Tag: North Carolina Dental Coach

Dental Coach Aberdeen | Follow the Trends! – Grow your Practice with These Smart Tips

Dental Consultant

Dental CoachWith technology and economic changes overhauling much of the dental industry, practices are requiring more innovation to stay ahead of the curve. Below are some trends to explore that can help you reach the top of the chart and stay there.

Onsite Amenities
Dental practices often run the mistake of being too clinical or severe in their appearance. Make your patients comfortable with modern, innovative amenities. Heated or massage chairs in examination rooms can calm anxious patients, while TVs installed on the ceilings (complimentary earphones optional) can offer a safe distraction while your team works.

Dental Insurance Coverage
Many patients are turned away at the thought of visiting a dentist who is out-of-network. Whether you decide to be in-network with more plans or use targeted marketing showing how affordable you are for out-of-network plans, you can open the door for many potential patients that otherwise may have gone elsewhere.

Payment Plans
Many potential patients do not have the option of a work-based dental benefits plan. Consider offering monthly payment plans, in-house financing, or working with a third-party to provide affordable options in these cases. When given the opportunity to have care within their budget, patients who lack insurance will have more ability to accept treatment.

New Technology
Upgraded equipment and modern technology can be a game-changer for many patients. Whether offering a quicker, more comfortable experience or ensuring a safe and effective treatment, using advanced technology on the market can help your dental practice target patients interested in quality.

Bolstered Online Presence
The internet has limitless potential to reach prospective patients in your area. Allow patients to learn more about you and your office, schedule a visit, and ask questions through your website, social media, and other online resources. In the modern economy, internet marketing is a must.

Don’t let your practice fall into the past – keep your practice relevant by following the trends that will keep you thriving. For more professional guidance, contact our office for a consultation.

Dental Consultant Evelyn Horne
(803) 667-3958

Dental Consultant | Mitigating Missed Calls

Dental Coach

One of the primary concerns of any dental practice is attracting new patients. An effective marketing campaign can help drive traffic to your website and get your phones ringing. However, what happens when the phone rings can have an even greater impact on the success of your business.

Even the best-trained team may miss an incoming call. Unfortunately, many people do not leave messages when they reach an answering machine or voicemail. If you don’t have a plan in place to track and return missed calls, you could be losing thousands in lost revenue every year. Here are 3 easily implemented steps to help you be certain you are making the most of every call.

Step 1: Track Your Calls

When calls are missed, it is important to be aware it is happening. Whether you use the caller ID or a dedicated call-tracking service, your team should be checking for and returning missed calls at least daily. If you close the office for lunch or only have the capacity to answer one call at a time, it is better to check for missed calls multiple times each day.

Step 2: Return Missed Calls

For best results, have your team return missed calls as promptly as possible. Train them to handle these conversations with confidence and compassion. Whether the missed call is from a current patient or a prospective one, a quick response and a caring tone can make the difference between an appointment with you and a decision to look elsewhere.

Step 3: Check for Patterns

Tracking and returning missed calls are an effective way to prevent lost revenue. However, no matter how skilled your team is in handling these return calls, some potential patients may have already scheduled elsewhere before their call was retuned. By reviewing for patterns in when calls are missed, you may find that making minor changes, such as staggering lunch breaks, could help prevent missing future calls in at least some cases.

Missed calls can affect revenue and growth potential for growth, especially if your practice doesn’t have a system in place for tracking and returning them. Be proactive. Review your current plan, check for patterns, and ensure your team is fully trained to handle return calls.

For more ways to keep your practice on the path to success, contact our office.

Phone: (803) 667-3958

Dental Business Coach | Dealing with Patient No-Shows

Dental Consultant

No-shows and same-day cancellations can take a toll on your practice’s monthly revenue. Patients with busy or complicated schedules may find it difficult to commit to an appointment months in advance. Here are eight ideas to help you keep your calendar full and your patients on track.

  1. Implement a wait list. By providing an optional waiting list, you can turn one patient’s same-day cancellation into another’s earlier appointment opportunity. When your patient schedules their next visit, ask whether they want to be notified if you get an earlier opening. This can give both your office and your patients added flexibility, as well as showing your patients that you care about their convenience.
  2. Add a cancellation fee. While most practices find these fees rarely need to be enforced, the option to apply a fee can impress on patients that your time is valuable and can act as a deterrent for missed appointments. Offer to waive one same-day cancellation or no-show — be it an emergency, mistake, or otherwise — but retain the option to apply the fee for repeat offenders.
  3. Consider offering extended hours. Many patients have difficulty keeping an appointment during their workday. Time off from work, even for health care, can be limited. If your office has the capability, try adjusting open hours by an hour or two before or after standard business hours for flex appointments. Even offering this once or twice a week can help mitigate patients’ scheduling challenges.
  4. Call, text, and/or email day-before notifications. In some cases, appointments are scheduled weeks or months in advance. During that time, work schedules can change, activities may be planned, and the appointment can be forgotten. By contacting your patients the day before their scheduled visit, you provide both a reminder and an opportunity to reschedule, if needed. Even knowing a day ahead can help you fill a time slot that could otherwise sit unused. Ask your patients how they like to be contacted for best results.
  5. Provide context during scheduling. If your patient doesn’t fully understand and accept the necessity of their treatment, they may fail to prioritize it. When you schedule the appointment, restate the reason for the visit and why it is needed. Focus on the benefit of treating on schedule, so they are more likely to think of their appointment as important.
  6. When no-shows or last-minute cancellations do occur, be sympathetic. As we all know, life happens. If your patient does miss their appointment with little or no advanced notice, be courteous and understanding of their situation. This helps instill positive feelings toward your team, which can help them keep future visits a priority.

