Is your schedule full? Are you chairs filled with patients who ask to schedule and pay for their treatment? The answer is “Yes”, isn’t it?

Read and implement these tips so you can catch the wave to your next level of success, today!

Here are 5 tips to have a full schedule in your dental office and patients who want to pay:

These tips will have your chairs filled with patients ready to schedule and pay for treatment.

1.    System to Get Patients to “YES” and Schedule and Pay for their Dental Treatment

–  Have one employee be responsible for scheduling treatment, following up when patients do not schedule their treatment

– This one employee (team member) is also responsible for meeting the daily goals of practice

– Another employee is responsible for the insurance payments and follow-up calls for patients who have an outstanding balance of even 30 Days

2. Make time to Discuss Treatment

– Larger dental treatment plans, the ones that include more than a couple of simple restorations and/or the treatment plan is over $2,000, need to be discussed in privacy, not the dental chair

– Some patients may need more than a few minutes to discuss treatment and in this scenario, schedule a special dental consultation to privately discuss the patients treatment, flexible payment options, etc.

3.    Always plan to pre-schedule no less than 98% of all future hygiene and cosmetic, restorative treatment

– If a patient must leave your dental office without a next appointment, let them know that you will be calling in 48 hours (Or an appropriate time) to follow up

– Add value to why it is mandatory for patients to schedule their dental care

4.    Have an automated system to follow up with all overdue hygiene patients and unscheduled doctor treatment plans

– Currently our clients are utilizing Solutionreach to keep their patients walking in the front door of their office

– Our clients using Solutionreach are also able to get patients to more efficiently pay for treatment due to their relationship with Care Credit. (Just click the link and ask to find out more about this new payment solution)

5.    Enthusiasm

– People who enjoy what they do and have an attitude of gratitude and show up with an enthusiastic attitude are most likely the offices who will be most successful.

– People (your patients) will be happy coming to a place where there are happy people!

Conclusion

All of the clients of Dental Practice Solutions have increased practice production this year by no less than 34% by simply utilizing a few of the latest innovative systems like Solutionreach and also other customized systems and methodologies that communicate value with  patients and much more.

These simple steps will maximize your schedule utilizing every team member and every treatment room today, revitalize and create sustainability for future productivity in your dental office.

Did you glean any new information from these five tips? I would enjoy hearing from you and learning about what you are doing to keep your chairs full with patients who want to schedule and pay.

We can hang our hats on any number of reasons and say “it’s just the economy,” but that doesn’t solve the problem.

We can examine our methods and technologies regarding how we reach patients with our confirmation systems — postcards, e-mails, text messages, phone calls, etc. 

Today I want to bring something concrete to you. I will talk a lot more about contacting your patients on the webinar tomorrow night.

Let’s talk about building value for the dental hygiene appointment and exactly what is said to the patient upon seating your patient, what is said to them during their examination, and also during the treatment planning phase. What does the hand-off at the end of an appointment look like, sound like and feel like to your patient?

A properly completed debrief at the end of an appointment gives patients the valuable reason they should and will return for their next appointment.

Your patient debrief at the end of each appointment is not just about the post-operative instructions, but this is the conversation where patients receive answers to their “why, who, what, and when” questions.

Do your patients really understand what was done at today’s visit? Patients need to understand the why it is so important for your patient to return for periodontal maintenance (since this epidemic seems to be hitting the dental hygiene department most severely) AND just as important is the why a healthy patient needs to return routinely. (Hint: oral health means for most people a longer and healthier life)

Also it is important for patients to understand when their next routine dental hygiene appointment occur. And, why should their routine (or periodontal maintenance) appointment occur during this specific period of time? For some patients it may even mean they will need to return in eight weeks not twelve weeks. For some it may now mean four months not six months. Does your dental hygiene patient understand WHY this is being recommended?

All these issues should be addressed during the debrief – communication –  with your patient.

This debrief will require a simple and open-ended closing question. Here is an example of what an open-ended question may sound like: “What questions or concerns can I address for you about the treatment recommendations we discussed today?” This type of question allows patients to share any concerns they might have about making the next appointment. Make sure you’re sitting “knee to knee and eye to eye” with the patient, not multi-tasking by cleaning your operatory during the very important debrief!

Is this a silver bullet solution to the cancellations and no shows? No it is not! This is only an essential ingredient to a recipe that will lead to great patient relationships.

I will talk more on our webinar about a process to engage with your patients which is full circle = 360 degrees.

See you Tuesday night on our webinar. October 14^th @ 8 p.m. Eastern

Did you ever hear of this acronym WNL? You may have heard a hygienist call this out while probing a patient.

What does WNL mean to you?

To me it means “We Never Look”.

And now the tough question is: “Do you look at your numbers? Do you look at your numbers each day? Maybe at the end of the week? Or do you review your “End of Month Report?”

When you tell me that you are doing fine, will you be able to retire when you want to?

Doctor, how are you really doing? Did you know that your dental practice numbers don’t’ lie? Most of the dentists I talk to never look over their numbers.

Seriously, how do your finances look? Do you really feel better not looking at your numbers?

If you were to look, now allow me to ask you, “Are you doing fine?”

Is your team steering the course for the success of your dental practice? Or are you veering off into the pit of gloom and doomsday?

Now is the time to create your dental practice profitability plan for 2015.

