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This episode is all about eyes on fall/winter 2026. Tiff and Pam discuss what's top of mind for practices as they look to the final stretch of the year, including stepping up on re-care and reactivation, how to talk about it with patients, and how to make sure it's incorporated into your practice. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team Podcast Listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I always am. I literally love doing this with you guys. and I more than that, I love doing this with our consulting team. And I have very, very special women on as our consultant guest today. I have Miss Pam with us today, and you guys have actually not heard from her yet, even though she's been here with us behind the scenes for a little while. Getting these podcasts like scheduled and in the system and all of those pieces takes a little bit of time sometimes. And Pam is a prized, prized possession in our consulting department. And I am so excited for you guys to meet her. If you work with her already, you are very excited to hear her on the podcast today. I know there's a few of you who are avid listeners who work directly one-on-one with Pam. so I'm excited for you guys to hear from her today. Pam, I've got you here. We've got the listeners and I'm just so excited to be here with you this morning. You did some prep. I appreciate that. I love the questions and making sure we're ready to go. you prep way more than I do and I value that and you push me to do the same thing. So Pam, thank you for being here. How are you today? Pamela (01:12) Hi, Tiff. I am doing fantastic. I'm super excited to be here. Tiffanie (01:17) Good. And you're here in Phoenix as well. We always say we are just so hot and I think we had some rain the other night and I thought by by rain I mean I got some light sprinkles in the backyard and I thought, gosh, this might cool us down and I mean it did, but it was still like a hundred and five at eight PM last night. So how is it you're like forty five minutes ish from me, how is it on your side of Phoenix? Pamela (01:45) Yeah, we did not get much rain like you. We got like the little pitter patter, but it no, it hasn't rained. I think the storms just go around us. I don't know what's going Tiffanie (01:55) I think so. Pamela (01:56) on, but it just makes it humid, so we know what the Tiffanie (01:59) Yeah. Pamela (01:59) east coast feels like when there's a little bit of rainstorm coming, but yeah, nothing nothing like the east coast, the humidity, but we do get a little bit. Tiffanie (02:10) I agree. I always when I travel and and I tell people where I'm from and Pam, I'm sure you have and will continue to experience this as well. When I say I'm from Arizona, everybody goes, my gosh, how do you do that summer? And I always say, Listen, there's a season for everything and everyone, and I don't have to shovel snow, and I love that. And I would take this hundred and twenty degree summer for two months over shoveling snow any day of the week. And Pam, you've done both. Pamela (02:40) I I have originally I'm from California, so when I moved to Utah to go to college, yes, I experienced shoveling snow and then I raised my kids there. And to be really honest, that's the reason why I moved to Arizona. I couldn't Tiffanie (02:53) Yeah. Pamela (02:54) get out of my driveway a couple of times and I'm like, nope, not doing this. Tiffanie (02:58) No, thank you. Pamela (02:59) So yes, I agree. I would take the two months of the heat and jump in the pool. Tiffanie (03:04) Yes, my fiance says the same thing. He had he says that there were multiple times he lived up in Lake Zend, Oregon area. He said there were so many times that he had to shovel out and shovel back in in the same day and he was done and moved to Arizona. So we like to say we don't have a lot of natural disasters or issues here. We just have the heat during the summer. So here we are. I Pamela (03:26) That's right. Yeah. Tiffanie (03:27) love it. Well, speaking of seasonalities, I think Something that's really fun about dentistry is that there's seasonalities in that as well. Everything runs on a cycle, and we like to talk about those cycles within our consulting and Dental A Team runs off of a few different cycles ourselves. And one of those systems, systematic cycles, I shall say, is scheduling and walking into the fall slash winter. The fall slash winter in dentistry is like a mixed bag. I feel like a few years ago. Everybody was, you know, prepping for September is what we like to call it. And then prepping for October to December to be chaotic and crazy. And then I I really saw a shift within that after COVID. I think the COVID shutdowns were about six months from September, October. And so it shifted and changed quite a bit within that. But we do still see that scheduling really needs to be a high priority in this time period. And I truly believe with everything I have, whatever we can prep and plan for and take the guesswork out, kind of control what we can and let the rest happen around us and then you know, control what we can within that is the best avenue to take. So making sure that we're looking ahead at things and really taking in those killer systems that can really depict how your fall and winter are gonna go are are gonna be massive. So I wanted to take the listeners here, Pam through a couple of systems and And again, this is kind of that seasonality. So we chunk it down and we we see every month or every quarter kind of seeing what does that focus need to be within Dental A Team. This is something that we believe is a heavy focus at this time period in this season. So with that, Pam, I really want you to chat through with me Dental A Team systems for sure, but Pam, you've been a consultant and you've been in dentistry for a while, and you've got tips and tricks and tools. that you brought to our company as well as to the clients that you've served over the years. So I want to pick your brain and speak to obviously Dental A Team systems, but really pick your brain and and kind of see what are some things that you've done in practice, what are things that you're doing with your practices as you're consulting them to prep and plan for this. And one of those spaces and something that's been coming up with a lot of my clients is that recare and reactivation. I know in dentistry and you probably remember this, Pam, I remember this from years and years and years ago, everything was about new patients. And it was like, how many new patients can we get? How can we get them? Spend on marketing, get the new patients, get the new patients. And there wasn't a lot of focus, I don't think, on the other side of it. So keeping the new patients for sure was never a thought, right? It was just get more. And then the recare piece was kind of an afterthought. It was like, well if the schedule's falling apart and we don't have new patients, then we call on recare. And that mindset really did a disservice because if we're not taking care of the people that are coming, like what are we really doing? And I think it gave a little bit of a foothold for things like DSOs to step in and really take over, but we're trying to shift that and practices are shifting that model. And hygienists especially are always really concerned now about what's happening with my patient I've already spent so much time with. So when it comes to recare and reactivation, we'll focus recare first. Pam, what are some things that you hammer in with practices to make sure that that recare is happening, whether it's a new patient or a patient they've had for 15 years? Pamela (07:05) Yeah, great question, Tiff. And I I do feel like I've seen that same shift as well. Tiffanie (07:10) Yeah. Pamela (07:11) So I I think that recare percentage is such a big deal because it does tell us are we bleeding out the back? Are we losing patients that were right in front of us and we could have scheduled them right then? That is the most effective and efficient way to do that. I I tell hygienists give the patient A reason to return. Like notice an area that tells that says, hey, I'm well, I'm looking at this area. Your upper right is having a little inflammation and some, you know, I got just a little bleeding, not anything to worry about, but I'm gonna note that and write it down in your notes so they see you noting it, right? And Tiffanie (07:56) Yeah. Pamela (07:56) that you will come back to say to them, I'm I'm really excited to see you in six months. And when you come back, we're gonna check. check on this and and just you do a great job with your home care. Just do a little extra on that upper right side and we'll see what you can do at home. Tiffanie (08:15) I love that because you're really focusing in on them being seen, you know, and the value of the cleaning. I think we oftentimes say, you know, let's get you scheduled for your next cleaning. And it's like, well, I schedule my next carpet cleaning when it's needed. And I know you're really heavy on the verbiage and the way that we speak about it as well. And and us as a company, we use things like you guys have heard of NDTR. the handoff and the reason that the recare is in there is because we want to put the value on the appointment and not just that routine cleaning. So setting that up where it's like, hey, we saw this, we're gonna check on this when you're when you come back in and then you look at your dose and you do it really sets the value for the personalization, the relationship, and it changes the script on the value of the quote unquote cleaning. What is it I'm trying to remember as I'm speaking palm and I'm not it's not coming to me. What is it that you there's something that you change and I can't remember what it is or you you coach practices through how to speak to scheduling that recare appointment and I can't I can't think of what it is. What is it? Pamela (09:24) Yeah, yeah, no, I know exactly what you're talking about. So I I teach teams to say something like, you know, we consider this a confirmed appointment as a courtesy. We will always send you text reminders by email, you know, let's make sure, let's go up front. You said you didn't get one last time, let's make sure we have the right phone number on on file and If you happen to have a change in your schedule, please let us know 48 hours in advance. And that way we can get you back in. But I really want to check on that one area so that you go back to that reason to return as you're doing that handoff. But I like saying that it is, we already consider this confirmed. As a courtesy, we are just going to send you those reminders. So it's an easy Tiffanie (10:14) Yeah. Pamela (10:15) way to kind of also inform and remind your patients about your cancellation, or we don't say cancellation, right? About your about your Tiffanie (10:24) Yeah. Confirmation process. Yeah. Pamela (10:27) exactly. Yeah. Tiffanie (10:28) Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And what you did there too is they're scheduling in the back office then. So it sounds Pamela (10:33) Yes. Tiffanie (10:34) like you've got hygiene scheduling their next recare, which I think allows for that personalization again and that like importance that's being placed on it. Not to say that other appointments aren't important, but they're coming up quicker. And so when the when you're tied to the hygienist and that is the person you're coming to see, I mean, we've all experienced where a patient, you know, gets switched to a different hygienist or the hygienist maybe moves out of state and they're no longer seeing that hygienist. They're like, wait, where's Joanna? Like I've been seeing Joanna forever and they're a patient of the practice, but they get attached. My fiance's very attached to Amy at his place. Like I've never even met her and I know I know about her because he's very attached to her. The kids are attached to her. And that places value on the appointment and makes it more difficult for us to cancel it. Now recare is phenomenal, tracking that, making sure that there's like in the background, there's constantly recare efforts going on. So we're making phone calls, we're sending out the emails, coming up due, do now, past due reminders, all of those pieces are always happening. Pam, something that I struggle with. practices. If you're busy, what tends to happen is we're like, well, we can't if I can't fit appointments in my hygiene schedule. So I'm not going to call on them because then I'm just disappointing patients. The likelihood of them answering is very slim. And so when you reduce your outgoing efforts, now you need the schedule full and you're just igniting those efforts. You're not going to see a result for probably 30 to 45 days realistically, because it takes like four to seven times your effort to get that return back in. So I beg of you Please make sure no matter how busy your schedule is, you're always doing recare efforts to help you keep that schedule busy. Something that I love to do with my practices, Pam, I think we all do, is really, really, really capitalize on the patient base that they have, not just active patient base. But there's some some practices have been around. I've got one that's been around for like 30 years. It was his grandfather's, it was his dad's, now it's his. And they've got like 19,000 patients in their database and like six thousand active patients for three doctors, right? So I'm like, you guys have thirteen thousand patients that haven't been touched. And I'm not saying everybody's got thirteen thousand, but everybody has inactive patients. Every month patients go inactive. That's your attrition rate. Every month patients are sliding out the back door, like Pam talked about, and we're focused on new patients. You got 24 new patients, but you lost five. You only have nineteen patients added to your patient base. So those five patients, when are they being touched on? So that reactivation program or campaign, I really have them focus, Pam, on those patients who are not active in the practice and just getting touch points onto them like emails. You can do phone calls too, but really making sure we're hitting those people who have an established relationship, just maybe haven't come in, they forgot. What do you what do you do? Pamela (13:43) Yeah, no, I I love that and I think that's really true. I think sometimes in dentistry we think we haven't seen them in 18 months, they've forgotten about us, Tiffanie (13:52) Yeah. Pamela (13:53) but I don't think so. I think that they still think, that's my dentist. And Tiffanie (13:58) I agree. Pamela (13:59) right when they even if it's been two years and they haven't been in, you know, people may not be as conscientious about coming every six months. That's okay, but we still want to reach out to them and whether that's by email, whether It's you're making you know a big email campaign to reactivate those patients, or it's a texting program, right? That you have. I think you know, look for those patients that haven't had an exam and reach Tiffanie (14:27) Mm. Pamela (14:27) out for those patients just to get them back i…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera shares three approaches that will help you consistently and quickly fill your schedule on a daily basis: maximizing your current patients, creating the perfect handoff, and building consistent marketing. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we're gonna talk about what to do when you've got like holes in the schedule. I wanted to have a tactical one. I just came from a practice that is like an amazing same-day converter. but I want to just like talk about like it's very, very stressful when you're looking at your schedule and you just see holes, like holes everywhere. And so, what can we do to fill those holes? How can we make sure you have a very productive practice? and it's not always a marketing problem. It's not necessarily that we need more patience. Let's just figure out how we can do like what are some simple things to help you fill those holes to have a very pro productive, predictable schedule. And like really, there's going to be holes. So let's make sure that team members and doctors have a really good solution. That way we can make sure that we take care of it. So I want to talk to you about like if you're not busy enough, how we fix it, where we can get that growth with predictability, and like three things that are gonna help you consistently fill your schedule on a regular basis. So Dental A Team, we've worked with hundreds of practices across the nation, you guys. This is something that we see. This is something that's common. We consult them in person. We consult them virtually. And it's just something of like filling a schedule is always top of mind. It's always how do we how do we make sure it's consistently up to goal? and I think it's just a discipline. It's not something that is always talked about. It's a, it's how do we make sure, like what are the, what are the core tools to get my system? And I think that that's just a way for you guys to to be able to be consistent and you don't need to worry about as many new patients. Like it's still a thing and I'm not here to just click it away. But this is like, let's just look for opportunities that are already sitting inside your practice that are easy. Again, they're already in the toolbox. Let's just pull these tools out for you. So what are three big areas that you can focus on quickly to help you? So I would just came from an office. It was awesome. I swear this office, like they've got holes and they just make it rain every day. It's like, all right, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna convert? And I will say being really, really good at same day conversion is going to be a great thing. So it's maximizing the patients you already have. So instead of going after new patients, like what are the ones we already have? So what this looks like, we like are gonna look at our unscheduled treatment plans. We're gonna look for patients that are overdue and hygiene, and we're going to make sure that we're reactivating and recare and then making sure we're reappointing all patients. So number one, like a good morning huddle can fix a lot of this. So I love people to prep the day and let's all talk in huddle. To see who has outstanding treatment. And if we are consistently doing this, of every patient who has unscheduled treatment and we schedule them in office, like the fastest, easiest way is like not going and hunting and looking at lists, but it's doing the things in office that day. Also, every morning huddle, which patients need cleanings. You can fill your schedule so quickly with a great morning huddle and with people coming prepped and prepared. So front office team members take notes. Their clinical team should be giving you