post here from Sarah Buxton from FTA law who in this post discusses holiday requests from the employer and employee https://www.instagram.com/p/CLUA5bwjRCe/

There is a very good reason that a full-time employee has 4 weeks holiday a year plus bank holidays. The concept is that your employee takes regular breaks throughout the year. A week every quarter or so.

My advice is this:

Book time off urgently. Get off the hamster wheel.

There is plenty of life and home admin that we procrastinate on and can complete, and a week will quickly pass by and you will feel well-rested too.

Encourage your clinical team to book time off.

Ask your employed team to take time off.

Make sure by the end of June everyone has had a minimum of a week off (by that point you are running into month 7 of 12).

Make sure no-one cancels their holiday as they are ‘not going away’

Encourage everyone to book the remainder of their holiday entitlement for the rest of the year too. It’s important to have regular time off to look forward to.

Taking a week off to potter around does you the world of good.

Laura

Regain control with diary zoning

When I mention diary zoning, a lot of the time I get blank stares. What is it and why would you need it?

Here are a few areas where I encounter problems in dental practices, do any of them sound familiar?

Congested reception area

Of course, under the current circumstances this won’t be the case, but think back. Did you often find your reception team dealing with a crossover of patients booking in while others were waiting to pay and rebook? While all of this was happening, the phone was probably going unanswered too.

Squeezing in emergencies

Again, this is probably less of a problem under the new SOPs, but booking in emergencies is often stressful for everyone involved. The dentist wants to ensure they can see the patient and treat as required but the time frame allowed is short and rushed and they feel under pressure.

Exhausted dentists

Booking back-to-back dental exams is exhausting for clinicians because there is an awful lot of communication required during these appointments. You end up with tired dentists who understandably feel fed up.

In addition, booking long and complex appointments after lunch or towards the end of the diary is rarely ideal. Most dentists I speak to prefer to work on these cases first thing when they are feeling fresh and bright, not tired after a morning of exams. Learn how your employees like to work and structure the diary around it – it’s better for your team and fantastic for your patients.

Long waits for new patients

It is important to understand that when a new patient phones it’s a really big deal for them. They may be in pain, may have been anxiously putting off that call, or they may have been researching the best dentists and chosen you. You need to impress and they need to be able to book in without waiting weeks on end. This will always be a struggle under the current circumstances, but if we look ahead to better times, you always want to be able to get new patients in quite quickly.

Let’s sort this out!

Under the current SOPs you are probably discovering that you have a lot more control over your diaries without even trying. However, if you want to remain in charge in this way, understanding and implementing diary zoning will dramatically support you.

I love nothing more than helping practices discover how to implement an effective diary structure that allows smoother running of your practice, leading to a contented team and happy patients. You will also notice a boost in your profits, too… what’s not to love?

Laura