THINK OF A LEADER YOU LIKE AND RESPECT

I want to ask you to think of leaders who you know and respect. Can you imagine them telling you that they are “just fine?”

What about Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Regan, Nelson Mandela or Donald Trump? How would they respond if you were to ask them, “How are you doing?”

I can’t imagine them saying “Just fine.”

Are you really doing “Just Fine?!”

Are you open to reaching more abundance in 2015?

Is your mind-set in the right place to receive more?

It’s time to clear out the clutter in your life and your business.

Now is the time to create your success plan for 2015.

Over the past 3 months several of our client’s increased their bottom line by over 30% and this is ALL because they allowed our team to look at their numbers. We took a close look, assessed their untapped potential and by month 2 all of our clients the past 6 months have increased their net profits by at least 27%. YES! It is true and they are happy to personally share their success if you wish to talk to them.

When you open your eyes, ears and your door to our dental practice management expertise, we can create abundance for you today, not later. It is not a wait and watch game with your finances.

You don’t tell you patients to wait and watch their tooth decay or bleeding gums – do you?

I think if you allow my team to serve you to STOP the financial bleeding, you will be more than just fine. Do you agree?

If you don’t have a success plan in place for 2015 at this time of the year (Last quarter of 2014), then you have planned to fail.

Today is the time to create your dental practice profitability plan for 2015.

I am offering you a No-charge 30 min Discovery Call to serve you and get your success plan in place before 2015 is here.

Let’s talk about creating the most abundance for you in 2015: SCHEDULE YOUR CALL HERE

Can’t find a time that meets your schedule? Please give our office a call to schedule your special time with Debbie today. Call:  503-970-112

Use the comment section below to let us know “How are you doing?” Or leave a comment if you would like to read about another topic, etc.

The important question to ask is “How much is this costing my dental practice today?” AND The Bigger Questions is: “How much have patient no-shows cost my dental practice this year?” Have you looked at these numbers?

The national average for a dental practice to remain in business is $350,000 USD and this does not include the doctors’ salary. The national average a dental practice brings in is $525,000 in revenue annually. This means that you will need to bring in approximately $328.00 an hour if you work 1600 hours annually.

If you have one patient each day cancel, how much will this cost you? Have you taken time to look at this lost of revenue? And even digging deeper, the question is “How many patients need an appointment scheduled?”

Every office our team analyzes has over 100 patients who have unscheduled hygiene appointments NOT counting unscheduled treatment! Do you look at your numbers often enough?

I hear a lot of dental offices say that open holes are a big problem in their practice so let’s talk about some solutions. (By the way: When we work with our clients, this is one of the first areas we analyse with a formula I have developed to close this big gap.)

Today, I will focus on 5 Tips to STOP dental appointment no-shows in your office:

7 Tips to Follow Up with Patents Who Need a Dental Hygiene Appointment

1. Provide information and talk to your patients about Optimal Health.   We are in the business of providing health for our patients and in return this means a longer and healthier life for millions of people. As a team of dental professionals we have the ability to communicate this important message to our patients.
2.   Be sure that your patients understand WHY necessary treatment is necessary. Inquire with questions to your patient that require more than a yes or no from your patients. Example: “Mr. Jones, what questions do you have about the treatment we discussed?”
3. Your patients need to be  clear about the value and benefits to them for completing treatment sooner than later.
4. If a patient declines to schedule a next appointment, before they leave your office, ask if you can call to follow up on “X date” and at “Y time.”
5. Schedule a follow up call or message to your patient within the next 48 hours. Ask your patients how they prefer to be contacted. The best method to schedule a valuable appointment is to call and speak to the patient personally. Text or a voicemail are a great excuse for patients to procrastinate scheduling a dental appointment.   When you follow up or if a patient requests that you do not follow up within 48 hours, ask them when a good time is to follow-up.  *Note that if the patient does not want to schedule for necessary treatment it is very possible that their questions have not been answered and /or you may not have understand their objections and how to overcome these.
6. Always follow up with your patient in at least 2 weeks’ time if they choose not to schedule for treatment.
7. When patients absolutely refuse to follow up, add then to a special call list and set a time on your calendar to follow up in the near future.

When you do call to follow up be caring and compassionate. Allow the patient to feel your concern for their oral health and overall health. Tell patients that you miss seeing them (When appropriate) and let them know that “Doctor is concerned.”

Always review chart notes when following up so you can be aware of any personal situations (i.e. death, illness or recent surgery for them or their loved one, etc.). Be aware of the valuable reasons and benefits for them to schedule treatment and share these when you do call the patient.

Know what their objections may be and understand how to overcome their objections.

When discussing appointments and treatment plans it is of primary importance to discuss the value to your patient and the benefits they will receive from scheduling treatment sooner than later.

Most people will have 3 types of objections and these usually fall into one of these categories:

• Money
• Time or,
• Fear

DENTAL PRACTICE PROFITABILITY TIP:

• Schedule a team meeting, role play some of the latest challenges you have experienced for patients who did not schedule an appointment and even those who did not accept treatment.

Understanding the various personality and behaviors of your patients can also be very helpful in overcoming these obstacles that will hold you back from reaching your full profit potential.

Are you experiencing one or more patients each week who do not want to schedule their next dental appointment? Let’s schedule a Discovery Call to discover how to close this one gap in your profit potential. (You can also send an email to schedule a specific time: dentalpracticesolutions@gmail.com)

Do you have any other suggestions about how to get patients to schedule a next appointment? Please do share in the comments section below.