a wealth of knowledge. And then as patients are coming in, we are going to be scheduling. Any treatment that we can get scheduled and any patients due for cleanings, whether we have an opening or not today, it's good hygiene, good practice for us to get those patient schedules in office. It's so much easier to schedule them when they're in office rather than chasing and hunting them. So, number one, when they're coming in and do it through morning huddle. Number two is we need to have a set process where we're calling unscheduled treatment and recare every single day. I'm not joking, every single day. Let's make sure we have good processes. I had an office. We just worked on it for three months. Everybody, we had a huge list of this. It hadn't been worked in years, and we're like, we're gonna get a process and a system in play. So we listed it all out. We divided the list amongst team members and we went to town. And then every single week we reported how many pay like how many dollars we were able to schedule and how many patients we scheduled. I want to say in three months they scheduled about $500,000 of unscheduled treatment. To me, that is a great use of time in three months. It's an incredible way. Every single week they were doing it. We found out who the best person was at it. What their verbiage was, but we've got to be calling every single day. So you've got to be able to have it. There's so much out there. Unscheduled treatment, usually, like the practice I was in, and they had a bunch of holes. They're like, here, we have so many holes. I went and ran the unscheduled treatment report. They had $1.7 million worth of unscheduled treatment. And in the last six months, they've added an additional 700,000. Now, could that be duplicated treatment plans? Absolutely. But do I also believe that there's a decent amount of treatment sitting in that schedule? You better believe it is. So, with that said, I want you to know that these items can be taken care of. You can get them done. They can be great for you. Get that process. I recommend at a minimum. Let's start with five calls a day on unscheduled treatment, unscheduled recare. Let's just have that. It's kind of like brushing our teeth. Okay. We brush morning and night. We call unscheduled treatment. We call unscheduled recare every single day. All the time. That's just part of what we do. It's part of our process. We do confirmation calls. We do unscheduled treatment and recare calls. We also schedule every single patient that comes in for their treatment. We also schedule every patient due for recare. Another thing that you can do is you can ask when you are scheduling for recare, who else do you have that we can schedule? I cannot tell you how many people we've scheduled from family members. Me and my husband, we don't go to the same dentist. Guess what? We're about to start going to the same dentist. They ask us who we can schedule? We got scheduled together. It's very easy, it's very convenient. Just ask. It's a great way for you to fill those holes. So You are usually sitting on tons of production opportunities that we already have. We just need to dig in our gold mine and actually be consistent with that. The fastest way to grow is usually already just sitting there. So unscheduled treatment, unscheduled recare. Let's talk about morning huddle. Let's make sure we're making those five hygiene calls a day. Like, I'd love you to do more than that. I'd love you to just fill your schedule and always have it full. But making outbound calls on a consistent basis, minimum five up to Tiffany, you sever team call, 50 calls a day. I'm not joking. So Know that five is really, really, really low. And make sure it's a call and a text. Don't just go the the easy way and do a text, a phone call and a text. You get double whammy and call at times when people are gonna be around. So I usually like to make calls around eight, noon, or around four. It's usually when people are gonna be the most around that we were maximizing our time. So we can run the unscheduled treatment list. I always run it every single month. Divide the list up amongst every person. If we have an opening in the schedule where we've got downtime, everyone's expected for every 15 minutes of downtime we've got, we are going to be making. Five calls. You can do it for 30 minutes, but everyone give the script, have everybody do it. It's there. So that's one tip to fill your schedule very easily and keep it full. The next one is gonna be like, let's boost our case acceptance. I kid you not. Like we don't need to go after more patients. A lot of times we just need to improve that case acceptance. So getting really good. I work a lot with offices when we do our consulting on just improving case acceptance. It's one of the fastest, easiest ways to grow a practice is just to get more patients to say yes. If you're a great clinician and we're diagnosing, we should get patients to say yes. I have an office that I've been working with for several years. And truly, what we do for the bulk of our time is we work on their treatment plans and we just improve it and we improve it. We grow them usually a million to two million every single year, just by working on case acceptance, not pushing more new patients, not doing a lot of systems. It is truly just working on case acceptance. So when we have patients that are like, let me think about it. We're not getting treatment plans scheduled. We also have low treatment plans. So it's a closing cases, but also diagnosing enough that's going to be there. If you want to produce your like the goal should be you're diagnosing at least three times what you want to produce. Then we need to be closing those cases. So what we need to do on this is it's strong handoffs. So I usually recommend NDTR. You've heard me talk about it million times. We'll link those if you haven't heard it. Welcome. It's next visit, date, time, recare. So we gotta tell every patient what the next visit is, be clear and concise, what the date is to return, how much time, like one week, two weeks, three weeks. Do not say ASAP. I had an office I've been working with for years, like, I tell them ASAP, and I was like, excuse me? No, ASAP is very different for everyone. We're gonna say when you're scheduling my schedule align, or one week, two weeks, non negotiable. How much time is needed for that appointment and also recare. I've also had teams tell me, like, Kiera, we already know. I know you know, but the patient needs to hear it. It's gonna help you get higher case acceptance. So everybody says that we involve the patient, we don't just talk to each other. The patient's involved in that. So strong handoff, NDTR. Make sure they all have it. Then after that, what we're gonna do is we're gonna have really strong case acceptance and we're gonna track on a treatment tracker. I have an office that does an amazing job with this. They track every single treatment plan. They come through what is it? They have multiple doctors. How is each doctor doing? What's their case acceptance? How many dollars are we diagnosing? And we review it weekly, if not monthly, across the board. That way, doctors are constantly improving their case acceptance. We're constantly improving our handoff. Hygiene is constantly teeing up treatment. Let's get better and stronger to where we get this high case acceptance. You do that alone. Your diagnosis, your handoffs, and your closes are going to improve. What we track and measure improves. You probably have so much treatment that's not being diagnosed. So hygiene and doctors work on what would doctor do? Let's tee up treatment. Hygiene should be able to. tee up treatment, 90% exactly what a doctor is going to diagnose. Doctors should be able to come in, give a perfect handoff. We then take that up to the front office. And then front office is really, really strong at being able to schedule first. Then let's talk about objections. Let's work through it to get them scheduled. I love a strong treatment coordinator who just closes like, let me think about it. Let's work through that. What are the reasons? I have an entire thing on root causes and objections and how to work through objections. So if you guys want to know a couple of objections, I love these. I love to work with treatment planning. and these are just things of what are their objections? So we gotta go into this case acceptance, 80% psychology. Everybody says yes to me. There's always a solution. We're gonna find it together. Assume that they wanna do this. All right. So, like, yes, they want to do dentistry. We present the treatment plan, we edify the doctor, we schedule first. People think I'm crazy to schedule first. Schedule first, it puts it in. We are doing treatment. How you pay for it, that's your decision. But on this, we're going to make sure that we're scheduling first. And I'm not going to say when do you want to get scheduled? I'm going to say let's get you scheduled. I've got Monday or Wednesday. Which do you prefer? Then after that, we're going to then present the trim plan. So it's going to be $76, it's going to be $7,600. Insurance is estimated for this amount. This will be your total out of pocket when I see you on Wednesday. What questions do you have for me? I want you to be rock solid confident moving forward. Now, fun fact, today I was in an office. there's only one gal up front. The other one wasn't there. And I got thrown right back into the saddle. I was answering phones, I was scheduling, I was treatment planning. I was like, whew, gotta see if I still got it or if this is just something I podcast about. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to know Kiera Dent still has it. I'm still very good at treatment planning. Closed every single treatment plan I presented today, had all of them signed, it did same-day treatment today in office, doing this exact formula. Went in, presented it exactly like I tell you here. Every single patient signed, even if they have questions or objections, we then tie it back. Amazing. Let's talk about it. Tell me what's going on. Tell me more. I want to understand. Tie to their driver. Is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity? You go past the no two times. Let's look at it. We don't plant like objections that they didn't talk about. Don't talk about money if they don't bring it up. Don't talk about time if they don't bring it up. Don't talk about pain if they don't bring it up. Wait for them to ask those questions. Don't sit there and plant it. If they don't say it, don't bring it up. if it's a spouse objection, I'm like, what questions do you think they'll have? I want you to be sure you're fully prepared to answer all their questions. At work, absolutely, let's get you scheduled. I, Kiera, would hate to forget about you. So, like, if something comes up, no problem. Just give me a jingle, I'll take care of it. but this way I don't let you slip through the cracks. I would hate to forget about you. They will schedule. Everyone wants to be important. Money, let's talk about it, will never be cheaper, more predictable than it is today. Time, like they should already know that through that perfect handoff. It's gonna take 90 minutes, it's gonna take two hours. Like, We can figure that out. Pain, like this is what most patients experience. Like, don…
Full show notes at the publisherHow do you manage money more effectively? How can you stop being surprised by taxes? How do you turn your cashflow into something predictable? Kiera answers these questions and more, with three monthly habits you can build to create profitability. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today's topic is one of my favorite. It's money, taxes, and making a money-making machine. Yeah. Yay. Let's talk money and taxes. Because honestly, this is what everybody hates. And I'm not a CPA. I'm not a financial advisor. I'm none of those things. I'm just a girl who loves to help practices be more profitable. Help dentists like make and keep the money that they deserve, but doing it in an ethical way as a smart business owner. Because honestly, do you know how many people come to me and they're Kiera, I just want to become the CEO of my business because I don't get it, I don't know how. And I love Helping people become competent running their businesses through systems, team, vision, you name it. I love to do it with you. So what I found is like a lot of times doctors don't have a production problem. They have a money management problem because you don't freaking know how to do it. You learned how to drop that box. You learned how to make that. This one was funny, guys. Like, why in dental school did they tell you you're doing an I L F filling? Like, come on. Like I remember seeing that and I was like, wow, dentistry. Or like I love when there's new people and they're like, Yeah, doc, we need a B O. And I'm like, All right, or we could do like an OB, like it's fine, whatever. Or like I remember someone was like, What's a do? A DO I was like, my gosh, that's hilarious. So there's so many things like you've learned all that, but you didn't learn how to like manage your money and talk about it. So I have seen so many practices where they're a multi-million dollar office, but guess what? They're strapped for cash, they're not able to do these things. And the goal is not to like just produce more, it's to build a practice that creates consistent wealth for you. Now, team members listening, I want you to know you want your doctor. To be insanely wealthy. Like you do. You want the practice to be wealthy because you want it to be cash flowing positive. Because if it is, you're happy. It's more stable, it's more confident. And I'm not saying like, I want your doctor to be wealthy. I want them to do well. You do too. Because guess what? If they're doing great, that means you're doing great. So I want you guys to walk like, how do we manage money money monthly? How do we stop getting surprised by taxes? And this is Kiera's tactical way of doing it. Talk to your CPAs. I'm not able to be that person, but I'm gonna give you some quick tips that work really well. And then make sure your CPA validates and does it that's best for you. And then also, like, how can we turn this into predictable cash flow? Like that's what you're looking for. So let's do it. And to me, this is where I just see so many. We work with hundreds of offices across the nation. We're Dental A Team, we're experts in dental consulting. We work with dentists and teams. We either are virtual or in person, we're obsessed with making your life better. We call it the yes success model, where it's focused on you, your vision, your team, getting that organized, business fundamentals, earnings and profitability. And then system structure and scalability. Like, how do we take it and turn it into that? That's what you're looking for. You want to make more money, you want to have less time that's spent in the office, you want to have more efficiencies. Like, let's do that together. That's what we're about. And really, today I get jazzed about this because so many offices are like, Kiera, I don't know where my money went. Guess what? I was that way too. Like, truly, it's so obnoxious. Because I know you are producing it. You need to just make it. Like, and how scary. I think about poor dentists. Like, You go out, you do your fillings, you don't know if you're gonna get paid for it. You hope and pray that someone's collecting that money, but you will literally have no idea. Then the next thing is you get slapped with taxes, and you're like, my gosh, I have no money. Let's get you money. Like you went to dental school, you have so much debt on you, like you deserve to be a profitable business owner. So, like I said, just three things. Sorry about that. I'm just gonna yank this. Three things that you can do that are monthly habits to create profitability. You good with that? Let's get profitability. cash flow and financial confidence. Here we go. So number one, dun dun dun dun, it's super sexy and not. All you gotta do, you gotta review your numbers every single month. Not when you're nervous, but as a consistent thing. You can join me. I've talked about it so many times. I call it the MMs. It's morning money meditation. That's it. Just do it. Like roll over. I turn on the call map or I'm into Joe Dispenser right now. there was another one I was listening to for a hot minute. I think it was called I don't even remember. Was called. I can't even tell you guys. I don't remember. It was like this activations, I think is what it was called. That one was a fun one. It was like manifesting like multiple millions, like whatever you want do. but I meditate, I get my mind right, and then I look at my bank account. So join me on it. But I feel like a lot of times people just they don't know it, they don't get it, they just hope their CPA does it. my financial advisor will get it. I don't need to look at this. I'm just gonna do dentistry. Like, no, pull your head out of the sand. You are a business owner, you've got to look at it. So We review our numbers before there's a problem, not when something fills off. So things to be looking at on a constant basis. What is our collection and production ratio? And I'm talking production in net, not gross. We got to be able to make sure, like, I don't care. I know Delta Dental's terrible. Guess what? That's all you can collect. So stop feeding your ego. Let's feed the family. Let's look at real numbers. What is that percentage? It needs to be at 98%. Half of you have a money issue, not because you have a money issue, it's because your team's not collecting. Teams, collect the money. We did the work. Collect the money, fight with insurance, fight, fight, fight, get that money. Like you've got to. So we need to know what those two numbers are and you need to be at 98% collections. Okay. That's number one on your money. Number two is what's your overhead? Should be at 50% or less, 20% doctor pay. You gotta do this. What are we spending in those categories? So I like to look at our payroll percentage. I like to look at our supplies, labs. those are like the main big ticket items within that 50%. Doctor should pay should be sitting between 20 and 30%. All right, let's look at that. Then beyond that, there's also probably money sitting in your AR. We should never have more than one month's worth of AR sitting there. So if you're producing $200,000, your total AR should never be more than $200,000. That's just the way the game works. So those are things we're gonna look at. All right. You gotta look at did we hit our goals, production, collection? What's our overhead? Did we overspend? Why? What improved and what did it? So we're gonna look at our PL. So I look at. All of our team, all of our clients, they're on add it to analytics. So you usually have an online analytic. We