No-shows and same-day cancellations can negatively affect your office, but they don’t have to be devastating. By implementing these or other ideas, you can minimize the impact on productivity while helping build loyalty and value with your patients.

For more ideas on improving your systems, contact us for your consultation.

Phone: (803) 667-3958

Dental Consultant | How Team Morale can Make or Break Your Dental Practice

Dental Practice Consulting

Team morale can make or break your dental practice. It’s a bold statement, but there are several reasons why it is true. The morale of every member of your team impacts other team members, your patients, and over time, even your bottom line. If you want your dental practice to be a success, team morale needs to be a priority.

Unhappy staff are less productive. When a member of your team is unhappy in their job, they work more slowly, are less efficient, and are less likely to “go the extra mile” to ensure a great patient experience. When an unhappy staff member isn’t giving a great patient experience, that patient is less likely to be a repeat patient and unlikely to refer anyone else to your practice. Over time, this could potentially cost you dozens of patients and thousands of dollars.

Unhappy staff make other staff unhappy. When one person is feeling unmotivated, unappreciated, or disgruntled, their attitude affects those around them. Other staff are forced to work harder to compensate for the lack of productivity. One person complaining about being unhappy can hurt the morale of every other person in your office. What starts as a seemingly small problem can quickly gain momentum if it isn’t addressed quickly and correctly.

Unhappy staff are more likely to quit. On the surface, this may seem like a good thing: take the poor attitude and low morale out of the equation. However, the cost of finding, hiring, and training a replacement can be high. Even more, the most common reason why an employee quits a job is that they feel unappreciated and/or unsupported by management. Chances are good that if one of your staff feels that way, others aren’t far behind.

Overcome team morale issues with good leadership. As the dentist and CEO of the practice, you are the primary person your team is looking to for leadership. Hold yourself accountable to your team for following through on your promises. Deal with conflicts as soon as they arise. Have an open door policy that makes your staff feel comfortable coming to you with problems so you can address them before they become unmanageable.

Hold regular effective team meetings to ensure every team member understands their place in your vision for the practice. Recognize individual and team successes. Show appreciation. Ensure that you are supportive of any staff empowered to make decisions. If you need to coach them on a change in policy, do so privately to avoid undermining their authority.

You are the leader of your team. The trust, support, recognition, appreciation, and respect you give to your team is the foundation of your team’s morale. When you create a great working environment, your team morale is high. High team morale creates a better patient experience and greater productivity, which benefits everyone. To ensure your practice thrives, make your team’s morale a priority.

Contact us today to discuss moral building opportunities. 

Dental Consultant Evelyn Horne
(803) 667-3958

Dental Business Coach | Are You Setting the Right Goals?

Dental Practice Consultant

No matter how effective you are at vision casting, dreams require hard work and strategic planning to become a reality. Highly successful business owners know the benefits of setting realistic and measurable goals. Rethink the way you are setting goals for your business. Your ambitious plans will be successful only if you have a road map to reach them. By mastering the art of setting incremental, measurable goals, you’ll be able to more effectively to reach them. For more tips on managing your practice, contact our firm today.

Plan out the steps, not just the big picture.

Start small by establishing smaller goals on a quarterly, monthly, or even daily basis. It can be easy to let ambition take over and lose track of the work required to reach your ultimate objective. Setting smaller, incremental goals provides the opportunity for you to celebrate the small victories along the journey and reassess early if something isn’t working.

Measure your success.

How will you know if you achieved your goal if you cannot measure it? Goals should have a measurable standard. Perhaps you want to see 5 more new patients each month or to increase the number of referrals by 50%. Set specific goals that are easy to track. This will help you to definitively know whether or not you’ve reached them and, if not, have a tangible metric of how much you still need to accomplish.

Make your goals visible.

