Dental A Team Podcast

Do you prefer retaining the employees you have rather than constantly hunting for new ones? Kiera shares an example of a practice that evolved from high turnover to solid team retention, and how effective leadership played a critical role in keeping people long-term — plus how you can craft it for your own practice.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera. And today I want to chat with you guys about hiring and staffing and retention. I think this is something that a lot of you are struggling with. I think it's just, I don't know, it's just annoying and it's obnoxious and it's just part of what we are dealing with now. But I think that there's a lot of solutions that we can do that I think a lot of people aren't thinking about. So with that, I want to give some tips of like what we can do to retain team members more than having to hunt for them.

So I know that there's ways for us. I know there's a lot of things. And we're gonna just kick it off today. So I'm excited for you because what I found is there's probably a good way. And I was talking to an office about this. I'm really excited to share some some office growth that I've watched in office over the last five years evolve from team turnover to incredible team retention. and I really do think that a lot of it has to do with leadership, a lot of it has to do with growth and

what we can do is to solve that retention rather than needing to always hire. Now, there's always going to be hiring. So we're going to kind of talk through both of it, but also like what things can we do to retain our team that we have. Dental A Team is a consulting company where we work nationwide, we work across the globe. We work with private practices, multi-locations, we work virtually and in person. We have an incredible community where we come together in in-person masterminds, sharing the best of the best. And we're from startup to multi, multi-millions.

And I'm obsessed with helping you say yes to more in your life. And that stands for you, focusing on you and your vision, getting your team aligned, earnings and making sure you're profitable. And then system structure and scalability, really truly making sure that you guys are set up for success so you can say yes to more in your life. our goal is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And I'm obsessed with you. I'm obsessed with your practice. I'm obsessed with your team. I'm obsessed with your struggles, I'm obsessed with your wins.

And I'm here to help make your life easier. I'm very big on tactical practicals. So if this podcast has served you in any way, shape, or form, please share it with a friend, share it with a colleague, share it with someone who you feel like it could brighten their day. Post it in a Facebook group, post it online, leave us a five-star review. Anything that you do helps us spread our mission. My goal is to be in the ears of every single dental practice out there because I believe that dentistry is special. It's sacred. It's

It's a zone where we're able to change people's lives. And I'm so excited for you to be here. I'm Kiera Dent. I'm obsessed with all things dentistry, including my last name. So let's kick it off and let's start seeing of how we can figure out where and what we can do for this retention piece. So, number one, I feel like so I was talking to an office today. Me and the doctor, I said, it like this doctor has an incredible team. I think they've got 20 team members. most of them are women. There's two male doctors there.

And I said, I watched you. You went from like four operatories to now we've got 15 operatories. The team has grown. And I said, What do you feel makes this place special? Like team members love working there. And I was like, what is it? So much so that they're all like recruiting from other offices and bringing people here and saying this is the best office they've ever worked for. I was talking to one of the team members and they said, I no longer have the Sunday scaries. I don't get stressed out at work. This is my second family. Like team members are telling me this as a consultant. Usually I and I asked them like,

What do you guys need help with? And most of them are like, we're just really happy. So I was asking the doctor and the team, I was like, what is it about this place? I asked both sides of the coin because I was like, what is it? I'm obsessed. This is one my favorite things to dig into practices. And maybe I'll get this doctor on the podcast and share from theirs. I'll just share kind of some snippets from today. And the doctor told me, he said, Kiera, I'm just really big on treating people like people. He's like, I'm never gonna expect them to have work be more important than their families. he's like, I want to make this into a lifestyle practice where

We work seven to three a lot of the days so that way they're able to get home and be with their families, but we're still able to like work hard and take care of patients. I have never seen a practice where they literally leave at five o'clock. And this is in California, like it's not for overtime. They just work hard and they get home and they go be with their families. if they have time and they need to like take care of their kids or they're sick, they are able to take care of them. they expect them to work hard and they all do work hard and they build really great people there. I asked the team, I said, What is it about this place? And they said, Well, I think it's the fact that

Like our doctor trusts us and they let us do things. And but it's wild. Anything I asked this team to do, literally, I was like, let's do morning huddle prep sheets. Let's treatment track. They don't fight with me on it. And a lot of teams do. And so I was like, okay, this is fascinating. The team is very accommodating. They're willing. They want to. All of them were so excited to morning prep huddle prep. Do you how many teams are like, womp, womp, womp? So much extra work. This team was like, Yeah, absolutely, we'll do this. We'll take care of it.

