by Karah Karah | Sep 19, 2016 | Bold Biographies
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- I really went from a perspective of thinking that success is measured in money, in prestige and all that, to see that success is really measured in your contentment in life.
It’s not all about meeting the next goal; sometimes it’s about the journey of getting to it.
- There are far more patients out there than can be treated by our specialist (for implants), and that’s the same with our ortho, same with endo. They aren’t there to do every single procedure of a certain sub-type; they are to do the ones that require special training.
- At this point, I think what’s going to differentiate “implantologists” is not who can just put a titanium screw into bone. What’s going to differentiate people going forward is their ability to do hard tissue grafting, soft tissue grafting, things like that.
This is the best job on earth, if you feel this way (that the sky is always falling) then change your situation.
- Don’t be a slave to money and status, because so many of us get roped into thinking that we have to make ‘X’ amount of dollars a month and I understand that we need to make money but if that really all your career boils down to, then you are going to find yourself doing procedures that you hate, in a practice that you hate.
You can learn more about Blue Star Academy at blueskybio.academy. Be sure to also check out Practice on Fire at practiceonfirelive.com.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
by Karah Karah | Aug 28, 2016 | Bold Biographies
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- I know almost everybody in my class was ready to go out and start a practice when they graduate, but today that is a rarity. The young students don’t feel prepared.
- At the end of the day, oral infections are a pretty simple thing to treat when you know what you are going after. Everything boils down to risk assessment.
- Here’s what dentists need to know when you approach patients this way (with the saliva test), because if someone fails this test everything you do from that point forward is guaranteed to fail.
- Very aggressive movement (of bacteria on the digital display) is a disease and a slide biofilm that is quite is healthy.
We are looking for balance, so when things are out of balance, that means disease. Getting back into balance is a relatively simple thing once you have some products and just a little bit of expertise.
- I am of the opinion that every tooth should be sealed, from young adult and adult, because I am putting an insurance policy against future biology.
- If you have a hygiene department that is efficient and productive I see so many people that come in more confident.
- Don’t be afraid of stepping out.
- You need to practice what you preach. If I am going to talk about periodontal disease, then I better make sure that my mouth is healthy.
If you would like to learn more from Dr. Tom Larkin then you can email him at [email protected] or go to his website, oralwellnesscenter.org.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
by Karah Karah | Aug 6, 2016 | Legendary Leadership
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- In about 2013 I decided that there needed to be a training resource for office managers, front office teams, for dental offices to teach us how to do the things we do at the front desk.
- Sometimes being an office manager, you feel like you are on an island by yourself. The staff doesn’t necessarily see eye to eye with you, the doctor many times is not trained in business, they are trained in being a clinician, and you are kind of in the middle.
- What I focus more on is how to motivate your team, how to communicate with different style personalities that work for you.
When things aren’t happening because someone’s not holding the team accountable, that’s when you need to make sure that (you have an office manager).
- There’s value to experience, but attitude is a far higher level for me.
- The doctor should be delegating to the office manager as much as possible.
- When an issue comes up there needs to be a system and the more than the front of the office and the office manager can get that documented and get that trained to their staff, the more the patients are going to have a sense of trust and be ok with what your policies are.
In the dental office, I feel that the dental office manager is the head and the doctor is the neck.
- You have to lead by example. You can’t tell your kids don’t smoke and they go smoke a cigarette.
If you would like to learn more, be sure to check out frontofficerocks.com or their YouTube page/Facebook page for snippets of their videos.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
by Karah Karah | Jul 30, 2016 | Prescriptions for your Practice, Uncategorized
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- So I really got thrown in dental with no experience, I mean I didn’t know teeth had numbers, had surfaced, so much like many other people, we just got thrown into this position.
I’m an office manager at heart, and I wanted to build something that I could help other offices and their team.
- For me being married to a dentist, I know that my husband got no business training in dental school. And then when I went to start working in dental, there were no resources for me, so my focus is the team, my focus is the staff, to be able to have a resource to go to.
- You don’t have to know dental to work at a front office, you know you have to have great customer service, and you have to be a team player, and you have to work hard and smile, that’s the kind of stuff we can’t teach employees.