The important question to ask is “How much might this problem be costing your dental practice today?” AND “How much have patient no-shows cost your dental practice this year?” Have you looked at these numbers?

The national average for a dental practice to remain in business is $350,000 USD and this does not include the doctors’ salary. The national average a dental practice brings in is $525,000 in revenue annually. This means that you will need to bring in approximately $328.00 an hour if you work 1600 hours annually.

If you have one patient each day cancel, how much will this cost you? Have you taken time to look at this lost of revenue? And even digging deeper, the question is “How many patients need an appointment to be scheduled?”

Every office our team analyzes has over 100 patients who have unscheduled hygiene appointments NOT counting unscheduled treatment! Do you look at your numbers often enough?

I hear a lot of dental offices say that open holes are a big problem in their practice so let’s talk about some solutions.

Today, I will focus on 5 Tips to STOP dental appointment no-shows in your office:

1.    Know what makes your patient tick

Has your office done a personality profile with your employees? This is a fun exercise that we do with our client and teams which not only helps us to understand ourselves better but helps us understand how to elegantly and very effectively communicate with our patients.

Here are a few examples of two patients who will schedule a next appointment:

Patient A is a COO of HP in San Francisco. He always wants to be in control, is analytical and doesn’t want to be told what to do. Typically this is a patient who does not need a reminder and will be putting the appointment you give him on his electronic calendar as you speak to him about his next appointment. You want to ask if he even needs an appointment confirmation text, email or phone call. Remember he wants to be in charge so let him take charge of his calendar. This is not your typical patient who will no show!

Patient B is very compassionate and empathetic. This patient is a mother who does a lot of volunteer work at her children’s school and even leads her daughters Girl Scout troop. You will know who patient B is because her sentences include words such as “I feel” and they smile a lot. This type of person has the opposite posture than the COO of HP (Patient A). It is likely that Patient B will want an email and a phone call to confirm her next dental appointment.

Sending the correct type of appointment confirmation (Or even a reminder of any type) is also very important. Some patients need a lot of hand-holding and others do not want a reminder of any type.

Know your individual patient types.

2.    Build VALUE for each patient appointment, type of service and especially the message about oral health related to their total health. People will sit up and listen when you tell them you know of a way to help them live a longer and healthier life!

There are numerous ways to build value and initially this begins with the first new patient phone call. From here it builds from the confirmation call and the warm welcome to your office. Once the patient is seated in the treatment room, it is imperative the conversations develop from the patients personality behaviors and build value according to the patients individual needs.

How well the patient receives this information is how valuable their next dental visit at your office becomes to them. This is the make it or break it.

Again, speak the language of your patient. Mirror and match them. Make them feel they are #1 to you and your office.

3.    Offer same-day dentistry. While you have a patient in the chair and even before the patient is seated in the chair ask yourself “Do they need fluoride, Sealants, or maybe a nightguard, etc.?”

If a patient no-shows and you have a patient in your chair who does need other services, now is a great time to add value and a benefit for your patient in the chair.

Your morning team huddle is a great time to discuss outstanding treatment for patients you will see that day. Before patients are seated in the chair is the best time to plan for your perfect day!

4.    Use a Short-list. When you have patients who continually no-show without a good reason, put them on a list for calling only when you have a last minute cancellation. SolutionReach is a patient engagement software that will create group lists of patients you can call when there is a last minute change in the schedule. (I don’t recommend you tell your patients you have these “Cancellations” but use the word “Change”) Using the group list in SolutionReach means you can be in contact with numerous patients in need of a specific appointment time and they all receive your message within about 90 seconds. It is an easy way to fill a last-minute cancellation!

Another solution may be to collect a non-refundable deposit which will go towards their service when they do show and if they no-show this money is not refunded to them. Money can be a motivator to many people.

AND if the patient will not do any of the above mentioned are they really the type of patient you want coming to your dental office? You are running a business and people need to respect that it costs money to run a business. You are not a charity.

5.    You Practice Policy. Last minute cancellations and no-shows can be eliminated when you have a practice policy in place for these things. (As well as financial policies, etc.)

When you have patients who chronically abuse your office policies, point out what your practice policy is and of course refresh their memory with the practice policy they have agreed upon and signed that they understand.

Does your practice policy require that patients be charged for missed appointments? This fee can be waived if it is the first time a patient has missed an appointment but do consider this to be your office policy. Kindly point it out to patients who do abuse the policy.

CONCLUSION

To minimize costly holes in your schedule and maintain productivity, you must create and follow a step-by-step system that trains patients to value their appointments and keep their commitments to your dental practice.

Your communication process with patients and within your dental office are critical pieces for reducing no shows and even eliminating holes in the schedule.

Always consider communicating the value of dental care and benefits of completing dental care to your patients before they even schedule their next dental appointment. Discover how your patients want to be reminded of future dental appointments AND IF they even want a reminder of any kind.

Not only do the patients need to understand your office policies but your team members need to know what they are as well. Schedule a team meeting to discuss policies in your office so every one on your team is “on the same page”.

Discuss outstanding patient dental treatment during your morning team huddle so you know which patients can have another service completed while they are in the chair IF there is a last minute opening in your schedule. When you do offer more services to a patient seated in your chair make sure to communicate the value and benefits for completing their treatment sooner than later. For example: If your patients’ hot button is “time” – while they are in your treatment chair this is a great candidate to ask if they can stay longer and complete more treatment. Tell this patient how much time will be saved if they stay a little longer to complete necessary treatment. Explain how staying a little longer can benefit them!

