by [email protected] | Nov 17, 2021 | Prescriptions for your Practice
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Before you tap that play button, I want you to ponder these questions first: What do patients consider when they choose their dentist? And what makes them go and explore dental services from other dentists?
In medicine, research shows that 30% of patients leave the doctor’s office because of long wait times. Unfortunately, the number is higher when it comes to dental offices. The long wait times can make a patient believe that you’re in a poorly run business. And if it’s a poorly run business, you have subpar clinical standards.
In today’s episode, I will discuss the six top reasons why patients break up with dentists. Then, we will talk about patients’ perception of us and how we can maintain that in a positive frame, and how we can prevent the consequences of patient attrition. I’ll also share lessons from medical doctors’ mistakes so that you can prevent patients from even wondering if the grass is greener somewhere else. So just sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
Tune in and find solutions to common practice issues at Prescriptions for Your Practice.
Key Quotes:
- “As smart business owners, we have to manage the upside push for growth and minimize the downside. And what’s the downside when it comes to enthusing clients? I think that’s when patients leave the practice, when they break up with us, and when there’s patient attrition.”
- “Oftentimes, we’re able to maintain the relationship with the patient once they feel understood. And even if we weren’t, we can learn things that will help our processes, our systems. So as we strove to get better and better, we looked for more gems in those situations.”
- “Now urgent care is a big patient perception because what is no big deal to you might be a really big deal to patients.”
- “Patients aren’t loyal. If they’re feeling, feeling mistreated or ignored, or that you’re always running behind, they might find those greener pastures.”
- “If patients feel like they’re just a number on a spreadsheet that you’re pushing treatment on them, that you have aggressive sales tactics, that you don’t have their best interests at heart, that then they’re going to feel inclined to be a patient somewhere else.”
Featured on the Show:
- Quote: “Customers perceive service in their own unique, idiosyncratic, emotional, irrational, end-of-the-day, and totally human terms. Perception is all there is!” — Tom Peters
- I appreciate your feedback. Let me know what you learned and loved here: [email protected].
by [email protected] | Oct 20, 2021 | Prescriptions for your Practice
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What are we doing to ensure that we’re not presenting treatment in a skeptical environment and inadvertently generating negative marketing for ourselves and our businesses?
Research shows that 55% of all communication is in the body language, 38% is in the tone of voice, and 7% is in the actual words spoken — all of which make up the overall impression we give out to our patients.
The way your patients perceive your practice impacts every decision and action they take. This perception has a rippling effect on your confidence, staff, potential customers, and business security.
In today’s episode, I’ll share with you two contrasting personal stories on what enthusing client is and what it’s not. Then, I have some tips that you can train your team on to ensure you’re generating high-trust case acceptance in your practice. I’ll also talk about the importance of picking up non-verbal and social cues to reciprocate appropriate responses.
Tune in and find solutions to common practice issues at Prescriptions for Your Practice.
Key Quotes:
- “If we don’t do our practice in a trusting environment, it can generate buyer’s remorse and resentment if something goes wrong.”
- “Too often, we hang too much on what our patients are telling us, and sometimes they are not candid.”
- “We have to make sure that we’re picking up on the tone of voice and body language before we’re really satisfied that this person is scheduled for the next phase of treatment.”
- “If we don’t read their body language, we can inadvertently scare and confuse the patient.”
- “The possibility is that we appreciate that body language doesn’t lie.”
- “The goal that we must establish and the intent that we should have is that every patient all day long is seen, heard, and felt like we’ve let them know that they matter to us.”
- “You should look for a long-term relationship because it pays dividends again and again and again.”
- “Your team is your eyes, ears, and spokespeople, so they must be good as you are, if not better.”
Featured on the Show:
by [email protected] | Aug 11, 2021 | Prescriptions for your Practice
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What does it mean to create a team of leaders?
We all know that great leaders don’t create more followers but inspire followers to become leaders. As practice owners, we aspire to have a self-managing team to achieve this goal. Unfortunately, however, it is pretty standard in the dental practice that staff functions based solely on the dentist’s command. Therefore, it defaults to an extra layer of policy and bureaucracy, creating a toxic environment for the staff, the owner, and even the patients.
In this episode, I will talk about autonomy. A unit that’s heavily reliant on command and compliance is a recipe for distrust and disengagement, and it’s essential to address this issue head-on to establish autonomy among members. Also, I will share with you the six tenets that will help your team manage themselves better. Because in a self-sufficient environment, individuals function autonomously, and their accomplishments contribute to the team’s overall growth and success.
