This week I met with four dentists in the Portland, Oregon area who unfortunately have felt the side effects of our current economic crisis. How they dealt with this is the topic of this week’s blog.
Like most of the country, many active patients lost health care coverage due to lost jobs or lay-offs. The fallout for the dental office is patient cancellations and holes in the daily schedule.
How did they choose to handle the challenges?
Decision #1 Lower their employee salaries. As you may guess, there was still no change in the patient schedule and those patients. Patients still continued to call and cancel their appointments.
Decision #2 Reduce Hygiene hours…still cancellations and holes in the schedule.
Decision #3 They terminated several employees in hopes of turning around the numbers in their bottom line.
Now, let’s look at a few dental practices that were also in a similar situation. There are dentists who would not allow the economy to dictate how they would run their dental practice. They decided to “think outside the box”. These professionals wanted to create working solutions to increase patient numbers, decrease cancellations and add value to those patients who were returning to their practice.
What are solutions to create your own economy today? Some of the solutions I have found to create a positive affect and add profits to your dental practice today was to add low-cost valuable assessments, change the words used to create value and they made your services all about the benefit of the patient. Another tool was to develop a specific “dashboard” so the Doctors could take a daily, weekly and monthly snapshot of what was happening in their practice. This helps turn the “aircraft” into a “speed boat” which can be turned quicker and is more dynamic.
People are spending money. Here in Portland, Oregon for the past week, the malls have been packed with thousands of people. They have not been waiting until the Back-to-School sales over the Labor Day Holiday.
The point here is that people will create their own economy. Most of us reading this have the ability to buy not only what we need, but what we want. We all need to have the mindset that “We are in charge of our own economy.”
An economic downturn and recession is a great time to leap ahead. If you are a Savvy entrepreneur, (Savvy dental practice owner) now is a great time for you to get an edge and position yourself for the improving economy. Many poorly run businesses close during tough economic times and their equipment and assets are sold at fire sales for next to nothing.
Now it is time to take a hold of this opportunity: ‘If you can dream it, you can do it’!
Make the best of any crisis in your life. In your business you can lead with the valuable-disease preventive services, or products, and know which new technologies will provide health to your patients.
Communicate these services and their benefits to your current patients and those you have not seen in a few years. Update your communication skills so you understand how to overcome patient’s objections to scheduling a hygiene appointment or diagnosed treatment. Have your financial, 3rd party payment armor available for those patient who find payment a challenge.
People will buy what they want and if you know how to communicate a strong desire for optimal health, patients will schedule for basic preventive and diagnosed dental services. Create a reason for patients to come back to your office through top-notch customer service and leading edge services.
Are you still thinking you need to save your way to prosperity? Think again! You are in charge of your own economy.
Plan to join me on September 5th and 6th when I interview 7 Luminaries in our world of dentistry. When you register, you will also receive all 9 hours of the interviews at no-cost. The interviews will be sent to you after the teleseries ends and you will have 48 hrs. to listen. After Sunday September 9th you can purchase all 9 hours for only $47.00. We are offering a “Back to School” price so you won’t miss out!
So tell us “How is your economy working for you today?!”
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