Many of our clients inquire about our services because they want to add more profits to their hygiene department. Dentists know there is possibly more money sitting in their practice but they don’t know where to begin to find untapped profits in their dental practice.

The Hygiene Recare System is one of the areas of expertise at Dental Practice Solutions.

10 Tips to Eliminate Last Minute Dental Hygiene Appointment Cancellations:

1. Always attempt to pre-schedule 100% of all hygiene appointments. Research tells us that you will lose over 60% of your patients if you wait for them to schedule their next hygiene appointment.

2. When patients are in the office talk prevention and their specific reasons for any areas of concern. Provide value to every hygiene appointment and why it is imperative to return for preventive care.
3. Talk about the important of optimal oral health and its relationship to their total health.
3. Talk financial benefits of a healthy mouth.

4. Never wait until a patient is overdue to contact them for a next hygiene appointment.

5. Use a text messaging service to contact patients regarding overdue appointments.

6. If you discover (and most office do discover this when they look at their hygiene department metrics) that you have dozens, hundreds of overdue hygiene patients, think about using a service such as                                                                                            SolutionReach that will allow you to email a newsletter to your patients who are overdue for a hygiene appointment.

7. When contacting overdue hygiene patients look at their chart notes and speak to each patient individually and speak about any specific concerns noted in their chart. These important facts may                                                                                                        include bleeding on probing, previous non-surgical periodontal therapy (Scaling and root planing, etc.), restorative concerns, etc.

8. Use customer satisfaction surveys to understand how your office is performing. When you do use a service such as SolutionReach these surveys can be customized with your office brand and then                                                                                                  sent directly to various sites such as Google+, YELP, Facebook, TWITTER, etc. This is a cost-effective way to gain search engine optimization and New Patients searching the internet for a dentist in                                                                                              your community is more likely to discover your office and your website.

9. After two attempts to call, email or text an overdue hygiene patient, you want to send a letter. I suggest that you have a perforated portion where they patient can tear off and respond to why they may                                                                                           not be responding to your messages about scheduling a hygiene appointment. Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope to make it easy for patients to respond.

10. Ask your patients how they would like you to confirm their next hygiene appointment. Most patients in today’s fast-paced world would much rather have a text message sent to confirm an                                                                                                                appointment. Ask patients which method they prefer: Post-card only, email, text message, phone call or no reminder at all.

You will always have patients who need to change or cancel a hygiene appointment. Life happens. At Dental Practice Solutions we recommend that our clients have their answer machine say At some point during the voice message include this: “…This answer machine does not accept cancellations. If you need to cancel your appointment please call during normal office hours or call doctors cell phone…”

You probably already know which patients are most likely to cancel last minute. You can name off a list of patients who are chronic abusers of your cancellation policy. These are the patients who call on Friday when the office is closed and leave a message on your answer machine to cancel their Monday morning appointment. This most likely means that you will have an open hole in your schedule when you get to the office on Monday morning.

All patients must understand your cancellation policy and if you charge for last minute cancellations. When patients understand your office expectations and they understand they can’t cancel without at least 48 hours notice, you will discover very few last minute cancellations occur.

Another strategy for chronic offenders that you do not wish to dismiss from the practice is to have the patient prepay a sum of money or provide a credit card number in order to hold the time in your appointment schedule. If the patient does cancel with 48 hours of their scheduled appointment, they will lose the deposit paid to reserve their appointment.

The best recipe for eliminating last minute hygiene appointment cancellations is to hold your patients responsible for their appointments and set a consequence for disappointment.  Creating and following through with a broken appointment fee can create harm to your dental practice and may cause the patient to angrily leave the practice. It is possible that they may bad-mouth the doctor and the entire team if you confront patients but then you must ask “Do you want to keep a patient in your practice, who does not respect your time?” Remember that you are running a business and to be a successful business, people need to have respect for your business and value your time.

Every patient cancellation should be dealt with individually and in an appropriate manner because there are legitimate reasons people miss dental appointments and some will need to call last minute to cancel or reschedule.

In summary

• Every team member needs to be pro-active by identifying chronic offenders of your cancellation policy.
• Do not allow patients to leave messages of cancellation on the office answering machine at any time. Patients must call during normal business hours or call doctors cell phone. Some doctors even have a special cell # they use for these type of calls. It’s well worth a few extra dollars each month for this additional phone #. You will also discover not too many patients wish to call doctor on their private cell # to cancel an appointment. You’ll be surprised to discover not too many patients really needed to cancel bad enough to call doctor and let them personally know about their excuse for not coming to the office. I have heard excuses such as “I can’t get another appointment for a haircut unless I cancel my dental hygiene appointment.” TRUE STORY!
•  The clinical team needs to stress the importance of preventive care and the need for routine dental  hygiene appointments. Add value to the dental hygiene appointment by using words like “Preventive Care”, “Periodontal Maintenance” or “Hygiene Appointment” and nix the word “Cleaning.”
• Attempt to preschedule 100% of all hygiene patient next appointments.
• Understand how each patient prefers to be contacted to confirm their appointments. You will probably discover that many of them want a text message sent! Remember, most patients now communicate via text message. This is how we communicate in today’s world.  May seem sad but this is very true about today’s population.