I had them roll out route slips. They did it. Like no pushback. And I was just, it's fascinating to me. And I think something I'm picking up from this is one, they really do hire for great culture. Two, they see potential in people. Three, they really do treat this as like an amazing place to work. Like the doctor is just getting so excited. They're talking about putting a gym in there. Like fun things to make this where they make their life incredible. And I watched the doctor just get like twinkly-eyed about getting so excited to.

Do these surprises. They took their team on a cruise and just for fun. Like it was just a fun thing that they did. And when I think about all of that, this office used to struggle to hire. And now they literally most of their employees that they've had in the last three years have all come referral-based. and I think about Dental A Team, the bulk of our team is coming referral-based. And they're coming back and they're sharing with people, and their friends are interviewing with us.

And I think about that, and I'm like, as a business owner, I think that that's the greatest compliment. If your team is willing to refer their friends, their colleagues to want to come work here because they love it so much, you're doing something right. And people stay where there's a great, incredible culture. And so hearing both sides of the coin, hearing what team members are loving, hearing what doctors are loving, there's so many other ones. I've got another doctor, they've got team members, I've been with them for 12, 15 years. And I asked that doctor, I said, what

What do you do that makes people want to stay with you for so long? And this doctor said, you know, Kiera, I think it's that I really listen to them and I have clear expectations. They know what it is. That office also, like when we say we're gonna be there at 12 o'clock, they are there at 11:55 with their notebooks and their pens. I think that a lot of these practices, so one of the pieces I see is people really do stay where expectations are clear. Both of these offices have high standards, both of these offices expect a lot, both of these offices work really hard.

Dental A team is no exception to that. and I think having clarity, I think having clear job descriptions, I think having clear expectations from all leaders, I think team members knowing if they're winning or losing, you define it. You define it for them. And I really do love that there's clarity all the way around. Like both offices have different expectations, but both offices have them clear. The team knows how to win, the team knows what's expected, and both offices really do treat their team.

like humans. They I just watch and I watch these cohesive teams and there are clear expectations, but there's also a space where they they want to be there. There's this want, there's this draw, there's this happiness, there's a lightness about it. But they're hitting great goals. And so I think clarity really can create confidence for team members. So that's that's a good space. Another thing I notice with these offices and with teams is

people really do want growth, not just like an employment path. So, what is growth in that practice? How do people evolve? How do they grow? Like, what is a development plan? All these offices have regular one-on-ones. And one-on-ones can be about performance, one-on-ones can also be about what they want in their personal life, what they want in their professional life, what that looks like. And talking about growth opportunities, for me, every single year at the end of the year, I talk to my team about what their personal and professional goals are.

When people join our team, they take a survey of what they want their personal life to look like in their next one year, five years, 10 years. and as a leader, I'm obsessed with making their dreams become a reality. So how can we make those dreams become real for them? How can we figure it out? anything we can possibly do? Let's give opportunities, let's find ways. It doesn't always have to be with work because sometimes you're gonna tap out once you're at a certain level as a dental system. That's kind of where you're gonna be. But can they learn?