I wanted to develop a program that was consistent with new employees.
- It’s a great way to just bring in enhancement to the employee; I have a lot of offices that use it as team training.
If the patients aren’t happy, and we’re not answering the phones well, and we’re not reappointing the patients, the practice isn’t going to grow.
- I think the biggest thing for me is attitude, is drive, we have to remember that even though we are health care professionals, we’re in a customer service environment.
- You should invest in your team, you know employees worry about their salary, but that’s not what motivates them most, it’s do you invest in them.
If you would like to learn more, be sure to check out frontofficerocks.com or their YouTube page/Facebook page for snippets of their videos.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
by Karah Karah | Jul 25, 2016 | Magnificent Marketing
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- What matters more about wh
ether people say yes to picking up the phone is really the headline that may be all they need. In fact few sometimes even going into the content.
The majority of men actually prefer the content to be bullet-points, highlights, and pictures. Women, on the other hand, studies have shown, they love the story.
- When you start competing on price whether you realize it or not, we all lose.
- How do we get a better quality patient? Well, the offers I like to do are called gift at purchase, I like to give away a free electric flosser or electric toothbrush with paid new patient exams.
- Let other people’s giveaway be your offer.
You need some way to get the data you need to make smart decisions.
- You have to keep the positive, progress not perfection and it never hurts to throw in a bonus.
- The six principals are reciprocity, liking, consensus (social proof), authority, consistency, and scarcity. And a little known thing I would consider the seventh principle which is the contrast phenomena.
If you would like to learn more from Dr. Chris Phelps then you can go to guidethemtoyes.com or calltrackerroi.com.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
by Karah Karah | Jul 19, 2016 | Magnificent Marketing
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- I joined a dental practice (after graduating from dental school) and what I loved about it was that it was a fee for service practice.
- Necessity is the mother of invention, so suddenly when there’s pressure on you, it gets your juices going.
- If you are relentless about it, it’s going to happen.
We need to be marketers, but a lot of times we don’t have time to be marketers. I was trying to figure out marketing and get to its essence, and that’s what these seven pillars are.
- Study your market and learn everything you can about them, and learn the patterns.
- If they can’t tell a difference between practices by looking at an add-piece then guess what they use as a deciding factor? Your price.
- Say you do sedation dentistry, what is the problem that the patient has that sedation dentistry is the solution for? Fear. One of the big things that I love about sedation is that the side effects of the medication is amnesia, they have no memory of the visit for the most part. The headline of my message is this, forget you were ever here.
- I don’t care where you are in the country, marketing is fishing with multiple fishing poles, not trying to sit there in a deer stand waiting for that one deer who may or may not come by and you may or may not be good enough to hit.
- If you are in a network with a bunch of insurance companies, if that insurance company will pay you as the out of network provider then you can be out of network with those people and not lose the patients and they honestly will not know or care.
If you would like to learn more from Dr. Chris Phelps then you can go to guidethemtoyes.com or calltrackerroi.com.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
by Karah Karah | Jun 28, 2016 | Bold Biographies
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- “Working hard for something we don’t care about is stress; working hard for something we love is called passion.”
- I loved going to Creighton, I loved the city, but mostly at Creighton there’s no specialist, so we got a ton of experience.
- Our practice, Post Falls Family Dental, pretty much sums it up. Our practice has been around for 35 years. So we were a big part of the community, which I think was important rather than just putting out a sign.
- I couldn’t imagine going through life with a chronic not ever being able to get a good night’s sleep. So a soon as I knew dentists could be a part of it (sleep apnea treatment) it wasn’t just making a piece of plastic.
I would say 60% of the patients that come for sleep apnea, 60% of them become dental patients, so that’s been a huge practice builder.
- My goal is to listen to the patient, what is their chief complaint? What is actually making it so they pick up the phone, make the appointment, fill out the paperwork, and actually show up?
- We try to remove hurdles and make it as easy as we can on them (the patients).
Stop the excuses, challenge yourself in your personal life and work life, but don’t settle for the status quo, be more than who you are, and become that relentless dentist.
