Summer is almost here!  Yay?  What do you do when half of your team wants to take back to back vacations leaving you short-handed and stressed out for the entire summer? I have three suggestions for you.

1. Use time off request forms if you don’t already.  By using these forms, each employee is required to fill one out and turn it in to management for approval.  Though we always want to allow our team members to have some well-deserved time off when they want, it’s not always feasible.  For example, what do you do if two or more employees ask for the same dates off?  Well, requests are approved by the submission date, but if multiple requests get submitted on the same day, you should have a note or disclaimer on your form stating, “Please be advised that multiple submissions of requests for the same dates will be approved based on seniority.”  This way your office policy is fairly stated and they don’t think that your decision is based on favoritism.  The form should also ask the employee if they have a replacement.  Often hygienists and assistants have friends or colleagues in the industry that might be able to cover for them while they are gone.  Finally, once a request for time off is approved, the schedule and all the calendars should be clearly marked so that everyone knows when someone will be out of the office. This way you and the team can best prepare.  Which leads me to…
2. Cross-train your team. Especially your front office if you have more than one person at the front desk.  The many years that I worked as a practice manager, I often dreaded taking time off because I knew I would come back to a pile of paperwork on my desk.  Train someone else to reconcile the Dayend reports, post insurance payments and get the deposits ready so your cash flow isn’t affected. Also, each position should have a list of their tasks and responsibilities. Prior to the team member going on vacation, the list should be reviewed and the tasks should be divided and assigned amongst the remaining employees.  By working as a team and helping each other out, all of the practice’s daily operations can run like normal and that’s the goal.
3. There will be times when you will have to look outside of using your existing team to help cover. Using a temp agency is a great option.  If you haven’t built a relationship with your local or online agencies, reach out to colleagues to see who they use and who they’ve had success with.

So those are my three suggestions to get you through the summer with little to no stress.

In today’s competitive market, delivering quality dentistry alone isn’t enough to have a thriving, successful practice. So how can you set yourself apart from the dentist across the street?

Providing superior patient care. So how do we do that? I have three suggestions for you.

1. Check your engine…let me explain. I’m often told by dentists, “Candice, we need more new patients!” Well, the best type of referral source is word of mouth. So, I always advise before a practice shells out thousands of dollars on external marketing, to first focus on what’s going on internally.  The analogy that I like to use is if someone goes out and spends a lot of money and gets a brand new, paint job on their car with new tires and rims, but they check under the hood and there’s no engine.  So first make sure your office is running smoothly and efficiently like a well-oiled machine. Make sure you have systems, protocols and office policies in place so everyone is on the same page.  This makes for a seamless office visit for your patients because we want to concentrate on making sure your existing patients have an amazing experience. Otherwise, you spend money on marketing, you get new patients, they don’t have a good experience and they don’t return to your practice. That’s money wasted, am I right?
2. Care…yep just one word. One of my favorite quotes is by Lewis Howes, “People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” By showing patients that you care when providing a service from start to finish makes all the difference in the world.  And I don’t know about all of you, but I feel good customer service is lacking today, EVERYWHERE and with all of the chatbots and A.I. we feel like we’ve won the lottery when we get a live person until we experience that that person seems disinterested, lacking empathy or is just not helpful. 

So, we need to be the opposite. We need to show patients we’re not only interested in their oral health, but their lives in general.  Be a great listener and empathetic when they have a toothache, issue or concern.  And lastly, we want them to know that we are HERE to help them and that we WANT to help them! 

Now I know that this all sounds like a no brainer, but we often get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of our daily responsibilities, that we can become guilty of forgetting to give the patient our full attention. And since we are in the business of fixing teeth, we become desensitized. It happens to the best of us. For example, dealing with toothaches is second nature to us, but it could be the patients first time having one and we need to remember that they can be scared, in pain and just not feeling well.  So, let’s not forget to be empathetic, caring and helpful.

3. Get Creative. In addition to the little reminders that were just covered, we have to be creative and come up with some ways that will exceed your patient’s expectations and ensure they have an amazing experience. I recommend having a team meeting and brainstorm some ideas on how you can get your patients ranting and raving about you and your practice and giving you 5-Star reviews. This can be a really fun exercise and with team participation it gets everyone invested and excited about coming up with new things to try. The next step is to implement a few of the ideas and see what works.  If you make it an office goal to WOW your patients and I guarantee that you and your team will be happier that you’re making a difference in people’s lives.  At the same time, I bet you will have more new patients, fewer patients leaving your practice, growth and increased revenue.

So, let’s recap…Make sure your engine…aka: office is running efficiently and you have everything in order; be caring, empathetic and helpful and lastly; schedule a team meeting to come up with ideas to wow your patients.  After you get things going start monitoring how many new patients that you get on a monthly basis if you don’t already and that way you can track your progress.  You will see that providing superior patient care will not only make you feel better, but it will grow your practice exponentially.

