by Karah Karah | Jun 5, 2016 | Magnificent Marketing
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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.
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by Karah Karah | May 23, 2016 | Prescriptions for your Practice
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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.
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by Karah Karah | Apr 26, 2016 | Prescriptions for your Practice
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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.
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by Karah Karah | Apr 26, 2016 | Bold Biographies
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Quotes & Notes:
- We as practice owners have a lot more control over what happens in our office than what we think.
- We want to try to change the mindset from out of the blame game and get into finding a solution.
- Of all the things we do in the office as the owner, we can’t do everything, but I feel like the hiring onboarding process is something that somebody at the very top level has to take control of, it’s not something you can just delegate to a receptionist.
- I grew up in town, and around the dental practice, and maybe because of that I had a real aversion to being a dentist. I really had no intention of being a dentist. Even though dental school – I really hated dental school. It was really when I graduated and started working that the light bulb really went on and I realized that this is an awesome profession.
One of the things I really love about clinical dentistry is doing technically difficult things. My happiness doesn’t come from the patient’s happiness; what drives me clinically is knowing that I did something really difficult.
- Knowing that there are people out there that do such incredible work it just pushes me to try to achieve something even close to that.
- When something goes wrong, sometimes the best thing you can do is just take responsibility for it and then just move forward.
- Our staff is always watching us; you’ve got to be a role model for all of these people.
- Another thing that I’ve realized in the past few years is the power of mentorship and the power of surrounding yourself with people who are in similar situations, and better situations than you. There is always somebody who has had the same problems as you and has conquered it.
- Dr. Mike Ling would suggest every dentist read Unbeatable Mind by Mark Divine.
If you would like to learn more about Practice on Fire or learn more from Dr. Mike Ling, you can find information on practiceonfirelive.com. You can also use the Code Honkytonk for a relentless dentist discount.
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by Karah Karah | Apr 3, 2016 | Bold Biographies
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Quotes & Notes:
- A dental education is a springboard to the unlimited. I am grateful.
- “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Albert Einstein.
- At first, I had a lot of support, but I did have to admittedly try a couple of times to get into dentistry, and by the third time there were people who were saying “alright Nathan, now let’s get a real job already.”
I think dentistry is this really great junction where technology, science, arts, and business all converge.
- In dentistry, there is no real upper limit to achievement. The opportunities we have for learning and success are really staggering, and who is imposing a limit… no one is.
- That’s the great thing about being a dentist is that there are mammoth opportunities for learning.
The only real mistake is the one in which you learn nothing, and I made lots of mistakes as a practice owner, as a business person, but that has enabled me to be able to provide value to our associates.
- “Stop trying to look good to people who you don’t like.” Dan Sullivan. I take that to mean: know your target market and know your target patient.
- Marketing I think for dentists, it is something that we have to do. Whether there ever was a time or era where you could just hang a shingle and people would come, I don’t know if I buy that.
- Dr. Nathan Jeal would suggest every dentist read The Asian Saga by James Clavell.
If you would like to learn more from Dr. Nathan Jeal be sure to email him with [email protected]. The website for his practices is: avantdental.com
Also, be sure to check out Practice on Fire Live by going to practiceonfirelive.com.
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by Karah Karah | Mar 30, 2016 | Uncategorized
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Quotes & Notes:
- If I could break down lean principles into two words it would be waste reduction. Waste can come in a couple of different ways; it can come in materials, but the biggest waste in dentistry comes from wasted time.
- Your team doesn’t like being behind schedule, that stresses everyone out.
- One of the things I find is longer appointments with patients if you can get them to come to longer appointments, which helps a lot in eliminating this waste.
We don’t offer this to patients with a history of no-showing. If a patient has broken appointments before, I don’t want to schedule them for a two-hour appointment.
- I didn’t always want to be harping on my team to support me to the extent that really was required. What really was important was keeping me moving through the day.
- Do we have a patient in the chair who is going to pay for their treatment, who has already agreed that they are having a root canal and not an extraction, who is going to show up for their visit in the first place. There is a lot of quality control that we can do to make sure the dentist is working on the “good Post-It.”
Once I realized that you could have a three day work week, be very productive still, still make a good income, and have a four day weekend every week, that became pretty appealing.
- Two barriers to working fewer days are the staff worrying about less hours, or patients worrying about fewer days to get work done on their teeth.
- Dr. Graham Dersley would suggest everyone read The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. He would also suggest everyone read Harvard Business Review on Manufacturing Excellence at Toyota.
If you would like to learn more from Dr. Graham Dersley you should go to practiceonfirelive.com and check out the event in Nashville on May 13-14.
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by Karah Karah | Mar 15, 2016 | Prescriptions for your Practice
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Quotes & Notes:
- What we do in essence is to provide a platform for a dental office to work with their team. There is this HR component that I don’t think a lot of doctors realize when coming out of school that they are going to have to fulfill.
There are a lot of different ways that you can approach different problems instead of striking fear in other people.
- You went to school to be a doctor, and your manager did not go to school to be an attorney and no one in your office is really qualified to write a HR manual.
