Dental practices are businesses and need to be run accordingly. The better the business operates, the higher the practice income -- something that is becoming increasingly important as overhead continues to rise.
Dentists invest a great deal of time and money in their education, purchasing ownership in a practice, and managing daily operations. As a business, the practice should provide dentists with a proper return on investment, and this can only occur when the dental team understands their roles, actions, and expected results. One way to achieve this aim is to move away from random, informal conversations and establish a set of principles that every team member understands and follows for their position.
The basis of principles
Dr. Roger P. Levin.
Principles define what is to be done, how it is to be done, when it is to be done, and the expected result. An exception may occasionally be appropriate, but the danger is that exceptions gradually become the rule. If you're wondering why this shift occurs, it's because most exceptions are easier for a team member versus adhering to the guiding principle. Consider the following scenario:
A patient decides not to pay that day, and the team member says, “That’s OK. Send us a check when you can.” Unfortunately, this often results in an overdue balance, which can lead to an unhappy patient and, ultimately, the patient and their family leaving the practice permanently.
In many cases, practices never collect the balance due and risk losing patients simply because the principle was not followed. If the principle is to collect payment on the day of service, team members should follow up within one week, two weeks, and three weeks. It is in the best interest of both the practice and the patient for balances to be paid promptly, benefiting collections while also helping retain the patient and their family.
Our clients typically collect approximately 98% of all money owed to the practice compared to the national average of around 94%. You may not think your practice is at 94%, but when bad debt --balances over 60 days old -- is written off, it is highly likely that your collection rate will fall within that range.
Keep in mind that a 6% default rate on money owed to the practice represents $6,000 lost for every $100,000 in production. If that is not compelling, consider it another way: It amounts to $60,000 in lost take-home income for a $1 million practice. This is significant, and the length of your career and financial success are directly tied to your collections.
Principles should be established for all major functions within the practice. This includes scheduling, collections, overhead and expenses, scripting, treatment recommendations, and the new-patient experience. However, your team cannot review manuals, systems, and software protocols every day. What they can do is understand and apply the underlying principles.
Scheduling principles, for example, may address the practice’s philosophies around complex cases, appointment duration, late patients, no-shows, and last-minute cancellations. These principles are designed to help the practice run efficiently, reduce stress, increase income, and decrease fatigue.
Practices that consistently follow principles are typically higher performers, generating greater income with significantly less stress. Too many dentists believe that doing better requires working harder and faster when the opposite is often true. You want a smooth-running operation where everyone understands exactly how to achieve the necessary goals based on clearly defined principles.
Confronting team members
Periodically, team members do not perform at the expected level. Do not be discouraged by this, it is perfectly normal. In any team environment, there will be times when things do not go as planned. In many offices, these situations are ignored, causing the problem to gradually worsen.
Confronting a team member about their performance is not enjoyable, but it is a necessary part of maintaining accountability and keeping the team moving in the right direction.
Imagine this scenario:
You sit down with a team member and simply state your observation. For example, you might explain that a specific protocol was not followed, resulting in a problem for the practice. Rather than engaging in a lengthy debate, you can simply say, “The principle states that this is how we handle this situation. However, it wasn’t followed, and it needs to be followed in the future.”
That’s it.
You do not need lengthy discussions or repeated explanations, because the team member already knows the principle. For whatever reason, they chose not to follow it. If they have an explanation, you should listen, but always return to the principle and reinforce that it must be followed going forward.
The only exception is when common sense clearly dictates otherwise.
One of our clients shared a story about a patient who had been with the practice for 20 years, had never missed an appointment, and always paid her balance promptly. One day, she simply forgot her wallet, something all of us have done at one time or another.
Rather than follow the standard collection protocol, the front-desk team member said, “That’s no problem, Mrs. Jones. Please send us a check or call with a credit card when you get home.”
Normally, this would be the wrong approach. In this case, however, it was a smart and reasonable exception. It was a one-time exception, not a precedent to be offered to every patient who did not pay their balance. In fact, the patient called within an hour with her credit card information because she was embarrassed about forgetting her wallet.
Good decision. Good exception. Problem solved. The difference was the 20-year history of reliability, which made the risk extremely low.
Other principles focus on areas such as customer service. As I have written extensively in previous articles, you must always push for better customer service. The day you stop pushing is the day your customer service begins to decline, and in some cases, it declines quickly.
You do not want to be mediocre. You do not want to be good. You do not want to be great.
You want to be exceptional.
What are the principles of exceptional customer service? Practices should consider questions such as:
- How should we greet patients?
- What scripting should be used?
- How do we handle a new patient?
- Do we call patients in the evening to check on them after treatment?
- What customer-service protocols should every patient experience?
- Do we make exceptions in scheduling for large treatment cases that can only come at certain times of the day?
Answering these questions helps define the principles that guide the team, ensuring everyone knows exactly what to do. When principles are clearly established and consistently followed, there is little room for confusion or debate about how the practice should operate.
Dr. Roger P. Levin is CEO of Levin Group, a leading practice management and marketing consulting firm. To contact him or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit LevinGroup.com or email [email protected].
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
