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In this week's episode, we are breaking down effective patient communication and addressing objections properly. It all starts with truly listening to patient concerns, whether it's based in fear, financial worries, or another common issue. Highlighting that the procedure is routine and performed every day can help provide much needed comfort and reassurance for patients and urge them to take action. Third-party payment options and financing are a must-have to make dental care more accessible to patients, and if your case acceptance isn't above 85%, you may be losing thousands in revenue!
Tune in to learn practical tips for improving patient communication and increasing treatment acceptance to benefit both patients and the practice's bottom line.
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In this episode, we explore the idea that complaints are a gift rather than a curse! We discuss how listening to complaints can provide valuable insights and opportunities for improvement in your dental practice. We emphasize the importance of actively listening to trends in complaints, identifying common issues, and taking proactive steps to address them. We also highlight how making patients feel important by knowing them by name and acknowledging their feedback can significantly impact patient satisfaction and loyalty.
Listen in for more actionable tips on receiving feedback in your practice and how to shine a positive light on this valuable information!
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In this episode, Sandy and Michael discuss the age-old question: "What comes first, the patient in front of you or the one on the phone?" They share insights on how to handle both effectively, with a focus on friendly and upbeat patient communication.
Gone are the days when callers took precedence simply because they couldn't see what was happening in the practice. In today's world, whoever grabs your attention first should be prioritized. Sandy and Michael share strategies for managing phone calls while checking out a patient, using specific verbiage that shows respect for both their time and emphasizes clear communication.
Don't miss this insightful episode on managing in-person and phone interactions in your dental practice!
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Did you know that up to 93% of communication is done non-verbally?
Well, it’s true, and it might be the key to handling tough patients in your practice…
Successful Patient Interactions will make or break your practice when trying to stand out from the crowd. To have these interactions, we need an upbeat, positive, and attentive team. If your team is really listening to the questions and concerns of patients, they will feel right at home.
It’s easy to write off an angry patient as rude, bad, or not worth your time, but you may find listening to what they have to say surprisingly beneficial! There is no excuse for treating your team poorly, but these “angry” patients have a legitimate reason to be angry more often than not.
Dive into this week’s conversation on successful patient interactions and how to create them!
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It was "dental assistant" appreciation week not that long ago...did you feel like you HAD to do something instead of wanting to do something for your dental assistant?
You never really know what goes on in the private life of team members. Sometimes a little acknowledgement goes a long way.
Sandy shows us how to properly do this and gives us a system to make sure our team members feel appreciated weekly!
We also share what team members expect from their leaders/ managers/ practice owners.
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Does your front office understand your marketing? If they don’t then they are probably decreasing the amount of new patients you could and should be seeing!
Did you also know that your website and marketing campaigns, such as Google Ads, can decrease your case acceptance percentage?
In this episode we dive deep with Sandy and Ali from Docsites discuss how to increase case acceptance, new patient numbers and what could be hindering your marketing and how to fix it, and how to strengthen your front office through marketing.
Think about it, if you put an ad out and get 10 applicants… 8 out of the 10 sent in a resume that seems good… will you take a whole day to interview those 8 applicants? There’s a better way, a much better way!
Group interviews! Sandy gives us the tools and system to establish and conduct an extremely successful group interview. Once you hear this episode, I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted to ONLY do group interviews!
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Do you feel like you can’t find any great employees? Are you tired of recommending procedures, systems, or even tips to your front office but for some reason they don’t stick with the recommendations? Do you feel like you are always having to micromanage your team or a team member? Do you even know if some team members are really contributing to the practice growth, or are they just doing the bare minimum?
In this episode we dive deeper into this as Sandy gives us 4 pillars that we need to have in order to build a productive front office team.
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Get the money! Sandy’s a real world consultant and having a ZERO A/R is not real world!
You’ve got people that come and get the dental work and ins pays, or your going to bill them, if you get a 30% open rate in emails you’re in the top tier.
Sandy came across a practice that had 100k in A/R, and stopped sending sending out statements. That’s when Sandy noticed something MAJOR! Something that affected their A/R. It’s so simple but we guarantee if you were to do a report on this… you will see what she saw and immediately make changes … which WILL drastically lower your A/R!
Sandy provides a system to implement so that you do NOT have to continue to go through this and you can start lowering your A/R today!
This episode is for the person greeting patients and answering the phones at the front desk. Some new team members need to know and master some of the basics, so if you have new team members, this episode is a “mandatory listen” as part of their training. We discuss these four essential tips:
Practice Information. Know basic practice information. How long has the doctor been practicing? Know the website & office address.
Greeting and checking in patients. Have the front office understand it’s their responsibility to know who's on the schedule and who will walk in the door next.
Do regular updates! Make sure you update patient information at each visit.
Patients are guests in your office. Always say goodbye.
Sandy dives deeper into each tip and how to implement it successfully.
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Do you need a new website or marketing agency, check out what Docsites can do for you:: https://www.docsites.com/landing-pages/ddb/
It’s a piece of paper. But what’s on this piece of paper that’s not in your software?
This slip is going to keep your new patient calls on task and in order. It will have all the necessary information you need and it will ensure the conversation flows well and the front office makes the appointment! You want to have really good relations with people who call for the first time. Being thorough is how you’re going to get the consistency of making sure everyone who calls for the first time is scheduled.