If you would like script templates please email our office and we are happy to send scripts which you can customize and make your own words. We recommend our clients practice what to say to patients who prefer not to preschedule a next appointment.

We can also send you a form that outlines what your office voice message should say to eliminate those last minute cancellations. Just email our office at: dentalpracticesolutions@gmail.com

The idea of dumping ice water on your head because of a cause is really not new or innovative, and in fact it was not originally associated with ALS. How did this movement lead to a record number of donations to ALS research over such a short period of time? AND what can we learn from the ice bucket challenge that can benefit your dental practice?

There are a few ideas that I have to bring in overdue dental hygiene patients as well as gain new patients. Halloween is around the corner and why not participate in the Halloween Candy Buy-Back Program? Invite parents to come by your office with their children and drop off their Halloween Candy. The children will receive $1.00 for every pound of candy these bring to your office and in return you can donate to the armed forces or replace with something healthy. Possibly you will choose to donate fruit or healthy food to a hospital or food bank in your area.

The holidays are around the corner so maybe an open house for patients. They come to your open house as a CELEBRATION and “THANK YOU for Being a Patient at Our Office!” Think of this as a patient appreciation event. Offer prizes on the hour for those who do come to your event. Now is the time to get the word out to your patients and get your idea to go “viral before the holidays are here and gone.”

These are just of the ideas that came to mind when I thought about what we can learn from the Ice Bucket Challenge.

How you can use this Ice Bucket Challenge to promote patients New and Patient of Record, come to your dental office?  Here are some suggestions you can expand upon to bring back patients and get new patients coming to your dental office:

• Target an audience where you know your patients will be and make certain that even potential new patients will discover your innovative ideas that ultimately attract them to your dental office. Most people are communicating on their smart phone and social media accounts so make sure to take advantage of communication via these methods.

Do you have access to send out a newsletter to your patients? Let your patients know what special events you have going on at your office. Tell your patients specific dates and time to come by the office and participate in your event. Invite your patients to bring their friends and neighbors with them. Have a raffle or hourly give away during your event. Most people want to know WIIFM (What’s in it for me).

If you are making a donation for a cause, let people know about this when you promote your event. Most people feel good knowing they are doing something for a worthy cause. If you are donating the candy or if you will exchange Halloween Candy and bring fruit to a community food bank, let your patients know about this plan.

• If you are making a donation let your patients know how they can also personally make a donation instead of this be all about your office making the donation. Let your patients participate at any and every level possible. Provide a website in your communication where they can participate if they prefer to just make a donation.
• Provide a specific time and date that you will have your office “challenge,” open-house or Halloween Candy Buy Back event, etc. Post the date and time in your newsletter, on your website, and your social media pages, etc.
• This is a perfect time of year to promote an event for your patients. Many dental offices believe that September is a slow month, why not make time to plan something big for the end of year to bring in your patients and gain more New Patients? Why wait until January 2015 to get a plan in place that will increase your dental practice profits? When you know it is going to possibly be a slow month, create a plan for success. Be proactive not reactive to a slow month.
• You may not have realized it but the Ice Bucket Challenge started as a generic summer charity challenge and ALS- focused campaign in late July 2014, when members of the Boston College community and Boston College Alums, Team Frate Train, adopted this practice as a creative way to raise awareness in the Boston area. These groups overlapped and created a domino effect that quickly spread throughout the New England area and then led to national exposure.

This may seem like a pure stroke of luck; the involvement early in the challenge of several high-profile sports and entertainment celebrities who were associated with each of these communities had established social media followers, and they also contributed to this huge momentum.

Do you want to know how to help gain exposure for your dental practice? Use the hashtag with all of your social media postings. In our SEO-driven world, your campaign will spread more effectively when you remember the hashtag. Possibly use your dental office name with the hashtag in front of it to create more SEO exposure for your office. Example: #HarborCoveDental

The hashtags will make it extremely easy for people to search and learn more about your efforts. Create some videos; take pictures about your event just using team member smart phones and post on social media, on your website and in your newsletter, when you send out your event information.  And when you have your event also post pictures and videos of the event in the same ways that you promoted it.

Fast-moving campaigns like this will start to  gain traction and notoriety; frequent users of social media, i.e. your patients, naturally want to get on the bandwagon to show they are part of the in-crowd. Instead of waiting to get challenged, you may want to post your own videos from your dental practice proactively. People in general, think it’s cool to be involved!

In the case of the Ice Bucket Challenge, some people have gone to great lengths not just to participate, but to  stand out from the rest of the submissions, creating more buzz–and interest in getting involved. The downside of these types of viral campaigns is that they tend to go from “white hot” to “ice cold” quicker than you can fill a bucket with a bag of ice.

When members of Team FrateTrain issued the Ice Bucket Challenge to their base, they did not set out to make it a huge viral hit, nor did they have a large fundraising goal in mind. They simply wanted to raise awareness about ALS and Pete’s fight among as many people as they could. By focusing and executing this goal all by itself, the rest of this exposure happened organically.

Whether you are running a small dental office or a large group dental practice, creating the next world-changing event, or promoting  a new service in your dental practice (Such as just INVISALIGN, a new whitening service, etc,) for your existing patients, understanding how to leverage social media effectively to gain awareness and traction for your efforts is crucial.