build a KPI scorecard for all of our clients. Every client has it. So we're looking at what's our goal? What's our production? Is it red or green for that week or that month? Is it red or green for the collections? What's our collection percentage this month? What's our collection percentage year today? Because some months are gonna be low, some months are gonna be high. That's normal business. But we got to make sure we're collecting enough for our BAM, our bare ace minimum. And if not, we need to have savings for that. All right, so we have all that. Then we also have an overhead calculator. I love the overhead calculator. I'm obsessed with it. We finally nailed this overhead calculator. Like it is, it's dreamy. Because what we do, I like to see this. It's a rolling month. So for those of you watching, great. I'm gonna share a screen. For those of you who are listening to the podcast, I'll explain it. Don't worry. So on here we have a scorecard. So this is one of my favorites. It's the overhead one. So what we do is we have our goals. So we set in our goals. Like payrolls 30%, supplies are 5%, labs 7%, facility and equipment 8%, advertising 2%, less you're in growth mode, office supplies less than 1%, insurance half a percentage, professional services. We put in there your consulting fee. You're welcome. I want you to see that you can pay for consulting and be profitable. Bank charges and fees, I hope and pray they're less than 3%. They should be lower. And if not, you can get with Moolah. Phone internet utilities, less than 5% or 0.5, excuse me. And then other is usually 1%. All that totals up to 60%. That means our doctor pay is probably gonna be sitting in at 20% or 30%. How can we trim this? A lot of people can produce more and have less payroll. We can outsource different things. Could we get our supplies lower? Can we order things differently? Labs, like let's look at that facility and equipment. Can we get that lower? Can we reduce our rent? Advertising, office supplies, could we get that down to a half a percentage? Professional services, like what if we got it to 1%? Or one of the fastest, easiest ways is we boost our production. And it's gonna actually offset it and get it to a 50% overhead. Then what's amazing is we have our year to date. So what is it? What's our collection amount? We always want watch that. Year to date, and then we do a difference. So what's amazing is as you scroll through, we do January, February, March, April, we have our total overhead. What's our doctor W2? What's our doctor distribution, doctor salary? I want to see what percentage it is. This really quickly shows you what's my overhead, what's my doctorate, and then what's my EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. What's our total expenses, not including debt services? What's that? We want that to be sitting at 80% or less. And it gives us a dollar amount. So we're able to see it month over month and then year to date where we sit. What's the net profit? So in this practice, because they're at 60%, their net profit can only be at 10% unless our doctor pays lower. I don't really care how you do it because distributions are distributions. So if you want to take the profit, you want to leave it in the business, you got to make sure that the practice is paying for your life. Then we have all of our debt services. This is usually where people get stuck on cash. You're stuck on cash. Because you have your profit, but then your profit doesn't pay for your debt services. And then after your debt services, those debt services a lot of times are not tax deductible. So then you're getting whipped on the other side with your taxes. It's really just this like yin and yang back and forth. Then we look at it. Now, taxes, we put it at 37%. Talks to your CPA. That's the highest tax bracket. You might not be there based on what your profitability is. But we have all this. So this way everything's dialed in. Every single month we're looking it over. I'm obsessed with this because I love it. I made my CPA make one of these. What's our difference? How is this? What's our year to date? We go over this every single freaking month. Give the PL. Let's fill this in. Let's teach you how to do it this way. The more intimate you are with the numbers. I know people are like, I don't want to fill this in. Can you do it for me? No. I'll teach you one time, but then you're gonna fill this in. Why? Because if you look at this every month, think you're gonna get better? Yes, because what you track and measure improves. Okay. So that's what we're looking at. When we talk about our numbers, when we talk about these different things. This is how you review your numbers monthly. I kid you not. Now, my gym trainer, I'm gonna talk about her a lot. You guys, I went on a really incredible gym training. All right. I decided when I turned 40, which I'm still like anybody who's got some good tips for like I'm halfway to 80. Do you guys realize that? Like, shoot, that's a moment, okay? Like, that's a moment that I'm still processing. Anyway, I decided I was going to be fit and 40. And I was like, I'm gonna be the best shape of my life. So my trainer and I have been working out with her for about two years. We set a goal. I hired this incredible photographer. His name is Kai York. He's out of Spain. Go check him out. His photography is absolutely incredible. And I was like, I'm gonna do this incredible fitness journey. And I'll tell you, she was like, Kiera, you've been working out for two years with me. She said, if you want to get to what you want, you've got to start tracking your metrics. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Food, food, food. Daddy daddy da. I'm so busy, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then I was like, fine. So she made me do this like intake form again. And the intake form said, How committed are you? And I remember writing, I'm 100% committed. How committed are you? So I went back to the coach. He guys, I'm a little sassy. My coach and I have come to like this really good place with each other. we have a very great relationship, and I'm super thankful for her. And what was crazy is I went all in. I am on 80 days of tracking my macros 100%. I usually hit it right on track every single time. I'm not perfect, but I am consistent. I weigh in every single day that I'm home. So we weigh in, measure, do all the measurements every single day consistently. We were like three months into this journey. And I was a girl who was anorexic as a girl who was like never gonna get on a scale. I was like, I don't track it. And she said, Kiera, like we worked a lot on this of anorexia things. And if it ever got to a spot where I felt like it was trickling back. It was a no-go. But she helped me see that like I'm just using this information to be able to make changes in my life. I was using this information to see, okay, if I ate certain things, how does that impact my weight? I wasn't going after a certain number on the scale. Our ultimate goal, because my my vision is that when I'm 90, I can freaking run faster than my grandkids or people younger than me. I want to be this like freaking ripped 90-year-old lady with cotton candy pink hair. Like that's that's really the vision. I don't want to be frail. I don't want to be feeble. Yes, I'll sit there and like crochet and knit. I'm still gonna do…
Full show notes at the publisherSo many offices out there think growth has to come from new patients. Tiff and Kristy share specific areas in your practice where you can increase what you're pulling in. This includes fee analyses, unscheduled patients, a finely tuned schedule, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. We love podcasting. We love giving out so much great information. And more than anything, we really love sharing our journeys with you guys, us consultants here on the team. We get to be in office with you, a lot of you. we get to be on the road, we get to go to CE courses, we take a ton of CE courses. The gal who's podcasting with me today is a CE maniac. she's always just looking things up and And learning and growing. So we get to learn and grow. We get to boots on the ground, test things out, and then we get to deliver those ideas and those thoughts here to everyone on this platform. So thank you for being a valued listener. We hope that you enjoy today's content and please, please, please share with a friend something that we're very passionate about is reaching as many people as we possibly can on this platform and others. So whether you are a current client, a future client, or a forever podcast listener alone. We just ask that you share this information, you pass it along to a friend, so that they can get some great nuggets as well. And Kristy, I have Kristy here with me today. And like I said, Kristy, you are just like a learning magnet. I love it because you just have this broad spectrum, this range of things that you love consuming, and you bring so much knowledge to the Dental A Team consulting team. So, Kristy. Thank you for being here with us today. I am excited for today's topic. and before we dive in, how are you? How has your podcasting been? You listen to, you consume a lot. And then you you're DAT- Kristy (01:37) Yeah. Tiffanie (01:38) someone that consumes but also utilizes what you consume, which I think is a special skill. So how are you? How's your world? How's your learning? What's new for you? DAT- Kristy (01:47) Yeah, it's going good, Tiff. it's beginning of the week, so it's always fun to dive in and hear the things. I think lately it's really been around insurance and getting payments on time. They're doing some sneaky stuff with payments, so keeping clients apprised to that and making sure the revenue's coming in. But beyond that, like you're right. I I do like to to listen and stay up on things so that we can share with our not just our clients, but even like you said, future clients or people listening to the podcast. Tiffanie (02:22) Yeah, I agree. I know you're gonna say insurance. That has been a bug this year. Insurance DAT- Kristy (02:27) Mm-hmm. Tiffanie (02:27) the insurance bug is what we will call it. and DAT- Kristy (02:30) Yeah. Tiffanie (02:30) I love it because I know I can I can pick your brain for so many things and you do stay up on so many forums and you're always reading. but then on the opposite end of that spectrum, like I know I I know you will what does Kiera call you? A truffle, a truffle hunter, right? Like you're gonna find those truffles in the forest. within the insurance and the billing world, but also you love leadership, like growth and development and this the non-dental leadership podcast of the world and books and we're always talking about that stuff. So I think it's really cool and very valuable for everybody and and gives you just a ton of credibility as we speak to a lot of the things we're gonna talk about. DAT- Kristy (03:15) thank you, Teff. Tiffanie (03:16) Of course. and yes, it is early in the week starting my Starting my Monday podcasting is really fun. And starting my Monday podcasting with Kristy brings it down. It's only 10 a.m. and I feel like it has been a whirlwind this morning. So knowing DAT- Kristy (03:31) Yeah. Tiffanie (03:31) that I'm here, I'm like, okay, actually we're gonna breathe. So I hope all of our listeners feel that. Kristy brings a sense of calm to every every space that you enter. so thank you for doing that for me today. I need it. DAT- Kristy (03:44) Absolutely, my pleasure. Tiffanie (03:46) So, Kristy, this is something I think you're really great at. I do go through and and this was the first podcast on our list, and I was like, Yeah, this is Kristy's podcast. If we do no more DAT- Kristy (03:56) Mm-hmm. Tiffanie (03:56) today, it's at least this one. And we really wanted to speak to the podcasting world here and and dental listeners about how to find growth within a practice without physically growing the practice. And this is something that has come up a lot. And I think Kristy. I've at least had a lot of I've been experiencing this. I've had a lot of practices that are like tapped out on space, right? Like physical space. And after 2020, right? The year of 2020, March to December, this massive boom, right? We had this tank of like, what are we gonna do? And then we just had this massive boom and this influx. And so I think what I saw happen is a ton of practices remodeled or they did expansions, they added as much as they physically could. And they're kind of tapped out. I know I have you know some that are like if I build anymore, I don't have parking where my patients gonna park. And so DAT- Kristy (04:50) That's seven. Tiffanie (04:51) they're finding themselves in this space or they're finding themselves in this space where maybe they don't have the finances right now to physically build or the capability and it doesn't make sense to. So we push growth. We're always saying, you know, seven to ten percent, ten percent is our goal, at seven percent is a minimum, a bare minimum to keep up with inflation. And my Clients, you know, a lot of my practices are looking at me like, okay, Tiff, like that's crazy. So I wanted to chat today through some ideas that we utilize and Kristy that you bring to the table specifically to increase that like dollar per hour, that bottom line, that production collection space without physically increasing maybe even our patient base. Cause Kristy also have got a ton of practices. that are struggling for new patients. We're like scraping the bottom of the braille all trying to find new patients. So yeah, that's where we're at. We're just like, how do you grow without pouring water on a plant and growing it, you know? DAT- Kristy (05:52) Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Tip, I love this subject because so many offices think that it all has to come from new patients, you know? And sometimes new patients can be expensive if we're looking for outside marketing, right? And we have so much to tap into within our practices already. And first and foremost, I always like to say when's the last time you did a fee evaluation? a lot of people after COVID. really didn't tap into this. And I speak to doctors almost every day who think they were at the 80th percentile. And when we look at it, they're down in the 40th or 50th percentile, you know? And I also say tip with that, a lot of docs are hesitant to to look at this because they're like, I'm so high PPO. And I always say, hey, if you don't raise your fees, they're never going to raise theirs either. So Tiffanie (06:47) Yeah. DAT- Kristy (06:48) Taking a look at that first and foremost is huge. Tiffanie (06:51) I totally agree with that. It's something that's overlooked. I love what you said about the PPO space because so many doctors are like, what difference does it make? I'm tied to these fee schedules or nobody ever sees my UCR. Well, they do. The insurance companies see it. And I actually have a practice, I don't remember who I was podcasting with, but we spoke about them a couple weeks ago that they do their fee analysis and updates in during the summer. It's their slow time and so DAT- Kristy (07:16) Mm. Tiffanie (07:18) they do it during the summer. when there's space and there's time because January, you know, that's an influx of just DAT- Kristy (07:24) Basically. Tiffanie (07:25) yeah, is it crazy. And so they move that task to the summer, which I think is really smart. And we actually just went through and did a fee analysis and found that they're they have a couple of insurances that are paying in network almost to their UCR fees. And their UCR fees are not low, right? They're getting like a thousand to eleven hundred dollars for a crown. So when we requested a fee increase, right, they're like, hey, we're already paying 90% or 95% of your UCR, so we're denying it right now. And to your point, Kristy, they need to change their UCR because their insurances are following those UCR fees, right? DAT- Kristy (08:06) Yeah. Tiffanie (08:07) And so many practices overlook that and just go with the flow, and they just like muscle memory, they just keep. you just keep doing it, right? You're like Dory, just keep swimming and you just don't think about what's behind you. And increasing DAT- Kristy (08:20) Yeah. Tiffanie (08:21) those UCRs makes a massive difference, especially when you're a PPO dentist in the area that's at that 50th percentile. You need to be way higher. And if no one's seeing those UCR fees, great. Then guess what? You don't have to have that conversation with your with your patients. that their fees are increasing because you increased fees. Like no now your insurances see those fee increases and then you can request fee increases from them for your fee schedules. DAT- Kristy (08:49) Yeah, exactly. I think it's a it's a huge missed opportunity if if you haven't looked at them in a while. And and I like to say look at once a year. I mean, it it really is worth it and it fluctuates. And don't forget your products if you're selling products. Like make Tiffanie (09:05) Yes. DAT- Kristy (09:05) sure you're updating those and looking at invoices. Make sure you're you're charging the correct, you know, a lot of offices don't add on for like toothbrushes and that sort of stuff, you could actually be going in the hole if you haven't looked at it in a while. So Tiffanie (09:20) Absolutely. I have had so many practices that were that look back, you know, they haven't done it in three, four years and they look at it and they're like, my gosh, I'm literally losing money on fluoride. Like, we haven't updated our fees, so my fluoride costs more than what I'm charging my patients. And I'm like, Yeah, and that's an easy DAT- Kristy (09:37) Crazy. Tiffanie (09:38) one. And even like to your point the oral bee and crest and all of them, they increase inflation, right, is everywhere. So if your goodie bags are, you know, costing a certain amount Add that in too. Take that into consideration because you've got to pay for those somehow, and we forget that those freebies are coming out of our overhead somewhere. We've got to make DAT- Kristy (09:59) Yeah, agree with you, Tiff. you know, the other area that I like is looking at your unscheduled patients. I mean, Tiffanie (10:07) Right. DAT- Kristy (10:08) so many of my practices have a whole practice within a practice and and we get busy and we think we we don't have time to call on those. And I like to say it's a proactive and a reactive approach and making sure we're touching it every single day is huge. Tiffanie (10:25) Yeah. Yeah, and to your point, that's a like a reactivation campaign. This is not just it's also including, but it's not just patients who were due last month that didn't come in. Those are very top of mind. We're hitting those. 