The more visible your goals are, the greater pressure you’ll feel to meet them. Make sure everyone in your practice is aware of what you’re trying to achieve. This will not only ensure that they’re actively helping you reach your goals, but will also provide a source of accountability to hold you to your word. Putting up visual reminders can also be a simple way to accomplish a similar effect. The more you’re reminded of your goal, the more likely you are to work towards it.

Real growth doesn’t happen passively. In order to take your practice to the next level, you need to set goals to help you get there. Whether these goals are financial, patient-oriented, or focused on personal development, we’re here to help. Contact us today to learn more!

Dental Consultant Evelyn Horne
(803) 667-3958

Dental Coach | Get Organized, Get Productive

Dental Consultant

Time is money. If you want your practice to be as efficient and economically prosperous as possible, you don’t want to spend valuable time dealing with the effects of clutter and chaos. Disorganization is shown to have a direct negative impact on productivity and, by extension, your earning potential as a practice.

Whether you feel like you’re drowning in papers or you want to learn tips to take your efficiency to the next level, here are some tips to help you and your team get organized. Contact our team today to learn more about the strategies we can help you implement to ensure you’re getting the most out of your practice.

Clean Up the Clutter

When you have so many different things demanding your attention throughout the day, it can be difficult to keep on top of everything. If you’re not careful, papers and other clutter can accumulate faster than you realize. Once the pile starts to get away from you, it can be hard to ever work your way back through without having to set aside valuable time to sort through everything.

It’s easier to avoid getting yourself into this mess in the first place once you have organizational strategies in place. You might create a unique filing system for handling the various kinds of mail that comes through your office. Perhaps you set specific team members in charge of returning calls. The best system of organization is the one that works for you and your team.

Don’t Let Your Time Manage You

It can be difficult to prioritize the different duties of your work. It’s rare that even an hour will go by without a variety of different distractions. While you’ll have the occasional emergency that demands immediate response, most of these interruptions will not need to be addressed right away.

Resist the urge to drop everything every time a new email or task arises. Operating this way will only make it harder to actually accomplish any of your duties on time. Instead, learn to prioritize which things need to be addressed immediately and which can be done later. Delegate what can be passed to another and clarify deadlines for things that must be completed by you to allow accurate prioritization of tasks.

The day-to-day efficiency of your business can impact its long-term success. Don’t waste your time digging through clutter because you’re working without a plan. For more strategies for your success, contact our office.

Dental Consultant Evelyn Horne
(803) 667-3958

Dental Coaching | Building a Better Team

Dental Consulting

Recruiting employees can be a time-consuming, stressful, and sometimes costly endeavor. When you’re looking to build an optimal team, it can be tempting to hold onto old employees for too long and hesitate to hire new ones until you’re confident you’ve found the “perfect” fit. However, both of these common mistakes can be damaging to the efficiency and culture of your business in the long term. Building an ideal team can take time, but keeping the following tips in mind can help ensure your business is able to thrive.

 

Out with the old…

It can be hard to let go of any employee. Ideally, everyone you bring to your business will become a valuable member of the team. Unfortunately, that’s not always going to be the case. If an employee is displaying any of the following signs, it might be time to consider letting them go:

  • Bad Attitude: This includes eye-rolling, snide comments, complaints, confrontational tone, and passive-aggressive speech or actions. An employee that disrespects their co-workers won’t have the best interests of the team or the business at heart.
  • Lack of Engagement: Whether unfocused at work or unresponsive during meetings, an employee that’s not mentally present can’t give their best to their work.
  • Dishonesty: Whether this involves refusal to accept accountability, blaming others for mistakes, or outright lies, dishonesty is harmful to your business and your team.
  • Poor Performance: While it’s expected that an employee in a new role may need an adjustment period, if that employee shows an ongoing inability to grow professionally or meet the expectations of their position, it might be a harbinger of even bigger problems down the road.

 

In with the new…

Whether you’re looking to replace current employees or meet the demands of a growing business, you want to do everything you can to make sure you’re hiring the right people for your team. Here are some tips that can help streamline the hiring process:

  • There’s No Such Thing as Perfect: When looking to bring in new employees, it can be tempting to wait until you’ve found the “perfect” fit. However, that can unnecessarily slow down the process and cause you to skip over individuals who might become great assets for your team in time. Keep in mind that a good employee is one that grows and performs well, and look for individuals that possess the qualities needed to thrive long-term.
  • Follow Your Gut: Instincts exist for a reason. If something about a prospective employee isn’t sitting right with you, it could be a sign that there’s a deeper problem you’ll have to address in the future. While you shouldn’t necessarily make quick decisions on feelings alone, it’s worthwhile to take them into account.
  • Listen to Your Team: The members of your staff will often be able to offer good insights into how the company can grow. Whether a trusted employee is revealing the poor performance of a co-worker or a team is asking for another member to help manage their growing responsibilities, it’s worth seeking their input when making decisions.

