Published in Our Bite-Sized Practice Management Newsletter
Dear Sharyn Our office is overwhelmed with patients cancelling their
Today I talked with a dentist about his less than stellar case acceptance. In fact, we’ve been tracking his case acceptance for new patients and it’s around 50%. This dentist has been around the block with me for awhile so instead of me lecturing, I asked him three diagnostic questions so he could evaluate his own practice. Read on to learn the questions that sparked this dentist’s breakthrough realization.
Do your new patients view you with suspicion or with trust? How do you establish enough confidence with a patient so that she is willing to entrust you with her health, time and money when you only have minutes to talk?
A potential patient calls and says she just moved to town and wants to come in for a cleaning. What’s the problem in this scenario?
It’s great that you have a potential new patient but she seems to be approaching this appointment as one would in taking a car to the car wash. She can just roll in, choose the amount of cleaning she wants, and then go back home, newly cleaned.
One word is that almost universally hated by dental professionals is the word “sell.” You do not like to consider yourselves sales people – you see yourselves as service people. No one likes salespeople and probably people whose actual job title is sales do not like the pressure and sleazy image that the word selling connotates.
Dear Sharyn I am dealing with a small but vocal
I have been on this soapbox before. If you want to change patients’ perceptions about the importance of hygiene treatment, then you can’t refer to these appointments as “cleanings.” Each time I have made this proclamation, dentists nod their heads and tell me they don’t say the word cleaning. Um…well, maybe. It’s just their websites do. Every dental website I’ve ever reviewed lists “cleanings” on the menu of services and most often, the word cleaning is followed by the phrase, “and dental exams.”
Of course, you want your patients to value their dental care as much as you do. But, well… sometimes they don’t. So, to get patients back to your practice your front desk has sent automated:
Texts
Emails
Postcards
But do these really work?
View your current payroll costs at a glance and forecast the impact of potential raises. You will be able to see any compensation inequities, compare payroll costs to your production and calculate the costs of proposed raises against your production goals.
“As an Office Manager, I’ve seen a great difference in my practice since starting with Sharyn. Three years ago our staff was in turmoil with a lot of infighting and gossip and some jealousy directed towards me.
I had given up because everything I did was judged. Now I have learned to have more one-to-one communication and by being more vulnerable with individuals I found my leadership voice. As a team, we’re all focused on the same goals.
Last year, in August we produced $88,000. This year we’re on track to produce $111,000 this month. I know it’s because we learned how to follow through with patients and communicate our expectations while building our systems.
Sharyn has gotten us out of our comfort zone and inspired us to dream bigger and it works.”
