Well, how did you do? You realize most never take time out to work on themselves. They just keep going through the motions every day wondering why things aren’t improving as fast as they should, wondering why practices don’t grow like other businesses do.
In life, if you aren’t moving forward, you are moving backwards. In business, if you aren’t making improvements and seeing growing profits, then the value of your business is deteriorating away.
Think of it this way: if you are getting new patients every month, then those patients should be bringing other new patients and you should be growing… if you are seeing existing patients and doing a good job, then they are bringing in other friends and family members, then you should be growing.
If your numbers aren’t compounding and increasing then you must be are caught up in a cycle of repetition. There has to be gaps in your practice where you are losing money, opportunity and patients.
There is that definition of insanity – doing the same thing expecting a different result – that is why I’m so glad so many took last week’s exercise and huddle homework discussion so seriously. You have to be self-reflective, you have to take time to assess and you have to critically look at everything you are doing. That is the only way to improve.
Specifically, last week I brought to you the single most important priority (the first domino if you will), that makes every other desired outcome and success in your practice possible.
Moving patients forward by getting yeses and case acceptance – the creation of dentistry.
Every day you wake up, your goal should be to get more of this. So many people in business spend time working on “a better mousetrap” (as the cliché has always been represented), instead of going out and finding more people to buy the mousetrap you already have.
Only when you have demand is ‘better’ even worth pursuing.
Besides, I have great news: what you deliver now is already amazing, better than most, if not the best in your area. That’s not the problem, the problem is no one knows about it, the problem is you don’t know how to sell yourself, the problem is you aren’t taking control over your patients’ experiences so you can work less and make more by converting more patients into quality, value, money and referrals.
We’ll start my list I promised to give you today and then add more to it next week:
GAPS – where you lose patients…
1. Bad phone calls that don’t engage patients… you run them off before you even give them a chance to experience you by bringing up insurance, answering price questions, not being attentive or connecting personally.
2. Pathetic website that doesn’t do you justice… fancy is not always better, in fact it’s worse because they think you are all about the money. You want personal, effective, educational and something that sells your approach and personality; NOT something that has cookie cutter text the same as every other practice.
3. Not managing your reviews and online reputation so you run patients off before the even call or come in because you have no control over what they see.
4. No follow-up from the phone call, no materials to prepare them for the visit, and ineffective (or non-existent) testimonials ideally relating to their concerns from the initial phone call.
5. Treating new patients like existing patients with your annoying reminders and texts that don’t address the fact that this is their very first visit and not just some random routine visit.
6. No one greeting people as soon as they walk in, or worse yet greeting while doing other things (and therefore a perception of being too busy to be personal and come across like you care and are there for the patients who are in front of you).
7. Practice environment filled with things that take away the core message and culture of what you are; such as popular magazines that are as unhealthy for their brains as junk food for their bodies (besides why would they be sitting long enough to read anyhow) or TVs without education, testimonials or stories (and hopefully no news or soaps or other crazy mind pollution on the TV).
8. Confusing history forms or paperwork that begets questions, intimidates or leave a patient feeling irritated or overwhelmed instead of reassured and informed.
9. No offer to bring someone with them on the first visit; no expectations of timing or the experience itself; improperly structured appointment so they are late or you are late and one or both are rushed before you even get started with the experience.
10. No single direct point of contact for patients to meet and who guides them through this new experience as their advocate for the pathway to health.
Boy, I’m tired. I can only imagine how you feel.
So now it’s simple… take a piece of paper out and read each of these initial 10 out loud. Then grade yourself. Each team member is allowed to give their input and no one is allowed to take it personally. Then no matter if you are doing an “A+” job, you will discuss how you can do it better.
First, answer yes or no, then grade, then discuss ways to improve.
There is not one item on this list that is optional if you want to have a truly patient-centric experience that drives case acceptance. There are details within each of these (specific tactics, strategy, and execution), that leads to greater success.
All of these and the patient has barely stepped foot into the door of your office. You can mess so much up before they even sit in the chair and you have an opportunity to gain their trust clinically to diagnose and be able to help them.
More patients are lost before they ever get to the doctor than treatment will ever be accepted or rejected. Fix this and you’ll automatically double your daily results, case acceptance and amount of treatment diagnosed.
This week I’m going to give you two gifts that are small in size but infinite in value. You can pick both or you can choose the one most fitting for you.
Besides, the Easter Bunny has some leftovers and I don’t want to keep them all to myself – I’d like to share.
1st – If you know you can do better to create referrals, manage your reputation, get out ahead of reviews and you are leaving your website, searches, messaging up to chance or letting your competitors steal away your patients without you even knowing it…
My friend and THE ONLY person I trust on this issue – a true expert and specialist in relationships, referrals, reputation and everything related to getting high quality A-Patients online – just wrote a book taking you behind the scenes of both the effective strategies and the myths other people in our industry have been telling while taking your money but getting you no results. I secured a few hundred copies for my personal subscribers. I have only 32 left… so if you’re game and will actually do something with the information in the book, grab it now…
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When they are gone – they’re gone.
And then… my now super-hot, flying off the shelves, newest edition to the Manning Ideal Practice Book Series (where you can learn to beat out of the competition, fight back again the insurance companies and laugh off the big dumb discount corporate chains) has just been released. And these, well, my team can’t keep them in stock. We just got a new run on them for Spring and I’m letting a few more out the door to help you clean up your act and achieve true differentiation in your practice with your patients.
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There is nothing else that is going to help you to achieve more case acceptance than this right here. If you want to fix these 10 (and next week’s 10) items that are giant holes in your treatment bucket, patient flow and really in your schedule resulting in you working too hard trying to win by volume instead of value – you simply have to have this book.
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And do your homework because I’ll be back with 10 more to add to your case acceptance patient success checklist next week.