Good business marketers already know this, but even the best have a hard time actually getting it right. By incorporating some of lessons we have learned from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and setting reasonable expectations for success, you can give your next marketing campaign a better chance to gain traction and provide a boost to your growing dental practice and get patients coming to your dental office. Now… consider yourself challenged!

Did you glean any great ideas to get patients coming back to your dental office? If so, I’d like to hear about them in the comments section below. Please do tell.

This week I will write about just 3 steps dental hygienists can take to get off the treadmill and create profits plus so much more.

One week ago I received one of the nicest, most touching emails from the hygienist of a client.

The hygienists name is Marlene at Westover Smiles. Marlene is a recent graduate from a dental hygiene program in Virginia. I will post her letter sent to me below. Providing care in a dental office as a dental hygienist is very different from learning about dental hygiene in a college or university program. She knew how to be a dental hygienist but lacked the experience of working in a dental office, talking to patients about disease, treatment plans and then keeping on time during the day with her patients. Dr. Sadeddin, her employer enrolled in one of our programs to support Marlene in getting to her next level of success. It was also a fun experience for me to work with not only Marlene but doctor and the team!

This reminds me of what my mother told me about “Marriage.” My mom always told me “You never really know what it is like to be with your husband or significant other, until you live with them.” This is similar to becoming a dental hygienist. You never really understand what it’s like until you are in the trenches of the dental office.

This is exactly what Marlene experienced. Marlene knew what to do as a hygienist but lacked the ability to actually communicate using words that add value to the patient’s appointment, enroll them into future care at the office and her timing to completing hygiene services was still not there.

I remember how difficult it was for me to get into the real world as a clinical hygienist. Thirty years ago most hygienists were given 45 minutes for a patient appointment and in the hygiene program we had 3 hours of patient time! All of a sudden, when I arrived as a dental hygienist in the real world of dentistry, it felt like the treadmill was really going fast and I had to run as fast as I could to keep up! It was not fun. I felt stressed and very lost, just like Marlene.

For nearly 15 years as a practice management consultant, I have enjoyed creating ways to support hygienists who feel stressed, burned-out, overwhelmed and just ready to quit what can be a great career. I love serving dentists as my clients and their team. Let me share with you a few ways (there are so many more) to help hygienists work more efficiently, add improved profits and patient care. These three will create harmony within the team and a sustainable dental practice for the doctor.

First of all, the dental hygiene department can be profitable. Back thirty years ago and even when I was just dreaming of a dental hygiene career, the dental hygiene department was thought of as a loss leader. This is no longer true!

These 3 steps are a small part of what Marlene and the team at Westover Smiles has implemented.

3 Steps to Less Stress and More Profits in the Dental Hygiene Department:

1.    Create and share your philosophy for treating perio patients

This means the doctor and hygienists agree on what is considered a perio patient. (This means you all agree on radiographic type of calculus, radiographic bone loss and even without the presence of calculus, what areas are probed and at what intervals, etc.,m etc.) Next is when to intervene with non-surgical periodontal therapy (Phase I Therapy) and how you will treat each individual perio patient.

2.    Communication to add value and get a commitment from your patient

Doctor, hygienist and the entire team need to know what words to use with their various patients to add value to patients’ appointments, show empathy and communicate in language each different patient will understand

Learn about the various personality types and how to talk to each patient’s different personality type. The DISC profile is a good place to start. Tone and your posture (Proxemics) are also important when speaking to patients about their overall health and dental concerns, etc.

Write it down, (Keep scripts for future employees to understand what is expected) the words each team member will use when speaking to patients. When you know what you will say, role-play the patient situations practicing your communication with the various patient personality types. Practice on each other not your patients and get your communication down to a science.

3.    Monitor, Monitor, Monitor

In real estate they say “Location.” “Location.” “Location.” In dentistry it is important to monitor anything and everything that you want to see a result in.

Know what the acceptable key metrics are for a dental hygiene department. Do you know what percentage of your adult patients have received periodontal therapy? What is the norm for treatment of perio in the nation?

Do your hygienists know what their production numbers?

Each employee needs accountability and to be a part of the total process, financial aspects included; will create valuable employees. If your hygienist is not interested in the production numbers, ask yourself if you are ok with employing a hygienist who only cares about a pay check?

Dentistry, even the dental hygiene department is a business. The dental hygiene department should produce 25% to 30% of the total office production.

There are many other areas in a dental practice that create profitable dental hygiene departments, but I share just three today.

Do you implement all three of these? If not, choose one today to begin implementing. Schedule a team meeting and write down what you what you need to create to get to your next level of success and profitability, discuss it and practice doing what you talk about implementing. Set up some accountability so you know that what you say and what you practice does get implemented.

Employing committed team members will make or break the success of your dental practice. It is what creates a great reason to come to the office every day.

When the entire team takes responsibility for their part and when you have accountability measures in place, you will not only create a team-driven practice which makes a happier, more pleasant work environment but also create systems so everyone knows what is expected. Think of this as a choreographed dance routine.

When everyone on your team works in harmony your dental practice will see a payment in dividends returned for the life of your dental practice.

Marlene’s Letter to Debbie

“I cannot thank Debbie enough for helping me through this journey. I started off as a new graduate – no experience out of school. After I got my license, I worked with the temp agency for months. During this time, I worked with multiple doctors, all with different views on things. I did not have a firm system for myself as a hygienist. Back in hygiene school our teachers did their best to get students prepared for the real world; but in reality, it is just not the same. Unless one has experienced it themselves, one can easily get lost, confused, and/or run late with the patients.