To do for an office work? Can they grow in other areas? Can they become a mentor consult or assistant? What ways can they grow? can we grow them personally? Can we send them to CE courses where they're personally growing, not just professionally growing? what's the training and development we can do? I know there's an office, another office I know of, and they hired Dave Ramsey. And so everybody who wanted to learn about financial management, they were able to do it. I know I've had offices where I teach them about how to do investments a little bit.

like very small, like high yield savings accounts and the things that they're able to do. growing people as people, not just as employees. Like that, I don't know. I think as an employer, one of our greatest gifts is to be able to like grow people to make their dreams become true, to look for opportunities to help them become the best version of themselves, and really just having pasts and plans and

Knowing your team, knowing them as humans. as our company grows, Britt and I talk about this often. I'm like, Britt, how do we grow and still maintain this authentic one-on-one seeing people as people in our company? Our mission has slightly changed to where we're so focused on growing practices, but it's one person, one life, one practice at a time. And I'm very obsessed about being obsessed about the individual. How do people feel

in a large organization, how do they feel like they're still seen as a person? How do they feel like they are being grown as a human? And I think the more you can do one-on-one growth conversations, the more you can invest in them in humans. And it's crazy because I think as management gets bigger and you have leaders and you're not as involved as a CEO, finding ways where you're not overstepping your leaders and you're able to still stay connected to them as humans. I was hired we just hired a

A new C-suite member on our team. And I was talking to him, and I was like, okay, this person's favorite tree is this, and this person's favorite thing is this, and this person's favorite thing is that. And when I finished, I thought, no matter how large our organization ever gets, I want to make sure that all of my team members, all of our clients, always feel like they are like one in a million, and they are that one, and that they are seen as that one, that they are so valued.

even in a large organization. There was the Dean of Midwestern when I worked with him. His name is Dr. Gilpatrick. And I remember he knew every single dental student's name. He knew my husband's name. He and we're talking, there were hundreds, and I remember being like, whoa, that's so impressive. I want to be like Dr. Gilpatrick and I want to know everyone's name and I want to remember their names. And at the time I was not great at that. And this is a skill I really had to develop. but people loved Dr. Gilpatrick and we were talking, I don't know, it was probably I think 150 people per class.

We had four classes in there. So at any given time, there's probably 600 students plus spouses. Dr. Gilpatrick knew every single one of them by name and knew something personal about them. Would ask me how my husband was doing, would ask how Jason's doing in pharmacy school. So it wasn't just my husband. It was by name and what his profession was and what he was going to school for. That type of intentionality as a leader, people don't even get that from their family. People don't even get that from their spouses. And as a leader,

You can show them that they're important, that they're valued, that they're loved. One of the greatest things that you can ever do. And then I think another piece for being able to retain great team members. Yes, we need to hire, but you're gonna be able to hire if you have a great culture. another great thing is is to actually build a great culture. So what are the things of what is your culture? For us, I literally have them read like what our culture is and values we live by, and all of our team knows core values and

I've set it up to where they core value shout out each other every Wednesday. As a leader, like I get a little teary-eyed on this part. to show up and to hear my team calling each other out. I'm not there a lot of Wednesdays. I'm not there at a lot of our meetings anymore. And when I do get to be there, to just watch each other love each other. to see each other help each other out. We're a virtual team, guys. Like they don't even live by each other.

And see marketing and consultants call each other out to positively praise one another, to offer to help, like shout out to Pam. I know she listens to the podcast a lot. Pam is always willing to help. And I see her go behind the scenes and help people get their numbers entered and to have our marketing team love on our consultant team and to have our consultants love on our like C-suite team and to have our C-suite team love on our VA team to watch them call out core values to each other.

To watch them do Thankful Thursday. to like see people as people. I know our team's getting bigger, and I keep getting like, like when we run leadership meetings, I'm always like, no, it's always personal and professional wins every single week. And I'm so big on that. I'm like, that takes so much time. And I'm like, that's how you connect. The times how you connect, that time's how you make people feel seen, heard, and loved. I can't tell you how many times in these meetings I learn about my team's struggles. We learn about

people get connected. There's a a game I play in office called the Silver Thread, I think is what it's called, or like connected thread. I don't even know what it's called, but I get people in groups of four usually and I say, All right, you guys have to come up with four things that you're connected by. And I I have people that don't know each other. I sometimes get in the group, and what I found is every single time they're able to come up with four things that they all have in common. A lot of times it's holidays, a lot of times it's songs, but it's so fascinating because no matter what group you're in.