Summer is almost here!  Yay?  What do you do when half of your team wants to take back to back vacations leaving you short-handed and stressed out for the entire summer? I have three suggestions for you.

1. Use time off request forms if you don’t already.  By using these forms, each employee is required to fill one out and turn it in to management for approval.  Though we always want to allow our team members to have some well-deserved time off when they want, it’s not always feasible.  For example, what do you do if two or more employees ask for the same dates off?  Well, requests are approved by the submission date, but if multiple requests get submitted on the same day, you should have a note or disclaimer on your form stating, “Please be advised that multiple submissions of requests for the same dates will be approved based on seniority.”  This way your office policy is fairly stated and they don’t think that your decision is based on favoritism.  The form should also ask the employee if they have a replacement.  Often hygienists and assistants have friends or colleagues in the industry that might be able to cover for them while they are gone.  Finally, once a request for time off is approved, the schedule and all the calendars should be clearly marked so that everyone knows when someone will be out of the office. This way you and the team can best prepare.  Which leads me to…

2. Cross-train your team. Especially your front office if you have more than one person at the front desk.  The many years that I worked as a practice manager, I often dreaded taking time off because I knew I would come back to a pile of paperwork on my desk.  Train someone else to reconcile the Dayend reports, post insurance payments and get the deposits ready so your cash flow isn’t affected. Also, each position should have a list of their tasks and responsibilities. Prior to the team member going on vacation, the list should be reviewed and the tasks should be divided and assigned amongst the remaining employees.  By working as a team and helping each other out, all of the practice’s daily operations can run like normal and that’s the goal.

3. There will be times when you will have to look outside of using your existing team to help cover. Using a temp agency is a great option.  If you haven’t built a relationship with your local or online agencies, reach out to colleagues to see who they use and who they’ve had success with.

So those are my three suggestions to get you through the summer with little to no stress.

In today’s competitive market, delivering quality dentistry alone isn’t enough to have a thriving, successful practice. So how can you set yourself apart from the dentist across the street?

Providing superior patient care. So how do we do that? I have three suggestions for you.

1. Check your engine…let me explain. I’m often told by dentists, “Candice, we need more new patients!” Well, the best type of referral source is word of mouth. So, I always advise before a practice shells out thousands of dollars on external marketing, to first focus on what’s going on internally. The analogy that I like to use is if someone goes out and spends a lot of money and gets a brand new, paint job on their car with new tires and rims, but they check under the hood and there’s no engine. So first make sure your office is running smoothly and efficiently like a well-oiled machine. Make sure you have systems, protocols and office policies in place so everyone is on the same page. This makes for a seamless office visit for your patients because we want to concentrate on making sure your existing patients have an amazing experience. Otherwise, you spend money on marketing, you get new patients, they don’t have a good experience and they don’t return to your practice. That’s money wasted, am I right?

2. Care…yep just one word. One of my favorite quotes is by Lewis Howes, “People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” By showing patients that you care when providing a service from start to finish makes all the difference in the world. And I don’t know about all of you, but I feel good customer service is lacking today, EVERYWHERE and with all of the chatbots and A.I. we feel like we’ve won the lottery when we get a live person until we experience that that person seems disinterested, lacking empathy or is just not helpful.

So, we need to be the opposite. We need to show patients we’re not only interested in their oral health, but their lives in general. Be a great listener and empathetic when they have a toothache, issue or concern. And lastly, we want them to know that we are HERE to help them and that we WANT to help them!

Now I know that this all sounds like a no brainer, but we often get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of our daily responsibilities, that we can become guilty of forgetting to give the patient our full attention. And since we are in the business of fixing teeth, we become desensitized. It happens to the best of us. For example, dealing with toothaches is second nature to us, but it could be the patients first time having one and we need to remember that they can be scared, in pain and just not feeling well. So, let’s not forget to be empathetic, caring and helpful.

3. Get Creative. In addition to the little reminders that were just covered, we have to be creative and come up with some ways that will exceed your patient’s expectations and ensure they have an amazing experience. I recommend having a team meeting and brainstorm some ideas on how you can get your patients ranting and raving about you and your practice and giving you 5-Star reviews. This can be a really fun exercise and with team participation it gets everyone invested and excited about coming up with new things to try. The next step is to implement a few of the ideas and see what works. If you make it an office goal to WOW your patients and I guarantee that you and your team will be happier that you’re making a difference in people’s lives. At the same time, I bet you will have more new patients, fewer patients leaving your practice, growth and increased revenue.

So, let’s recap…Make sure your engine…aka: office is running efficiently and you have everything in order; be caring, empathetic and helpful and lastly; schedule a team meeting to come up with ideas to wow your patients. After you get things going start monitoring how many new patients that you get on a monthly basis if you don’t already and that way you can track your progress. You will see that providing superior patient care will not only make you feel better, but it will grow your practice exponentially.