I didn’t need to be reassured about practices opening back up, I was confident all along. Nor did I ever buy into the notion that people would be concerned about coming in or that “dental spending” (what a terrible phrase in the first place) would be decimated for months or even years to come.
As a matter of fact, it has all been quite the opposite.
Practices that are open have more patients than time and space to see them. While some of that is related to the extra precautions, turnover, and safety protocols; the reality is that supply and demand is in your favor. I strongly encourage you to take full advantage of it. Done correctly, it will result in you having some of the very best months of your career.
It begins, of course, first with your mindset and then tactically with my four by four concepts that I have laid out very clearly over the past several weeks.
The first four being about both preparation and then continuation to ensure you are going on offense in order to make the most of every situation as well as every asset – including your team and patients.
The second four (outlined last week) are all strategic executions and system adjustments to your overall business dynamics and patient experience.
You have everything you need right here to go beyond a successful comeback and into waging the greatest practice growth you have ever experienced.
Why not beat 2019 in just 9 months? You had a head start with January and February plus now you have June through December. This year is not even close to being over.
Your objective should not be just getting by but instead winning on all levels. Step up and create exactly what you want for your future.
Even if you take 30 more days to “transition” back, then run your practice by July the way you want it in January – do everything NOW. You can now make good on your true potential and turn this into a gift, a blessing, and a profit.
In the end, you will build a more stable and prosperous practice, as you well should.
You can exceed all of your goals in the 2nd half of this year; more than you have in the past few combined. It just has to be your obsessive focus to do just that. You have to want something greater than to just “be open” and you have to have a mission bigger than yourself that fuels your passion and inspires you everyday.
Now, I’d like to keep our theme going from last week and turn our focus internally to a handful of actions you should take right now (while you are in this comeback, the coronavirus era of dentistry, restarting your practice, and building your future phase).
Things to do NOW:
Make tough decisions. Stop delaying things you wanted to do all along. I have so many Doctors coming to me to now to finally eliminate insurance. They aren’t making decisions based on fear and desperation, but instead they are making decisions on state of ideal and their ultimate desire. They are saying ‘if I’ve got to dump this money into all of this extra steps and stuff – then I’m certainly going to be paid closer to what I’m worth.’ Seriously, amidst all of the change, why not make the move now.
This of course is on a customized individual basis and rarely are we pulling the plug cold turkey but sometimes. There are still aggressive screening strategies that I have touched on and other schedule upgrades you can make.
The same applies to your team, changes to your pre-payment expectations, and many protocols I have already presented to you. I’m not dictating, I’m only saying why not make tough the decisions you have been putting off and get this all over with now.
For some easier and obvious ones…
Now that you have ample time since you are seeing fewer patients per day, use it for engaging patients with more conversations, more photographs, more questions, and more engagement.
I see some people trying to shorten visits to allow for more cleaning. I think what are you in the business of: helping people or cleaning rooms. You can’t lose focus and suddenly forget your purpose.
Having more time with patients is the greatest gift in the world. I’m not necessaryily talking about the Doctor, it can be team driven all the way. That was an option before, but now it’s a necessity.
Of course, then there is actually diving deep with your patients by asking them, “What do you really want… no limitations, no holding you back? This is your life, what do you want it to be like for you?” You will be amazed at what they will tell you and what they will let you help them with if you simply ask.
This is also the absolute most critical time to ensure every team member is on the same page and that systems are dialed in fully. You must go back and do the “Divide and Conquer Activity” to refine roles and responsibilities.
You have to have clear definition of victories each day and how every team member contributes to achieve them. How does everyone fit together to form the team, control the day, manage patient flow, and ultimately make every patient visit matter?
You can do all the Zoom meetings you want and you can put everything on paper, but a playbook doesn’t mean anything without live interactions with real patients to see just how well everyone is really doing.
It is also time to double down on strong and consistent communication systems to ensure you have more productive meetings, huddles, and trainings than ever before. Don’t think for a second you need less because you are concerned about patient hours. Making decisions out of scarcity and desperation is the opposite of what you actually need to achieve your stated goals and objectives.
You need more check-ins, more accountability, and more communication.
For the final action, I’m going to save because most practices don’t even have room for new patients let alone the ability to schedule the past couple months. However, you must bring in as many new patients as you can if you are in a growth mode right now, but do not sacrifice QUALITY for QUANTITY or VALUE for VOLUME. Stick with your screening guidelines and follow my A Patient Creation System because right now A Patients are looking for a home.
You have the ability to attract more A Patients than ever before if you will just help facilitate it to happen. One of the ways to do that is to double down, no triple down, on reactivation.
This should be self-explanatory. If you are following my ‘every patient is a new patient’ strategy, you are already seeing patients are more receptive to treatment than they once were (no matter how good you are at it). The best place to go to find the more gold is back in the mine where you already know it is – simply dig deeper.
This is also true with Referrals. Everyone wants to help their friends, family, and neighbors right now. They want to share their positive experiences with others. You have a chance to expand your reach and influence in your community if you empower your patients and help them help you.
There has never been a greater opportunity as a business owner and as a Doctor to be exactly who you want, to do exactly as you want, to have exactly what you want, and to make your practice the way you want.
I have laid out last week and this week in not words but actions, not feelings but facts, not theories but strategies. They will lead you to greater levels of success than you have ever experienced before.