People are connected, people are striving for community, people rally with each other, people want that connection. And so to be able to have your team come connected as a culture, these are just the little things. These are where people feel safe, they feel seen, they feel heard. addressing issues early, like having leaders that support, having people that connect in with their departments, having people that grow their departments. I also think making sure the standard is like not what you preach, but what you tolerate.

And looking at what you tolerate, and is that really the the standard of what you're going to to have? Like, do not destroy your top performers by tolerating poor performance of the lower performers. Hire great talent. Expect people to be at the same level. People love to be surrounded by A players. Like, so hire A players, create a culture of A players, create a culture where they love each other, create a culture where they're connected to each other, create time for them to bond. Like,

Because we have a virtual team, you have it so much easier in an in-person team. There's so many things. You can have potlucks together. You can have book clubs together. You can work out together. You can do painting nights together. You can go to sports games together. Get people connecting as people. and always recognize that in culture, your entire team is always watching you and what you're willing to tolerate, what you're willing to accept. They're watching you like a hawk. And I think about when I have to make hard decisions or ones that I don't want to do.

I had to remember I got an entire team of eyes watching and seeing what we as leaders will do and what we will not do. I remember when I was first a manager, I tolerated some really poor performance. And I remember there was a hygienist. I remember exactly who she was. I remember the exact day. I remember her name. She came in and she said, Kiera, I have lost so much respect for you. And that was duly served.

I was not being a leader. I was not having the conversations I needed to have. I was not holding team members to the high level of accountability that we had. I was not creating a culture. I was just squawking. I was seagull managing. I come in, I say a lot of words, and I shiz all over and I leave. That's not the way we create culture. And I think when we talk about hiring and having staffing, having a kick a culture, having people where

They love to work there where they want to refer their friends, but that doesn't mean they get everything they want. You can have high standards and have people obsess about it. People love to work hard. People love to be a part of an organization that's growing and innovating and creating. And they want to be a part of growth. Like growth equals like progress equals happiness. These are the ways that we create and retain. And so it's one of those things of creating clarity, creating growth, protecting your culture, having it be a space where people are obsessed with working there.

Finding out, talking to people, getting in, hearing what's going on, having leaders that really are developing their team, you pouring as a leader, like as a CEO into your leadership

team, like that is where I pour the bulk of my energy to trickle down to love because I can't do it, nor should I. I want leaders to rise up. You want leaders to rise up. But I think more than even hiring and attracting is how do I build a culture that people are obsessed with?

How do I create raving fans? And that does not mean they get everything they want. Think about spoiled rotten kids who are getting everything they want. They don't respect their parents. Think about the kids who respect their parents, who love their parents, who are raving fans of their parents. They work hard. They've got accountability. They've got structure. They've got discipline. Same thing in an organization. how can you be the best leader? That doesn't mean the most loved. I've said this quote before and I'll say it again. You're gonna be loved as a leader, you're gonna be hated as a leader, and where I hope you ultimately land is respected as a leader.

And that is a zone of like hiring and staffing is not just about hiring. It's about having an environment where great people want to stay. And so I'd ask yourself, look at it. Look at our company and see how do I create this into a practice where people don't want to leave, where people are obsessed, where I have high performing people that want to be here. Look at yourself as a leader, look to see what you're tolerating, look to see what you can change, ask your team.

Be careful how you ask because I found that self-reported oftentimes is based on the week. And if it's a bad week, I get bad reports. but really look to see how are people performing? What things do you want it to be? What things do people talk about? Why do they love it here? There's books so called I I love it here. Read culture books on how you can produce these great cultures. We had a podcast where I talked to a Chick-fil-A owner and how they create these raving fan cultures there.

But really, I think on hiring and retaining, it's about retaining. Because great teams that retain have word-of-mouth referrals left and right. People crave to work in great environments. People crave to work with great leaders. People crave to be there. And then when you are hiring, have those. Have your team have testimonials. We have a lot of testimonies where we've got video testimonies of our team where they're obsessed with working here. And when it doesn't work out, that's okay. This is not the place for everybody. Your place is not the place for everybody. Your place is for the right people.