90% of our our our practices are hitting those recare due. Recare coming up, recare six months past due, one year past due. This is patients who haven't been seen in 18, 24, 36 months because To your point, there's a practice practice within a practice. I have practices, I know we both do. The physical practice has been around for 30 plus years. You may have been the newest dentist, the newest owner. So maybe you've only been there for two, three, five years, and you're thinking active patient count, but you've got 30 years of this physical space being there of patients who per perhaps haven't seen a dentist or been touched by your recare efforts. DAT- Kristy (11:21) Yeah, absolutely. And I love those ones because you already have a relationship with them. So Tiffanie (11:25) Yeah. DAT- Kristy (11:26) you even if you've physically inactivated them, you can run an inactivated campaign and and systematically touch these people to remind them, Hey, I'm still here. We'd love to see ya, you know. Tiffanie (11:39) Yeah. Yeah. I have a lot of clients that do that reactivation campaign and they're like, okay, but what if they've moved? What if they decided not to come? He's like, great, then you get to clean up your system as well and remind those patients, no matter where they live, they need to see a dentist. So if our goal is to ensure that our patients are healthy, you're still handling that because you're still reminding them to find a dentist and To me, those are new patients, right? And you said earlier, like a lot of a lot of practices will put all their eggs in a basket of a new patient. And I think that comes from the early 2000s of everything was new patients. There were so many consulting companies and I just everything we heard in dentistry was new patients. You heard nothing else, new patients in production. And that's evolved a ton because I think people got tired of being new patient mills, right? Where it was like, We see so many patients, but we're not worried about what's happening to them after they leave that first appointment. And that has dramatically shifted. And that's where this comes into play. So even if you haven't physically, maybe you've been there for a year or three years, you haven't met that patient yet, that's okay. That patient DAT- Kristy (12:49) Sure. Tiffanie (12:50) has a relationship with the practice, with the building, it's memory, it's driving up to the place that you've gone. three, four, five times for your dental care. That's my dentist, right? That's my dental practice. So then you have that opportunity now to build the relationship one-on-one with that person as they enter. DAT- Kristy (13:10) Yeah, agree with you, Tiff. it it's look at the number because I bet you would be surprised at how many patients you have sitting out there. And if truly you are at a capacity, you guys can go through those and look at them strategically. If they have outstanding treatment, those patients potentially could be could be coming back in not just hygiene, but in the doctor's chair too. So Tiffanie (13:32) Yes. Yes. DAT- Kristy (13:34) yeah, there's a gold mine sitting out there most of the time, and it just takes tapping Tiffanie (13:36) Yeah. Yeah. DAT- Kristy (13:38) into it. Tiffanie (13:39) I have a practice that had nineteen thousand patients had touched this physical building at one point or another. Nineteen thousand people in this small town. And I was like, Yeah, stop paying for new patients. Just just physically hit those patients with emails. You just automated emails that go out once a month and you're gonna get you're gonna get patients back because I've seen it and you're gonna ge…
Full show notes at the publisherRe-releasing a Dental A-Team podcast favorite! Tiff is on the pod to chat with Kiera about an office she just visited which needed some attention on its collections and accounts receivable. To give an idea of where this practice sits at, its collections are at 80% and case acceptance is at 56%. Tiff shares three points she touched on with this office: Three tactics to put into place to raise collections Establish tracking methods Spun complaints in a positive direction Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we are bringing you something so special. I am so excited because this is one of our most popular episodes from the archives. Whether you're hearing this for the first time or catching it again, I am so excited because it's jam packed with a ton of takeaways that you can start using right now in your practice. We have released thousands, literally thousands of episodes. And I wanted to start bringing a few of these amazing episodes back for you. So I hope you enjoy. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time. on the Dental A Team podcast. speaker-0 (00:32) and you guys don't worry. We say we travel in the Dental A Team, and this time you might actually hear proof of it because I have the one and only Tiffanie Trader back on the podcast. She is getting ready to fly home, just finish up with an office, and we definitely got her to podcast while she's at the airport. So Tiff, where are you at today? How is this podcasting going? speaker-1 (00:54) podcasting is gonna be fantastic because it is because I put it out there into the universe and I am I'm actually in DC, which is funny because it's funny because I thought I I thought I booked a different airport and I thought I booked an airport I had been to and then on the way here I was like, Yeah, I've surely never actually even been to DC and anyways it's been fun. This is how my life is. speaker-0 (01:18) So funny travel story about Tiffanie and airports. We always giggle about this. Tiff, do you want to tell about the one time like this is like real life consulting one one for you guys? Do you remember the time that you maybe missed your alarm? You set like twenty five of them, but that's fine. Like I've seen your phone and there are seriously like, Wake up, no, like really wake up. No, like you've got to get out of bed. Like that's all your alarms that you have. But like what happened that time? Because it was a really funny travel experience. speaker-1 (01:42) Here's the thing, Kiera. I just want to point out that I am in Virginia right now. It's speaker-0 (01:47) Yeah. speaker-1 (01:48) the only state that I have ever, ever, ever had any travel mishaps of any sort have been either coming to or leaving Virginia. I have Virginia stuck speaker-0 (01:59) Is your speaker-1 (02:00) here. I've gotten stuck here on a layover. Like Virginia just doesn't want me to leave, I think. So I slept through my alarm leaving New York, coming to Virginia. because my flight was at six thirty in the morning, which is if you know me at all is not speaker-0 (02:16) It's okay. It's all right. We all make decisions that we shouldn't have done. And I'll be honest, sometimes when we're like booking the travel, we're like, yeah, that seems like a really good idea until we actually have to live the travel we booked for ourselves and we're like, That was a really bad idea. So speaker-1 (02:30) It was a poor choice. speaker-0 (02:32) You're up late. I remember you were texting me late at night that night and I'm like, Tiff, your freaking flight leaves so early tomorrow and you're like, I'll be fine speaker-1 (02:40) Yes, but I was fine because I actually figured out that it was quicker to drive to where I needed to be than to fly anyway. So speaker-0 (02:49) Only after she missed her flight. So it was you know a win. speaker-1 (02:52) Because I had to pivot. I had to be at an office that afternoon and I was like, shoot, how do I do this? So pivot or die is like what we live and breathe by. so I mapped it and I went and I got a car and the car rental guy was like, my gosh, this is absurd. so I drove a car from New York to Virginia and it was by far my favorite road trip of working experience because it was beautiful. I got this in so many I went through It was like fall time, but I got snow, I got fall leaves changing. I have like every possible season. speaker-0 (03:27) It's one of favorite stories that I definitely feel like needed to be recorded for all of our posterity to hear and all of you listeners. So this might be mine and Tiff's like journal time over here. But this is liter speaker-1 (03:36) I think I've I think I've now flown out as of today. I will have flown in and out of every airport in Virginia. speaker-0 (03:45) Well, I'm glad that you're able to get the last one knocked off your list today. but you guys, that's literally the day in life of a consultant. I think it's it's fun to point out the fact that like in offices when things don't go as planned, like literally pivot. I know Tip and I have many times, I mean the time that I almost got deported out of Canada, hashtag I was literally a one hour drive across the border, but no, I flew back down to New Jersey and then back trying to get across the border. And it would have been way better had I just driven. So I think also it's like looking at it. I mean, had we mapped it, now when people are booking travel, we're always thinking like, Could you drive there faster than flying? 'Cause there's always alternatives. So I love it. Welcome to Virginia. I'm glad you're coming home. Glad your office was there. Let's kinda like speaker-1 (04:29) office was in New Orleans. It's fine. speaker-0 (04:34) Everything's fine, guys. Everything's fine. We are totally competent in dental offices and we're about like seventy-five, eighty percent competent traveling. We have that like twenty percent lack that we definitely are not great at. speaker-1 (04:44) It just needed to hit Virginia as a state this year, so I got it in. speaker-0 (04:48) Good job, Tiff. So actually let's like deep dive on your practice you just came from. this is not the topic we were going to go on, but I just realized like we're talking about you leaving an office. Kinda walk us through some of the things you just implemented in that practice that you were in, just so people can kind of get an experience of what it's like having a consultant in their practice. speaker-1 (05:05) Yeah, I think that's fun. Yep. So this was and I love a bit or die. speaker-0 (05:10) Don't worry, we had a totally different topic, but like why not why not just keep with this consulting travel theme? speaker-1 (05:16) I like it. So yes. this is my second time in the practice. This was Ashley actually saw this practice probably like a year ago, I suppose. so she saw them first and Ashley's no longer with us, wildfires, crying, lots of tears. speaker-0 (05:29) Decided to get married and move away and become a practice manager. It's fine. That office got real lucky. I shout out to them. speaker-1 (05:37) Yeah. So anyways, this is their third visit. So it's really cool to see the progression and the growth that they've experienced, but then also like the holdups that they've had. So it's like, yes, we've been consulting them for a little over a year now. but there's still so much to be done. So this week what we did yesterday and today was we focused really heavily on collections and AR because they're just struggling a little bit in that area and they're having a hard time dialing it into where it's coming from. So it was really fun because we saw the issue and then what I did was I kind of worked my way backwards, right? Because I think in any practice you can find something that's wrong and then I can tackle that person. Right. So I can go straight for the billing representative and the office manager and be like, why aren't you collecting? Where's your money? But it's not just them. that are the the only cause of that, right? So the only effect of the cause. So we backtracked, we looked at everything, we realized, hey, patients aren't always getting signed treatment plans. Like patients aren't even they're not always getting told what they're going to owe in the first place. So then when they're coming in, it's a little bit more difficult to collect because I noticed we have a crown you know, a crown was in last week and they paid a hundred dollars. And so if you know anything about Crowns in dental insurance, typically a hundred dollars is not going to be the copay required. So I thought, okay, why is this patient only paid a hundred dollars? Well, probably because this patient was not prepared to pay the six hundred dollars that he had owed when he came in. So we kind of backtracked. So we figured out, okay, our collections percentage is low. It's about 86% for last month, and overall for the year they're hovering in the mid 80s. I like to see ninety eight percent for my practices or higher. I usually tell my Medicaid practices, Medicaid slash PPO providers, ninety-three to ninety-five percent just because Medicaid takes so long. So ninety-eight percent is what we're looking for here in this practice. So eighty six percent was like, my gosh, how are how are we paying the bills? So we back chopped and we started implementing they did NDTR for us like a boss. We've done that twice to the guys don't know the N D T speaker-0 (08:00) And you're new, that's a perfect handoff. So next visit, date, time, recare. And I will say it's magic sauce when people do it. So good to know this office was which is great. It's good. Like Tip, I love that you're breaking this down. And I think offices should do this. Like when you find a gaping hole, don't go after it. Look at all the pieces that factor in to find out where is the true breakdown. So we already know that the handoff and the doctor exam is spot on. We are crushing that. Our handoffs are good. Our doctor exams are great. So that's not the cause of the collections being low. Like good job Tiff of checking that box to ensure and I hope people are able to see that that that's what you're doing in this. Like you're assessing to find out where the breakdown is at. speaker-1 (08:38) And I think that's right. And as you're saying that, it made me think of like treatment planning, right? So doctors, you go in the operatory and if you just looked at a tooth and you saw this this piece of decay, right? No x-ray, nothing else. You just look at the tooth, you're like, okay, there's decay there. We need to get it out. Let's do a filling. Okay. So you do a filling, you get in there, because you haven't looked at the x-ray yet, you get in there and you're like, holy cow, that's not the only problem. So I think of it as like You go in, you look at the tooth, but you also look at the x-rays and all the other evidence that you have. You look at you know, intra-oral photos, you look at structure, all of these items to assess what the patient needs on that tooth. So if you look at the x-ray, maybe the x-ray shows like all of this patient's pain is actually stemming from a huge abscess at the root of the tooth. Had we not looked at the x-ray, we might have just tried to fill it, right? So I kind of think of that of something like that when I go into practices. So I do see, okay, there's an issue so we're we're bleeding money right so there's an issue but what's the root cause of it so I think that's great what you said Kiera because it made me think of that like it's really we go in and we dig for the root cause so overhead is high collections are low so what's the root cause so handoffs are working great the diagnosis is there the treatments there the schedule's pretty full right they're producing 120 grand with two doctors and two hygienists that's not bad per month so we really diagnosed. So we ramped up treatment planning with the front office, ramped up treatment planning, which should ramp up over the counter collections, and then we tackled cancellations, which I think cancellations across the board, across the country, and all of my practices have been really high lately. I think it's just a product of the mentality that we're living in right now, and a product of what we've become. So that aside, we just set some new goals. So Over the counter collections and collections in general, they I set them another goal. So their goal now is 98% by the end of the year. Okay, and remember they're at about 86% now. Case acceptance, they're doing dollar for dollar. So case acceptance, dollar for dollar is set at 75% is their goal. They're hovering at about 56% right now. And then I want to see cancellations at less than 10% every day. So they'll do that by week and they're tracking all of those items. It is actually really fun to hammer in the collections because the front office ladies are like, I don't know what I don't know why she keeps saying collections, collections, why are you saying collections is an issue? We collect the money. We collect all the money over-the-counter. We we don't let patients leave without paying. And so I said, Okay, totally fine. So, what we did was we set, we created a new tracker, right? So I created a tracker for them for over-the-counter collections. If they do not collect in full from a patient, they've got to put it on the tracker. So it's just in their Google spreadsheets, something the office manager can check in on, but it's going to hold them accountable. So number one, I saw that you know we had a few patients we weren't collecting over-the-counter 100% from. So there should be some names on there. Number two, they're not going to want to fill out the tracker and they're not going to want anyone to see your name on there. So hopefully it will ramp up that over-the-counter collections. But then also they had a good point. If they feel like they're collecting over the counter correctly, maybe it's on the back end where it's like our claims, you know, our treatment plans are are not accounting for downgrades, and maybe our claims are coming in, EOVs are being paid, and we're left with balances, it will show. So I took the problem, diagnosed what needed to happen, implemented three items and three different goals that should help. And then allowed them the grace and the space to say, okay, fantastic. We're gonna push real hard on these items to ensure that your over the counter collections is happening exactly how you're saying that it is, just because I want you guys to kill it. And the proof will be in the end. Right. So if I see that over the counter collections is better and now our overhead is decreasing our collections is higher, then I know we tackle the problem. If it's not and it stays where it is, and we start saying, okay, it's actually left over after insurance, we actually tackled that problem as well because we've we have our insurance, the team who's doing the insurance verifications are gonna start they're putting down grades in now. so that should be resolved as well. But it was kind of fun to see where it's like sometimes we think we'r…
Full show notes at the publisherIt's a common trajectory: Dental schools create great dentists, but they don't create good business owners. Kiera shares three critical (but attainable!) tips for creating a profitable, scalable, and enjoyable practice, so doctors can continue doing the work they love. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I'm excited to chat with practice owners, office managers, and to kind of just talk about like what every practice owner should know. But I think a lot of us learn that too late. Myself included, I feel like business owners, I feel like we are great at our craft, but at business we learn it a little too late. And so I think that like I looked at all of our students at Midwestern and they learned how to be great dentists, but they didn't. learn how to become great business owners. And we hear this all the time. I'm not saying anything new. I just think that a lot of practices hit ceilings because it's not their clinical skills. It's the business outgrows their knowledge. It's like, hey, take me to the moon. You're like, I've never been to the moon. And so I think just being able to help practice owners today realize in office managers, like leadership systems and financial decisions really are like the core. That's why we call it the yes success model. So you, that's the leadership, systems and earnings. Like that's really what makes up a successful practice. But I feel like that feels so easy. But I want to just walk through like what are three things that every business owner needs to know to have a profitable, scalable and enjoyable practice. You guys the Dental A Team like we work with hundreds of practices across the nation from startup practices to multi-million dollar offices. And what I realize is the challenges are all the same. Like it's fundamentally stays the same. It just gets bigger or smaller based on the size of practice that you're in. And so I think so many people know how to work really hard. I think so many people outproduce their problems. I think so many people they just it I hear all the time when people are calling to work with us, like Kiera, I just don't know what I don't know. And so today I just want to go through like, let's just talk about three things that I feel like every single business owner needs to know and some tactical ways that you can implement this. So hopefully it takes you from being stuck to unstuck. If you've heard this in the past, maybe you're hearing it at a different time. I know for me these are three fundamentals that I go back to no matter what phase of the business I'm in. No matter what size of practice I'm in, none of that. So number one is going to be your leadership is like completely the like growth of your business. And your business will never outgrow your leadership. And so your business is a reflection of you as the leader. I remember reading Jocko Willink's book about that extreme ownership. And it was like everything about your business is a reflection of you. And when so when I'm frustrated of the systems or the scalability or the lack of accountability, that's me. And so when we have that. I hate this, but I love this. Is where can we get consistency? Where can we stop the firefighting? Where can we like make sure that we've got stronger accountability? And where can we make sure that the doctor's not carrying everything? Because I think so many doctors are like, I'll just do it. I got this. Like, I I'm a hard worker. I know how to GSD. I know how to get through this. But I'm like, okay, we've got to figure out how like being a leader is not just a title. How do we create more clarity and how do we create more consistency? And how do we develop leaders and owners within our organization? And so for this, like when I look at our leadership and how for you not to get stuck in that, like being a great leader is being able to make hard decisions. Being a great leader is how do I create clarity and consistency for my team? Being a great leader is how do I make sure that my team understands the numbers and we use those numbers to guide our decisions. we were going through a whole list the other day of of topics of leadership. And I was like, gosh, I like leadership is It's a journey. It's an evolution. It's not something that you just do overnight. and I think about Kiera as a leader when I first started and she was erratic. I was like, I was turbulent. I had so many pieces. but leadership is maturity. it's how do I get people to buy into a vision? How do I rally them and how do I get them to buy into a vision? How am I to be a CEO versus a manager and really understanding the difference of those two hats? How do I have time management where I Truly focus on the most important things, not just because I'm capable of doing it, but because I'm the only one that can do it. How do I delegate and work through my team? How do I like learn people and work to their strengths and work to their superpowers? Working through my team, not just working with my team, using my team. How do I have the art of influence? How do I grow my team members into incredible people? How do I see that potential when I'm hiring? How do I hire better? How do I figure like leading, managing, and holding people accountable. How do I have consistency? How am I an example, but not the one who has to do everything? how do I value my team? Do I see them as an asset or a liability? How do I help my team feel valued without being the one who does it all? Like there's a there's a there's a great quote over here today that says I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is try to please everybody. And that's by Herbert Swoop. And I thought about that as I was prepping for the podcast today of That's I think in leadership where I'm not trying to please everybody. I'm going to make decisions that upset people, but I'm always going to make decisions that are in the best interest of the business. how do I own my mindset and make sure that I'm showing up with that clear, sharp mind? How do I have like mental health and grit and make sure I'm having that? What about creating culture, getting a team of ownership, having like my office manager, doctor, duo and having that relationship? What about performance management of my team? So when I look at this and I think about this, like leadership, like you developing and growing as a leader. And I think that when I go back to this of like a lot of owners just think like I owned it, I got the title of a leader. But leadership is this evolution and this journey. It's becoming, it's evolving. It's all those pieces I listed off, and yet it's not a, it's not a checklist. Like, how do I learn to listen and not react? How do I learn to have my team come up with solutions rather than me? So I rattled off a lot and all those can hit people at different phases of business. And I believe that I can check one of those off and then I can move. And then my team will double in size or our business will double in size. And I might have to go back to the beginning and the basics again of like, all right, I gotta figure out again how to work through my team. we went from having where me and our team was doing it to where now we're bringing on the C suites and the leader I need to become to manage a C suite versus the leader I needed to be. Run when Tiff and I were just running the business together. The way I act and interact with my EA and personal assistant today versus when I first had one. It's an evolution. It's a leadership. It's an evolution of who you are. And so it's how do how do we become better at leadership? And I would say listen to podcasts, read books. some I I go back to fundamentals. I read the go giver constantly, I read traction a lot. It's so but boring. Like, sorry, Gino, it's very boring. read the book, How to Be a Great Boss, Crucial Conversations, Discipline Without Punishment. Those are just some great books, but also look at great leaders and what do they do. For me, I'm a big mimic and mirror. So I talk to people, I talk to dentists that have really great cultures. This is why I love our mastermind group. I bring the best of the best of the best together. And I know because we work with all of them and I know our dentists personally, I have a lot of my great core leaders that I know are just dynamite leaders. I have them share what do they do? How do they have it? How do they have performance reviews? How do they give cr like critical feedback? Some of the dentists early on in my career. I had them practice these conversations with me, like literally would have to send me voice memos. Practice your leadership skills. Use a consultant. Let's talk through how we're gonna have this conversation, how are we gonna talk to our team about this? But really I think like if I break it down to the nuts and bolts, it's how do I get a team to buy into a vision? How do I make sure that we hold accountability and ownership? And how do I make sure that I maintain consistency and clarity? I think if I boiled it down and that's a rift on my own side, like not prepped, those would be the pieces I'd boil down. And so how do you become a stronger leader in those areas? And again, there's just indecision is worse than a wrong decision. And so just making those decisions, being more confident in yourself. someone once said like 2.0 is sitting here, and I think about Kiera 2.0, like she wasn't born, she was created. Leaders are not born, they're created. You've got to like flex and strengthen that leadership skill because your practice can never outgrow your leadership. And if you want to get to the next level of growth, whether that's financially, whether that's profitability, you have to flex and become a different leader. If you've got pure chaos in your office, that's you. If you've got people who aren't falling through, that's you. And that doesn't mean you have to go fix it. I mean, that's you tolerating that. And that's the standards of your practice. Your business will always fall, not to what you say, but what you tolerate. And so being that leader that raises the standards, I this year I was annoyed. I was like, okay, we're going for outcomes over activity. I realized I was tracking activity, but that's not moving our company forward. We need to be tracking outcomes. Our team is flourishing. But me as a leader, I need to be looking down the line and seeing, and I need to be developing myself as well. I go to the gym, I put myself into a complete fitness competition where I wanted to get to my best physical, like PRs, physical fitness. I went through A cut. I've never done a cut before. I push myself physically, mentally, often because to me that's a a different pressure test that's gonna sh like allow me to show up better as a leader as well. So it doesn't even have to just be within your practice. Discipline at the gym, discipline in working out, discipline in how you show up, discipline in how you eat, those things are going to make you a far superior leader. I will tell you. Going through a cut where I had the least amount of calories, I was the strongest, most sharpest leader I've ever been. And I was exhausted. But I knew I needed to show up and I needed to be stronger and I needed to think better ways. So those are going to be some zones hopefully that will help you on leadership. The other one that I found that a lot of people miss is we talk about so often, but systems truly do create freedom, not restrictions. And I think people think that they need to have really strong and lots of systems. And even our team was doing this, but realistically. There's just a few core systems that need to be in place. There's not a lot of systems that actually need to be there, but they do need to be consistent. They do need to be scalable, and they do need to be followed through on. And so when we look at it, our team was going through and there's there's business fundamentals like core value, vision, mission, org chart, meeting cadences, figuring out our BAM, figuring out our projections, looking at our overhead. Like those are business fundamentals. And then there's systems. And we actually broke it down and we're like, gosh, if we just put into place like 10 core. Most things are going to get better. Most things are going to get fixed. Most things are going to get resolved. But they're not sexy. They're not fun. They're not things that I'm like, my gosh, like, let me get on a podcast and tell everybody, like, let's just fix these seven items. But that's all it really is. But I think that what happens is we want to continue to scale. We want to continue to build. For me, I want to reinvent, reinvent, reinvent, reinvent. But that's actually not something that's going to grow us. And so it's like, Just having KPIs that we track and monitor and we use those to make our decisions, having a solid morning huddle with an agenda, following set meeting cadences, having proper handoffs, having a proper scheduling protocol, having case acceptance protocols, having a collections protocol, working on new patients and referrals, having a period protocol, recare reactivation. Like those are really core items that if you have those systems where you follow them and we scale them and everybody's doing it the same way, 95% of your problems get fixed. Of course, there's other ones. There's hiring, there's onboarding, there's leadership, there's all these other ones. But I think so many people don't want to just be at the basics. We want to reinvent the will. We want to do these things, like have job descriptions at the end of days. Like just do it. It's boring. It's not fun. People are like, wow, wow. We have to have a a morning huddle prep sheet. Why do pilots have checklists? Like the checklist manifesto. They create freedom, they create predictability, and they create systemization. That's all you need to do. And I found that when offices follow it, when we have it in place. And for me, I also don't want systems to be something that people have to remember. How can I have it as a true system like Chick-fil-A where their burgers come out with three pickles every single time? How do I make sure that our schedule has the same system every single time? How do I make sure that our our handoffs have the same thing every single time? And I don't have to hope that 15 team members remember it. We're gonna put this in to where we have it consistent every single time, no matter who's doing it, no matter what new team member comes in. That is scalability with systemization. And so have it documented, have it simple, have it repeatable. That's gonna get duplicated. So I think for offices, systemization really that that's the core. That's the systems. It's not sexy, but it is very, very effective. And then the third things that I think a lot of people don't realize, including myself, is you have to know your numbers better than anyone else. That's better than your CPA, better than your financial advisor. You have to know, and that's not just production, that's profit. Like I remember someone said, production feeds the ego, profit feeds the family…
Full show notes at the publisherDo things feel a little disconnected between team members in your practice? Tiff and Dana discuss the common signs that usually mean your practice could use a communication refresher, and then give advice on what can be done about improvement. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back at you on the podcast slash video cast, which is still really weird to me. I think I spend more time getting prepped and ready for the podcast than I do for coaching calls, which is wildly, wildly annoying. And here we are. I secretly do wish that we could just be off camera still, but I I know I enjoy watching the podcast and Aaron watches podcasts every morning. So here we are. Dana, you are my favorite podcaster on a Friday. I love ending my week with you. I love beginning my week with you as well. You are an amazing podcaster and just an incredible person. How are you today, Dana? DAT-Dana (00:44) Doing pretty good. Excited. I know this is a good way to like have a solid Friday. Get some tip time. Tiffanie (00:50) It is. DAT-Dana (00:51) Get to get to chat. it is a great way to end Tiffanie (00:54) Yeah. DAT-Dana (00:54) the week. Tiffanie (00:55) I agree. I agree. And I I was excited because I forgot what the schedule I look at my schedule a million times. This week has been weird. and I look at it a million times, a million times. I even put podcasting in a different color on my calendar so that I know that it's like it's coming. And then this morning I was like, Happy surprise podcasting today. Like two hours ago, I was like, my gosh, this is wild tough. I just can't get it together this week. But alas, I think it's because Brody's birthday threw me off. He turned eighteen and that has been spinning my world. So here we are, Dana. You have littles at home. It's summer right now and at the point of recording this, we all have we all have some sort of children at home on some level. And how are how's your summer over there going with the with the clan? You have a whole clan. DAT-Dana (01:44) Yeah, it's going good. It's it's super busy. Tiffanie (01:48) Yeah. DAT-Dana (01:48) I feel like, you know, I get to summertime and I'm like, vacation and relaxation and it never happens. Tiffanie (01:54) No. DAT-Dana (01:56) but they're enjoying what downtime they get. They're enjoying, you know, being in sports and and the sunshine. So it's good Tiffanie (02:03) Good. DAT-Dana (02:03) overall. Tiffanie (02:05) Good. And I feel like school comes like school starts back up so fast. Like you think you have time and then it's just summer's gone. DAT-Dana (02:14) Yeah, I know. I'm like I can't believe it'll be here in like a week, really. Yeah. Tiffanie (02:17) Literally. I know. Up here, in Phoenix they started going back to school last week. My nieces already had a week and a half of school. DAT-Dana (02:24) my gosh, that's Tiffanie (02:26) I know. I know. But modified year round, that's what we like to do around here. And I think East Coast, they really don't go back until most of them don't go back until after Labor Day. So then they're like wildly thrown off with the mid July start of school. DAT-Dana (02:41) Mm. Yep. Tiffanie (02:42) But here we are. today we are talking about leadership and that's one of our favorite topics. I think Dana, you and I definitely thrive in the leadership world and like communication is really, really massive. I think both of us thrive on communication in our personal lives as well, and just really, really look for those opportunities to create clarity, create trust, to be vulnerable. and all of those pieces. And today's conversation kind of encompasses all of those, I feel. And it has been coming up for me a couple of times, Dana you and I spoke. You've had it come up a couple of times on coaching calls as well. And really talking about and looking at that transparency space. between a doctor and a team? And I think you and I have some really phenomenal ideas on this. And first I wanna work through kind of workshop with you backwards. Like what is it that a doctor can maybe find in their lives that says maybe we need a little bit more communication or or this space isn't as evolved as it could be? Like what are some signs and symptoms that you've seen within teams that say, hey, we're not connected a hundred percent and there's a gap here because I do think Dana a lot of times the team knows and notices, but oftentimes the doctor, like to their credit, they're doing dentistry. They're over there working, they're head down and they don't always realize that there's a gap, but the the team does. So what are some of those signs or symptoms that you've witnessed with your practices recently or previously? DAT-Dana (04:21) Yeah, I think a couple big ones are when it's hard to delegate. I think to when like expectations aren't met, oftentimes there's a gap in communication there, as well as team members not feeling bought in, right? And Tiffanie (04:37) Mm. DAT-Dana (04:38) yet we feel like we're saying all the things, we're explaining all the things, and yet team members don't seem really bought in or really aligned. with pieces, I think those are three that I notice pretty routinely in offices that there is just either a communication gap, a trust gap, or something, there's a disconnect somewhere. Tiffanie (04:56) Yeah, I love those. I think that's spot on. And within that like delegation and expectation and maybe even follow through. So maybe you've asked for things and the team's not doing it. you've asked for systems to be put in place and they're just not getting completed, or you see you maybe implemented some systems to get a specific result and we're still not hitting that result. those are huge, Dana. That was that was phenomenal. And Some of them that I've seen too are like an upset manager, like an easily upset manager or a frantic manager, a frantic front office team. I feel like they get hit with it the hardest when there's a a gap and a disconnect and the like frantic or overwhelmed. I actually was listening to a podcast yesterday that was talking about the idea of like actually listening, of being a good listener. And one spot that it brought up was this sense of overwhelm where a lot of people will come to us and say, gosh, I'm overwhelmed. There's too much on my plate. And so then what a manager or or an owner will do is say, okay, well let's look at what you got. Let's figure it out. And and I remember I told Kira this actually probably July. So probably like six months ago, I told Kira this. I said, Kira, you can find you and I are phenomenal at finding space in a calendar. We can find blank space and and time in a calendar for the duties and the things that I'm supposed to get done. Right. And I think managers will say that too. Like, yeah, I can see the time and we'll look at things, Dana, and be like, I think they should be able to do this. So if they can do the things, but they're saying there's an overwhelm, this podcast talked about it's not necessarily always, sometimes it is, an overwhelm of physical tasks, like things that need to get done. Oftentimes it's an emotional overwhelm that's overriding the tasks that need to get done. And so the the emotional aspect of it and sometimes it's that gap in communication can create this whirlwind sense of not being able to accomplish the thing. So I've seen that a ton in front office team members and managers where they're like, gosh, I can't get to the I can't get to the unscheduled treatment calls. Because I I don't have time. There's no space. And I'm like, it's it they're not gonna answer. Like, leave a voicemail, send a text. Like ninety-nine point nine percent of the time people aren't answering the phone. So it really doesn't take that much time, but that's not the actual issue. Like, there's a root cause underneath that we have to dig into, and all of those things that you said, Dina, those are the symptoms that something else is going on. And I think usually it's an emotional. space and a and a communication gap or an emotional distance between two people that causes that. DAT-Dana (07:53) Yeah, I completely agree with you. Tiffanie (07:55) And I think even at home, right? Like sometimes we're like, he never takes all the trash, or he never does this. I have to do everything. And it's like maybe we just haven't connected on an emotional level to be able to see the contributions that each of us are making. Like we're so disconnected that everything is then something. And I think that happens I say really all the time. Relationships are relationships, they're just like formed a little bit differently, but your connection and your communication is relatively similar. So if anyone can see themselves in any of that, a team member, a doctor who's here, or a doctor who might think like, wow, I thought everything was okay, but I do hear the word overwhelm a lot or stressed or tired or I don't have, I don't have, I don't have time, I don't have space, I don't have s a spot to do it in. If you're hearing those things over and over and over again, it might be more of a trust gap and a communication gap. than an actual physical tasks gap. So I beg of you before jumping to hire a new team member, because Dana, how many times have we witnessed that we must need someone else? And I'm like, you've got 16 people for a DAT-Dana (09:08) Right. Tiffanie (09:08) four op practice. You're fine. Or how DAT-Dana (09:11) Yeah. Tiffanie (09:11) many virtual assistants do you need? Before we jump to hiring a new person, number one, take a look at the space that you have. Dana and I have countless times. talked through an org chart and an ops manual and all those pieces. We talk about those all the time because they work. So take a look at the space that you have, like what you're trying to create, what your practice is. What is the organizational chart? How who do you need physically? Not the people you already have, but like the seats. What are the seats that you need in your practice to be successful? Because if all those seats are filled, now we need to take a step back and say, okay, great, why isn't this working? And If they're not filled, awesome, let's hire. But if they are filled, now it's just working reverse engineering backwards. So with that, Dana, how do you think the trust gap, right? Because I I really think communic communication gap is like when there's not communication happening, it's very easy to say we have a communication gap. But really what it boils down to is that without that communication, my trust is broken because I'm trying to figure things out. DAT-Dana (10:23) Mm-hmm. Tiffanie (10:23) So how do you feel are some common areas or ways that that trust gap is created between a doctor and a team? DAT-Dana (10:33) Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think the first and foremost thing that I see, and I have an office that really, really struggles with this. And it is that like the doctor will announce things or share things before they're Tiffanie (10:46) Mm. DAT-Dana (10:47) actually fully 100% in place or going to happen. And then when it doesn't happen, or he changes his mind, or he makes a different decision or pivots down a different path, the team members one feel like whiplash. Right. And then two, don't always know when to trust the office manager and the doctor in that it is actually going to happen. Right. So when to prep themselves and when to really start to get things into place because oftentimes they've started those pieces and then it just feels like time or work wasted because the decision pivots or changes. And so it's really, really broken down. Trust in that way because team members, one, aren't really sure if things are really happening. And then two, frustration happens on doctor and leadership when they're like, Why aren't they excited? Why aren't they bought in? Why aren't they ready Tiffanie (11:32) Yeah. DAT-Dana (11:33) to go? Why aren't they super motivated? Right. And that's because the team is like, Well, it's changed 35 times. And so we're just kind of waiting until we know for sure because we don't want to feel like we wasted our time, our energy, our effort. Tiffanie (11:45) Yeah. Yeah. I all I think when that not when I think a lot of times when those things happen, the team muscle memory reverts back to the original way of doing it. So then you've got a billing representative that's sending paper claims because she's like, I know this works, right? Yeah. DAT-Dana (12:03) Yeah. Yeah. Tiffanie (12:04) Yeah. And then you've got a doctor that's like, I'm paying AI Yes. DAT-Dana (12:08) I wanna be super tech savvy and I'm paying AI and we're still sending paper claims. Yeah. Tiffanie (12:14) Yes, and an office manager who's like, Well, I don't know what to tell you, but I've got an overloaded plate of things here 'cause I have people coming in my door constantly crying and saying they're overwhelmed. Yeah. Yeah. DAT-Dana (12:26) Yeah. Yeah. Tiffanie (12:28) And I think that's a common thing and I I I know that it's really exciting to like be on the threshold of innovation. And dentistry is constantly innovating. And within that, we've got you know the scanners and the tech and the AI and the I mean, gosh, like the AI like pearl tools that are reading x-rays and now insurances are starting to use those things like innovation is constant in dentistry. And I think oftentimes what that makes us feel like is that the simple systems that have gotten us here also need to innovate and change. And so we're throwing all of these tech innovations from a back office standpoint now. into every aspect of the practice, but we're also saying, okay, cool, well if I can do this with a scanner, why can't you do something different with insurance verifications? And it's like, I can't even fathom that. And then they're saying, okay, well, try this, try that, try this, try that, try this. And in dentistry, when you're trying to find a new bond and primer, cool, try it until you find the one that works. But when you're overloaded with like to-dos and paperwork is what we'll call it, tasks. It's not as easy to try it and see if it works and continue to do that. So that innovative mind tries to cover so much ground that we do end up with so many changes and it's like a pivot constantly. Gosh, Kira and I had we had pivot. I don't remember Dana when it was. You might have been here for pivot. I don't remember. Yeah. Like I don't remember how long ago it was. That was DAT-Dana (14:04) Yep. Yes. Yeah. Tiffanie (14:08) the worst year of our freaking lives in this company. We had pivot as a core value and we use pivot as a core value because we want to be on the threshold of inva innovation and we want to be able to roll with the punches. Like, okay, great, something came up, great. We we figure it out and we move on is what we meant by pivot. But what happened that year, Dana? What did that year look like? DAT-Dana (14:27) It was chaos because we also used pivot as a reason to be able to like justify lots of change, right? Tiffanie (14:33) Correct. Correct. So we just like constant it w…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera shares ways practices can make patients feel valued from that first visit to their final treatment, including tips for establishing consistency, intentionality, and the genuine connections between it all. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I wanted to just talk about how to help people feel valued. Like, I know that seems so cliche. I know you're like, great, but patience to team members, like, what are some of those secret sauces that just really make people feel that extra ump to feel that extra peace? Because honestly, patients don't leave because of bad dentistry. Patients leave because they don't feel seen, known, or valued. And I don't think it's about being overly nice. I just think it's about being intentional. And so today I want to just kind of dive into something that's going to impact your patients, your team, your leaders. of just like little tips. What are some little ways? And I'll I'll do a patient side and I'll do a team side of how do you help people just feel valued, feel like humans? And the reason I want to bring this up is because I feel like this actually is a like, gosh, it's like the Like the cheat code, if you will, to success right now. I feel like so many people are mean. I feel like so many people don't genuinely care right now. People are just not nice in the world anymore. And so to me, I'm like, this is the cheat code to success. This is one of the easiest ways for you to improve and to win in the patient experience, to improve and to win in the team retention experience. And it's one of those of like, how do we have a full journey and different little things to have? So A lot of pieces that I'm gonna pull from are a book that I really enjoyed, Unreasonable Hospitality. If you haven't read it, read it. That one is one of my like go-tos that I think of often of how can I make magic moments for my patients and for my team. And that's really showing them and help them to feel valued. So a couple of things, and this ties to leadership and this ties to patient experiences. We've got to make sure that we're consistent, having consistency in how we lead, not having favorites, consistency in our patient experience. There was a book, gosh. I can see the title of it. It's blue. You guys are gonna like write me an email and tell me what it is. But it was about this guy who went to the barber. And every time you go into the barber, it was a different experience. So, like the first time he got like a warm towel and a great shave. Then the second time he like got a shave, but not a warm towel, and then he got a drink. The third time, like towel, no shave, no drink. And he left. And I thought about it like. Gosh, if you could just be consistent. I think about Starbucks. People say I go to Starbucks not because they have great coffee, but because I know it's always going to be consistent every time I go. And I think about this like people want that consistency. They want the experience to be consistent. They want their boss to be consistent. Like every single month we do one-on-one check-ins and I check in on you on your life and who you are. And we do morning huddles every day. Like things that can feel consistent with our patients. We have a warm handoff. Like it's A handoff every single time where it just feels like we're a put together movie set, if you will. Like it's like we don't feel rushed. I remember I was in the ER for my appendix years ago. Yep. That was fun. That was a fun moment. And I remember the ER doctor just it felt like he was the nicest human in the entire world. I was not doped up on drugs. at the point, I was in a lot of pain still, but he was so nice to me. And my husband happened to like step out to go use the bathroom and I remember he's like, Kiera, I saw that ER doctor and he was freaking running, like running. But as soon as he got to the door, he like put himself together, walked in, and was like calm as a cucumber. And I think for us in our patient experience, like we don't want to feel rushed. We don't want to feel like we are rushing through. You can be very efficient and consistent and help patients really feel very valued. So for example, we have a very consistent handoff from hygienist to doctor, where the patient's a part of it. We're not talking behind their head. We're talking to them as a human, they're part of it. And like I call it the ICRP handoff. So introduction, compliment, recap the treatment already discussed, and do a personal note. This way the patient feels like you heard me, you listened to me. This hygienist has been actually taking care of me or dental assistants. Dental assistants are a little trickier, I get it. but if we say like, hey, Dr. Jones, this is Kiera, you met her last time. she's been doing an amazing job on her flossing. She's really, really ramped that up. Just so you know, we already chatted. She knows she's got a couple of crowns probably on the upper right. She knows she needs to come back for that deep cleaning. and then she also knows that there's probably a couple of fillings on the lower left. And then just so you know, Dr. Jones, Kiera is headed off to Hawaii next month. and she's just we're so excited for that Hawaii trip. She's gonna absolutely love it. Well, now Dr. Jones can seem incredibly warm. Have a warm welcome, talk to me about Hawaii, compliment me on my flossing. Me as a patient, I instantly feel at ease and I feel like you love me. You know me, you heard about me, you're going to take great care of me and you're genuinely interested in me. Then doctor does the exam. Doctor then wraps up with the next visit, the date, the time, the recare, making sure that's all done. Wishes me well on Hawaii because we've already made that easy connection. That could take five to seven minutes tops from start to finish. And that patient just felt like I had the most incredible experience with that doctor. I felt like the whole team is on board. Then that hygienist takes that front office team member up. Or that patient up to the front office and they say, Hey, perfect, Dr. Jones on C Care back in two weeks. We're gonna start with the upper cro the upper right crowns. We're also gonna get her scheduled for that deep cleaning. Kiera, Sarah's amazing. She's gonna take incredible care of you. We've already got your cleaning scheduled for you. I can't wait to see you back in a couple of weeks. she's gonna take great care of you. Now Sarah picks it up and Sarah schedules me and perfect. Let's get you in with Dr. Jones. We'll make sure you're super taken care of. How was it today for you? All these different pieces for you. Let's get you scheduled. We're gonna get you scheduled for that crown. Blah dah da. Gets me scheduled, sends me on my way. I have a great experience. That feels so consistent. And if that happens every single time where the doctor gets a handoff, the doctor handoffs to the hygienist, hygienist hands off to the front office or clinical team. We say it the same way. We have it. People feel like this experience was magical. They feel like, wow, they like really have their stuff put together. They feel very connected. They feel like they know me. I didn't feel rushed through the process. You can be psychotic, rushed and behind, but that patient doesn't need to feel that because you are like that ER doctor where you are a duck on water and you're just paddling underneath, but you're taking care of all the pieces. And they're judging like patients and team judge the entire experience. So if we're talking about patients and helping them feel valued scene, practice these interactions. Practice how it is. We can practice how the new patient experience happens. Like, what do we say on the phone? How do we schedule them? What happens if it's ringing? Also pay attention to when they walk in. Like, does someone greet them consistently every time? Do we have our coffee bar stocked all the time? Do we have like nice things all the time for them? Whatever our experience is, you don't have to go expensive. You don't have to have, but you just make it consistent for them where they can count on it and it feels welcoming. I will also do a hard, like no food at the front office. It drives me nuts. I can't tell you how many times I've walked in and they're eating, and I'm just like, stop it. I know you don't think it's that big of a deal, but it feels you're in a medical space. Stop that. Don't. Front office, I used to be guilty of this. I had like my little snacks in the drawer. No, go to the break room, get your water in the back. Don't have clutter everywhere. Have it clean when they walk in. Make those patients feel like this is the best decision. It's clean. It's welcoming. Also, if you're on the phone, no problem. You can like wave to them. You can make eye contact with them. You can like point to the drinks. give them a little heart. Like you're so happy that they're there and so welcoming to them. When you answer the phone, smile. Like every single time we smile, we're so happy to answer that phone. and to truly love them. And so if you do each of those little checkpoints, patients feel insanely valued. And then we pivot that to how do we make our team feel the same way? Let's have morning huddles where we do shout outs of core values. Let's have one-on-one check-ins with them every time. Let's every single day doctors like if you need to, I had a doctor set a compliment alarm where you genuinely compliment and say thank you. Not just a Thanks for a great day. It's a, hey Kiera, thanks for rocking that root canal with me today. Like you crushed it. I couldn't do this without you. And I'm so grateful I can always count on you. Very intentional thank yous to your team members. Both sides of that equation make both people feel very valued. Doesn't take a lot of time. It's just very consistent. Other things I feel are just very confident on like next steps. And this ties to patients and team members. that's NDTR. Like, what is the next step at the end of my exam? Like, What am I doing? Where are we going? How much time is this? That way patients aren't defaulting to like, I'm gonna think about this or whatever. Same thing with team members. If we've got one-on-one corrective action, like what is the next step? What is that process? Britt in our company, she does a lot of our operations in HR and she says clear is kind. And I think for both patients and team members to feel valued, to feel seen, what's clear? Like how do I make this as clear as possible? Clear is kind. So what are the next steps? Being very clear on our communication. Making sure our treatment plans are clear, making sure we're asking what questions do you have, not do you have questions? Same thing with team members. Both of these are interchangeable. Like, here is the plan. What questions do you have for me? When we're rolling out a new training, what questions do you have for me? I'm going to send over the plan. This is what's expected of every person. These are the dates. These are the times. This is the expectation of what we're going to do. This way people feel certain. Certainty creates confidence and certainty creates value. People feel like They're ready to go. Like confusion is the enemy of execution on either side. Confusion is where people feel anxious. People feel don't value. They don't feel seen. They don't feel loved. So how do we make everything with our patient experience and our team experience where we have clear communication, where it's drawn out, it's very much where people can just feel solid. You might not like the decisions, you might not like the treatment, but you're very clear. The communication was clear, the expectations were clear. Pieces were very, very clear for you. And then another piece is like, Making sure we have genuine relationships, not just transactional relationships. So knowing people, like so if we have a big case, I'm really big on like calling those patients. There are pe places where you can have automated voicemails so it acts like you call them, but you don't actually have to call them. Medenta was fantastic at this. And you could just have a voicemail after a big case where it's like, hey, care, hey, like, hey, this is Dr. Jones. I'm just calling to check in and see how that appointment went for you. If you have any issues or any pain, please give me a call. I'm hoping that you're doing really, really well on all of this. You don't even have to the patient's name, but it feels like you cared about them. what are check-ins? How can we check in to see how they're doing? like when patients come in, remembering little subtle things about them. So if care is going to Hawaii, we put it in our notes and we ask her, How is Hawaii when you come back in? Those little simple things create relationships. Same thing on the one-on-ones. If someone tells you that they're going on vacation, ask your team member how was that vacation? if it's their birthday or anniversary. What ways can I foster the relationship? And to me, this is where I tie into unreasonable hospitality of how do I make magic moments for these people where they're like making meaningful moments in the everyday moments. So how do I help people feel seen, heard, and loved in both of them? So we don't just stop at checkout for our patients. We don't just stop after the one on one. We know them as humans. shout out to Tiff with her consultant team. She does Tiffany's connection time. And she literally like meets with the consultants, talks to them, connects with them as humans. And I love that she calls it connection time because I feel like that's her building relationships. Connection time with your patients. How do I build those relationships? How do I remember who they are? How do I remember little things? I have a fee for service chiropractor. I love her every time. She's like, So you just got back from Kentucky? And I'm like, Yes. And she's like, How is like in your next trip? You guys are headed out to wherever? Like, I feel she knows me. She has a lot of patience. But people want to be known, they want to be remembered, they want to be seen for birthdays and anniversaries, like big small big team, small team. How do you make that person feel seen, valued, heard? How do you do the small daily things where you're looking out, you're sending out thank yous? you guys compliment each other? Do you guys have a shout-out jar where you guys call out on each other? What can you do to make sure that there's strong bonds and relationships? Because people don't leave offices because of usually money, sometimes they do, but typically it's due to a lack of a relationship, a lack of a bond. Tip told me she said, cure the reason I've been with you for almost a decade. Shout out to the TT Spiffy Tiffy over there. she's like it's because of the relationship we have. And I think about that and I know it can feel like as our team's getting larger, this is something I'm often questioning of how do I make sure team members feel seen, valued and heard. And I will say as a CEO, one of the things I do and as an office manager, Gosh, I hope my team d…
Full show notes at the publisherPrivate practices — ever feel like you can't win against the DSOs? Kiera talks about what your practice can continue to produce that DSOs, with their multiple locations and bigger budgets, can't replicate. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I am excited. Today's gonna be a fun rift of a podcast for you. It's gonna be like, can independent practices like private practice still beat DSOs if you want to? This isn't a rag on DSOs, it's not a rag on private practices. It's just can private practice, independent practices still win against the DSO? Because I think a lot of people are losing faith and confidence and feeling like if I'm not a part of a DSO, I can't win. So I wanna just tickle our brains today. Think about it in a different way and let's have a fun rift because you remember this is the best place. Dental A Team is the place where we are obsessed about helping you have your best life. We call it the Yes Success Model, where we focus on you and your vision, earnings and profitability, and then systems scale and structure for you. So that way you've got the systems, the structure, and the scalability for long term. I'm obsessed with helping teams and doctors align. I'm obsessed with dentistry. My last name's Dent for crying out loud. I love this. So let's do a good rift. Let's talk about. Can we really still win? It feels like DSOs, they got so much money over there and like they don't have to worry about margins. But I don't think that that's necessarily true. And I do believe last year, now I believe I know, DSOs had their first down year last year. So like I said, there is no I don't have a dog in the fight. My dog in the fight is which I don't even know where that phrase comes from. So if someone wants to pen pal me and tell me about this, I mean I could sure I could look it up. But like if you know, send me an email, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'm Kiera. It's fun. It's fun to have a good pen pal over there. But I I think my dog in the fight is what's gonna be the best for dentistry long term. That is my dog in the fight. I wanna make sure that we as a population, money talks. I don't blame you. Getting a good multiple for your practice, like, why not? You're in you're in the golden era of dental practices. Or so they make it put on paper. Make sure it really is the golden era for you if you choose to go that route. and a lot of people have been very happy. A lot of people have also had the shorts burned off them. Tell me why that's a thing too. Like, How does someone get their shorts burned off them? I also want to know that phrase. I'm here for the phrases today, too, on the rift. And also, I'd love to know your opinion on this. So I'm gonna rift on my side and then shoot me an email. I'd love to hear. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com so okay, the rift today. DSOs are all like, okay, let me just go back, backing it up. Ultimately, I hope that we preserve the sanctity of great dentistry for patients forever. That's my hope. I don't care if it's DSOs, I don't care if it's private practice, I don't care what it is. But I do not dental practices are businesses. I also work in dentistry as a clinician. And I'm not okay with us squeezing margins and compromising care to hit margins. To me, that's just unfair. It's unfair for patients. I look at a lot of things in our healthcare system and I don't love it. And so I think that dentistry has been kind of the wild, wild west, and we've stayed out of a lot of it. And so I just hope that while we make Decisions financially and personally, I hope that we think about our long-term consequence. And that comes for a lot of new ones. I think that there's more senior doctors who have been in dentistry for a long time. Like they're not as worried about the multiples. I think a lot of our newer doctors who have a lot of debt on this, there's an easy cash payout. I would just say and a caution and an ask is let's just remember that we've had pioneers ahead of us who have paved the way. Let's continue to be those pioneers that are able to preserve and sanctify dentistry, whether that's through DSOs or private practices. So that's Kiera's dog in the fight. And I hope that you agree. And maybe you have a different opinion. So like let's have a good conversation. This is what we talk about in our monthly masterminds. So come chat, hang out. I'd love to have you there. okay. So can we win? Here are some thoughts of how private practices can still win against DSOs. So like DSOs, they do have more locations. They got bigger budgets, they've got bigger teams. But I do feel like there's still things in private practice that DSOs can't replicate. So I think the biggest threat is if you feel like you can't compete and you give up because there are ways and you can still win. you don't have to outspend a DSO. You don't need to out execute them. I do think that there's still competitive advantages. And so really leaning into whatever is going to be best for you. And again, remember, my my long term opinion is let's just make sure that we protect and sanctify dentistry for the health of our patients. And yes, I want you to be a profitable business owner. I think you can have both. I don't think it has to be one or the other. DSO or non-DSO. Now, private equity. I do have my opinions about private equity and I don't believe that they're always there for ethical reasons. and so I just say like make sure that the decisions you're making with your practice and your patient is going to help long term, the greater good. So those are my two cents on it. So anyway, just we work with a lot of practices. So I think that there's still ways that you can still compete against large corps, corporations. So number one. I think is independent practices, private practices, they have a connection that I think a lot of DSOs lack. DSOs tend to have a burn and churn model. So patients actually knowing their doctor, trusting their team, feeling remembered, feeling valued, and making sure that it's not a constant churn. Now I will have a call out. There are a lot of private practices that I know that are also on a burn and churn. They're churning associates left and right. They're turning team members. I get that it's hard right now, but I will say that if that's your practice, you are not competing against those corporate organizations that have. run of the mill doctors. So I think that private practices can have a consistent provider relationship. I absolutely hate going to the dentist. I actually have transferred away. Like I can get multiple doctors across the road, guys. I don't know if you know what I do for a living, but I work with a lot of dentists. So if I want sporadic care, aka I go into one practice, but I see different providers all the time. And I know we have the whole phrase of they're provide their patients at the practice, which is not wrong. But I'd say the more consistent you can have of team of providers that's going to help you win. I'm not saying to keep team members just because of longevity. I am here to say though, consistent provider relationships I do think will outshine. Just like I hate getting a new hair person, I hate getting a new nail person. People don't like to change that. So I think that that's going to be a zone for you. So personalized experience and long-term patient loyalty. Those are going to be key places that I think private practices can win. Now, DSL is listening, guess what? This is your edge as well. Like this is how you can have an edge. And ultimately we're all here for it. But these things need to stay and maintain. so I do believe that patients who see the same doctor, the same team for years are much less likely to leave based on price or convenience. Like they're going to stick with you. Why why? They don't want to change that up. I don't want to go show someone else my mouth and have that awkward moment where I just Don't like I don't have this, so just know that it's a space where like you gotta you gotta be connected, you've gotta help them feel seen and known. And I do believe that that's that is a zone. Daos are gonna scale systems, but like being able to scale genuine relationships, I do think is a harder thing. So in private practices, watch yourself. Look to see do you have those genuine connections? Are we scaling genuine relationships? Is that something that we're doing in those personalized pieces? You can stand out and still scale and still be profitable. So I just think maybe like if you're looking at this, looking at your team, wanting to have a reflection, what's a way that we can connect and create more personalized patient experiences? How can we keep like, if we want to keep a patient for life, what's gonna make them want to choose us consistently? If there's a competitor of price, if there's a competitor of convenience, how do we make sure those patients stay loyal to us? another thing I think that private practice can win on is believe it or not, in private practice, you can typically move faster. So I know a lot of people when they interview coming to Dental A Team coming from large organizations, like, I love that there's not as much red tape, Kiera. I love that you can move quicker, that we can make decisions faster, we're more nimble. And I think that that is a a huge selling point for private practices to be able to out outpace. You can have faster decision making, you can have faster implementation, you have less red tape, you've got greater flexibility. That can also create chaos. We gotta make sure that we don't we don't flex too much. But If patients are wanting something, we can usually make those calls. We can have a more personalized experience. We can have like great water bottles. We can have different things that make patients have it. So, like you can change scheduling systems, you can change patient experience protocols, you can have like different pieces that your patients can recognize and see. Where in large organizations, a lot of times it does take like months to implement these items. So I do think agility does create opportunity. And so for you to just look at this and think like, all right, what ways can we be more flexible, more adaptable? Like you don't have to have permission to improve things. So if you don't have to have permission to improve, what are we waiting to improve? What things could be improved upon? How can we make a better patient experience? How can we make a better team experience? there's a doctor that I was talking to the other day, and he said, Kiera, I have like a lifestyle practice and I want to attract team members for that lifestyle practice. And I just thought, like, how crazy cool is that? Because I think like that is the agility, that's the flexibility of a private practice that also makes it a great working place. For team members. Like it's not just about patients, it's also about team and attracting those. So that's another zone where I think private practice can still outpace a DSO for sure. and then I do think that systems can win more than size in a lot of ways. So a lot of times we think bigger is better. And I know a lot of times I'm intimidated as a smaller business, if you will, smaller, medium sized business compared to large organizations. You're like, they just have all of it, but it's not true. So I've seen in a lot of our practices very profitable independent practices, really strong leadership, great patient experiences, clear accountability. And you actually can have scheduling protocols and case acceptance systems and leadership systems and financial systems. Smaller scale practices can actually have great, incredible systems in place. So I do believe that a well-run single location or maybe two or three locations oftentimes will outperform on profitability than larger organizations because of. execution is a lot stronger. So it's having those systems that are clear, having those and I know a lot of people are like, but what systems? And our team kind of boiled it down. There's about like 10 to 15 core systems that every practice that they'll implement and execute on, they're going to thrive. And it's scheduling case acceptance, leadership, like our billing protocols, things like that, morning huddles, very basic, non-sexy, but having those systems is going to be much grander than size. And the larger you get, yes, they try to implement these, but I do still feel like those systems can create those predictable experiences. They can have a more customized experience. And then if we don't like it, we can pivot that system, we can refine that system, we can make it better. So I just think it's like, how do you have the best run practice? Not necessarily the biggest practice. And so I would look at your practice and what are the systems? What are the gaps? Where do we slip? Where do patients maybe fill that? Where does our team fill that? Let's fix that. Let's organize that. Let's let's have that. That way we're able to. To be able to outpace. And so there's lots of ways. I think having those genuine connections, making sure that we've got systems that grow with us, having strong leadership teams, having a great, like, I don't know, community feel. There's just something different. Think about it. I have a fee-for-service chiropractor versus corporate chiropractor. I've gone to both. And one is like run of the mill. I come in, I'm out, checked in, checked out, it's cheaper. But they don't know me. They don't have an experience. They don't spend time with me. I do think time that doesn't mean like, 10 minutes, it means genuine connection time. Those things you still can win. And believe it or not, a lot of our practices are sitting at 20, 30, 40% profit margins. You can still be very profitable and not need to be in a DSO. They have a ton, they can scale a lot, but I also think there's an autonomy piece, there's a creativity piece, there's a branding piece of you being able to brand your location as you, to be able to give an experience that is very custom to you, to your audience. So I do believe that there's still a way that private practice can. win against DSLs. I think there's space for both. I don't think one's right or wrong. But again, like I said, my dog in the fight is whatever we choose to do, whatever pieces we're doing, let's just remember to keep the sanctity of dentistry pure. Let's make sure that we're doing what's in the best interest of our patients. Let's make sure we're not cutting corners on dentistry. We're not trying to fit people in to hit production goals just to hit production goals. We're not compromising the the products that we use to be able to to hit the right profit margins. I believe that being the best for our patients will always, always follow profitability. So with that, right now, let's remember, like relationships, you get it. You guys also have speed and flexibility and agility. And you also do have systems that you can put into place that will like beat size. They have other things. They've got billing, t…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Kristy address why the doctor (or the practice lead or the OM) always end up getting sucked back in to answer questions they shouldn't have to. The pair also gives solutions on how to curb this automatic approach, including establishing clarity, providing the right resources, and being patient when things go wrong. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am back here with you on the podcast. I love being here. I love what we get to do, and I love more than any of that podcasting with Kristy. And I hope that you guys have taken the time to get to know Kristy, that you've seen her on other podcasts, but also that you maybe have chosen to work with her. She's got some incredible clients. Kristy is full right now in the in the the recording of this podcast, but she is really awesome at sneaking in some room there too. We do take advantage of that sometimes. So Kristy, thank you for being here. If they don't know you, I hope they go and figure out who you are. They go scope you if you get some more Instagram follow requests or wherever you're at, just know that's my fault. So good morning Kristy. How are you today? DAT- Kristy (00:49) Good morning. It's a good morning. I love starting my day, actually starting my week and getting our time together because so many times we don't we don't get to work with each other. So yeah. Tiffanie (00:54) Yeah. I know. I agree. I agree. We have like one half hour a month that we pre schedule to make sure that we can connect. but I love that I do get my podcasting time with you guys too. There's more consultants now, so it's spread out a little bit thinner. but when I when I can, I love getting my time with you ladies. So thank you. Thank you for making this easy on me. I'm actually really excited for this Topic today. And just so you guys, you listeners, know the topics, they come from the marketing does a lot of research. Our marketing company, our marketing team within our company, does a lot of research on what some hot topics might be, what dentistry is going through right now, kind of just different areas and different facets of life. And so they do come up with some incredible, incredible topics that we love to spin off of. And with that, if there's ever anything that you guys are experiencing in your world, I want you to know Hello@TheDentalATeam.com is the easiest place to reach out to us or on our website, TheDentalATeam.com. There's a little like chat with us. You can reach out to us and let us know what you're experiencing. We are more than happy to help dive into your cases and kind of figure out what it is. But also that leads to some great podcast topics as well. So if there are things that you want to hear more of. or less of, by all means, please reach out to us, let us know what your thoughts are, because we'd be happy to add some things into the mix as well. So, Kristy, with that said, I'm really excited for today's topic. I think that this is something that no matter what time of year it is, is relevant. And I know that we work with a lot of leaders, a lot of CEO dentists, a lot of owners, a lot of leadership teams, office managers, regional managers. DSOs, like we work with a slew of ranges within the dental industry. And something that I think consistently comes back for all of us. And I think Kristy, you and I actually experience this with the level and the size of practices that we get. We experience it quite a bit. And we've experienced it in our own company. Kiera, I love you. We've experienced this a lot in our own company of DAT- Kristy (03:12) Ha ha ha. Tiffanie (03:16) not knowing where to go for a decision, so you go to the person that you know can make the decision, I guess is the best way to say it. And we've got a lot of doctors that sit in a dental chair, right? They're in their chair and they've got a drill in a hand and a mirror in a hand and their loops on their head and they're drilling. And they've got somebody in the background asking them where they order their paper from, right? Or something, right? Like the the plumber. Well what plumber should I call? Because the Toilets plugs. Like I there's a ridiculous amount of questions that are going on behind the doctor. and it and Kristy, the conversation today is is that the right person? Right? And why? Because I think we both get this question from our doctors, why are they asking them? Right? I my doctors are constantly like, Why me? Why me? Like, well, you're really special, right? Like they I trust you so much. You're just so special. And a lot of it's self-created. We can dive into that. But when we're when we're really truly looking at the end all be all, and you've got your dentist and you've got your CEO, you've got your your different positions within the practice, what are the most common reasons or let's go off of one, Kristy, that you see most frequently? Why is the dentist the one that they go to? DAT- Kristy (04:13) Yeah. Yeah. I love this topic as well, Tiff. And I think just for clarity, this can even work for your your practice leads or OM, you know, a lot of times, I I I told you earlier in one of our podcasts that we create our own problems. And I believe that a lot of times this is our own creation too. Again, not not by choice, you know what I mean? But we have to paint clarity. Tiffanie (04:47) Absolutely. DAT- Kristy (05:08) We have to paint clarity for our team on what things they are free to handle and what things you want coming to you. You know, number one, paint that clarity. And then number two, give them the resources to do it. I'm gonna try to remember the saying, but it it goes something about, you know, our job as leaders is to know how few decisions we have to make truly in a day. And maybe that's scary, right? That's a scary thought, but Tiffanie (05:16) Yeah. DAT- Kristy (05:37) Truly, as the leader, I think you have to paint that vision for your teams and then just continue to reinforce that. Because a lot of times your team's gonna have better answers than you do, even. So clarity, yeah, one hundred percent. Clarity number one. Clarity number one for sure. Tiffanie (05:51) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And resources. Yeah. And I think within that making sure that you have clarity on what w the directions that you're going for one thing, right? Like what how do I make this decision? Because I'm I'm making this decision based on on the end goal for the practice, but also clarity within every job that's within the practice. Like who who would make this decision if not the dentist? So when or if not for for us it would be if not Kiera, right? And I think that's One, it's very easy to see. It's easy for us to see. So it's easy for us to speak to that within our own company. And then we get the luxury of seeing it within dental practices to speak to that. But just truly know, like you said, it it works for every leader in the practice office managers or whatever. But you guys, this is transferable to any business structure because, you know, unbeknownst to you, you own a business. And so your business structure is not dentistry. Your business structure is business. And when we can realize that and take the dentistry out of the business and let the business be a business, I think that's where you guys really truly will thrive. You get so lost in trying to make dentistry the business, but dentistry is what you're doing. You're providing dentistry. The business has to stand outside of the dentistry. They can't Dentistry can't be the business anymore. Maybe a long time ago it could. And you know, maybe you're in your grandfather's practice and your di your father was there and you've inherited some routines and some systems, but the world is different in 2026 and whatever future year you're listening to this in, the world is different, and you have to be able to separate those things. And Kristy, that's I think where that clarity comes in is the business. Where is the business going? Because the dentistry is gonna be dentistry and the dentistry is gonna follow the trends of dental. we're gonna, you know, we're gonna get all the tech, we're gonna get all of those things, but where is the business going so that the dentistry can still happen is huge. And having the clarity around that and the clarity around who would make this decision if not the owner is huge. And to your point, that's where the leads come in, the office manager and like if you're If you need a plumber, right? Dentists, owners, if you're the one who has to make that decision, go back to Kristy's first comment. Like, what dis what decisions do I need to make? Is it the most important decision of your day to figure out which plumber, which AC repair guy, which I don't know, carpet cleaner? Like, is that a decision that you want to make and need to make? And Kristy, I think that's where that space of like, no, actually, this would be my manager. or this would be our clinical director, that that has to be stated and clear so that an office manager or a dental assistant knows who do I go to. DAT- Kristy (09:01) One hundred percent and document those things. I mean, maybe you do have a doctor that's like, My brother's the plumber, so we always call my brother. Then have a list of those items with the numbers and who to contact, you know. But yeah, and to your point too, Tiff, I think so many times we don't create the space for our doctors or leaders to have these conversations. Like running down the hall in between patients is never. the time to do it. I mean doctors say yes to so many things they would not have said yes to just because it's like you know right there and I have to handle it but truly block time to have discussions that are truly the things that need to come to doctor to make the decision. But also as leaders watch how you preface the question. You know I need to call a plumber. This is what I was thinking. You know Tiffanie (09:35) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. DAT- Kristy (09:58) And and then to that point too, Tiff, painting the clarity. If you have a a go-to that you want, make sure that that's vocalized. But then also going back to leaders, how many times do we just answer the question versus asking our team members, what do you think? And I know I hear this day in and day out. It's faster just to do it myself, right? It's faster to do it myself. But I think it was you, Tiff, that told me choose your hard. And it's Britt. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Choose your hard. And the time you take in the very beginning to train your team, this is how we do it, will go so much further in the long run. So give your team the opportunity to answer the question because then you're you're making them think for themselves and not rely on you. Tiffanie (10:31) It's Britt. Britt told everyone, but I love that. I use it all the time. DAT- Kristy (10:57) Again, going back to us creating our own problems, when we answer for our for them, you're not you're not letting them rise to the occasion and grow to the level that you're looking for. Tiffanie (11:08) Yeah. I completely agree. And I think this is something that's so relatable for parents. because in my opinion, I say this a lot, and I think we are people are people and we learn the way we learn, we we hear the way we le we hear and we can grow. We do grow and we physically grow, but at the bottom of it all, we're still people. And when we again like when we treat things so differently, we think, they're adults, they should They should know why. I have so many dentists, by the way, who have said that to me, or so many office managers that's like, why do I need to spell this out? They're an adult. Why don't they just know? And I'm like, because they're trying to figure out what you want. They're not trying to figure out how to solve this. Because if it were outside of your dental practice and they were at home, or if they were on the side of this side of the street in a broke down car, they would figure it out. They're not, they're not incapable. They don't know what you want. And so trying to figure out what someone else wants, trying to intuit the right answer when you have not enough direction to know, but you're trying to please, you're trying to do it correct, you're trying to not ruin a business with a plumber decision, you're gonna just ask the person. And when you just answer, just like a parent, if I just answer every single time, am I giving Brody the space to grow and to learn things on his own when he was little? He used to get frustrated with me, then he kinda he kinda just learned that I was always gonna say it. He would say, Mom mom, how, you know, how did they do this? How did they build that? How did they and he's in the backseat of the car just seeing everything. Mom mom, how did they, how did they, how did they? And I would say, buddy, what do you think? And he'd just come up with these incredible ways that they built the building, that they put the traffic lights in, that they, you know, and I'm like, gosh, that's really smart. Do you also think that And within that thought process of how do we grow our children to become positive parts of humanity, right? And independent to go live on their own and add value to the world. We're doing the same thing for our team members. So if we want our team members to be a valuable piece of humanity and add positive impact to our business, we have to grow them. DAT- Kristy (13:14) Indeed. Yeah. And yeah. Tiffanie (13:34) and allow them the space to grow in the same capacity that we do our own children. Otherwise they're gonna stay with us forever. Right? If I always clean up after the kids, they're gonna have messy houses later, right? And I'm gonna go over to their home and I'm gonna be like, what the heck? What did I did I teach you nothing? No, I taught you that I'll clean it. DAT- Kristy (13:38) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tiff, I love that you talk about that. I know you just have Brody, but you also have some significant others in your life. But I remember even with my son and daughter, I thought my secondborn wasn't gonna talk. And it wasn't that he wasn't gonna talk, it's because my daughter was talking for him. And so many parents can relate to that. And so your analogy is like spot on. But also I you know, I want leaders to hear this loud and clear. Tiffanie (13:58) Mm-hmm. Yeah. DAT- Kristy (14:21) They're gonna get it wrong. They're gonna get it wrong and they're gonna do it different than you. But please give them the space to do it because so many times it goes back to your Brody's mind. They can be more brilliant than we are. I'll never forget the story. I had a colleague t talk to me about buying a copier. The dentist was gonna go get this y you you probably remember back in the days the big Pitney bows, like I mean, it was on, it was a cart on wheels thing, you know. Tiffanie (14:22) Mm-hmm. They're huge. Yeah. Wheels, yup. DAT- Kristy (14:50) Yeah, and they were spendy like a lot of money and he was gonna go buy this. And then actually what happened is he did buy it and the team wasn't using it and he was very, very upset. So then it taught him a valuable lesson that the next time that copier went out, he went to them and asked them the features that they wanted, or better yet, just give them a…
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