When I first got my permanent job I was excited because I knew I would be the only hygienist in the practice. As a couple of months went by, I realized my communication with patients was not to the standard it should be. I lacked the best words to use with my patients and/or my explanations to the patients just did not “make the mark.”

I was not firm enough to make patients realize the consequences of diseases and their overall health if the perio disease was not treated. That is when I started taking Debbie’s program. She guided me to have my own system as a hygienist. Debbie gave me scripts on what to say to patients on certain topics. I made those scripts my own. I used the words that felt comfortable to me but as least I had something set in stone to learn best from.

I now feel more comfortable and confident. Patients are listening and learning about their total health. They are saying “Yes” to my care as well as doctors excellent dentistry he provides. Everyone in the office can tell a difference. Not only has Debbie helped me but has helped the office as a whole. As a team my office and I have better communication. I will keep working on this program to become an exceptional hygienist for my patients. Thank you Debbie!”

Marlene Quispe, RDH

Is it possible they don’t know what your vision for the practice is? Have you communicated with your team what you dream of for your dental practice?

I believe in the CANI attitude. CANI means “Constant And Never-ending Improvement. This means that you have an open mind to always wanting to be better than you are today.

In today’s blog I want to share with you some ideas to get you on your way to “Creating More Value in the Dental Hygiene Appointment.” When you can empower your dental hygienist to have a CANI attitude, you will also discover the hygiene appointment becomes more valuable to the patients, the doctor and hygienist enjoy more satisfaction in what they do and patients become aware of the outstanding services you provide them. Profits in your practice will improve when the hygienist takes ownership of their important position in your dental office. Doctor will discover they can come to the office and provide the quality dental care they enjoy and not have to manage a dysfunctional team.

Utilizing some or all of these suggestions means that you will also begin to see your production rise as well as develop raving fans from improved quality patient services provided in your dental office.

Your 5 Tip Checklist to Create Value in the Dental Hygiene Appointment

1.    Morning Team Huddle

Before the morning team huddle begins the dental hygienist needs to audit his or her charts. This means they will be looking for outstanding patient treatment and necessary services to complete at todays dental hygiene appointment. Examples of this are: appropriate x-rays, blood pressure, fluoride, periodic or even a comprehensive exam (Completed every 3-5 yrs.), outstanding restorative treatment, and any family members who are due for a dental appointment (hygiene or restorative). A lot of this information can be found on the routing slips. No flipping through charts during the team huddle. This needs to be a smooth and succinct process which if you don’t do this today, may take 20 minutes when you first begin. When done properly (Baring no more than 2 dentists and 6 team members reporting), a team huddle should take approximately 10 minutes of team time. For a template of what a morning team huddle looks like, send our office an email: dentalpracticesolutions@gmail.com

2.    The Hygienist should  schedule patients’ next visit for hygiene

It works best if the hygienist can always schedule the patient’s next hygiene appointments. Dental Hygienist’s may wondering “Why me?! I am on a treadmill as is and I don’t have time for this!” The reason they are the best person to pre-schedule future hygiene appointments is because they have just looked in the patient’s mouth over the past 45-55 minutes and they are the best person to explain to the patient “WHY” they need to return and what will be completed at the next hygiene appointment.

The hygienist never asks the patient “Would you like to schedule your next appointment?” And the hygienist will not ask the patient “Why can you return for your next hygiene appointment?” The hygienist (and anyone making a patient appointment), needs to take charge of the appointment schedule and not ask patients when they want to return.

Have a goal to schedule at least 90% of all future dental hygiene appointments.

3.    The Hygienist should always tour the patients mouth with the intra-oral camera

“Pictures paint a thousand words.” This is very true with dental patients as well. Tell patients what you see and then show them exactly what you see in their mouth. This means the patients are more likely to take ownership of their mouth. Sit the patient’s upright in the dental chair. Face them knee-to-knee and eye-to-eye to discuss what you see in their mouth. This positioning with the patient is called “proxemics.”  Proxemics builds trust and rapport with your patients.

This sets the stage for a more effective doctor hygiene exam and means the patient will hear about what you see more than one time (from not only the dentists’ perspective but they previously heard it from the hygienist). It can also mean less time for doctor in the hygiene room talking to the patient. Good news for hygienists that feel doctor makes them run behind.

4.    Doctor Hygiene Exam

There is no need for doctor to wait until the end of the hygiene appointment to complete the hygiene patient exam. This can be done after the patient information has been completed. The hygienist will collect all of the patient data and explains this to the patient. This usually takes no longer than 25 minutes at the beginning of the hygiene appointment. Doctor should always be notified by their assistant when there is a break with their patient treatment (possibly waiting for impressions or when the assistant is preparing temporaries, etc.), and now leaves their patient to enter the hygiene treatment room to complete the hygiene patient exam.

The hygienist stops their procedure and introduces doctor or says something about the patient to doctor (If doctor already knows the patient there is no need for a formal introduction. The hygienist will always use the patient and doctors name upon doctor entering the hygiene room), and then the doctor will have a very light and simple conversation. Next the hygienist will gently interrupt doctor in the rapport building phase– relationship continuation conversation  (the small chit-chat), with the patient (should not last longer than 90 seconds – no more than 2 mins MAX!).