But hopefully there's some tacticals in here for you to take, for you to look at it. And if you need help, this is a zone. We've turned around a lot of cultures. We've turned around a lot of leaders. We've had, we've said the uncomfortable things. I've had a lot of coaches give me uncomfortable advice. but really truly it's a space where I believe if you can think about how do I retain the right people, how do I attract the right people, how do I create this as a practice where people work hard, they play hard, they love being here, they don't get the Sunday scaries.

that's the place where people are gonna want to stay. They're gonna wanna cleave, they're gonna wanna like cling on and just be obsessed with you and refer all their friends. Have that be your standard, have that be what you want to be. And I promise you, hiring will be no longer as hard of an issue for you. And then be cautious on who you hire. Make sure you're always hiring for that culture, for the standards you want. A players make life a lot easier. And I know they're not always there, but seek after them, find them, and retain them.

If we can help you guys in any way, we help build leadership systems. We help build accountability. We help build cultures. We help turn cultures from maybe negative cultures to positive. We help leaders. We help CEOs. office managers sometimes are struggling with their doctors. Let's have those open conversations. Let's mediate between the two and help you two have uncomfortable, healthy debate conversations to where you guys can grow and flourish. I'd love to help you out. I'd love for you to just have a team that you're obsessed with.

I'd love for you to be like the doctors I I said, where they love their teams. They love working there. but it's not done out of entitlement. It's done out of accountability, empowerment, love, and great cultures. So reach out. [email protected]. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

This episode is all about eyes on fall/winter 2026. Tiff and Pam discuss what's top of mind for practices as they look to the final stretch of the year, including stepping up on re-care and reactivation, how to talk about it with patients, and how to make sure it's incorporated into your practice.

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

Tiffanie (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team Podcast Listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I always am. I literally love doing this with you guys. and I more than that, I love doing this with our consulting team. And I have very, very special women on as our consultant guest today. I have Miss Pam with us today, and you guys have actually not heard from her yet, even though she's been here with us behind the scenes for a little while.

Getting these podcasts like scheduled and in the system and all of those pieces takes a little bit of time sometimes. And Pam is a prized, prized possession in our consulting department. And I am so excited for you guys to meet her. If you work with her already, you are very excited to hear her on the podcast today. I know there's a few of you who are avid listeners who work directly one-on-one with Pam. so I'm excited for you guys to hear from her today.

Pam, I've got you here. We've got the listeners and I'm just so excited to be here with you this morning. You did some prep. I appreciate that. I love the questions and making sure we're ready to go. you prep way more than I do and I value that and you push me to do the same thing. So Pam, thank you for being here. How are you today?

Pamela (01:12)

Hi, Tiff. I am doing fantastic. I'm super excited to be here.

Tiffanie (01:17)

Good. And you're here in Phoenix as well. We always say we are just so hot and I think we had some rain the other night and I thought by by rain I mean I got some light sprinkles in the backyard and I thought, gosh, this might cool us down and I mean it did, but it was still like a hundred and five at eight PM last night. So how is it you're like forty five minutes ish from me, how is it on your side of Phoenix?

Pamela (01:45)

Yeah, we did not get much rain like you. We got like the little pitter patter, but it no, it hasn't rained. I think the storms just go around us. I don't know what's going

Tiffanie (01:55)

I think so.

Pamela (01:56)

on, but it just makes it humid, so we know what the

Tiffanie (01:59)

Yeah.

Pamela (01:59)

east coast feels like when there's a little bit of rainstorm coming, but yeah, nothing nothing like the east coast, the humidity, but we do get a little bit.

Tiffanie (02:10)

I agree. I always when I travel and and I tell people where I'm from and Pam, I'm sure you have and will continue to experience this as well. When I say I'm from Arizona, everybody goes, my gosh, how do you do that summer? And I always say, Listen, there's a season for everything and everyone, and I don't have to shovel snow, and I love that. And I would take this hundred and twenty degree summer for two months over shoveling snow any day of the week. And Pam, you've done both.

Pamela (02:40)

I I have originally I'm from California, so when I moved to Utah to go to college, yes, I experienced shoveling snow and then I raised my kids there. And to be really honest, that's the reason why I moved to Arizona. I couldn't

Tiffanie (02:53)

Yeah.