Listen in as Sandy breaks down this process and builds a system for your front office!
This is a serious talk we have to have. Have you ever said to yourself: “my employee isn’t smart, my team isn’t doing the best, I buy new equipment and no one uses it… I’m not buying them anything anymore!”etc.
Or maybe people aren’t delivering and producing on your team, or you can’t keep people on your team...
Whose fault is it… the leader. Sometimes your own lack of trust and organization may be holding your business back.
Sandy gives us the system and steps we need to take to fix this and make sure you are no longer the problem in your practice.
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You need to have protocols in place and systems in order to find someone GREAT for your team and it starts with your reputation. That’s step one in the system, what are your employees and ex-employees saying about you? Your reputation is where it starts for easing the workflow of hiring.
The second step in your system is to make sure that the people on your team know this one rule: anytime that someone calls asking about a position available, get their name, number, email, and resume immediately.
Sandy expands much more on these first two and gives you more precise steps in this system to ensure you will always find and have great people as you grow your practice.
Did you know January is one of the best months to reactivate patients?
Think about the retention rate and see what’s the percentage of patients you're retaining. The problem is practices are always looking for new patients because the back door is always open. Some of us have two back doors open!
You need to stay in touch with people and mix up the types of communication with your patients, it keeps the interest there. That’s what Sandy discusses in this episode and gives you a system on how to reactivate your patients, retain your existing patients, and she shares the best methods, formulas, and times on when to do this.
You get a text message from a staff member that says they can’t come to work today, now what do you do?
In this episode Sandy talks to us about the proper steps we need to take with handling staff members who seem to be absent or miss a lot of work days for whatever reason. We discuss how we can remedy this and how you can ensure it doesn’t spread to other employees. She also gives us a step by step process on how to start this system today!
You may have heard this or possibly, some of you listening, may even think this way: “we don’t have a production goal because we are patient focused”.
Knowing your income and taking care of patients are two different things. In this episode Sandy gives us the exact formula you need to boost your production. She also lets us know how patient care is woven into this. There is a way to reach production goals without the patient feeling like you are upselling or pushing treatment on them and Sandy let us know how to do this.
A great way to look at it is: “Production goals” are the food.. The type of food is patient care.
In this episode we dive into our Facebook group: Dental Gumbo and answer questions you have asked Sandy in the recent weeks.
Sandy answers and discusses these 3 main questions:
Lately in the last week or two people are thinking ahead and what they’ll do differently in 2023. And we love it!
In this episode Sandy gives us 10 key principles we MUST upgrade or improve within our practice!
They are:
Listen to the episode to discover more details and strategies on how to improve each key element.
A lot of your employees are planning their whole Christmas around their Christmas bonus. However, is a Christmas bonus really necessary? How can you make this “bonus” work for you and how can you stop it if you don’t have the funds but feel the “need” to do it because you’ve done it in the past?!
Sandy gives us the instructions, script, and formula on what we need to do to be consistent with rewarding our team. She let’s us know how she doesn’t always agree with the Christmas bonus but has created a system on how this type of bonus can work for you and the practice.
Most dentists and especially practice owners, watch their money, and the decisions they make to KEEP money is causing missed opportunities and keeping the income down. Now, saving money is not a bad thing, that’s not what we are discussing here. We are talking about how often we step over dollars to pick up pennies.
In this episode Sandy gives us about 7 main reasons on where we stumble and mess up. These 7 reasons/ mistakes are causing an illusion that we are saving money, when in reality we are missing too many opportunities and hurting our potential and profits.
If you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall in Sandy’s Scheduling Academy, this is it!
Should you add 3-4% on the dental bill if people are going to use credit cards? The quick answer is “NO”! This can easily make your patient lose trust in you. Remember people don’t carry cash or checks as much anymore. More and more people are using credit cards. When you add the 3-4% on the patients bill, this is working against your internal marketing!
In this episode Sandy breaks down for us what we should do if our terminal/ credit card charges come with a fee and how we should present it to the patient. We also discuss other great alternatives that you should adopt now to easily get the money from the patient without hassle.
Did you know if your team is less than 10 employees, you more than likely should NOT have an office manager! Some practice owners put someone who has some dental experience in the front and name them an office manager. That is not the right thing to do.
In this episode Sandy breaks down the real responsibilities of an Office Manager and when is it time to bring one on. We also discuss how promoting or having someone considered an “office manager” can actually cause more harm than good. We also discuss how to demote an office manager and discuss the proper script and terminology on how to do this.
There’s a shocking statistic that Sandy mentions in this episode which is: 1.6 million people are changing dentists and 25%-50% patients are lost over a 5 year period. This means we MUST work on our attrition, retaining these patients!
In this episode Sandy tells us the 3 main reasons why we lose patients and how we can stop making these major mistakes. She also gives us a system on what our team should do to make sure our attrition rate is good. We also discuss and talk about scripts on what we should ask our patients to make sure their experience is always above and beyond!
You know what? You shouldn’t even call them “performance reviews” anymore! In this episode Sandy lets us know exactly what we should do with the “one on one” meetings we have with our team members. Meeting one on one with team members is always a good thing.
Sandy tells us how we should call them a “one on one” and bring the employee’s:
She breaks each one of these things down and dives into specifics on how we should handle every point. Another good thing to keep in mind is we should never tie “one on ones” or performance reviews with raises! Listen to this episode to understand why!