Tune in and find solutions to common practice issues at Prescriptions for Your Practice.
Key Quotes:
- “We typically believe that a self-managing team is either a fantasy or we believe that we need a team of all-stars to pull it off.”
- “We can train good help by leading everyone to break old patterns, old unproductive behaviors that they learned and turn them into highly productive autonomous habits.”
- “My practice is not limited by its opportunities but it’s limited by its leader.”
- “Leaders don’t create followers. Leaders create leaders.”
- “You need to set the expectation that you’re gonna give all the tools and training that they need to succeed in their job.”
- “Everyone has to leave their ego at the door.”
- “Be open. Train the team to be receptive to new ideas and to seek out ways to do their job better.”
- “Make sure that growth is the expectation by helping them to find their next mastery level in their job.”
- “Ensure that every team member is better after they work for you.”
Featured on the Show:
by [email protected] | Mar 10, 2021 | Magnificent Marketing
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In 2009, in this dusty space in Avon, Colorado, I spent all my cash on learning for a six-month Ortho, Sedation, and Invisalign because I wanted to be this marketable person. One thing I could say, it is much harder than it looks — but not for Grace Rizza. She’s been growing businesses at the age of 22, and her approach to business is both commendable and inspiring. It’s no wonder she was a 2019 Honoree at the Daily Herald Business Ledger’s Influential Women in Business Awards.
Listen in as Grace Rizza shares the importance of branding and effective dental marketing. It can be considered “unethical” not to market because you have a community of people that don’t understand how you can help them. Make sure that people know who you are and what you do to help them.
Tune in and get more insights on Magnificent Marketing
Key Quotes:
- “Who’s going to teach your community if you don’t.”
- “People need to stop trying to go viral and stop trying to be cool. They need to educate.”
- “Just know what you’re trying to accomplish with your marketing before you just start trying to do everything everybody else is doing, come up with a concrete plan.”
- “Don’t skip the branding process. Don’t skip the part where you ask yourself, or your advisor asks you, how do you want to be known in the community? What’s your intended reputation?”.
- “The right advisor will allow you to dream, but we’ll also tell you when you’re being unrealistic.”
- “Your time is a currency.”
- “The most expensive information is mediocre information.”
- “If marketing brings you joy, okay, put it on your plate. If it doesn’t, you need somebody to do it.”
- “What is your marketing and your branding, that visual aspect, what is it saying about you behind your back? Is it creating the right first impression? And then when those things are in alignment, then you should start the advertising piece, SEO still gets the best return on investment.”
- “If you’ve got great reviews and you’re ranking on top of Google, you will get new patients, and it will be consistent.”
- “You should have professional video ads that create an emotion.”
- “If you are comfortable on video and articulate, that’ll make your trust factor go up.”
- “People want to see real people.”
- “The most important thing that came from this today was treating marketing as an investment and not a cost.”
Featured on the Show:
by [email protected] | Jan 27, 2021 | Maverick Mind Shifts
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Michael Thomas joins the show today to talk about the Special Care Dentistry Association and share why special care dentistry is so close to his heart and such an important part of his dentistry career. He also offers insight into the unique mental, physical, and emotional needs that crop up in special care dentistry.
Listen in as we discuss the importance of understanding, connection, and trust when it comes to working with special needs patients, as well as how dentists can better equip themselves to provide care for patients with special needs. You’ll hear some great tips and techniques for communicating with and caring for patients who need special care in order to become acclimated to dental procedures.
Tune in to more Mind Shift Podcast
Key Quotes:
- “The dentists who do have the most fulfilling careers—it’s the connection to the patient, not the connection to the procedure that really defines them.”
- “She didn’t look at humanity the way any of us did. She looked at it without any hatred or prejudice or any kind of negativity. She saw people for who they are.”
- “As the trust goes up, the need for drugs and sedation goes down.”
- “What I’m seeing is that many dentists do not want to treat special needs individuals because they take too much time, many of them are Medicaid patients, and they don’t have the financial reimbursement that many other patients do.”
- “They call it the practice of dentistry, and you are never officially done learning.”
- “There are so many different facets on how you, yourself, can be more aware in delivering the best care possible to not only the patient with special needs, but their caregiver as well.”
Featured on the Show:
