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Kiera gives listeners tips that you can implement right now to start trimming the fat on practice costs and making more money. Suggested actions include reviewing your PnL monthly, buying discounted supplies, utilizing a productive schedule, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.686) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I'm so excited to be podcasting with you. I hope that you guys are loving it. I hope you're loving your life. I hope you guys are just enjoying this beautiful ride that we get to call life. If you're loving the podcast, I encourage you to please go leave us a review. Those reviews keep us as the top dental podcast out there. And our goal is to have this podcast in the hands of every dental practice out there. So please share it, tag us, leave those reviews, share this with the dentist, post it in a Facebook group. You helping us helps us reach our mission. Um, and my goal is to just really, truly positively impact the world of dentistry. Remind us that this is the greatest profession. And today I wanted to go through some not so obvious ways to cut costs in a practice. Uh, right now I know that there is some trickiness around fees and insurances and inflation guys like, shoot, I'm in it too. Uh, I was talking to my coach the other day and, uh, we just looked back even like four years ago of what we had for job postings for certain positions. And like that's archaic fees now. And I do think things are shifting and settling, but man, I thought let's get on a podcast. Let's do a short, quick tactical for you of some not so obvious ways of cutting costs in a practice. And if you should actually do them, because we've been seeing a lot of threads out there where you guys focus on cutting costs, but there might be another way to do it. So just diving into it, let's think about our two levers when we're looking at our costs. There's lever one, cut costs. lever to make more money, right? I think about our own budgets, our own lifestyles, we can either cut the costs or we can increase our paychecks. Like that's really how we do it. Or we do investments or different things like that. And so when I look at this and it's crazy because when we interview consultants, I actually have a very similar question to this because I feel like most dentists realize if I want to get better production, I just need to cut my costs. But the re or profitability, excuse me, if I want better profitability, I just need to cut my costs. But like, is that really the case? It's kind of like, let me go line item by line item by line item. And I'm sure some of us with the inflation have gone through and we've cut out the unnecessary. So I'm not saying to not look at that PNL. I do think like a few things that I'm gonna give you a tactical is number one, if you're not reviewing your numbers, AKA your PNL, AKA your profit and loss statement every single month and looking line item by line item by line item, that's a great opportunity for you. I actually do mine every single quarter. So I look at my numbers, I look at our profitability, I look at our overhead every month. Kiera Dent (02:23.406) and every single quarter I go through, I kid you not. Here's mine is, right here. I print out every statement and as you can see, there will be pink highlights over there of things to check. Is this our correct budget? Is this allocated correctly? Is this put in the right chart of accounts? Are we still needing to pay for this? This round, I was actually able to find like we're not using some of the pieces that we thought we were using. I cut those subscriptions. There's no reason to continue on. Jason and I in our personal life, we only hold onto one streaming service at a time. So we'll rotate between Netflix and Paramount Plus and Hulu because we feel like if we have all of them, we're not even utilizing all of them. So using one just forces us to use that. Then we shut it off, open up another one, shut that one off, open up another one. And it's crazy and that works for us. My husband's also very, very, very, let's say conservative, cheap, whatever you want to call him. But I actually love that it's a solution I had never thought of. And so in your dental practice, like, is there a way that maybe we don't have to pay for all the things and we could get a little more creative with it. But again, like a streaming service is like $10. And I'm not to say that 10 or 20 or 30, don't worry, I know Netflix is like clear up there on the 30 a month. That doesn't seem like it's going to be a lot, but every penny does count up. So when we're looking at cutting costs, I really do say like, let's not cut unless there's a way that it's actually going to move the needle forward. Like, In our Tesla, we were paying $10 a month for the car karaoke. I was obsessed with the car karaoke when we first bought the car, but guess what? It was novelty and it wore off and I've just been paying $10 a month. And I looked back, we've owned our car for two years. That's almost 250 bucks that I've just been paying and not even using. So those are the types of things to cancel if we're not using them. So that's one way to cut costs. And I do believe you should do that. So check your numbers every single month and then also run your PNL quarterly just to see is there. anything that I can possibly get rid of that we're not using that's moving us forward. The next thing that I see of cutting costs is using a company like Synergy or GPO, or it's a group practice, where you're able to get discounted rates on your supplies. I love Synergy, I recommend them. Be sure to tell them Dental A Team sent you. But Synergy helps a lot because what they do is you're able to still use Darby or Patterson or whatever one you're using. Kiera Dent (04:39.662) but they just have so many dentists buying that they're able to basically get it in bulk. Kind of like what you would see at Costco, where we're able to get reduced pricing on things. Like you guys, I went and bought a beach towel at Costco the other day because at this other grocery store, it was like 30 bucks for not even as nice of a towel. And Costco had these awesome towels that were super fluffy and way bigger for 10 bucks. Well, how am I able to get it that much cheaper at Costco? It's cause there's lots of us paying members. and we're able to get that price reduced. So synergy is a great way for you to get your supplies cut lower. And then also one thing I love is putting all of your expenses in the P &L into what I call the overhead calculator. And we do have an overhead calculator. You guys are welcome to reach out. Hello at thedentalityteam .com to get that. And anyone who books a call with us, if it's relevant, we definitely give you that overhead calculator. So I want you guys to be able to get that. But what's really cool is you take your PNL, you put it in based on the industry standards to see where am I high? Which, which category is it? My payroll? Is it my supplies? Is it my labs? Like what category is high? And then can we go dive into that on the PNL and find out why is it high? So that's honestly where I feel like, yes, you can cut costs. I'm not pro cutting team right now. You guys team is coming in usually between 28 and 35 % of your collections every single month. Like it has gotten so much higher than even when I started dental a team. but you do need people. Preventing turnover is going to keep your costs lower because when you lose somebody, you have to replace them with usually somebody who's gonna cost you a lot more. That's not saying to underpay people, I want you to be fair wages and to be like more than fair and to be in the highest realm so you keep the great people. But what's interesting about it is guess what? The reality is turnover is gonna be one of your biggest costs. Like it's the human capital cost that's gonna bite you in the booty if we don't have a great culture. So, do our one -on -ones, invest in that, have team bonding activities, make it a great place where people want to work. That doesn't mean we don't have accountability. It does mean we have accountability, but we make it a place where people really do want to be with us. That is like some costs that we can cut. You can also look at your merchant fees and there is a company called Dental Merchant Advocate. Be sure to tell them that only team sent you and you can actually look at your credit card fees and get it reduced and they can help you reduce those merchant fees. I'm seeing a lot of offices say like, Kiera Dent (06:56.334) There's no charge for ACH in cash or check, but there's a 3 % fee for credit cards. I have mixed feelings about that. Do I really want to nickel and dime people? Maybe. But is there other ways that I could do this? And the other side of it is increasing production. And I feel like people are like, I just want to go cut because I can cancel that subscription. It almost feels like taking a diet pill. But my $9 .99 on Tesla is not going to offset my 40 % of payroll costs. It's not. And so what do we need to do instead? The other side is we produce more. And the way you produce more is not saying you've got to work more. I want you to hear me really clear. Producing more does not mean you have to work more. Producing more is we need to work smarter. And I'm obsessed with, you can call it productive scheduling, you can call it block scheduling, but it's like making our days where they're very productive and they're very easy. So we make an ideal. We say, how much do we want to actually do? And what do we do from there is we look at it and we say, all right, I want to do a crown. I want to do a root canal. I want to do all these things. And I go off of my lowest insurance fee. Let's not go off of our office fees, but let's go off of our lowest or our more average one. Like most of the time, our crown is this amount. Most of the time a root canal is this amount. Most of the time, and again, we're not going high. And if your lows are, your fees are really low, maybe I'd consider cutting that one insurance plan. but we want it to be being paid fairly for, otherwise it becomes very hard and you do have to produce more. And so looking at that, is there a way I could possibly drop one of my insurance plans, get them on a membership plan and be able to be producing more that way? A lot of people also are like, well, I've got to just go fee for service. And I think there's a middle ground. You for sure can go fee for service and I'm not here to tell you not to, but what I am saying is fee for service then becomes tricky because you've got to pay a lot more for marketing and people don't realize that. Your insurance fees are your marketing budget right now, just so you know. And if you can get that many patients on a marketing budget and you're willing to do that, but please don't, please do not kid yourself that you're like, Oh, well I'm now fee for service. You have to now work your freaking booty off to get these patients in. Please, please, please do not miss that mark. And so if you're really good with marketing and you're getting them in because insurance just allows you to have so much more access to people and they come to you because like I have met life or I have Delta. So I'm looking for it. Then I look at the reviews and I come to you. So. Kiera Dent (09:16.078) That is a huge piece that's driving patients to you that you don't realize. So what I mean is productive scheduling is actually the best way to do it. So looking at what do I need to do? I have added millions and I'm not kidding millions of dollars just by making a more productive schedule. Um, I've added in over 20 grand a month and they did not work any more days and they actually were able to have a less busy schedule because what I do is I play the game of math and I look at it and I say, all right, this is how much a crown is root canal. We, we do all the procedure makeup. We build a whole schedule based on how many procedures you're already doing, how many new patients you're already seeing, how much per year you're already doing, or how much we want to be doing. And we block it in and we actually figure out how much each day is worth, like dollar wise, if we were to follow this ideal schedule. And what's crazy is when people then start looking for patients like puzzle pieces and we say, oh, you have a crown. Dr. Smith actually does his crowns on Mondays or at eight o 'clock or on Thursdays at four o 'clock, which works best for you. And now I'm not saying, Hey, what day works best for you? I say, Dr. Smith does this. This is when they're the most, this is when we do our crowns and I schedule you think of yourself like scheduling surgery instead of that. We are just scheduling a massage. We are specialists. We are people that can stick to a schedule. My surgeons, the doctors, they do not just take me whenever I'm available. They say, this is when we're available. When can you come in? But at a massage place or a hair place, they're like, Oh, what day works best for you, Keira. That's not who we are. We are specialists and if you start to train your team to do this, you guys can actually have a much more productive schedule. And if all of us are looking for that, blocks are held for 24 hours. That's my rule. So tomorrow at nine o 'clock, if it's not filled, I fill it with something that's close to that, a toothache or whatever that dollar per hour production needs to be. I also have my hygiene team reporting their dollar production per hour, making sure that we're hitting those marks. What can we do? I'm also looking to see, do I have enough perio in my schedule? And are we diagnosing enough perio? Are we doing bloody profis? If I've done all these pieces and I'm truly doing them, the next question is doctors, are we diagnosing enough? If you wanna be producing 100 ,000, the goal usually is that you need to produce three times, you need to diagnose three times as much as you want to produce. So if I wanna produce 100K, I need to be diagnosing 300 ,000. That's the stats, that's what we see typically. And so looking at that, are you diagnosing enough? Are we watching everything? Are we actually diagnosing? Kiera Dent (11:40.11) Are we putting a lot of watches on things? And I'm not here because there's another article that I said of, are people over diagnosing? And I don't think that they are. I think that there's some people who are, but I think that there's another piece on it of, are we making sure that we're actually diagnosing and not just watching things? What are we watching? We're waiting for that decay to get worse. Like it's there, it's present. You know there's decay. Why are we not getting rid of it? And so I feel like getting that confidence of this is where it is. And if you're struggling with that, then get Pearl AI or Overjet AI. to where now you have AI that's also backing you up and saying, this is what you have. It's black and white and there's no questions. I think that investment, tell them Dental A team sent you, we do have affiliated fees with them. My thing on affilia…
Full show notes at the publisherWarmer weather means vacations are on our mind. Kiera talks about how to take those two-week vacations (or more!) and not have it affect your practice's profit and loss. It's about planning, yes, but Kiera gives you the variables to consider as you calculate how much you can vacation based on your practice's output.
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Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00.91)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I want to talk about how you can take vacations and not have it hit your production. Anybody up for that? Because I am, because I live to take vacations. So today that's what we're going to dive into on the podcast. And just a quick reminder, our goal of the podcast is to get this podcast into the hands of every dental practice that there is. We want to positively impact. We want to tactically inspire you. We want to give you the motivation to keep going and realizing that dentistry is the greatest profession you could ever be a part of. So please today,
Leave us that review, give us those five stars, share this podcast with someone. Remember you are getting this for free. And what I ask in return is that you share this with somebody you post about us in a Facebook group. I am so happy you're here and I have chosen to give you all of our content for free. If you ever want to join us, cause you're like, wow, that's a lot of free content. I need to now implement it. Join us.
but all this content is given to you for free. And I just ask that you please share it with other people, that you leave those reviews. And that's all I ask because that way we're able to serve as many patients as we possibly can. That's my mission. That's my goal. If you want to work with me, phenomenal. I would prefer you to work with us if that's what you need and share this with people and just change their lives. So with that, let's talk about how you can take a two week vacation without this hitting your PNL.
We've read up that a particular doctor said that they went down 20k in monthly collections when they took two weeks off. And I agree, that's freaky scary. So, you know, let's actually dive into that of how can I take vacations and not have it crush my PNL. So the way you do it is you plan. And what I recommend for my office is, and I know that this is not as fun. I've done it myself as well. It doesn't feel as spontaneous as when we're in our youth. Like, I just want to go on a vacation today. I would love that.
You now own a business, you have a child. We've got to be a little bit more productive unless you're okay with having that production hit. But I would prefer to set you up on a successful path where you can have the vacations, you can have the production you want, and we're not tanking our production because you go on vacation because then it doesn't feel fun. It's like, oh, I don't want to go on vacation, I just lost 20K. Like that's terrible. That is crummy. So let's make sure that we give you the tips. So what I recommend for my office is, and this also helps your scheduling team,
Kiera Dent (02:15.342)
And they're a lot happier because now expectations are just laid out. So my husband and I, usually in like October, whenever you're listening to this podcast, go for it, do it today. Don't wait till October. But typically in October, my husband and I start planning all the vacations that we want for the following year. Sometimes I have to do it a little bit earlier. Dental practices, you do start to book out six months in advance. So just throwing that out there that maybe June, July would be the optimal time for dental practice to start thinking of their vacations that they want to do next year.
I understand that's pretty far in advanced, but guess what? The end of the year is going to be here before we know it. So if you can just set that cadence up of like, what vacations do we want? Do we have spring break? Do the kids need to be out? My husband and I, this last year decided that we were going to take two trips just for me and him. So it's no CE, it's no work. It's not tacked onto a work trip. I don't, I love work trips. I don't enjoy having a work trip and then trying to be intentional.
with my relationship. It's very, I go from work brain to intent. Like it's, it's hard for me. So we just decided this year we're going to take two trips, just me and him really enhance our relationship. And those are the two. So I put those in, um, and I went a little extra geeky this year and I put in all of my personal trips, all of my CE trips, all of my work trips to see how much time was I actually on the road. I go a lot and I just needed to make sure it was a good balance for me to be able to maintain. And so what my husband and I did, um, and for doctors for you, just figure out.
And it doesn't have to be set spaces or places. Like right now, I don't know where my husband and I are going in October. We have the time blocked off. I still don't know where we're going to go, but we did block that time and we're going to go somewhere really fun. We went somewhere in March. I didn't know where we were going to go. I decided we booked like pretty last minute. It was about a month in advance. We booked a trip to Bora Bora and it was so fun, but we had the time blocked off. So you need to go figure out how much time do you want? Do you want a week, a quarter? Do you want like two weeks here? But we even have a spreadsheet that we share with our clients.
of where they can actually do a production. So we look at every single month, the days available, we take out all the holidays that they'll be closed because we have those holidays to factor in as well. And then we factor in the doctor's days off that they want to have. All of this is totally doable if we plan and it's not going to tank your production. So then what we do is we actually figure out how many available working days we actually have every single month. And then we figure out what we want to do for their production goals for the year. I usually recommend at least a 10 % increase.
Kiera Dent (04:37.006)
If you're not actively growing year over year as a healthy growth rate for a practice, also make sure you're increasing your fees. So on that note, then what we do from there is we figure out, all right, so let's say this practice wants to make 2 .5 million is what their goal is for this next year. That's their healthy growth rate. What we do is we take that 2 .5, let's do 2 .4, that's gonna make my math easier, 2 .4 million. We need to break that down of what they need to be producing every single month.
I'm double checking, so 2 .4 million. And we've got 12 months, we need to be producing $200 ,000 a month. From there, we look to see, okay, what does our daily need to be? And we look at those months that maybe have longer months, shorter months, and we figure out, we break it down based on the number of days available to work, cutting out all the holidays, cutting out all the pieces, what each day needs to be. Because now instead of it being, well, we have 12 equal months of 200 ,000, maybe it's that we have, we do the number of days available.
divided by the dollar amount that we need each day to be. And then from there, we can actually set our monthly goals. And our monthly goals might not be exactly like the same. It's not 200 ,000 across the board. It might be that January is going to be 150 because we're taking a week off. And then our February, March, April, May are going to be 225 because we're going to make up that additional 50 ,000. Plus we know we're going to be gone again in June. So our goals shift, but it becomes a daily goal, not a monthly goal based on the days that you're gone.
Okay, I hope all that math just made sense. And this can get a little tricky, but what's really fun is we look to see time production, daily production, and then we block schedule according to that. And we make it to where it's exactly the dollar amount we need. We track it, we might be down a month, we might be up a month, but we watch it every single month. So for my clients, I'm tracking it based on the projections of where we want to be, based on the vacations they're planning to take, what we need it to be and what we need to produce. Now in some states, if doctors are going to be gone, hygienists can still work.
And so that can be a great way to like not have to put as much on the doctors, but really it's just figuring out the math equations is how we do this. You can take all the vacation you want, truly. It does not matter to me. I feel like you will be prepared. You will be so healthy. You'll be so happy. And then we just have to figure out how we actually break it down into your block scheduling, your productive scheduling, figure it out. And then we adjust and maybe those aren't the goals that we want. Maybe we need to change our goals. Maybe we need to increase our goals. Maybe we need to decrease our goals.
Kiera Dent (07:01.646)
Maybe we're more intentional with the time off we take. Maybe I'm like, well, I don't actually need two trips this year. I just need one trip. All right. Fantastic. We changed that, but you then play with the math equation. You look at the projection spreadsheet to see what do I really want to do? What time do I want to have off? And for me, I do think having vacations are super important. And I think just being strategic. So I feel like the office that I've got that's doing this really, really well, they're in Washington. And what they do is they said, we want to have one week, a quarter off where we take a vacation.
So I check in with them, I hold them accountable, I make sure that they're taking a week off and we just prepared their schedule for them. We figured out what they need to produce with these vacations off to hit the goals they want. And literally they're blowing the goals out of the water because they know what they need to hit. They know what their daily goals needs to be. They've got their treatment coordinator bought in. All the team knows the goals. Everybody's working towards the same pieces. They get the vacations off the team does. The doctors get the team, the time off. Everybody's happy and we're not tanking production. So I feel like you get the tank production.
because what happens is you didn't plan for it, you took the time off and then you're trying to scramble and work super hard when you get back. You're going to have some months that will be lower. But you also have to make sure if I take that much time off, I need to be using the money from my higher months to be able to offset the cost if it's gonna be a tight month. Also saving that money, we don't just spend that money. That does take discipline, but this discipline truly equates to freedom. And this is how you can take it.
all the vacations, all the fun, all the tips, all the pieces and make it truly beautiful and enjoyable as opposed to feeling stressful. And I think it's one of those pieces of like just making a lot of fun. Now, the other side is you could hire a temp doctor. I think there's pros and cons to that. Some people are like, I am totally fine with that. Other people are like, I'm gonna have to come back and do their work. But I feel like you don't actually have to do it, a temp doctor, if you just plan. So,
I think, let me pull up for you guys kind of this projection spreadsheet and if you're not watching it, I understand that. But really, it's not that hard to do if you're willing to just plan a little bit. So I have an office again and they did a conservative one. So like, hey, if we were to not take this many, then we'd be able to take this many vacations.
Kiera Dent (09:20.846)
And then I have others that are like, let's do an aggressive one. If we want to take 10 vacations a year, what does that look like? And I sometimes just think there's the fear of we don't actually know, like, what is it going to take for us to do it? And so I think that this just removes the fear. So let me share on the video. Here you guys go. Here is the spreadsheet, like I was mentioning, of the January, February, March, April, the number of potential working days, the number of days the offices close.
the number of days the office is open. And then you put in the doctors, what their production is. We put in our hygiene days, how many hygiene columns they have, how many hygiene days are going to be off, the hygiene goal, and then the monthly department. Then we put our office monthly goal, we put our overhead goal in here, and then we do our budget based on our collections and overhead. And then you come all the way over to the end of the spreadsheet, and you can actually total this up to tell us what our production would be. So hopefully just giving you guys a quick visual of what this looks like, of how you can actually build this.
to where it's not stressful for you anymore. You don't have to make this stressful. You don't have to make it hard. You literally can take vacations. You just need to know. And like I said, you can build a conservative, you can build an advanced, you can build a crazy one, you can build a non -crazy one. You can figure out how many days you want, but really it's just planning, preparing is going to make it easy. So I would love to help you take more vacations. I would love our team to be able to give you that freedom back in your life.
to teach you how to do this. And this is part of what we're doing in our company. So reach out hello at dentalateam.com. Go plan, go take those vacations. We're right about the time, right around summertime where you should be looking for next year anyway. Pre -plan those. You don't have to know exactly where you're going, but live your best life. Plan for it, prepare for it, and enjoy it. And with that, thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Thanks for, wow. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
Kiera is joined by Dr. Jamin Houser of Castle Valley Dental in Colorado to talk about reaching that dream life! Dr. Houser has achieved a minimal work week while still being able to engage with all the aspects he loves about dentistry. He shares with Kiera what it took to get him to his idyllic day-to-day, how it's benefited his team members, and why he never wants to retire. Episode resources: Learn about Dr. Houser Reach out to Kiera Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.878) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am beyond giddy. I have one of the most incredible people on the podcast with me. We have a really fun story. We met a few years ago. I was speaking at a conference. He came up to me. We ended up buying way too much lotion because we both are emotional like buyers and we felt bad and we bought all this lotion. And now here we are two years later. He works with us in Dental A Team. He's a client and he is just one of the most incredible people I have ever met from. Jamin (00:20.175) Sure. Kiera Dent (00:30.222) personal life, to how he leads and guides his team, to leadership. I think you guys are in for a massive treat. Jamin Hauser, welcome to the podcast. How are you? Jamin (00:38.287) I'm doing great, Kiera. Thank you for that kind introduction. The lotion story though, that guy was a great salesman. Like it just happened. I don't even know. I walked away like a hundred dollars pour and I had like six tubs of lotion. So good for him. Yeah. That's so hot. It is. Kiera Dent (00:50.606) This is all I still have it. I mean, it's great lotion. I agree. He was so good. It gives you with a hand massage. Then it's great. And you're like, yep, I want this. And then like, they give you all these deals for buying like huge cases of lotion. So, but to give you guys a little backstory, I was speaking at Rocky Mountain Dental Conference. That was a wild, surreal moment for me. Jamin, I don't know if you actually knew this, but my first practice that I owned was in Colorado. Jamin (01:05.263) Yeah. Kiera Dent (01:18.254) And I had actually attended Rocky Mountain Dental Conference when I was an office manager. So I sat in the audience and then I actually attended all these courses. And so it was actually a full circle moment for me. I was beyond scared because I'm like, Holy cow. Like what have people that I used to work with are in the audience? Like I, I, it took me about six months to be, I was so happy. I got scouted for that conference. Um, we had an amazing experience. And I remember you sat in my operations manual. Of course I spoke three. I had three courses there two years ago. And I remember when you were in the audience, I'm like, this guy and I are going to be friends. Like he's just a good time. He's sitting there and I'm like, why is a doctorate in operations manual course? Like that's usually pulling in office managers and lo and behold, here we are working together. You have seen insane growth in dental a team, which has been so fun, but you've also blessed my life a lot, which is why I wanted you to be on the podcast. Cause I think your story is incredible. Jamin (02:08.879) Well, you've also blessed my life and the life of my teens and my practices. So thank you very much for that. Kiera Dent (02:17.07) Of course. Yeah. So with that, I wanted to talk because Jamin, like I said, Jamin worked with the Dental A Team for two years. Tiffany's been out to his practice. Jaimond is one of our ambassadors within our mastermind group of our doctors. We've done an in -person event. He came to a LumaDent with us last year. But something I've noticed about Jaimond, and so you guys, selfishly, I brought him on the podcast for myself today too, is I feel like Jamin has the wisdom of where I want to be in my life. And so how can we get there? And I feel like so many dentists want to be living the life you're living, Jamin, and, but they don't know how to get there. And you've got your amazing family and you and your wife have such a great relationship. And I mean, I texted you the other day to get on a call and like, Kiera, I'm off going motorcycle riding. Like I'll be back in a few hours. And I'm like, it's a Wednesday Jamin . You're like, I know I'm off for the week. How do you do that and run such successfully high numbers? Jamin (02:44.751) boy. Jamin (03:07.823) on me. Kiera Dent (03:10.766) but also, so you have this very profitable, you've got two locations and yet you were working so many hours and now you've got it down and I feel like you have gone from that five day a week grind per se, but I don't think you even had that to living your ideal life and schedule and still having this profitable practice at serving patients and serving teams. So that's really what I wanna dive into. I'm gonna let you riff to wherever you wanna go and let's kind of talk about how you've been able to do that. Jamin (03:30.479) Sure. Okay. Yeah. I think the biggest thing to understand at the outset is everything comes at a cost. And I knew that this is where I wanted to be and having that kind of destination in mind, I was willing to sacrifice some of the perks of working longer and harder, namely financial perks, but I was willing to sacrifice that so that I could have more time to pursue motorcycle riding and spending time with my wife and traveling and doing those kinds of things. But there was a time. that I was, I didn't have any associates and I had both practices and I was working very long hours. This was maybe 10 or 12 years ago. And so I've been there. Like I know how much work it takes to make a practice work successfully and to bring everything together with the team. And it's, it's a place where I think you have to be to get to the other side, if that makes sense. So I just kind of always knew that for me, I never really want to retire. I think that I could do dentistry almost indefinitely if I manage my time right and manage the clinical exposure and the wear and tear on your body. It does, it's exhausting maintaining that level of focus with patients, not just with hand skills, but conversationally and being in the moment. It takes a lot out of you. And so I knew that I couldn't do that indefinitely. And so I kind of was starting to position myself. maybe 10 years ago, at least mentally, like where I wanted to be now. So. Kiera Dent (05:05.55) Yeah. Okay, so how did you get that? So you're working two practices and I should have had you like introduce yourself. You're this incredible dentist, you run these great practices, you live in Colorado. So 10 years ago, and then what did you start to do? And what if you could go back in time, even 10 years ago, maybe even like things you would have changed. But like, let's walk people through okay, 10 years ago, you're working in both practices, you don't have an associate. Now 10 years later, if you want to just like paint a picture of what your life is you work. Jamin (05:10.766) I'm out. Absolutely. Yeah. Jamin (05:26.767) Yeah. Yeah. No. Kiera Dent (05:33.102) Just tell them your schedule so they can see this gap, and then we're gonna show them how they get through the gap. Jamin (05:37.711) Sure. Okay. So now I work three to four days a week, but a work day to me looks like a five to six hour shift. And I have, my staff has been so kind. They're like, when do you want to work, Jayman? And I said, I'd rather work in the mornings than I can have the afternoons free in Colorado, the afternoons. All the mornings are great too. Colorado is just wonderful. But now, now I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday mornings. I'm usually done with clinical. commitments by noon or one, and then essentially every other Thursday I work half a day, and that's about it. I work with four other doctors and I really want them to be successful. So I don't have a problem shifting new patients, emergency patients, patients that don't really mind seeing a different doctor into their schedules. Not so much so that I don't have to work, because I'm definitely willing to work, but just to help them build their clientele. My associates are wonderful and amazing. And I know that when patients have a chance to meet them, they're probably going to forget about me pretty quickly. And, and, and that's not like something I want, but it is something I want because I don't want them to feel like they have to see me every time they come into the office. And of course I do have patients that I'll see as long as I'm, you know, putting gloves on and that's great. That's a compliment as well, but, um, kind of pushing the other patients and especially new patients, emergencies to the associates so that they can. build up more rapidly and stay busy while they're at work is kind of how I look at my day now. And so sometimes I do get off a little early, but mind you also, these are the clinical hours. I do spend quite a bit of time on the business side of dentistry, which I really enjoy. I've kind of reinvented our financial tracking and budgeting and everything over the last six months, kind of aligning with dental a team. You guys have really been a big help with that. So. So thank you for that, but it makes everything more manageable and just, I know what's coming in and what's going out and what we need to do to maintain that. Kiera Dent (07:39.246) Yeah. So, Jaimyn, well, thank you. That's a huge compliment. And I remember we were texting in January. You were getting me all pumped up for an event. And I remember you telling me you were just coming back off of vacations. And like, your production numbers have exponentially grown working together. But like, what I look at is so many people get so like fixated on the numbers. And I remember in part of the text you said, Jamin (07:43.247) Yes. Kiera Dent (08:03.79) I don't do this solely for the numbers, but it does look fun like when our numbers go up, which I agree. And I love that you just have this perspective of life and numbers and they both just shake out. Cause I feel like so many times people are just reaching and trying to get to these spots. So 10 years ago, you're working in both practices to today. You barely are working like two and a half days a week, realistically, like it's still, um, and you love it and you're doing it because you want to, and you love it and you don't want to retire. How did you decide, Jamin, that you wanted to keep working? Jamin (08:22.799) It's a lot, it's still a lot. Kiera Dent (08:33.742) for a long time versus selling out to a DSO or just like at that point being so burnt out. Cause I mean, you've got very successful practices, a DSO, but like, cause I think sometimes, I mean, Ryan Isaac and I were just talking the other day of like, the pieces, how do we sustain and survive until we're like 80, 90 to keep ourselves like mentally and clinically sharp. So we're not like decaying our minds. And I've thought about this so much. How did you decide you did not want to retire and like give up the gloves? What, what made you decide that? Cause I think for so many dentists, when they're at that kind of like push, it's like, it's an all or nothing. They want to like sell the practices and go to doing nothing. And I think you figured out kind of the middle ground that gives you the life you want, gives you the fulfillment of still doing dentistry and you didn't have to give it all away. So how did you come to that decision? Jamin (09:19.407) Because I love dentistry. Like it's not something I really want to walk away from. And I don't mean to sound any kind of way, but like really genuinely you can help people and not every person and the cosmos sends crazy people into our lives that you wish weren't a part of your practice. I get that. But there are those, there's a certain set of people who are truly grateful that you're able to help them and, and you just have an emotional connection with them as much as anything that you provide clinically. And it's really rewarding. And. Maybe for me that helps to fill a need that I have in my life. Not necessarily just to being able to contribute to somebody feeling better or looking better or yeah, all of those things. So for that reason, I didn't want to come up with a plan or chase a goal that was going to close the clinical door for me. I had looked at possibly partnering with a DSO maybe right before COVID, I think. Kiera Dent (10:02.67) Mm -hmm. Jamin (10:18.447) And, uh, I went down that path quite a ways and I learned a lot about practice valuations and EBITDA. And it really, at the time felt like this isn't what I want, but in hindsight now, it was a real big blessing learning so much from that process and being able to position these practices so that they aren't successful for me, but that we're able to have success for our whole team indefinitely, really, as long as we keep the right people in the right places. So. Kiera Dent (10:40.942) Mm -hmm. Kiera Dent (10:45.998) Yeah. Which I think is such a beautiful piece. And I do, um, I'm super excited. We're having a, some DSO people come to our doctor mastermind and we'll podcast with them too. I love our doctor mastermind cause I try to bring in like really fun people and just like, you just spoke there and whatnot. But I think Jamon, something I just really love about your perspective is you go, you educate yourself and then you make the best decision for you long -term. I think something I've learned from you is you don't just make a short -term decision today. You think of like, Jamin (10:58.415) Yes. Kiera Dent (11:13.71) When I'm ex, what do I want my life to look like? And then you almost build backwards, which I think has been really magical to, yes, I know we coach you, but to also learn from you. I mean, I could choose you on who I hang out with. I like hanging out with people who make me better. Jamin (11:24.175) It's so kind. Jamin (11:28.751) Yeah, I have the same philosophy, Kara. So that's a compliment to you. Um, and I agree. Like if you don't know where you're going, I was a little disciple of Dr. Bruce Baird for awhile. And one of the things that he said that always stuck in my mind was like, if you don't know where you're going, you're like driving around in your car with, um, tinfoil on the windows, like you're going to get somewhere, but it might not be really where you want to go. So to take that tinfoil off and have a direction and a purpose. Kiera Dent (11:32.75) Thank you. Jamin (11:55.791) Even if it's 10 years down the road or whatnot. And by the way, I'm not a huge goal driven person. I'm kind of more fast and loose maybe if that's appropriate, but like let's get there and we're going to have fun getting there. So. Kiera Dent (12:09.422) Yeah, which I think aligns with who you are as a person. And I think that I actually love that you said that because I'm so goal oriented, but I'm noticing that sometimes we are striving for a goal. And I started picking up like, we're thinking we're going to fill a feeling when we get to that goal. And if I can figure out what that feeling is and provide it right now, the goal is kind of irrelevant. And I've hit so many goals and I'm like, well, what the heck? Like, it's not even that fun. And I've just worried like done all this time, the fact that you…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera explores not only why so many people want to slow down in their everyday lives — but also what happens once you're slowed down. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Sign up for DAT's Weekly Webinar Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.22) Hello, Dental A Team team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited to be podcasting with you today. I just, I love our podcast family. I love being able to share tactical tips and tricks to make your life easier, to make you less stressed, to make you happier, and to just give you a little positive dose of goodness in your days. So I am just honored to be here with you. I hope wherever you are, you just remember you're doing better than you think you are and that life is truly just magical. So I am excited for today's podcast. If you guys can do me a favor, share this with someone today. Go post it in a forum that you're in. Go share it with someone. This one is actually coming from a bunch of forums. Our marketing team went out. They looked to see what are you guys asking the questions about out in the dental world? We combed a bunch of you guys and here we are producing content for you. So today's podcast is directly from what you guys are asking in forums and I just wanted to build podcasts for you of kind of... What are you guys facing? So please share this, go put it in a group. Our goal is to truly be in the hands of every single dental practice across the globe. So share this, we want to positively impact and just give you tactical tools. As a consulting company, we really do minimize your stress, help your team get on board, and we do that virtually or in person. So if we can help you in any way, please reach out, hello, at thedentalateam .com. You can head on over to our website, thedentalateam .com, click on our link there. a book, a call, or every single Friday, uh, we do it at 8 a .m. Pacific. So 11 Eastern. You can actually come join a free webinar. So it's there, it's on our website. Um, but you can come see an, I shouldn't say webinar. It's kind of like learning what Dental A team is about. So if you ever wondered what is consulting about, what does it look like to work with you guys? Come, it's literally 15 minutes. You don't have to say anything. You can listen. You can ask your questions if you want to. Super easy. We tried to make it so applicable and easy for you to just come pop on super short 10 to 15 minutes. So. If you're ever wondering, come ask. I'd love to see you there every Friday, 8 a .m. I believe, I'll double check that. They just changed the time on us. So I'm 99 % sure that it's every single one I lied to you, it's at 8 .30. So 8 .30 Pacific, 11 .30 Eastern. Don't come at eight, we won't see you there. But it's on our website, come join us. If you ever wanna just shoot me an email, hello at thedentalateam .com. We'll send you the link, easy peasy. I'll also make sure that link is in today. Kiera Dent (02:21.262) notes for you so just click on that if that's ever helpful. We'll start adding that so if you're ever like gosh I just I think I want to work with a consultant but I don't even know what that looks like I don't really want to get on a call come I want you to find out I want it to be easy so just come it'll be a ton of fun and it's really short 10 -15 minutes 830 Pacific every day. So on that note today's content is brought to you by the Facebook forums out across the globe and it is how do we actually slow down? Um, this is a great, great question. And I was so excited when I saw it because reality is one, do you want to slow down and why do you want to slow down? I think back to COVID and I feel like we all got this like little glimpse of what I think life used to feel like it was slower. We hung out, we spent more time with friends and then COVID went away and it just feels like it ratcheted up. At least that's how I feel. And I read a really awesome book called, um, do, uh, do less. and Create More by Kate Norpp. I think it is called Do Less, I believe is the name of the book. And it was just a really interesting thought process of like, is there a way for us to actually create more by doing less and slowing down? So I think there's a couple of ways to take this of like, how do we slow down? One is, I actually watch a lot of practices and they work three days and produce more. And so I think be careful of our limiting beliefs. My husband and I were chatting and I said, well, you know, what do you actually want in our life? What do you want in your life? And he said, you know, Keira, I want more time, more freedom. And I said, do you really? And I said, I'm not trying to like pick a fight. He was on his way to work, right? You know, when you get into those hot conversations, right before people go to work and like, that was the wrong timing. So it almost was the wrong timing. But I said, do you actually really want that? And he's like, yeah, I do. And I said, well, like what's holding you back from doing that? And I think sometimes a slowdown is stuck in the quote unquote stories we tell ourselves or the limiting beliefs or even just the beliefs, right? It doesn't even have to be a limiting belief, but like, okay, so if I slow down, I'm going to make less money. And I want you to ask with every one of your objections, is that actually true? So my husband was like, well, Kiera, if I stop working, I think it's gonna be that, you know, we're not gonna be able to cover the bills. And I was like, well, that's not true. We definitely can, we're good to go. So what's next? Kiera Dent (04:34.51) And he said, well, I'm scared that you wouldn't respect me. And I said, well, is that actually true? Like, we don't know until we try. So I don't think it would be. I want you to be fulfilled and whatever fulfills you is what I want. But then like other things are slowing down. Like there's the fear of loss of income. So is that actually true? No. What about other things like, well, if I slow down, my patients will be mad at me. I've seen lots of dentists slow down and their patients aren't mad. And the ones who are, they leave and go find someone else and they're able to actually do higher value procedures. So it's all these limiting beliefs, all these different zones of, and just again, beliefs. And I want you to just ask yourself like, one, why do I want to slow down? Two, are like, what am I actually afraid of to slow down? And then three, are those things actually true? So for me, I think about slowing down. The reason I want to slow down is I honestly want to take care of - Like I feel like I wake up and it's like work, work, work, work, work and that's my only identity versus it being let me go and invest in like my body, take care of it, eat healthy, sleep, workout, then go like be great for my patients, go be great for our clients and then come home and be present with my family. Well, that's kind of why I wanna slow down. I also feel like I'm very unintentional with the people that I'm with a lot of times. Like I feel like I'm constantly trying to run from one project to the next to the next. So with my team, with the patients, with the clients, It's like, all right, great. Finish you up and onto the next one versus like, is that really how I want to live my life? I'm not sure. I want to spend more vacations, but for you, like, how do we actually slow down? One, why do you actually want to do it? And then two, what are the things stopping you from doing it? And are those actually real? Then after that, I was thinking about how do we slow down? Um, like, what am I going to do when I actually do slow down? I want to have a compelling vision. So I was thinking about it and I'm like, okay, great. So I slow down. What am I really going to do with that? And I think that there's, that's the fear. That's the piece of what do we do with our time? Who are we gonna become? Are we gonna become schmucks? Are we gonna become lazy? Like all these things I worry about, but that again, without trying it or doing it, I don't have a compelling why. And so for you, what is it? What do you wanna do? And then I also think that there's an internal judgment that oftentimes I see people face of, well, like if I slow down, will I respect myself? Kiera Dent (06:55.598) And I also think that this comes back to like, what is your identity built upon? So thinking about, I said this to my marketing team and I wish I had a visual, I don't have a visual today, but just imagine I'm drawing you a chalk outline, okay? So of a human, don't worry, it's not a dead person, but like, just pretend I've drawn you as a chalk outline. And of that, think of like, what makes up this person? So you as a dentist or you as a team member, how much of that? Is that like the foot? Is that the foot, the leg? Is that the foot, the leg, the arm? Is that 50 % of you? Again, like I get that it's a body, but I'm trying to have this be like of you. And then, so for me, like what I would have is I'm a consultant. That's probably like my foot. I don't spend a lot of time there. I don't think it's a huge part of my identity anymore. It used to be like all of my identity, but now as a consultant, it's probably like a foot. Me as a CEO, that's like half my body right now. Like that's a big portion of my identity. Me as a wife, like half my head. Like I'm here, like I'm here for you, but that's not a huge portion of my identity. Me as a sister, it's probably like. little hand. Like I'm there, I'm there for my siblings, but like I don't, I don't put a lot of time there. Um, me with church, it's honestly probably like a little wristband, like a little bracelet. That's not a huge identity of me. And then I feel like I've got, like, I do enjoy going boating. That's like maybe a little bit like my arm to my shoulder. Um, those are kind of like my hobbies. Those are the areas that I feel like I show up. So like I have this half a body almost that doesn't have an identity and I actually feel like work. fills that in. I don't have a lot of hobbies. I don't have a lot of things and it's not bad. I do love work, but I think oftentimes we don't slow down because we have all these pieces. And if you think about it, I've got a foot, a leg, half a body. I've got half of a head. I've got a little bit of a hand, a little bit of a wrist, a little bit of an arm, and then the rest of it's empty. Realistically work fills that in. I think I just maybe wasn't as honest as I was saying this literally live doing this with you. So, okay, great. If 75 % of my identity makeup is work, Well, that's really hard to think to slow down because I'm going to lose 75 % of my identity. What do I do next? And so I think that then that becomes a process of like, let's develop hobbies. Let's develop, like, let's go to pickleball. Let's go hang out with friends. Let's plan some more vacations in there. Like what truly makes you up today versus what makes you up in the future? Like if we were, and so like, if you could slow down, let's draw that chalk outline. Okay. So here we are today. So fill that little body in. You guys can draw this like, Kiera Dent (09:22.99) If you're driving, don't. Um, but if you're there, just draw like a little outline of a person, or you could even do a circle and just put those things of what makes up your identity and what portion of it is making it up even like a pie graph. Then let's have next to it. You could do a pie graph or another body. I like thinking of my soul of like, how much of it is this in my perfect world? If I was to slow down, what percentage would be work and like a CEO, a dentist, a boss, um, church politics, hobbies that you're a part of. a spouse, a parent, how much of it fills in there. And then, like, what would we want that to actually look like for me? I want that extra, like, 25 % to be filled with hobbies. And I don't even know what those hobbies are. In my mind, I think I would love to get into cooking again. I also think I'd really enjoy gardening. I think I would enjoy some other things I've just wanted to go try. I would really, truly love to read more. I feel like I read a lot of self -help, but I don't feel like I read as much. So like having some time there. And then I genuinely just, I love to craft. I used to craft all the time. I used to make things. I was very creative. And now I just don't feel like I have time for that. Cause it doesn't feel like it equates to business. And so I think so many people feel like, well, it's not making money. It's not progressing me forward. It just feels fluff, but we have to realize that fluff makes us up. That's what fuels our, that's the juice, the squeeze in life. that actually makes us feel alive, friends, family, those things. And so have your current and have your, if you slowed down, what would you actually have this look like? Because if we don't know where we're going, change feels very scary. If we don't even know what we wanna move into, it can feel very terrifying. And then once we figured that out, it's really asking yourself what's holding us back and is that actually true? So let's pull out the, I would make less money. Is that true? Do you know dentists? who work three days a week and actually make more than you do? The answer is probably yes. I know several and they're very successful. They take month -long vacations at least three times a year, super successful. And they honestly are just doing it for fulfillment to do dentistry right now. So the answer is yes, you could actually make more. Now don't get into the how, we're not like, well, how could I do that? I don't know yet. But the answer is no, it's not true that if you slowed down, you would actually make less money. I'm gonna have upset patients. Again, not true. Could you not bring on an associate? Could you not bring on other team members? Kiera Dent (11:40.302) Could we not do things that are different that way? The answer is yes, we could. So that's also not true. I might, like, I might get really bored. I might get depressed. All right. Is that actually true? It might be. So how can we prevent that or mitigate that? And then we actually have a plan because I really do believe the plan, not the how, but the plan and breaking those limiting beliefs or those things that are holding us stuck. Oftentimes we stay where we are because we know no other way. And then, and it's like, they think about health and they say, you're either going to get healthy or you're going to be forced to get healthy. Which do you prefer? I think I'd rather choose than be forced. And so for that, I just think we often think we want to slow down, but if we don't even know what that's going to look like on the other side, it feels so scary. So we're just going to keep doing what we're doing. Then once we get that plan, we've got to start intentionally making, making steps towards it. So maybe it's all right, once a month, I'm going to take a Friday off and I'm going to do a hobby. Perfect. Easy. That's one step or I'm gonna take a half day once a month and I'm gonna go to the spa. I just need to like Zen out,…
Full show notes at the publisherThe right handoff can go such a long way. In this episode, Tiff and Dana break down why handoffs are so important for patients, how handoffs can extend from chairside to checkout, and the best way to know if your practice's communication with patients and each other is working effectively. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (46:09.582) Hello everyone. We are back with some actual implementable things because I have my systems girl here. You know, I say it all the time. Dana, thank you for being here. Thank you for being such a rock star with everything you do. Honestly and truly you create so much content for this company. You create so much stuff for your clients on the daily. And a lot of what we put out there is from your brain. So thank you for being here. I truly think you're brilliant and you are such an asset to this company. You've been all over the place lately. I feel like I we like cross paths. We were almost in the same place at the same time. A couple weeks ago when you were in Florida, you've been to Florida, you've been to Virginia. I don't even know you've had inclement weather. Where have you even been the last couple of weeks? I feel like it's like we're in the world of Carmen Sandiego. That's my daily. Yeah, I know. Where am I now? Let's see. Yeah, there was one week where I was in five states, all four time zones in a week. So I've been in, let's see, Alabama, Iowa, Indiana, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina. The Dental A Team (47:19.214) Yeah, I think that's it. Wow. Yeah, that's a lot. That's like dip travel right there. Yeah. That's insane. March gets crazy, right? I don't know why. March gets wild. Every year for me, March is insane. So weird. Yeah. Well, we crossed paths a few times then because I was, I haven't been to North Carolina yet this year. No, I can't even remember. Yeah, I was. I was North Carolina in March. Yeah. like this feels so long ago now. So I was in North Carolina, Alabama. Airlines stuck there. But yeah, we were there. Oh, that's right. Oh my gosh, you were stuck there. I should we should have called it. We should have called Jeff Andrew and just gotten you a night. So North Carolina we crossed that we would have crossed like at some point, Indiana and Alabama and I flew out of Florida when I was in Alabama. Yeah. Insane. So thank you for being such a road warrior. We get such insane results and the feedback from your clients is always just so, so cool to see. And I know you don't go on the road of time because you do a lot of our virtual consulting. We have a ton of virtual clients. So Dana, Dana works one -on -one with most of them. But then we've got our other virtual clients that do kind of that group status that they're loving it. But I know when you are on the road, it's like once a quarter or so, and it's like slam together. So. Huge, huge thank you for everything you do. I know your clients love it. And the dental team definitely, definitely loves it. So thank you. Now, one piece I know I always work on in practice because it's the best space to see it is that handoff, right? And increasing case acceptance with a good handoff. So Dana, you were on the road recently. I know you got to see a lot of things. One, how do you feel like the handoff increases case acceptance? What does that look like? And then two, what are some things that you saw while you were on the road recently? Yeah, well, one, I think it's, I want you to recognize I see a lot of times in offices handoffs are done behind the scenes, okay? And the way that a handoff can help increase case acceptance is the patient actually hearing it. The Dental A Team (49:35.342) So I think we do a great job of, you know, hey, Dr. Smith, this is what's going on with this patient. This is what they said. This is their chief complaint. This is what we talked about, right? And we do it behind the scenes and you can do that. But where it really helps increase case acceptance is when the patient actually hears it. They're part of that conversation. And where I feel like it helps to build that is it's the trust and the relationship. When I say something and then I hand it off to you and then you back that up. Right, that builds trust. There is something to be said for like shock dentistry in that like, I'll play the hygienist, right? I'm familiar with that role. And it is a patient just spent 40 minutes with me. And then the doctor comes in and doctor has five minutes. Well, if the doctor comes in and starts saying, you know, you need this treatment, or I see this area of concern, or I see this, and I haven't said anything, right? Well, it not necessarily is on purpose, right? Or that the patient starts to build distressed. on purpose, but in their mind, right, it's I just spent 40 minutes with in and she didn't say any of that. And so now the doctor comes in and I'm a little bit shocked that there's something going on. And then I started my head to be like, well, do I really need that? Because she didn't see it. And she didn't say anything. Right. And now doctor comes in and I'm a little bit surprised. And I'm starting to doubt. And so when patients feel surprised by things when patients don't actively hear themselves, it starts to downgrade the trust that we just worked really hard to build. Yeah, yeah, totally agree. I love that. I love that. So you're thinking or speaking on even like chair side handoffs. And I do agree, I think, and I used to do that as an assistant, I'd run back and I'm like, talk to me, these are all the things that you need to know, right? And then we'd walk in together and you'd start talking. But in consulting, I've noticed the same thing. And I think you can do both. I don't think that we're saying not to do behind the scenes, because oftentimes too, there are some things that need to be said that the patient shouldn't hear, that they need to be prepped on personality or something that was embarrassing that they told you that they don't want to hear again, right? There are things that need to be prepped behind the scenes, but having that conversation and seeing it over the patient solidifies it. So if you're co -diagnosing, right? So you should be talking to the patient and saying like, these are things I'm seeing. The Dental A Team (51:58.83) call it doctor knows the doctor is taking a close look at it. While he or she is looking at everything. So you're kind of they call it like pre heating or co diagnosing, you're making sure the patient's warmed up. And then when doc comes in, saying those things again, right. And then they're like, Oh, she didn't forget that must actually, that actually needs to be addressed, right. Then doc's like, Oh, gosh, did you guys talk about that? And the patient's like, Yeah, yeah, she kind of, you know, she'd let me know that this is what it looks like. And now doctors diagnosing it. And that patient's heard it now three times, at least by the time he gets the diagnosis, right? So one, I think making sure that it's said over the patient is huge. And two, you guys have to think about how many times it takes somebody hearing something before they're ready to believe you, right? We're very skeptical humans, okay? And we are sold at it every corner. I tell a lot of my practices, look at your phone, open up your Instagram, open up your TikTok, like every other thing. Every other, I feel like every third TikTok I go through is a sale. Like they're trying to sell me with something. And how many times have we heard, um, I bought this off, I bought this from TikTok or because of TikTok, right? So we're constantly being sold to and we're primed to say no. So we have to get over that. We're in the back of our minds when somebody says something, this happened to me. I was in the dentist chair and he's like, Oh, you got, you got something over here. We need to redo these fillings. And I was like, Oh, I don't think I do. I'm a dental consultant. And I was like, I don't think I do. Right. And then he never said anything to me about it, the high dentist, right? So then I, you know, get my second opinion at a practice that I consult. And he's like, no, you got it. You're missing a piece of the filling here. And I'm like, are you kidding me? That's what it was. Like, I didn't believe this other doctor. And I didn't trust them just because I'm a skeptical human being. And I was like, I think I would know if I needed a filling. No, I wouldn't. I'm not in my mouth. This is a dental consultant. It means nothing. But I'm a skeptical human being when it comes to things like that. Now you tell me Dana comes on here and tells me I need a new protein powder, a new pair of shoes that I'm going to run in a couple of times. Some new leggings, some new Lulu. She's like, guess what Lulu just came out with? This new scuba jacket that Costco has that's not Lulu, but like it. Guess who's buying all of those things. But you tell me I need a filling. I'm like, a couple hundred dollars. I don't know about that. I think you're lying. No, that's who we are by nature. The Dental A Team (54:24.238) So this handoff, right? Hearing it multiple times solidifies the fact that it actually needs to be done. And the patient's like, okay, okay, okay, now I understand. Now I've heard it so much too that I'm comfortable enough to ask questions. I'm comfortable enough to say, how come I didn't notice that? Like, what should I have noticed? Right? What could I have done to prevent this? How can I make sure this doesn't happen again? Now I'm more comfortable. to ask more questions. So that chair side handoff is huge. And then Dana, I know you train a lot on the chair side, but then after that, you train a lot on making sure that the handoff continues. And we don't have to go into super detail, you guys. There is, we call it NDTR, Next Visit Date Time Retire. It's probably at least one, maybe 16 podcasts that talk about NDTR. So if you go to our website, you go to the podcast spot, or I think you can do it in your iTunes app as well, or whatever it is, the podcast app. If you search NDTR, guarantee it'll pop up or handoff, all of those will pop up. So we're not going to go super into DTEL because we've done it a million times. But Dana, that handoff for even checkout, right? Support staff to support staff, my dental assistants and hygienists to my front office. I feel like that builds trust in the patient again, because they're hearing it again, you guys. Statistics years ago said they needed to hear it seven times. I think this year I saw a stat that said 13. I don't think we're ever going to hit 13. Please don't. I don't, I actually don't want you to, but five to seven times, I think it's probably pretty key. So they're hearing it again. But then Dana, I also feel like when I forced those handoffs, right. Or when I was in my dental practice here in town and I forced my hygienist to have that handoff with me and my dental assistants, I felt like my relationship with them increased because I was talking to them so much during the day. I was more comfortable as a team member with my team. and having more conversations with them on a personal level that increased our relationship. So it wasn't even just helping the patients, helping the patients relationship, but it's helping our relationship. And so Dana, I feel like maybe you agree or disagree or think it's maybe not as important, but I feel like if that relationship between you and I is ramped up because you're constantly talking to me at checkout, our patients experience is more positively impacted. The Dental A Team (56:47.31) impacted because our relationship is so tight. So how do you, what do you think about that? And how do you train practices to do something like that? Absolutely 100%. I always use Jeremy, my husband as an example from this during COVID. He had like, pretty bad heart side effects that like were super concerning. He had called cardiologists for an emergency appointment, right on the phone. They're like, Hey, are you having pain? Okay, we'll bring you in for an emergency. So he gets there and he checks in and she's like, Oh, I see you're here for an emergency. Are you having any pain? And he's like, Yeah, I am. So then the medical assistant comes out and gets him and he's like, Hey, you know, you're here for an emergency. Are you having pain? And he's like, Yep. And he's like, well, rate your pain. So he says, you know, nine, then they're walking back in the person seating and is like, Hey, you know, are you having pain today? And he's like, for the love of everything, like, yes, right. And I remember him turning to me and being like, I don't think I want to be here because these people don't seem like they know what they're doing. And because I do what I do for a living, I'm like, Well, no, I'm sure that they do, right? Like this person is gone and is a certified cardiologist. These people have degrees. I'm sure that they do. It's just, it feels like no one is talking and no one is on the same page. And 100 % it immediately flipped the trust to be gone. And so I think we have to look at Kandos as continuity of care and patients want to feel like... Team members are communicating and team members are all on the same page when it comes to their care. And handoffs are the easiest way to form that. And to form that truly, right, we need that communication from team member to team member to make sure that we aren't missing anything, that we aren't dropping the ball, that we have passed on that information and we are treating our patients to the best of our ability because we can communicate. And so I always use it as an example because I don't think we necessarily catch that breakdown, right? And like, we're all doing our parts and we're asking, right? They were all asking and making sure, you know, we knew he was in pain, but when no one was communicating in the office, his trust instantly fell to the point where he considered walking out of the appointment. Yeah. To his own health, like, The Dental A Team (59:02.062) I don't know where to use that, right? Like his health is on the risk, like you guys, this is not being downplayed whatsoever. This was a very scary situation in Dana's life. And for him to be to the point of distrust where he was in a really bad situation, he needed that appointment and he needed multiple appointments, but he needed that appointment for him to be in a space where it was like, I don't feel safe here because I don't trust them. I'd rather go somewhere else. He needed to be somewhere in that moment. He didn't have He didn't have time to go other places. Like he didn't have that. So for that to have pushed him that far in a space of emergency, think about the spaces where it's not an emergency and patients can casually make that decision, right? When they leave. So I totally agree. I think that's huge. And that is such a good way to frame it and brings it to reality, right? So that trust is huge. you guys having conversations like you guys being friendly with one another and repeating information talking about th…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera reviews May's DAT Book Club selection, High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove and why her takeaways are complicated. A few of her favorite ideas from the book: delegation is not abdication; allow time to connect; and why less is more when it comes to performance reviews. Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.974) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to May's book club. I hope you guys are excited. Book club was something I didn't know if you guys would enjoy and so many doctors when I was about to cancel it, message in and said, we love this. We love this for our team. You've given us such a easy resource to work through and to be able to do this and then read it and then hear your synopsis on it. So welcome to book club. This month is high output management by Andrew S Grove. And I'm just curious of how many of you read the book? how did you feel about the book? This one I think puzzled my mind a little bit more. And as I was going through it, I'm like, Kiera, why was this one a puzzling book for you? Why was this one maybe a little bit harder for me to digest? And I think a piece I had was one, I might have thought that the information was dated. And in that, I felt like, Kiera, you might be thinking small because just because things are quote unquote dated or we're doing things differently today. does not mean the founding principles of what made this organization, the CEO legendary, I can't apply to today. And I think I was thinking so literal as opposed to conceptual. And the other side of it, I thought, I don't know if I'm really set up to do, be a manager. And so I'm super curious, how did you guys enjoy the book? I hope you're ready for it. If you guys are enjoying our podcast in any way, shape or form, please also before we kick it off, Go leave us that review. You guys, I was looking at those reviews the other day and I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for making us one of the top dental podcasts out there and truly just resonating with the world. And our goal is to get this podcast into the hands of every dental office out there. So please help me out on our mission and share this with somebody today. Leave a review, tag us while you're listening in the car. It means the world to me. So let's kick off High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove and some of the key points that I just noticed in the book club were number one, Um, like this is a granddaddy, like they're the CEO of Intel's legendary CEO during the transformative years. And I just think about that of, gosh, like they had so many different pieces in there. And so just as kind of a high level, there's the managerial leverage, there's training is the boss's job, motivations, meetings and decisions, one -on -one meetings, delegation and tax relevant, KPIs, performance reviews, interviews, and then promotions and recycling. And so, uh, Kiera Dent (02:21.134) Really, I felt like there were so many good tips and I'll just dive right in pretend we're hanging out in my podcast. There is a chair right over here. So pretend you're just hanging out with me sitting here and we're just having a conversation in my podcast studio in my living room, if you will. We're just sitting back having a comfy cozy conversation because I'm really curious. This one was written in 1982. Uh, that's quite, quite a substantial amount of time since this was written. And like I said, I think I was a little more closed off upon reading it. I think I felt like this doesn't apply. I like the one -on -ones. Oh my gosh. I texted Brittany and I said, this book is recommending we have way longer one -on -ones. And so I feel again, I wasn't looking at the conceptual ideas and more of the logical black and white. Like this is a workbook I'm going in, I'm implementing versus looking at what things can I be looking at? to really optimize the output of it. And so one of the big things that I really love, like let's take it, is a manager output is the output of their organization and their neighboring organizations under their influence. And so thinking about a manager, and again, I don't know if I'm cut out to be a manager, but that said, just because I don't enjoy managing, I truly don't. I looked at the other day, I was doing a time exercise and I'm like, gosh, like I just feel sluggish. And I was writing it down and I thought like I have block scheduled and I've maximized my time and I batched my tasks a lot of times and what do I need to do to get out of this bunk? And what I noticed, my funk is due to the fact that I'm in so many meetings. It is death by a thousand meetings and I'm just not enjoying it. And I thought, I don't enjoy this. Britt is our operations manager. I need to get out of these meetings more. With that said though, I don't think just because we don't enjoy something means that we can abdicate it if we do delegate it. And so that was really a piece I took from this of Kiera. While you might not enjoy managing per se, this is going to give you tips of how to successfully lead your team and guide your managers and give them resources to make sure that they're exceptional managers. So what I really loved is they were talking about like the manager's output should not be focused on how much work they're able to produce. Kiera Dent (04:29.934) but is measured on how much output that the team is doing. And I thought about like, doctors, we're looking at our production per hour and hygienists, our production per hour, a manager oftentimes like, it's just a million to do's. And so for you and managers and CEOs and owners and office managers and all that, if we realize that our KPI is our team's output, what are we doing? How is the output of the team, our production, our efficiency? That's what our job is to do. And then, the way you actually maximize that output is to focus on tasks that have high leverage. And so you're working on high level output and you are looking at the high leverage activities because they have a long -term outcome of a high output from your team. And so like planning ahead and making sure that we're batching our tasks and really making sure that we're doing high leverage is making sure that our team output is a lot higher. Um, they also talked about like when a manager is putting off decisions that actually can impact a lot of times the effect of that. And so making sure that we make decisions quicker and more efficiently. So we're not stopping the work of our organization. And so just kind of thinking about that, uh, minimizing your interruptions. So that way you can actually get those tasks done, blocking your schedule, creating a scheduled time for people to connect with you. And I thought that that was such an interesting point of creating a scheduled time where your team can come talk to you. And I thought about that of. if I really had quote unquote office hours where my team was available, of course there's times when there's emergencies, but would that cut down my emergencies? Would that cut down all the interruptions I'm getting throughout the week? I have never tried it. And so I think that that's something for me that I asterisked in the book of try adding this in to see does that cut down? Because if the team knows, it's kind of like we recommend on offices of. block one hour of CEO time, block one hour of admin time, office managers minimum per week. And that what it does is it cuts down all the fires and all the things. Cause you have a set time where you know, you're going to work on tasks. And I thought about that of, does that help our team know that you're available always with no other meetings, nothing where you are here for your team every single week for them to really be able to come to you. So I just thought like, maybe have that created time where people can connect with you. Kiera Dent (06:48.078) I really loved how they talked about training along with motivation is a way to improve performance with your team. And I thought about that training along with motivation and how little time do we as managers. And when I go back to being an office manager, I had my set one hour a month that I was set up for training. Is that really enough time to train? And I was just actually talking to a manager. She's got a really beautiful practice. And she said, Keira, I think I'm ready for my next step. What's my next step? And I said, realistically, your job is to step back and go to all the different departments and really set it up. And we built a schedule for her. So for example, it'd be Monday, you go and work with the front office. Tuesday, you're on hygiene. Wednesday, you're on leadership. And Thursday, you're on doctors. So how are we going to set it up? Not to say that the whole day is doing that, but there's a cadence for her to know which department am I going to go look in. Which ones am I going to work on training? Where can I really help? And so it's not just a one -time event, but it's clear of who's training and the, in the book, they recommend that the manager trains. For me, I enjoy leveraging and thinking, how can I train my leaders in each department to basically be managers where it's not just my office manager? And I think that again, this is me thinking literal rather than conceptually, and how can I apply this to dental practices doing this podcast with you? Um, And so just kind of a thought for you guys to think of if we were to possibly schedule time, would that help? Also looking at training and do I have set time and enough training to really be able to get my team where I actually want them to be or am I just holding back and making it to where we really aren't getting the training because I'm not prioritizing that because I'm so busy putting out other fires. And they said meetings are the medium of managerial work. 50 % of the time in meetings. 25 % and then non -contributary. And I thought, oh my gosh, 50%. And so to me, again, like I said, I was very literal on this book versus thinking, and could it be that I don't have productive meetings? Could it be that if I actually had this more effective that we'd have less problems? So just thinking about it, and again, this is a book that really did, I said, puzzle my mind and make me think of what things are really going to be applicable for dental practices and for my own practice. Kiera Dent (09:02.574) And what do I want to do about that? And what do I want to implement? And I just want to put it out there that everything we hear in books, everything we hear in podcasts, everything we hear on Facebook and social media, I really hope that we become better sifters of information rather than just doers of everything. Because doers of everything actually don't prioritize. And as I thought about this book, I thought, fantastic, what things can I take from this book versus... trying to implement the entire thing, thinking if I do this, because for me, I do believe that we have wisdom within our businesses. I do believe that we have wisdom as managers of that resonates with me and I can see how that would work versus this doesn't resonate with me and I don't think this could work while still having an open mind. So again, thinking about this to me, put me in 50 % of my time in meetings, I don't want a job. I would rather not, but for a lot of managers, they're perfectly fine with it as long as we're being effective with our meeting time. I really have thought about this and I wondered there's a lot more ways to be effective with our meetings. And so I just thought about let's caution through the information we receive and truly pick up the pearls that actually resonate with us. Like I said, this one was probably the hardest book of all of our book clubs that I've gone through just due to the fact that I felt like there were probably more efficient ways. that I could get the same outcome with less time and effort while not abdicating my responsibilities. So I really felt like there were just a lot of pieces when they talk about meetings, they said, within meetings, we always need to make sure that we nail down what decisions need to be made. When does it need to be made? Who's going to decide who will need to be consulted prior to making the decision? Who will we ratify or veto the decision? And who will need to be informed of the decision? And I did think those questions were really fantastic. Also questions to ask yourself before calling a meeting is what am I trying to accomplish? Is the meeting necessary? Is it desirable or justifiable? And don't call a meeting unless those answers are yes. So, and remember by saying yes, we're actually saying no to something else. And so that's, I think, where I kind of looked at like 50 % of my time in meetings. Do I really need to spend that much time or are there ways that I can actually get what I need to done more succinctly? And I think that that's a piece for you. Kiera Dent (11:23.374) They talked about one -on -one meetings, which you guys know I'm very pro having one -on -one meetings. They said, these should occur once a week, up to once every few weeks, depending on how quickly things are changing in the environment. And I remember reading this and they recommend a pretty lengthy amount of time for every one -on -one where we really do work with them and we facilitate what's going on and what's bothering them and making sure that we're talking to them about their lives as well. And... I'm really giving them that guidance and direction. And I think I agree that one -on -ones are phenomenal once a month. But I also feel like spending so much time. I don't know, I'm a 50 -50 split because sometimes I think that they're too short. We do ours 30 minutes every single month. Britt does all of them. And I join in once a quarter. And sometimes I wondered if I had more time, would I hear more? Other times I think. If I had maybe that set time where people could connect with me, could that offset the need for as long of one -on -ones with them? So really just make sure that on one -on -ones we're getting information back and we're not just giving information. I think that that was the biggest piece. Another piece that I took away from this is being present in meetings and really making sure that I'm there. And recently in our team, I noticed we were all very distracted in meetings and I felt like, well, this is why our meetings are not going as well as I would like them to be. So I said, everyone has to shut off Slack, everybody shuts off their email, everybody puts their phones on silent, and we are here present. And in a virtual team, it's a bit trickier. I think in person, it might be easier, but in a virtual team, that is a bit trickier. And so really for me, I noticed that when we were all present, so much more actually got done. And I thought, could we actually simplify our meetings just by simply being present? Could we cut down the amount of time and the amount of meetings by being present, having an agenda, pieces like that? And so just a few pieces like that and they talked about like how far ahead should we be looking and they recommended five years but really just one year and implement between now and the next meeting. And I thought that was really beautiful to think of because…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera is joined by Dr. Brian Harris, the founder of Smile Virtual, to talk about cosmetic dentistry and virtual consulting. They touch on cosmetic needs in the current economy and how social media changed the game, as well as implementing virtual consulting and the way to get patients to want to do it. Dr. Harris also teases out how to get case acceptance virtually. Episode resources: Learn about Smile Virtual Connect with Dr. Brian Harris: brian@drbrianharris.com or @drbrianharris on Instagram Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.942) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so jazzed. The guest I have today is someone that I feel like we have circled in the same circle without actually doing a podcast together ever until today. So I'm so jazzed. I have recommended this man so many times. I'm so excited to hear where he's at in his life, all the different things, cosmetic dentistry, you name it. Brian Harris, welcome to the show today. How are you? Dr. Brian Harris (00:24.122) I am doing amazing. Thank you for having me. And I feel the same way about you. I feel like I've seen you all over. I hear people talk about you and your team and the amazing things that you do within dentistry. And so I think this is cool that we're actually doing this together. And I'm excited to see where the conversation takes us. Kiera Dent (00:43.406) You and me both. So Brian, funny fact, my husband and I actually got set up on a blind date. I was disengaged is what I called it. I make the joke, my last name's Dent, it was three fiancees. So my husband, I was set up with a guy that I worked with at a law firm, Geology, he was a lawyer, and his name is actually Brian Harris as well. So it makes me always like happy when I see your name, cause you've got like a good affiliation that way. Brian Harris set me and my husband up and you are not the same Brian Harris, but like it's just a good affiliation. But Brian, for those of us who don't know you, people that have never heard about you, can you kind of talk about your, um, the founder of smile virtual and kind of just your story. You are one of the like Godfathers and just genius people around cosmetic dentistry. So kind of just give people an intro of who you are, what you do. And then we're going to like rift on cosmetic dentistry, case acceptance, all those pieces. Dr. Brian Harris (01:39.514) Yeah, for sure. Thank you for the nice words. That means a lot. And yeah, I think my story is a little... It doesn't start off very interesting, you know, kind of the typical, you know, my dad was a dentist. My two brothers are dentists. One of my brothers owns a dental lab. My father -in -law is a dentist. So, like, I mean, it's just it's always been part of my life. I started practice in 2005. I kind of had an early look into this world of cosmetic dentistry because my dad was one of the kind of the original pioneers of cosmetic dentistry back in the early 90s. And so I feel like I always had a kind of a different view of what dentistry could be like. And so graduated, bought into the practice, you know, fast forward 2016 ish. We have five Harris Dental locations. we were just rocking it. I mean, it was going great on the surface, like on the outside looking in, everything was great, but just totally burned out and not really doing the stuff that I love to do. And right about that time is when social media started becoming a thing where people started posting pictures of teeth on social media. It was very weird back in the day. It's normal now. And... Kiera Dent (03:01.486) Yep. Dr. Brian Harris (03:03.322) And yeah, my wife was like, you just need to like start posting more of what you do and doing more of the stuff you love and not feeling so burnt out. And I did that. And one thing led to another. And before I knew it, we were booked out eight months in advance and only doing small design cases. And that's kind of all I do today. For the last probably six years now, I just do porcelain veneers. That's it in my practice. And... We're still booked out quite a ways and I love it. And part of that process, I would say a big part of the success though was the creation of Small Virtual, really the most well -known video console platform in dentistry as it relates to really driving leads and closing big cases. So that's my story. Kiera Dent (03:55.118) I love it. Well, and I just have a question. I mean, Brian, welcome to the podcast with me. I will always ask all the questions I want to know. Like, we'll get into the nitty gritties. You find out about I was disengaged and then engaged, you know, three times. Like, tell me how happy are you from where you were? You had you had like, I feel the quote unquote, the dream life, right? You've got all these practices. It's booming. And you told me you're just getting to burn out. Can you tell me the difference of your happiness level today compared to where you were when maybe people looked at you and they thought like height of his career, where I would say today you're probably at the height of your career, but just tell me like your happiness level and your stress level, fulfillment level between the two places of your life. Dr. Brian Harris (04:34.426) Yeah, I think it's really important to understand that every stage of growth really does require a different version of you to show up and be able to manage it and be able to manage the stress because I feel stressed now. It's a different stress, though. When you're booked out three, four months in advance and it's just small design cases, like... Financially, it's amazing. Ego, amazing. But the stress of having to manage those cases at a high level when most of my patients fly in and out in two visits only, I have to be on all the time and there's not a lot of room for air. There's not a lot of room for something not fitting or for me to miscommunicate something with my patients. So, absolutely loving where I'm at. But still, the stress is still there. It's just a different type of stress. But I would say to the actual question of burnout, yeah, I think it's a real thing. I think what happens is you think you want your practice a certain way or you think you want things a certain way and then you get there and you're doing it and then you're like, man, I don't love it, but it's great. It's a good income. And I think the... The cool thing about our profession though is like you can play, you can pivot, you can move and say, okay, I built this and I love it, but what I really love is this. So what if I just do like more of that? And I think that part of our profession is pretty fascinating. Kiera Dent (06:05.422) Right. Kiera Dent (06:09.902) Yeah, no, I completely agree. And I'm glad you brought that up because I think so many people look with eyes of envy of how do I get there? I want to know. But I really love that you said like there is a different level of stress at every layer and I don't think it goes away. I also think there's a healthy amount of stress that does drive us to be better, but just realizing, I think looking from the outside in what that looks like. So I want to get into nitty gritty. I don't ever do clinical on the podcast because I'm not a dentist. I can talk about dental assisting and like all the ways to suction spit. which by the way, in tip culture that has come into play, I think about this often and I thought about it years ago before tip culture was a thing. And I thought, why don't I just have a tip jar and be like, you're welcome. I didn't suck up your uvula. I've thought about this. So if you, if any person ever wants to do that, like how come I don't get that for not sucking up your uvula and giving you this amazing smell anyway, that's a total side joke, but I'm curious, can we dive into nitty gritties because you do the clinical and I'm curious about like the trends in cosmetic dentistry and how you're able to. like the pieces that you guys have in cosmetic dentistry and using Smile Virtual to be able to do more cases like this, because I think so many people want to do it, Brian, but not many people are able to do it. So like, I'm so jazzed. I miss clinical in my life. I don't get to be chair side as often anymore. And so let's just kind of dive into wherever you want to take it with how to get this cosmetic dentistry there. Are people still doing cosmetic dentistry, the economy, all these different things? How do I get that going in my practice? What are some of the things I need to do clinical wise? You take it wherever you want to go. This is your time and I'm just jazzed for it. Dr. Brian Harris (07:43.802) Okay, I love it. So I'll go first. I want to go with like where things are at right now as it relates to cosmetic dentistry. And then, and then let's jump into the virtual console piece and the communication side, because I think that's just a massive thing that's changed in that people really need to understand how to communicate treatment with patients. But I'll get into that in a minute. So here's what's changed. When I came into practice, The only way that somebody would know about cosmetic dentistry was like if you had a book in your waiting room with before and afters and they were usually like just actual photos to see cases. And so the patients would learn about it with their own dentist and the dentist would talk to them about it and they would do the work. And so it was very much a doctor driven process. We would tell people, hey, you don't want to go with that shape. It won't look natural. You don't want to go that bright. And so it was... Kiera Dent (08:23.502) Mm -hmm. Dr. Brian Harris (08:43.674) We had full control of the process. That's why when you look at like AACD accreditation, a lot of the this idea of like natural look and translucency and shapes like it's such a it's such a big thing. Well, what's changed and what changed everything was social media. So now patients find out about cosmetic dentistry like they can look through thousands of cases in an instant online. So they come in knowing what they want. from size, shape, color. And the number one piece of advice I can give to any dentist or even dental assistants listening is like, I think the best cosmetic dentistry is whatever your patient feels is cosmetically pleasing to them. So good example, if you go on like my Instagram page, I'm sure you could find 10 cases that you think look great. Kiera Dent (09:13.71) Mm -hmm. Dr. Brian Harris (09:41.658) And equally 10 cases that you're like, whoa, those are too big, too bright, white. And I think, you know, and I'm proud of that because for me, it's not about what I want. It's about like giving people what it is that they want. I think that's a that's an important thing. And doctors are learning the hard way when they're telling patients, no, no, you don't want that. We're going to do this. And then people get things redone. I had two consults yesterday, people that have been in veneers six months or less. Kiera Dent (09:44.27) I did. Dr. Brian Harris (10:11.898) that want to have them redone because they're like, I don't want all this translucency. It looks like there's stuff on my teeth. I don't want my teeth to look like triangles. And that's what nature looks like, but it's not what people want. So those are my thoughts on cosmetics. Kiera Dent (10:27.054) Mm -hmm. Yeah. Which I'm glad. And so, Brian, I have a funny story of how I actually am just so grateful for this. It's not really funny. I had an ex -fiance prior to the one that Brian Harris set me up with. And he actually smashed my face into a wall. And I had to get a lot of cosmetic dentistry done. And I'm glad you said that because I remember there was a dentist who tried to make my teeth like too short. And I literally felt like I was a completely different person. I didn't want to smile. And so even though they felt like that's what I should look like and in temps, I remember like I didn't want to smile. I felt like I looked like I had a like a mental, like a physical issue with me and like the way I communicated, I felt like people looked at me differently than they had ever looked at me before. And so for you to say that, I agree with you. So being a patient on the other side of this and to know that like, and I had to have mine like redone it multiple times because they weren't right. And the fact that that dentist was so kind to me to get it to where it was just perfect because I didn't ever think I'd smile again with confidence. And so just to speak to this, um, I always get nervous sharing this cause I'm like, Oh great. Every dentist is going to then look at my teeth and be like, where was it? And what did they do? And, um, but the reality is like you said it's beauty to that. And so being the patient on the other side, when they made my teeth too short, I literally felt like I was a completely different person and it really did rock my confidence. And so I think that was one of the most beautiful things you said is to look at the cases and you're right. That Instagram page is not for your ego of like, this is it. It's the satisfaction that you've given these people their confidence in their lives back or made them have more confidence than they've ever had before. because you're able to give them what they ultimately wanted. Same with hairstyles, same with nails, same with like all those different things that are cosmetically pleasing. It's in the person who's wearing it, not in the person who's creating it that I think is a really, really incredible point to make. Dr. Brian Harris (12:28.762) Yeah, 100%. It's hard for some people to let that go. It's hard for professionals to accept that, but it's just the reality. There's just different styles, different trends, different looks. And so I think that would probably be the number one thing that I would say is, it's about the people more so than it is us. And so I think that's a good transition segue into the whole virtual console piece. So. The reason I even started the small virtual software platform was I realized that the sales process in dentistry really was broken. When you look at where we are today with technology and with everything else, people would come in and see me. They just wanted to know, can I trust you? What are my options and what does this cost? Kiera Dent (13:21.902) Mm -hmm. Dr. Brian Harris (13:22.362) and we would make them jump through all these hoops to get those questions answered. And, you know, as being in the coaching and consulting space, you know that oftentimes we're coaching teams on like tactics and strategies and what to say when they're not ready and like how to, but it's all focused on this, like the sales strategy. And I had this like awakening where I'm like, you know what? It needs to be about like. the buyer's process, it needs to be about the buyer strategy. And so I thought, what if we could just, like instead of me doing all this with the patient when they're in my practice, vulnerable, they don't know who I am, their spouse isn't there, they have no idea what things cost, what if I could just take time and record a video for them, not a live video like this, but like a prerecorded video of just saying like, hey, it's great…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Dana are back with more tips to perfect your patient experience and office systems. This episode focuses on maximizing appointment efficiency from both the doctor side and hygiene side. The consultants walk through four critical steps: Taking an inventory of your appointment process Consider timing with a fine-toothed comb Implement block scheduling the right way Schedule the next appointment for what the patient actually needs Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:10.414) Hi everyone, I'm so excited to be here. I've got my girl Dana here with me today. It's a beautiful Friday afternoon here in Phoenix while we're recording. Dana, you are what, two hours below me, two hours away from me. How is it down there where you're at? Beautiful, sunny, awesome day. Oh, I love it. This is my favorite time of year. I think it's just the most beautiful time to be in the desert and here in a couple months. maybe even a couple weeks, I might be saying something different. But I truly do love the dry heat. So I'm so happy to be here. Dana, you impress me constantly. You just got off the road and you have been on the road like crazy the last few weeks. How are you doing? How are you feeling? You've been in offices literally all over the country. You had your toes in sand on the Virginia beach the other day. Today you're in a sunny... desert, how are you doing with all of it? You've been traveling more than normal. Yeah, more than normal. But doing really good. I think I love in office pieces getting to connect with teens getting in there getting to see how they do interact with patients. It just brings like a fuel to the fire, even though sometimes traveling can be a little bit daunting. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I love that. I do always feel like I get like a like a runner's high. after being in offices and like reinvigorated and just ready to like take over the world, it feels like. What are, there's some things I wanna chat about today. One of them is appointment efficiency tips. That's what this is gonna be wrapped around. So it's gonna be a lot of really actionable information for everybody. But what were you seeing while you were in offices? Is there anything that kept, I mean, you've been in quite a few practices recently, like I said, all over the country. So is there anything that you saw that was like routinely coming up? that trends that a few practices were dealing with while you were out there? Yeah, I think I've seen a lot of like patient flow, time management, maximizing like the 60 minutes that we have with patients. So it actually is kind of great that we're talking about appointment efficiency because I do feel like in a lot of practices, we do see some struggles in there, some hiccups, right? And sometimes it just takes a little tweak and things run a whole lot more smoothly. Totally agree, totally agree. The Dental A Team (02:28.142) And I think we are running into that space of like coming up on summertime. And so it is like, what are, what can we do? And we've got so many people that have vacations. So we've got, you know, a lot of cancellations in the schedule, a lot of people calling out, but then on the flip side of that, we have a lot of patients that are like, Hey, I have vacation time. Let me use it. Or we're going to be gone. Let me get this done before we leave kind of situation. So I totally agree. I think being on the road, I was on the road last week and we definitely worked on a lot of like flow and efficiency pieces. I think that's something that dental hygiene does really well. with our clients and with our listeners is to really always look for that efficiency piece. How can we make the most out of the time that we have? And caveat for my team members listening, that doesn't always mean that we're adding things to your appointment, right? We're asking you to quote unquote do more. It just means how can we be super effective with the time that we have and give the patients the best experience that they possibly can have with the time that we've got while they're in our practice. So, Following in line with that appointment efficiency tips, I think that's something that every practice thrives with and comes to dental 18 -4 systems, right? And this is a huge undertaking. How do we ensure that our appointments are going as efficiently and as effectively as possible? And Dana, I know you are a hygienist. I think this is super, super key for you to speak on hygiene behalf. And then I was a dental assistant by trade. And so, I kind of have an idea for how the doctors movements are, where our doctors are at, how those doctor side appointments can go, but then also like shuffling him or her over to hygiene too, to get that worked in and all of those pieces streamlining. Now I have to tell you a story. I have an office near and dear to my heart. I actually just spoke to them this morning and my in office visit I did with them, my first time being in their practice years ago, I remember walking in and I thought, I looked at their schedule and I was like, Holy cow, like this man's been practicing dentistry for a long time, but his appointments are really long. He's like two and a half hours for a crown prep. And I'm like, for anybody who's, you know, been out for as long and practicing for as long as he has two and a half hours, not knowing the crown in office seemed like a really long time. So I was like, I'm going to watch this. And, and lo and behold, I start watching and I go to the back office and I'm observing their dental assistants. And I noticed that the dental assistants are standing over the patient with two suction. The Dental A Team (04:50.286) And so we've got a high speed and a slow speed section going at the same time. And their doctor is sitting with the drill and a mirror and every 30 seconds, he's pulling the mirror out, wiping it on the bib, putting it back in because he can't see. And then also he's got there constantly in the, in the mouth with the two sections and he's got everything he needs on his tray. So he's with one hand like grabbing and throwing, grabbing and throwing the other hand with the mirror and they're dissectioning water or not. And I was like, I think I can help here. I think I can help. So I pulled them out of the chair and I said, like, has anyone ever taught you how to assist? And like, nope, not really. We went to school, but we didn't have hands -on training. And this is what we did. And I said, the doctor, I'm like, why are you not asking for what you want? And he's like, I don't want to step on toes. I assisted that morning. I had them watch me. I assisted every appointment they had that morning. Flip -flop, they assisted in the afternoon. I watched them. By the end of the day, we had, we. started shortening the appointments to what they were, right? So by the time the patient left, we shortened it. I stole the tray back from the doctor and I was like, don't touch these instruments. Don't be grabby and don't throw things. And by the end of that day, we had three and a half hours of open time on that schedule, just unused time in between patients. And the practice on his wife, the office manager, her mind was just like blown, right? It was mind blown. She's like, what we could do so much with this time. And I'm like, yeah, so all these patients that are booked out three, four, five weeks, because you don't have time to get them in, start calling them in. We've got two really trained assistants. And the point of that story is just within that itself is a ton of appointment efficiency tips. Because if you're not, if you're a dental assistant and you've got one section and you've got an air water tip, like your air water tip should be over that mirror if the doctor is using that mirror to look at it too. He should, he or she should have a clean mirror constantly. You can air it, you can air water it when it gets kind of gunky, right? Some things just kind of fly on there. You can clean it off. And then you're also going to make sure that that left hand is always available to be grabbing things off of their tray, switch over the high speed to the left hand and you're grabbing things off your tray where your composite is, your brushes, all those things are over there and you're passing with your hand. So that's called. The Dental A Team (07:07.854) two handed dentistry, right? Or four handed dentistry if you're including the doctors, but you're using both of your hands constantly. And that's how we know how to schedule appointments. If we're not efficient chair side, I wanted to talk block scheduling today and that's something Dana that I think you're really fantastic at implementing with practices is the block scheduling. But if we're not sure where our doctor's at, or what our assistants are doing, or we're not super efficient chair site or know how long things take, block scheduling doesn't work. We've got to have that dialed in so well that it's easy for them to say, this is where that appointment goes. So chair site efficiencies, like look for those spaces. Are dental assistants using both sections? Do you need them to use both sections? Sometimes during a surgery, yeah, you do need that, right? I need the slow speed section for. fit and I need that high -speed suction with the surgical tip for the socket. So yes, absolutely. But depending on that treatment, like what should they be doing? Where should the things be placed? Tray size, like are your instruments? I know a lot of hygienists do this where they know which scaler they're going to need next, like from start to finish of the appointment. So their trays are set up in order of which scaler they're going to need. And a lot of hygienists got, Dana said, daisy. Dana, I've seen like not even look at their tray to pull their instruments their heads just in in the mouth, right? Their eyes are in the mouth and if dental assistants are thinking that same in that same vein What is my doctor going to need next? It's much easier and I used to just pull from the front and move to the back pull from the front move to the back So the next thing you need is right there Dana, do you like is that how just within the appointment before we even talk about block? scheduling and how to schedule things like how do you see those are some dental assisting pieces, but on the hygiene side, what did you use to do that in that made you super efficient or what have you implemented with practices that helps kind of tighten up that space there? Yeah, and I think it really is truly just figuring out ways that you can buy even if it's 10 seconds, right? If I don't have to look at my tray and say, okay, where is my The Dental A Team (09:23.726) Gracie, right? Or where is my 1314? If I know automatically where it is every single time, I just bought myself five to 10 seconds. Well, every time I transition an instrument, I just bought myself back a minute, a minute and a half, right? And that makes a huge difference in a 60 minute appointment. So it's always looking for those little bits of pockets of time. If I can prep a patient with something before I do it, right? So if I am peri -returning and I say, hey, if you see... If you hear one, twos and threes, those are normal. If you hear fours, those are kind of my warning lights, right? Like that we're progressing towards disease. Anything after that, five, six, seven, I've already prepped the patient. So then when they sit up, I just bought myself a window of time because they kind of already know where we're going. If I am talking about home care, right? And I can tell the patient maybe needs some floss help. I can do it as I am flossing their teeth. Do you feel this? How I come over here? Do you feel, instead of having to sit the patient up and having a, a whole explanation of it. And there are patients where, yeah, you do have to sit them up and do that. But when you can buy back windows of time, if I'm applying for it and I'm messaging up to my front, hey, patient ready to check out treatment plan in, if I'm sitting there waiting for an exam and I'm typing notes and I'm doing my OHI as I'm there with the patient, all of those things buy you back seconds, minutes, lots of time in there to be able to do other things like scanning, to be able to take intraoral photos, to be able to... you know, present a treatment at the end. So when you can look for those opportunities in employment, even in hygiene side, right? Same thing on doctor's side. I only want doctor doing what only the doctor can do. So if you as the assistant can get in there and do something, jump in there and do it because again, we're just looking for those little bit of windows of opportunity that equals maximum efficiency. Yeah, I love that. And I love what you said about like gaining yourself back that minute and a half. even like at the beginning, that minute and a half, you guys, I don't know if anybody's ever done a one minute wall sit, but they kind of suck. A minute is a really long time in the grand scheme of things. And so what could you get done in a minute? What could you do with the relationship building in a minute? We're talking about the treatment even more in detail with the patient, answering the questions that they need that you don't typically have time for, that you're like trying to rush them out for. How can we give back to the patient? The Dental A Team (11:45.486) with that time that we're saving, I think that's brilliant. And I love the idea of talking as you go. I used to love to do that you as a dental assistant, there are so many spaces you guys in hygiene, obviously, it's super, super important and clear to be like, you're in the mouth, talk about their mouth, like talk about, I love conversation. And I love building the relationship. But if there are things to talk about in the mouth, that's your opportune time, because you're there, you're in it, your patients expecting it. and they're now thinking about it as you're going. Dental assisting side, making sure your patients like Dana just said, making sure they're prepped for what's coming. I used to love to make sure my patients understood what's coming. We're gonna do the scan now. Like this is what it's gonna be like. Let me pop it in there because what happens a lot of times are we're gonna do the PAs. It might feel this. I remember I put something in somebody's mouth and they're like, oh, oh, what is this? Get that out of my mouth. And I'm like, but I only have so much time. Like I can't explain this. But I thought, okay, well. have I prepped them for the fact that there's a giant wand, right? A scanner feels to us like it's super small and it's really cool. And like, it's just this magnificent little wand. It feels really big in your mouth. If you haven't had a scan done, go get one done. It feels really big in your mouth. So making sure that they're prepped for things like that on both sides. Dental assistants should be doing scans on new patients. you've read care appointments, they can help with that too. But also, right, obviously, crowns and ortho stuff like that, but making sure that they're crafted love that those are huge efficiency tips. So I wou…
Full show notes at the publisherJust because dentistry is one of your talents doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile service. When it comes to friends and family asking for discounts or free treatment, it can get sticky if you're not prepared. In this episode, Kiera gives three pointers to addressing when someone inevitably drops your name in hopes of a discount: Recognize your worth as a dental professional Put a dollar amount to the discounts you've given Create a friends and family fee schedule, then use it Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.83) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and oh, I am excited. Our team has actually been going and doing a little research for you guys to find out what are the topics the dentists and teams have been asking in the industry across the globe. And I am so excited because this month, I'm going to start shaking it up a little bit on you guys. So I am so excited for you. There's going to be different topics, very tactical, practical. I hope you guys are having a great time. As always, thanks for listening to our podcast. Thanks for making us one of the top elite dental podcasts across all podcast platforms. You guys listening, sharing, subscribing, downloading, those are all how we're able to help and serve and really truly positively impact the world of dentistry with the tactical and practical. So thank you for being a part of this. Thank you for being here with me. I am so honored that you are here with me tonight or today or in the morning or whatever time you're doing this. I'm excited. So today let's talk about what do we do? for friends and acquaintances who feel like they should get treatment at no cost. I hope you guys are ready for this. This is a common problem. As you guys know in the Dental A Team, we consult practices to make your life easier, more fun, have your teams have less stress, and be able to do it all with ease to get that more profitable practice, but honestly to have the most dreamy life that you could ever imagine. So that's what we're about. And you guys know that this is a fun topic because really it comes down to a full team effect of. How do we really handle those friends and acquaintances? And honestly, dentists, I mean, I remember as a, when I was in a practice, our dentists would go and I could always tell when they'd been out with their neighbors or their friends because like, oh, hey, they're going to give a call and they're going to come in. And then doctor feels awkward and we don't know what to do because we feel like we should give them it to no cost. And the reality is you actually don't need to. And I'm here to help hopefully break that limiting belief, give you some awesome verbiage and some tips. for you and your team. So number one, high five, you're here. I'm so happy you're here. Number two, let's talk about it. I'm gonna ask you, do you think that you were the best dentist? Do you feel that you give incredible dentistry? And do you feel like if you had someone that could do the quality of dentistry on your mouth that you would be more than happy to pay them? I hope you're able to answer yes. And if not, let's get some CE to where you can answer yes to that. But the reality is you're probably a pretty fantastic dentist, especially if you're listening to this podcast. Kiera Dent (02:21.646) So we have to realize that just because it comes natural for you and just because it's a skill for you does not mean that it should be done for free. Now, if it brings you joy, phenomenal, but if it doesn't, I want you to think about you are providing a service that people pay because they can't do it. And they're so happy that you're giving them the confidence, you're giving them the certainty, you're giving them the ability to eat the foods they want to. Like you have to think about how much our mouths do for us, the ability to talk, to smile, to communicate with other people. all these things, you're actually giving your patients the ability to do. And so I just want you, I wanna remind you that like that's what you're giving them. You're giving them this incredible thing and you just feel like, oh my gosh, but I'm already doing this and it's so easy for me and they're my friend. Well, yeah, but you might have a friend who works at the grocery store or at a restaurant. That doesn't mean you expect them to give it to you for free. So I just wanna break it from you of like you are doing incredible things. Don't forget that you're doing incredible things. But I feel like sometimes because we're talented at it, we just feel like, well, it's so easy for me. Therefore, why am I charging for it? That's false. Like just because it's a talent, just because it comes natural for you does not mean that it's not a service worthwhile. And also remember people want to pay you. We want to pay people. Like I am so grateful for my coaches. I'm grateful for my dentist. I'm grateful for my doctors. Like I want to pay them. I want to thank them. I can say thank you all day long, but their time is valuable too. So I really want you to remember. You are valuable. You're doing something so incredible for these people. So don't undersell yourself. Also, by people needing to pay for it, they're also a lot more, like they'll be more timely. They'll show up better for you. And they're actually gonna be better patients for you. So just realize like it actually is a good way. And it's also a great way to keep friends because when we don't and there's this unsaid exchange, oftentimes resentment can build on both sides. I had a dentist and they would trade work all the time, but. For them, it takes you like 30 minutes to do a filling and for this other person, it takes them like all day, but the costs are the same. That's not really a great way to make friends either. And so just realize that when we just charge our fees, you can offer a small discount if you would like to, but the goal is to not do it at no cost. And I think when we set it up, if you feel awkward about it, you can always have your treatment coordinator do it. So I'm just gonna help you like number one, you've got to realize that you're worth it. And I just want you to know that you do not need to do dentistry for free. Kiera Dent (04:41.742) People do need to pay for this. And even with your family, they can pay, you can have a friends and family fee schedule where they're at least paying something for it. So I just think like, number one, if this was, let's say you're going to your parents or you're going to a friend, you would pay them. Most likely you would pay them. Like I'm not gonna take my car to my friend who's a mechanic and not pay them because I know what that feels like. I'm not gonna ask my friend. who's a doctor to diagnose me all the time. Like that's unfair to them. Just go to the doctor. Let's not also put our friends in those situations. So number one, realize like you are freaking worth it and you don't need to feel like you have to give it away for free. I also really do think that they'll respect you more. So they know and they're either gonna come and pay you happily or they're gonna find someone else and both are awesome options. So that's number one. Now number two, I wanna train your team on what we need to say. And so, you can have a couple of different options. If you don't believe that you're giving away a lot of free dentistry, I want you to start tracking how much you give away for free, just so you can see the dollar amount. Now, this isn't to hold guilt and resentment. This is just truly to show you actual tactical, factual, how many numbers am I actually paying out every single month? That's something I really do want you to be aware of because oftentimes you are giving away so much more than you think that you're giving away. So paying attention to that number also helps you realize like, gosh, I wrote off like 30, 40 grand this month. I don't have to do that. And I think we think we need to, but you're just living by rules that you have set, no one else has set. And so when they come in, again, if you're uncomfortable about it, have your treatment coordinator come in and give them the fee. You do not have to offer a discount, own your fee. So if you wanna charge full fee, charge full fee. If you wanna give them a friends and family discount, that's fine. But I think like whatever is gonna make your time worth it, because it is giving up chair time. you are and there are parts of like, but Kara, I wanna serve and Kara, I wanna do these things, which is true, but I don't want you to be taken advantage of. And you're not gonna ask this question of, hey, how do I handle friends and acquaintances who feel like they should get it at no cost if you're not feeling like you're being taken advantage of. And guess what? Multiple people put this post out there. We went and did a bunch of research across all the different platforms and saw this one come up several times. And so I'm realizing a lot of doctors feel like they have to. Well, when you feel like you have to, it's no longer fun. Kiera Dent (07:03.63) because I'm not able to do this and be able to do the surprise and delight that I want to. You can always charge the fee and then you can surprise and delight them and be like, hey, thanks for coming in. Like I just wrote off 500 for you. They're still paying you, but you can surprise and delight if it sparks joy. Like let's go to Marie Kondo, right? If it sparks joy inside of you and makes you so happy to do it, then do it. But if you're doing it out of guilt or resentment, Let's just get you out of that. And you can always say like, no problem, my team will take great care of you. Just give them a call. They'll put you in the schedule. No problem. Now, if they're like, hey, is like, I don't think most people aren't going to be like, is this free? Like, you know, my team will take care of it. We do have our friends and family fee scheduled. They'll take great care of you and they'll give you your pricing when we chat with you. Easy. Just pass it off to someone else. Your team's going to protect you. They don't want to have $0 in the, in the schedule. They don't want to have team like patients just calling. I. I was like, Oh, doctor's been at the party. People are just calling and getting on our schedule for free. And my whole schedule now I've got goals and I'm trying to hit it, but doctor was saying hi to everybody. And now I can't fill my schedule. So I want you guys to just realize like, you don't have to do this and you can pass it off to your team. Now team members, a couple of options. One, we either discharge our full fee to, we can have a friends and family fee schedule where we actually put that in there. If they have insurance, we do still need to collect what we are obligated within the contract. I know a lot of people are like, we'll just do it for insurance only. And I'm here to tell you that that's a big, big no -no. Um, we don't want you guys getting in that. If you're not willing to charge the patient, their portion, you're also not allowed to charge the insurance, the portion for that. So you've got to make sure you collect it. That's something where that's an easy combo of like, yep, we'll bill your insurance. Um, we are obligated under contract for that. So this is where we are. This is what we do need to collect for that easy conversation. Um, other ways you can give them your membership plan for free. Like that's a very simple way. So their cleanings are free. I don't think you even have to do that. Why not just give them like 50 % off? I have found that when people pay for things, they tend to care about it a little bit more. Now, of course, you can always be generous. You can always do things, but I just wanna remind you, you do not have to do it. So have your treatment coordinators, build a friends and family fee schedule, figure it out if you wanna do a membership plan where they get it for 50 % because they are a friend and family, and then it's 20 % off of all treatment. Kiera Dent (09:19.854) but it is like fee for service style. That's an easy way to do it for them. Maybe you give them the $300 membership plan for 150 or 200. They get a hundred dollars off. Like, I think we often feel this guilt of, oh my gosh, I've got to offer it for free. But guys, like even a hundred bucks off feels awesome. And I'm super appreciative. I think when you do this, you also set yourself as my time is valuable. I do want to help you and I am able to be generous, but I don't need to be like a hundred percent generous. And again, it's not you being selfish. It's not any of the things you're telling yourself. I can already hear like, but I'm being so selfish and like, I have so much and why do I need the reason we're charging for this is because they're taking the space of a patient who would pay you. And they're also taking your time, which is valuable. Just like if you were to go see your chiropractor or you were to go see this, or you were to go see this person, you would want to pay them and also paying them. Let's not take away their opportunity to serve you and to thank you for the goodness that you provide for their life. So often we think that by giving something for free, we're benefiting them. But I can even remember a time my little sister and I went to Ireland and she had come back and I didn't feel like she had a lot of money. And so I was like, it's okay, Katrina, I'll just pay for everything. And I paid for everything throughout the trip. And at the end of the trip, we got into a little heated spat and she said, Kiera, I am so frustrated with you. She said, you told me that we were coming on this trip together. and I saved money and I was more than happy to pay and I wanted to pay because that makes me feel like I am a part of this. It's fine if you wanna cover things, but you not letting me pay also made me feel like you didn't think that I could afford it, that I wasn't worthy to be on this trip with you and that you were just treating me like a little child who needed to get everything for free. I had not realized that, because I hear I was thinking I'm doing the nice thing and I'm paying for everything, but my little sister wanted to. she wanted to feel like she was participating in it. And I just thought, what was I doing? Like taking that opportunity away from her. And so I just want to remind you, like you also, when we do this to other people, we are taking that opportunity away from them. We are taking the opportunity for them to feel good about it. And then if something happens, we're not like, oh my gosh, I gave it to you for free and I got to do it for free again. Rock on. Like we've already set it up. My husband's family is very business. They build beautiful custom homes. Kiera Dent (11:40.078) And what we found is there is no trade work and it just keeps better friends. So charge the fee that's fair for you, have that friends and family fee schedule, have a percentage off on a membership plan, but charge the fee that's fair for you. And I always tell everybody,…
Full show notes at the publisherDana and Tiff dive into the topic of creating exceptional first impressions in dental offices. They explore practical strategies for creating a welcoming atmosphere that instills confidence and trust in patients from the moment they arrive. From personalized greetings to thorough attention to cleanliness and organization, they emphasize the importance of every detail in shaping a positive patient experience. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Virtual Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast TRANSCRIPT: The Dental A Team (01:04:00.494) Hello, everybody. We're so excited to be here. Dana and I just brainstormed just a second on what we were going to chat about today. We've always got our topics, but we kind of have to brainstorm. And sometimes they feel like, gosh, Dana, I was like, I don't know, I feel like we just did this one. But I think we can dive deeper. And I think you've got me spinning in a different direction that I hadn't even thought of. That is the power of teamwork. So Dana, thank you for being here. Thank you for spinning my brain always and seeing that other side you actually. You just come and clutch with that a lot during team meetings, during consulting, during podcasting. Like you really truly are able to see a different side that I don't always see. So thank you. Thank you for being here. How are you doing today? Good. Thanks for having me. You know, these are always so fun. I know. I love it. I love how we get to see each other now. When we started these, we couldn't see each other and we could just be wearing, you know, pajamas or whatever we wanted, but it's okay. But I do love that we get to see each other. I remember like the first couple ones we had all three of us, we had Niki and Brit on there. And it was like so weird. And we were like, is this so weird? And now it would be really weird not to see you. Weird how, it's funny how like quickly that switches. So if you're listening, know that there's a video out there on the interweb somewhere. If you could see our blonde hair and beautiful faces anytime you want. I think it's on, I think we started putting them on YouTube every time and they're always on Instagram. probably TikTok, I would assume that it's on TikTok. I should know these things. But anyways, today we are talking about first impressions. So if you haven't listened to it yet, we did a deep dive on the phone call and how that value of the first phone call can turn into a scheduled appointment. So that was kind of our first impressions phone call. This time we're gonna deep dive a little bit further into the patient actually coming to the practice. So they've already had the phone call, they've already been scheduled, they've already gotten the confirmation emails and texts, and you've gotten the paperwork, all of those pieces, and now they're coming into the office. So Dana, this was your brainchild. You were like, no, we're going to do an office. I think it's brilliant. Duh. Duh, Tiff. How do you want that to look for your practices? If you were to walk into one of the practices that you've consulted, how do you expect that first impression to go? The Dental A Team (01:06:18.254) I want it to be so warm and welcoming and that the instant the patient walks in, this is a place that they want to be. They feel comfortable being dental, right? We know it can be an anxiety space for a lot of patients. And I think more patients, right? Than not. They anticipate maybe pain, some discomfort, some maybe even embarrassment because they don't love what their teeth look like or, you know, they're just, generally in pain from coming in, right? They're coming in to deal with pain. And so that can be an anxiety space for a lot of people. And the more warm and welcoming they feel from the second that they walk in, again, it's just that safe space, right? That trust that we always try to build in every experience across the board for our patients. So when they feel that when they walk in, when you introduce for yourself, when you say you're so excited, oh my gosh, I've been talking to you. I'm so excited to meet you. And then you can direct them on what to do. You can show them areas of the practice. It just sets up the tone from the very beginning that you want them to feel throughout the appointment. Absolutely. It's just that relationship build, right? I feel much more at ease. And honestly, I feel like if something if I feel comfortable, confident, I feel like I trust you just from the get go from that interaction. And if I feel like, gosh, I could like I feel comfortable talking to you. if something were to happen that is less than ideal, I'm like, ah, whatever, right? So I agree. I think that first impression walking through the door should be warm and inviting, welcoming. That person should be smiling. I love, I contact you guys and like as soon as that door opens, you're looking up. I know we're in the computer. I know we're on the phone. Even if you're on the phone, you're looking up and you're like, like, I'll be right there, right? You're, you're mouthing to them what needs to be, what needs to be said. Um, and making sure that they just feel that welcome. One thing that I love is when patients walk in and I have a practice that's like, oh my gosh, Dana, welcome. Dana's like, how did you know it's me? I used to do that with my friend office and when I was in the front office, my check -in, and I would, every patient I knew, right, like, oh, this must be this person, this must be, I had so many patients that would say, The Dental A Team (01:08:41.294) I know you have the schedule, like how do you know that it's me every time? And I'm like, well, if I'm honest, I got three men and one lady coming in at 2 p .m. I know you're not Joe, Bob or Gary and they would laugh, right? But I'd be like, honestly, like I'm reading my schedule. I know enough about my patients who are coming in to guess who this is. If Joe says he's 17, Gary says he's 45. When a male walks in, the door, I'm not going to be like, what's your last name? I'm going to be like, oh, he looks older than 17. I'm going to be like, oh, hey, Gary, how are you? Right? So know your schedule, know your patients, be welcoming, be inviting. And if you use your patients names or Mrs. Smith, right? I know there's a lot of states in the country that thrive on the Mrs. and the Mr. West Coast. I always say we're the wild, wild west out here. I'll call you whatever I can think of in the moment. But use their names, be inviting, say hello Dana. Like Dana, how are you today? Ask questions and let them feel like you're welcoming them into your home, right? Dana, I like to say, I have practices, I'm like, if you go to a party, right, or you're throwing a party and people are coming into your home, and if you're not, you go to a party and you're not welcomed, you're not introduced to the host, you're not like, you don't know anybody there or you're searching for the person you know, me, my introverted extroverted self, I am going to go to the food and the drinks. And I'm going to have something in my hands that's going into my mouth so that people don't feel the need to come bother me. I'm going to be busy, right? Because it keeps me, it keeps me from feeling awkward and uncomfortable. So walking into a practice, I don't want your patients to feel awkward and uncomfortable either. So I love that. Dana, know your patients, smile. Be prepared, right? Warm, inviting, and welcoming. What else do you feel like really sets the tone for that first impression? Maybe even like not even just how that person's welcoming them, but just office -wise, what else sets the tone for that first impression? Yeah, I actually was just in a practice in Virginia Beach and like their welcome was fantastic. They had a comfort menu. They figured out what the patient wanted on the TV. Do they have a specific channel? What was the music that they wanted in their operatory? The Dental A Team (01:11:09.198) Did they want aromatherapy? Like all of those spaces. And you may not have to offer all of those things, but I think it is how can you prep, right? So that then their transition to the back is super smooth. Do you need anything updated in your system from them? Are they aware of where the bathroom is, right? You assistants can attest that there nothing is more frustrating than you come out and get the patient. And as you're walking in the back, they're like, well, can I use the bathroom? Right? Sure you can, but it would have been nice if you had used it before I came to get you. And so in the front, if I can say, oh my gosh, Tiff, welcome to the practice, the bathroom's over here, feel free to use it. Just a quick update from you right here. Here's our comfort menu, anything you like, right? Then the patient is 100 % prepared. I am prepared and I can give anything to my clinical team that they need so that the welcome on their end can be as smooth as possible too. Yeah, I totally agree. I love that. That's a great idea, a comfort menu. I think a lot of doctors are writing that one down. So know your patient's smile, be prepared, comfort menu so that their transition is as smooth as possible. And then I used to always think, what are my patients seeing when I walk in the doors? When they walk in the doors. So as the like front office, I would go out in the front and walk through the doors. And in Phoenix, it gets really hot. I don't know if you guys know this or not. So we had like door handle covers, but they'd get dirty, right? Or we'd forget to put them on. So I'd go out and just double check. Sometimes the A -frame is on the ground because it's windy. But like if we're not getting up and checking these things, right? I walk up and I'm like, oh, okay. And then I touch the handle and it's well, scorching hot, because it is, right? I'm like, that's my first impression. Like A -frame down, hot handle, right? Walk in and is there trash? I remember, gosh, 2 .30 PM to 4 PM prime child time. Oh my gosh, we'd have hot cocoa cups, all strong about all the games were out. There's candy wrappers everywhere. There's napkins. I'm like, where did they even find the napkins? There's we had a coffee thing. There'd be sugar packets opened. I had a lady. I had a lady open the K cup thing and put it in the in the Keurig and then try to run it. And I had dirty water for days. Like, there's so many things right that The Dental A Team (01:13:34.03) pace that's happening out in that lobby area that we're not generally aware of. But if we get up a couple times a day, and we go out and we think what's my patient's experience when I walk into this room, if I walked into the chaos that those afternoons were, I would be like, this place is trashed. And I don't think I would think, well, there must have been a lot of kids in here, right? Because the kids weren't there anymore. If the kids were there, sure. But when the kids are gone, and it's completely tracked. If I walk into that, I'm like, wow, this is weird, right? Or walking up, I know my doctor hated me for my sticky notes, and I couldn't have my sticky notes until I had my own office that patients weren't coming to, right? But walking up and there's a million sticky notes and like papers are thrown about and it just looks disorganized. So I think your first impression is how you're feeling like you're welcome, right? How is how is how is the team welcoming you into the practice? How does that feel? But then also, what's the feeling when you're walking into the building? Is it clean? Was your entrance clean? Is the parking lot maintained? Is it chaotic out there? Are the chairs strewn about? Are they dirty? A lot of times people would spill the coffee or food that they brought in and there'd be a stain on the chair. So like, those are the things we have to look for too, when we're looking for not only just our first impression, but a patient that may have been coming here for years. I used to have patients that'd be like, Did you know that this is over here? I'm like, no. If that were my house, I would cry, right? Like, no, I am inviting you into my home. And this is what my expectation is. If I were to invite you to my actual home, I would have cleaned it before you came. And now you're coming to a space where you're going to be sitting with your mouth open for at least 30 minutes, if not longer. And I've got things strewn about in the lobby where you're sitting. Not cool. bathrooms, making sure the bathrooms are clean, making sure your water's soft, if you've got water, coffee bar or whatever, making sure that the amenities are stopped. They're not going to ask for it. They're just going to be like, oh, that sucks. Like, didn't get a water today. Didn't get a water next time either because it's still empty. Look for those pieces. So what is the actual impression? What's the feeling? And oftentimes, I like to make people switch. I talk about that a lot. So I'll make the dental assistant go walk through the front as The Dental A Team (01:15:58.51) dental assistant because you're seeing it all day. If you're sitting up there, you're seeing it all day and we get blind, right? We have blind spots. Same with dental assistants. So sometimes I'll hop to front office, walk the operatories and they'll be like, oh, there's dogs over there. Nope, there sure is. But I've been looking at it all day. I have impression material. Oh my gosh, Dana. Remember the alginate? Where we take epinates and then just the alginate everywhere. And I come out with my hair like wild and I'm like, where's the broom? How do I get rid of this? And I'll be out in there for days, I swear. Those are the wild days. I hope people aren't using Algenet still. I mean, I think there are still some spaces for it, but man, we use Algenet for everything. And it got wild and torn up those models. I would cry if there were all the bubbles at the end. Oh my gosh. It was, you guys. Love where you're at in dentistry now. Love those scanners. I'm so jealous. So first impressions, you guys, obviously the phone call, there's a whole other episode on the phone call, but this first impression is what does it feel like when you walk through the doors? So what does it look like visually? How are you feeling walking into it visually? Do you feel like you're welcomed into their home? Is it clean? What would you think if you're walking into someone's house and it looked like this? And you're like, oh, I don't think I really want to eat dinner anymore. I'm not very hungry. They're sitting there with their mouth open. Okay, so what does it feel like? What does it look like? Have your team row shambles, switch it up, walk through the practice in the opposite spaces that they work. And then also making sure we've got those amenities ready, that we're welcoming, that we're inviting, we're smiling, and we're greeting them by name if we can. Dana, you talked a lot about kind of just being prepared and making sure we've got what we need. Anything else you can think of? You said the amenities list, I guess like paperwork style they may need, just…
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