The hygienist will now proceed reporting to doctor about the services completed and what the patient and hygienist see in the patients’ mouth. The hygienist will report on future x-rays and the necessary appointments (if there are restorative needs, etc.) which include future dental hygiene appointments  The hygienist needs to have x-rays and intra-oral photos available for doctor to easily view.

5.    Hygiene Hand-off

How the patient is handed off at the front office is very important. This will build more trust with the patient and the end goal of this system is for the patient to again, understand that they will be returning to your dental office.

Too often, patients are left to walk alone to the front office. All patients need to be escorted to the front office by the dental hygienist preferably. The hygienist will speak to the front office team member using the patients name and explaining all the services the patient received today. She or he will explain to the front office auxiliary what services are of primary concern which areas of treatment need to be scheduled – while the patient is at the front desk. Best case scenario, the hygienist has scheduled the patients’ next hygiene visit, and the hygienist will also report – in front of the patient – when the next appointment date and time are. She or he will also state what the appointment is scheduled for.

One quick tip: NIX the word “Cleaning” and tell all the team members to stop saying this word as well. Choose to speak to your patients using words that add value. “Dental Hygienists in today’s world – are preventive care specialists.”

Try using some of these words when speaking to patients about a dental hygiene appointment: Dental Hygiene Appointment, Preventive Care, Periodontal Therapy, Scaling and Root Planing, Periodontal Maintenance.

CONCLUSION

When the dental hygienist is open to the CANI attitude and serving patients at the highest level, your job as the CEO of your dental practice becomes much easier, and more satisfying.

It is possible that you can check off this entire list saying that you are doing all of the above. For some offices, they are only completing a few of these tips and I want to suggest that you just choose one of these to implement this next week. Once you feel comfortable implementing this new system or patient service, go to the next tip and try to implement this one.

Slowly implement them one at a time. Only implement the next tip after you feel that you have the one new service or system “down to a science.” Be patient with yourself and take baby steps to get to your next level of success.

Track and monitor your results to watch your profits improve as you provide that next level of service and patient care. You will also develop patients who are your raving fans!

Just as when you are eating in a nice restaurant, how you are left feeling upon finishing your meal, is how a patient can feel at the end of their appointment without a proper dismissal. The food tastes good but what happens after desert when the check comes?

To create the best dental patient hand-off experience, read these tips for your patients to have the best experience while in your office.

If you have a seamless process for your patient dismissal your patients are left feeling happy about their dental experience, your office meets their production goals and you develop Raving Fans!

9 Suggested Steps To Create A Successful Dental Patient Hand-off:

The following are suggestions to have a successful patient experience. By following these steps your patients will feel well cared for and you will find you will have a schedule that is meeting your production goals much more easily. This type of handoff will leave patients feeling a higher level of trust and are very likely to be your raving fans because of the experience they have had in your office.

1. Before a patient leaves the operatory, review specific findings during their appointment.

• Ask the patient if they have any questions about their dental treatment

• Let the patient know you will get them scheduled for their treatment and if necessary, you will have them speak to the financial coordinator about their financial obligation, etc.

Always escort the patient to the front desk and when you arrive at the front desk now communicate the following:

2. In front of patient at the front desk, discreetly state the services the patient came to the office for today, to the front desk team member

3. What was accomplished during today’s dental appointment?

4. What treatment recommendations (aesthetic dentistry options, dental products, etc.) were made and how soon the patient should return for their treatment (follow up, post-op visit, etc.)

5. Verbally communicate next visits

• If the back office has scheduled any appointments verbally communicate this to the admin team member while the patient is standing with you at the front desk

6. Patient’s ability and desire to schedule their next dental appointment

• With the patient next to you at the front desk verbally communicate to the admin team member the patients desire to schedule

• When patients have scheduled their next dental appointment in the back office be sure to re-state the date of their next visit to the front office team member upon check-out

•  For example: “Mr. Philamoth is ready to get scheduled for the two crowns on the upper left side. Tooth Numbers 14 and 15. He is able to come next week if we have time available in our schedule.”
•  Another example may be: “Mr. Philamoth would like to discuss how much he needs to pay for the two crowns on the upper left. Numbers 14 and 15.”
• Or another example may be: “Mr. Philamoth wants to wait to do the two crowns on the upper left. Numbers 14 and 15.”

In this situation when a patient wants to wait it is very likely that they did not understand the value of completing their treatment. The benefit of completing their treatment did not sink in. It is possible that they have objections to treatment and these were not identified when the patient was seating in the operatory.

7. When patients do leave the office without a next appointment, it is very important to ask when a good time to follow up with them will be. Let the patient know a date within the next 14

days when you will call to follow up. Reinforce the benefit and value to the patient for completing treatment sooner than later.

8. When patients have not scheduled their next appointment, write down a tickler to call after you tell the patient you will do a “follow up call.” Call on the date you have communicated you

will call to follow up. Why are you following up? Because as a healthcare professional you want your patients to not experience pain and live a longer-healthier life.

9. Say your farewell and last few comments to the patient as you leave them at the front desk with the admin team.

The following are only suggestions and examples of what to say. Discuss what works best for your office and your patient situations. Think benefit to your patients and what creates value for your patients choosing to return to your office and not another office down the street.

Have fun with this and enjoy everyday doing what you love to do! We are all together in this, creating healthier and longer lives for our patients. That smile IS a curve that changes everything in the lives of your patients.

Keep them smiling!