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One Hiring Strategy I Guarantee You Aren’t Considering but Should
Contrary to popular opinion, hiring people is not easy. Recruiting the right candidates and making sure they are good hires will take a lot of work on your part; in fact most companies can't do it perfectly without any help at all! Nearly three-quarters of businesses...
How to Re-Establish Systems At The Dental Practice
The last year has brought about many changes in dental practices. Most offices have spent the last 12 months trying to keep the office running and that has meant pushing aside some of the important systems and protocols that we rely on to keep things running smoothly...
DentistryIQ: Why Office Manuals Do Not Work
As Originally Published in Dentistry IQ on February 9th, 2021. Here is the problem with the idea of buying an operations manual “off the shelf”: Every office is different. Every business does things differently. Each task is done specifically the way that particular...
The Best Way to Train A New Dental Hire
When a new person is hired, typically the team is excited as it not only offers a new, fresh face to add to the team but it means additional help. The issue with the new fresh face is that when it arrives at your office, most of the team has not prepared for the...
5 Ways to Make Hiring (Almost) Painless
Firing and hiring is probably the least favorite part of the job for most dentists and office managers. In fact, some dentists dread this process so much they hold onto employees too long to avoid firing someone. Not only is it unpleasant to have to fire an employee,...
Training Is The Best Investment You Can Make In Your Team
Henry Ford said The only thing worse than training an employee and having them leave is not training the employee and having them stay. The Best Investment You Can Make In Your Practice Is Investing In Your Team. 40% of employees with poor training will leave the...
Part 2: 6 Things To Consider Before Reopening Your Dental Practice
As dentists prepare to reopen their practice, there's going to be challenges. One thing you can control is how you plan to run your schedule. This post is a continuation from last week. If you missed tips 1-3 you can catch them here. I have outlined 6 things that we...
6 Scheduling Tips You Must Consider Before Business Returns to Normal: Part 1
How to Set Up the Dental Office Schedule For Opening Back Up Wow that elevated quickly, didn’t it? One week we are up and running with a very successful start of the year and the next week we are closed and not seeing any patients or very few, depending on the...
Sending Patient Statements: Tips for Collecting on AR and Balances
How to Send Statements and collect on Patient Balances - Without being the bad guy? In the dental office, we work really hard to do our best to verify patients' benefits. We enter the insurance correctly in the system. We get the most accurate estimate for the...
What Would Laura Do First
What Would Laura Do First I have been an office manager during the good times and the bad times, and I can tell you that we always come out of it. I know that this bad time or dip is not like any other, but you will come out of it. Your perception and approach during...
How to WOW dental patients with amazing customer service!
How to WOW dental patients with amazing customer service! Have you ever taken the time to see how differently your team members define 'good' customer service? This happens all too often with dental teams and we see the effects these differing views can have on a...
Dental office checklists: Your key to systems optimization!
Dental office checklists: Your key to systems optimization! Checklists in the dental office may not be the newest of ideas, however we do see many teams implementing the use of checklists ALL wrong! There are many trainers, consultants, and speakers, who teach about...
Before You Print Another Dental Office Training Manual Try these 5 Alternatives
Before You Print Another Dental Office Training Manual Try these 5 Alternatives I was recently asked "Should office managers have a training manual?" when chatting with one of our members who was looking to hire their first office manager. They also were wondering...
How to create amazing newsletters
How to Create Amazing Newsletters I had a member recently ask me about communication with patients and what we should be communicating in letters and emails. It made me think about the value of sending newsletters to our patients and how important regular...
How to set a new employee up for success at your dental practice
How to set a new employee up for success at your dental practice Congratulations! Either you have just hired a new employee or have decided that you're going to hire a new employee. Bad news, the process isn’t over yet. The first week for a new employee is as...
Managing stressed out attitudes within your dental team
Managing stressed out attitudes within your dental team In a dental office, we have things that happen continuously throughout the day. We have patients who cancel, schedules fall apart, supplies are late, overhead is up, bills are due, phones are ringing, the toilet...
How to ensure busy teams are working efficiently
How to ensure busy teams are working efficiently Being busy and being productive are two very different things. Dentists will often tell me that they know their team is busy and working, but are they busy doing the right things. Are we efficient as a team? Does...
How to balance customer service, patient care, and dental practice numbers
How to balance customer service, patient care, and dental practice numbersWhat happens when the management team is always looking at production and numbers and not focusing on the patients? I see this happening all too often in dental offices. I've been an office...
How to Better Communicate with Your Dental Patients Online
How to Better Communicate with Your Dental Patients OnlineOur patients don't see us sometimes for six months between their appointments and they don't think about us between visits. It's not like they're wondering, “what's going in my dental office? I wonder how my...
Your Team Cannot Read Your Mind
Your Team Cannot Read Your Mind People cannot read your mind. No one but you really knows what you are thinking, your hopes, your goals, your ethics, etc., unless you tell them. People can guess or make assumptions about these things, based on observing...
Overcoming the “Buts” in Your Dental Practice
Overcoming the “Buts” in Your Dental PracticeDescription: Overcoming the “buts” in your dental practice –- is that really the best reason to reject change?When trying to grow your dental office or your dental team, the only thing standing in your way is the perception...
5 Ways to Bring Out the Best in Your Dental Office Team
5 Ways to Bring Out the Best in Your Dental Office TeamIt doesn’t matter whether your office provides the best quality dentistry, has the most high-tech machines, or offers a fancy décor—the most important feature of your dental office always comes down to the team....
10 Tips To Becoming A Respected Leader
10 Tips To Becoming A Respected Leader Defining what good leadership means is hard. Many times we see that leadership may be put upon someone by giving them a title, but this does not necessarily mean they will be good at it or earn respect from others. In...
A Guide to Smooth Sailing: Why Your Dental Practice is Leaking Money and Losing Patients
A Guide to Smooth Sailing: Why Your Dental Practice is Leaking Money and Losing PatientsCan you guess what one thing patients always tend to complain about as a dental practice grows?As published in Dentistry IQHere’s the answer, in my experience. When the...