Pamela (02:54)

get out of my driveway a couple of times and I'm like, nope, not doing this.

Tiffanie (02:58)

No, thank you.

Pamela (02:59)

So yes, I agree. I would take the two months of the heat and jump in the pool.

Tiffanie (03:04)

Yes, my fiance says the same thing. He had he says that there were multiple times he lived up in Lake Zend, Oregon area. He said there were so many times that he had to shovel out and shovel back in in the same day and he was done and moved to Arizona. So we like to say we don't have a lot of natural disasters or issues here. We just have the heat during the summer. So here we are. I

Pamela (03:26)

That's right. Yeah.

Tiffanie (03:27)

love it. Well, speaking of seasonalities, I think

Something that's really fun about dentistry is that there's seasonalities in that as well. Everything runs on a cycle, and we like to talk about those cycles within our consulting and Dental A Team runs off of a few different cycles ourselves. And one of those systems, systematic cycles, I shall say, is scheduling and walking into the fall slash winter. The fall slash winter in dentistry is like a mixed bag. I feel like a few years ago.

Everybody was, you know, prepping for September is what we like to call it. And then prepping for October to December to be chaotic and crazy. And then I I really saw a shift within that after COVID. I think the COVID shutdowns were about six months from September, October. And so it shifted and changed quite a bit within that. But we do still see that scheduling really needs to be a high priority in this time period.

And I truly believe with everything I have, whatever we can prep and plan for and take the guesswork out, kind of control what we can and let the rest happen around us and then you know, control what we can within that is the best avenue to take. So making sure that we're looking ahead at things and really taking in those killer systems that can really depict how your fall and winter are gonna go are are gonna be massive. So I wanted to take the listeners here, Pam through a couple of systems and

And again, this is kind of that seasonality. So we chunk it down and we we see every month or every quarter kind of seeing what does that focus need to be within Dental A Team. This is something that we believe is a heavy focus at this time period in this season. So with that, Pam, I really want you to chat through with me Dental A Team systems for sure, but Pam, you've been a consultant and you've been in dentistry for a while, and you've got tips and tricks and tools.

that you brought to our company as well as to the clients that you've served over the years. So I want to pick your brain and speak to obviously Dental A Team systems, but really pick your brain and and kind of see what are some things that you've done in practice, what are things that you're doing with your practices as you're consulting them to prep and plan for this. And one of those spaces and something that's been coming up with a lot of my clients is that recare and reactivation. I know in dentistry and you probably remember this, Pam, I remember this from

years and years and years ago, everything was about new patients. And it was like, how many new patients can we get? How can we get them? Spend on marketing, get the new patients, get the new patients. And there wasn't a lot of focus, I don't think, on the other side of it. So keeping the new patients for sure was never a thought, right? It was just get more. And then the recare piece was kind of an afterthought. It was like, well if the schedule's falling apart and we don't have new patients, then we call on recare. And that mindset

really did a disservice because if we're not taking care of the people that are coming, like what are we really doing? And I think it gave a little bit of a foothold for things like DSOs to step in and really take over, but we're trying to shift that and practices are shifting that model. And hygienists especially are always really concerned now about what's happening with my patient I've already spent so much time with.

So when it comes to recare and reactivation, we'll focus recare first. Pam, what are some things that you hammer in with practices to make sure that that recare is happening, whether it's a new patient or a patient they've had for 15 years?

Pamela (07:05)

Yeah, great question, Tiff. And I I do feel like I've seen that same shift as well.

Tiffanie (07:10)

Yeah.

Pamela (07:11)

So I I think that recare percentage is such a big deal because it does tell us are we bleeding out the back? Are we losing patients that were right in front of us and we could have scheduled them right then? That is the most effective and efficient way to do that. I I tell hygienists give the patient

A reason to return. Like notice an area that tells that says, hey, I'm well, I'm looking at this area. Your upper right is having a little inflammation and some, you know, I got just a little bleeding, not anything to worry about, but I'm gonna note that and write it down in your notes so they see you noting it, right? And

Tiffanie (07:56)

Yeah.