 

Though there’s no exact science to building a successful team, there are proven strategies you can use to help the process be as painless as possible. By holding current employees to a clearer standard and exercising discernment with new and prospective employees, you can make the hiring process operate more smoothly and increase the overall productivity and happiness of your team.

 

For more advice on building a better team and managing your practice growth, contact our office.

Dental Consultant Evelyn Horne
(803) 667-3958

 

Dental Consultant | Big Picture

Dental Coach

You and your team are personally involved in your business daily. This can make it difficult to evaluate the areas of opportunity that are available to you. Even the most well-trained team can have instances of inefficiency or miscommunication, leading to breakdowns in patient care and impacting your workplace environment.

Just as you recommend your patients receive a full examination annually, we recommend the same for your business. Whether we have an ongoing relationship with you or it’s been years since we’ve evaluated your team, we recommend scheduling a checkup of your practice. During this evaluation, we may recommend the following:

  • Evaluate current practice goals and benchmarks
  • Evaluate team morale and motivation
  • Evaluate your systems and protocols
  • Evaluate overall patient satisfaction
  • Create a success plan for moving forward

All too often, business owners attempt to motivate their team with no outside guidance. In some cases, this approach can have some success. However, as a business owner, it can be difficult to see the patient perspective or to evaluate a team member without being influenced by your personal connection. Having a person outside of your organization reinforce the importance of your systems can be difference between stagnation and the progress you desire.

If you’re looking to make this year even better than the last, schedule your consultation today.

 

Aberdeen Dental Consultant | Four Ways to Achieve Professional Freedom

Are you dreading going to work every day? Are you afraid of being trapped in the same place your whole career? We all can get stuck in a rut during our professional career, whether that means not getting enjoyment from your position, or working in a dead-end job with no potential growth. There is hope though, and her are four ways to acquire professional freedom and career excellence.

Continue to Act

The tiniest bit of progress is still progress. Continuing to work hard and getting everything done that you need to will continue to push you forward. If you are looking for career advancement, employers will see that you are always on top of things and that you meet your deadlines. The more progress you make, the closer you will get to professional freedom and being in control of your career.

Be the Best You

The only person that can make you achieve professional freedom and career excellence is yourself. Figuring out goals and strategies to complete those goals can be the motivation needed to be on the right track. Learn the skills you feel you need to improve yourself and your performance. Having the right tools will prepare you for anything that comes your way.

Branch Out on Your Own

If you cannot stand working for someone or believe you can do something better, the potential to start your own business is there. You will want to be sure that it is a realistic option before starting anything. Owning your own business is the highest level of professional freedom.

Find People Like You

Working can be much more enjoyable when you spend it with people that build you up. Finding people that can elevate your work and inspire you create a more welcoming business environment. If you are looking for a new company, reading reviews that current and former employees have written about the business to see the company culture. Poor employee attitudes can negatively affect the progress of a business.

Professional freedom and career excellence are not easy to achieve. By using the suggestions above, you can begin taking control of your career and setting it on the path to success.

For more ways to gain professional freedom and career excellence, contact us today.

Dentist Coach in Aberdeen | Manage Your Calendar to Balance Your Life

Dental Consultant in AberdeenAppointments and continuing education consume most of your time. How do you manage to live a happy, well-adjusted, balanced life when you simply don’t have time? The key is in planning. Do you use a calendar to manage your time or do you simply make agreements and arrangements as they come up? Here is how you can balance your schedule by managing your calendar.

Set Clear Boundaries

The first step to achieving a work-life balance is to consider your basic responsibilities and obligations. Set aside blocks of time in your calendar to meet with patients, hold team meetings, and attend organizational group meetings. Your calendar should be your primary time-management tool.

Time Off Means Time Off

You need to set aside time for activities unrelated to work. When you decide to take a day off, make sure it’s in your calendar. If it’s not in there, your time off is likely to be consumed by an emergency patient appointment, unexpected meeting, or other business-related expense. Make your scheduling priorities clear with your office team so they are not left with the burden of how to handle unexpected situations while you are away.

It’s Not Just for Work

Your calendar doesn’t need to be exclusive to work. In fact, it may be beneficial for you to regularly include your other commitments. From your children’s school activities to anniversaries and birthdays, seeing these events alongside your work schedule can help you make better scheduling choices. You’ll be more reluctant to accept an invitation to a meeting or convention when you know it will conflict with another occasion. By including other events on your calendar, you minimize the risk of dealing with a stressful schedule conflict between your work life and your personal life.

Never let your calendar run your day. You have the ability to schedule your day by using your calendar as a tool for time management. Start by setting clear scheduling boundaries by blocking the time you need for your main responsibilities. Don’t be afraid to take time off, but always make sure it is a part of your schedule.  Also, consider including other life events and activities in your calendar to better manage your schedule.

For more tips on effectively managing your work schedule, contact our team today.