You are going to be an employer about half of your time and you get to be a dentist in between being an employer. And being an entrepreneur, an employer, is hard.
- Be relentless in your desire to have good people working for you and don’t let the bad people drag you down.
- The better you get at hiring, the better you have to get at firing. There has to be firing.
- In the behavioral interview, what you are looking for, is what they did in the past tells you what they are going to do in the future.
- All the dentist think the only way to make them happy is to give them money, but there are other ways to make people happy, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay them more, but it matters when you help someone find the things that they are supposed to be doing. They will come in for less pay.
- When solving an issue talk to the person one on one. Giving them a target, giving them something that’s tangible that they can work towards.
- Paul Edwards would suggest everyone read Multipliers by Liz Wiseman, Drive by Daniel Pink, and Beyond Entrepreneurship by James Collins.
If you would like to learn more from Paul Edwards feel free to email him at [email protected] or even call CEDR HR Solutions with (602) 476-1418.
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by Karah Karah | Mar 8, 2016 | Bold Biographies
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Quotes & Notes:
- I just use Stephen Covey’s “First things first” whenever I get mixed up or there are too many things to do at the same time I kind of look to that as to which things to do.
- If you treat people well and serve them a good menu, good dentistry, they are going to come back and send their friends.
- Once you know your calling, you become very focused… Don’t worry about if your first choice was a mistake, you can always go in another direction and you will have even more passion for it at that point.
- I went through all of this with my wife. We worked together for 13 years after I bought the practice in San Diego. I was scared but sometimes I don’t know how scared I should be but she has antennas on that were very perceptive, but we made it together.
Once they are in, they see that we are very caring, knowledgeable, and trustworthy people. And so even though we tell them we don’t take their in-network fees, they know it’s kind of a one or two-time thing so they are willing to pay a little more for a one or two-time thing.
- Mine is a pretty simple exam in terms of looking at teeth, looking for disease, and whatnot, but the one big thing that I do that is different from everybody is for every patient I take extraoral photographs.
- The way to get to cosmetic dentistry is to ask the patient if it is ok to talk about other possibilities for your smile or your health.
- The hardest patient to get through to is a male, especially a male that their wife made the appointment for, and all he really wanted was a cleaning. You show a male these pictures and then all of a sudden they start paying attention to their teeth as if it was a football game.
Once I get them to see what their smile could look like, I know there is a possibility that they may move forward.
- You are listening to gurus talk about how to do exams, and it wonderful to know about all that, but you have got to apply it to your real-life practice.
If you would like to learn more from Dr. David Eshom you can email him at [email protected]. You can also visit his professional page at www.eshomdds.com/proffesional.
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by Karah Karah | Feb 29, 2016 | Uncategorized
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Quotes & Notes:
- Any doctor can start up a practice and that 84% of doctors that want to own their own can with great levels of success.
- If it is your first practice if you know you want to own your own practice if you are going to consider an acquisition it is going to be better than a startup if it is already perfect if it is exactly what you want long term.
- I like to describe acquisitions a little bit like turkey soup from Panera… it looks good on the menu, and the things that we might look at as good opportunities, sometimes there is more in that recipe that we don’t even know to look for.
If it is not perfect the first time around, you might as well start from scratch, as long as the from-scratch plan has a high level of success.
- If you are going to buy that practice, you are buying patient relationships.
- Everyone knows that demographics for a startup are important, but demographics for acquisition are also… If it (the patient base) is not going to grow naturally, then you are going to fight for growth.
If you are still needing to work in a part-time position a year after you open, that is my definition of a startup failure.
- If you can follow a proven path with a startup, the rewards can be amazing.
- Startup practices do fail; startup practices can collapse.
- Don’t end up like lots of doctors we come in contact with, who end up with lots of regret for missed opportunities. Don’t delay.
If you would like to learn more from Jayme Amos or go to his course you can go to idealpractices.com/course and be sure to apply for the scholarship opportunity we have put together for one listener.
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by Karah Karah | Feb 20, 2016 | Uncategorized
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Quotes & Notes:
- At that moment [of sickness and pain] I was like, “I get to. I get to be in pain. I get to get up in the middle of the night and deal with a fussy baby.” That changed my attitude of how I looked at what ended up being 13 years of suffering, it is that I was grateful, for at least I was here raising my kids.
- I’m going to start living as if this is healthy.
- What if they got educated in personal skills at the same time they got educated in the drill and fill skills?
- First, you set your goal, and then you work backward.
Be grateful for your life.
- What we know about suicide is a lot of individuals who take their life by suicide, many of them, are substance abusers.
- Someone can’t say yes if you don’t ask them, and a no really doesn’t hurt.
How we do anything is how we do everything.
- Just like they (the dentist) make the suggestion for their patient to come in and get their teeth cleaned, what are they doing to make sure they the dentist is doing the checkup on themselves?
- If you want to learn more from Dianna Robinson you can go to her websites dentisryitspersonal.com or deannalrobinson.com, or find her on Twitter @deannalrobinson, Instagram, or Facebook, or even send her an email at [email protected].
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