- Dr. Erin Elliott suggests every dentist read Start with Why by Simon Sinek.
If you would like to learn more from Dr. Erin Elliott then you can find her on Facebook, or email her at [email protected].
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
by Karah Karah | Jun 5, 2016 | Magnificent Marketing
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- There’s a lot of frustration in the world of marketing, and that really stems from a lot of other companies out there that don’t do a good job tracking their results, and ultimately getting patients in for the clients.
- Any dentist out there that is spending any serious money on tracking, you have to use call tracking. It really gives you a good idea of what campaign is driving phone calls and what campaigns are not.
Healthy practices should see a healthy number of new patients coming from patient referrals.
- The biggest compliment someone can give is to send their family and friends to you.
One of the things that we talk to our practices about is the importance of getting these reviews and the importance in the art of the ask.
- The number one thing I would say for someone who feels frustrated is to get a plan, even if it is as simple as getting a sign in your office that says “Hey if you love us, leave a review.” Start small.
- One thing that you don’t want to do is if you’ve gone for the last two years and you don’t have any reviews, you don’t want to get tomorrow. That shoots a red flag up, especially for Yelp.
- Answering positive reviews is easy, you say thank you, you recognize the person by name, and it can be short and sweet. And then negative ones, it can be tricky, it can be infuriating. The first step is to take a deep breath and move away from the keyboard. Step out of defensiveness and into self-realization.
- If you are getting reviews, put them in other places. Make sure people are seeing it in other places.
If you would like to learn more from Laura Maly and Michael Anderson you can go to wonderistagency.com, call them at 262-844-1628 or even on dentaltown.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
by Karah Karah | May 23, 2016 | Prescriptions for your Practice
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- One thing that the listeners need to know is that there’s a huge difference between a treatment plan and a financial arrangement.
- Your staff needs to be equipped with responses, and they need to practice them, it needs to roll off their tongues.
- You always discuss the financial options before you schedule.
You have to care about the people first, number one, they can feel that. The most effective presenters believe the patient deserves the best treatment.
- The staff needs to be prepared to continue the communication with the patient. They need knowledge, confidence, and they need to know how important it is.
We do want to have good relationships with our patients, we need that, we are in the people business. You want to spend 75% of the time talking about dentistry and 25% of the time talking about all of those fun things.
- You have to make sure you have the objections handled for if you don’t they are going to make an appointment and then leave and cancel it, or they are not going to make the appointment at the checkout.
- Consistency equals predictability.
- Every single attempt (to follow up with an incomplete treatment patient) must be documented.
If you would like to learn more from Sandy Pardue you should go check out Classic Practice Resources at classicpractice.com.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
by Karah Karah | Apr 26, 2016 | Prescriptions for your Practice
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- Well first off, it’s (case acceptance) is averaging about 35 percent and that’s really low. A lot of times what we see is that practices are not telling patients what they need, or they’re going to the opposite and going too far into what the ideal treatment plan is.
- That’s one thing that we really stress to dentists, as well as team members, is you have to tell the patient what they need and what will happen if they don’t get it.
Get out there, utilize the tools like Facebook, you’ve got 1 billion people of Facebook, I mean what a great way to promote your practice and what you can do for your patients.
- Your most skilled person should be the face of your practice to the person on the phone or the person walking in the door.
- Back when I worked in a practice at the front desk I used to record all of my calls for that was the best practice.
- You want to make sure your office is clean, and here is what I want you to do; go sit in your own reception room and look around… You want people to be comfortable.
- I don’t think you should go so far into that new patient call that they get uncomfortable, but you need enough information.
- You have to find out what is real for the patient, why do they come there? Maybe it is one little tooth that is bothering them. Listen to what motivated them to get there.
- The top three patient objections are always going to be un-aware need. They don’t understand that their condition will get worse, it will cost more, and it will not go away. Another objection they will have is fear, and they will not tell you they are afraid. And then the other is a financial problem.
- After you have presented this you want to ask them this one last question; “Have I answered all of your questions?
If you would like to learn more from Sandy Pardue then you can stay tuned for next week’s episode when we will get into the next five.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