Pamela (07:56)

that you will come back to say to them, I'm I'm really excited to see you in six months. And when you come back, we're gonna check.

check on this and and just you do a great job with your home care. Just do a little extra on that upper right side and we'll see what you can do at home.

Tiffanie (08:15)

I love that because you're really

focusing in on them being seen, you know, and the value of the cleaning. I think we oftentimes say, you know, let's get you scheduled for your next cleaning. And it's like, well, I schedule my next carpet cleaning when it's needed. And I know you're really heavy on the verbiage and the way that we speak about it as well. And and us as a company, we use things like you guys have heard of NDTR.

the handoff and the reason that the recare is in there is because we want to put the value on the appointment and not just that routine cleaning. So setting that up where it's like, hey, we saw this, we're gonna check on this when you're when you come back in and then you look at your dose and you do it really sets the value for the personalization, the relationship, and it changes the script on the value of the quote unquote cleaning. What is it I'm trying to remember as I'm speaking palm and I'm not it's not coming to me.

What is it that you there's something that you change and I can't remember what it is or you you coach practices through how to speak to scheduling that recare appointment and I can't I can't think of what it is. What is it?

Pamela (09:24)

Yeah, yeah,

no, I know exactly what you're talking about. So I I teach teams to say something like, you know, we consider this a confirmed appointment as a courtesy. We will always send you text reminders by email, you know, let's make sure, let's go up front. You said you didn't get one last time, let's make sure we have the right phone number on on file and

If you happen to have a change in your schedule, please let us know 48 hours in advance. And that way we can get you back in. But I really want to check on that one area so that you go back to that reason to return as you're doing that handoff. But I like saying that it is, we already consider this confirmed.

As a courtesy, we are just going to send you those reminders. So it's an easy

Tiffanie (10:14)

Yeah.

Pamela (10:15)

way to kind of also inform and remind your patients about your cancellation, or we don't say cancellation, right? About your about your

Tiffanie (10:24)

Yeah. Confirmation process. Yeah.

Pamela (10:27)

exactly. Yeah.

Tiffanie (10:28)

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And what you did there too is they're scheduling in the back office then. So it sounds

Pamela (10:33)

Yes.

Tiffanie (10:34)

like you've got hygiene scheduling their next recare, which I think allows for that personalization again and that like importance that's being placed on it. Not to say that other appointments aren't important, but they're coming up quicker. And so when the when you're tied to the hygienist and that is the person you're coming to see, I mean, we've all experienced where

a patient, you know, gets switched to a different hygienist or the hygienist maybe moves out of state and they're no longer seeing that hygienist. They're like, wait, where's Joanna? Like I've been seeing Joanna forever and they're a patient of the practice, but they get attached. My fiance's very attached to Amy at his place. Like I've never even met her and I know I know about her because he's very attached to her. The kids are attached to her. And that places value on the appointment and makes it more difficult for us to cancel it.

Now recare is phenomenal, tracking that, making sure that there's like in the background, there's constantly recare efforts going on. So we're making phone calls, we're sending out the emails, coming up due, do now, past due reminders, all of those pieces are always happening. Pam, something that I struggle with. practices. If you're busy, what tends to happen is we're like, well, we can't if I can't fit

appointments in my hygiene schedule. So I'm not going to call on them because then I'm just disappointing patients. The likelihood of them answering is very slim. And so when you reduce your outgoing efforts, now you need the schedule full and you're just igniting those efforts. You're not going to see a result for probably 30 to 45 days realistically, because it takes like four to seven times your effort to get that return back in. So I beg of you

Please make sure no matter how busy your schedule is, you're always doing recare efforts to help you keep that schedule busy. Something that I love to do with my practices, Pam, I think we all do, is really, really, really capitalize on the patient base that they have, not just active patient base. But there's some some practices have been around. I've got one that's been around for like 30 years. It was his grandfather's, it was his dad's, now it's his.

And they've got like 19,000 patients in their database and like six thousand active patients for three doctors, right? So I'm like, you guys have thirteen thousand patients that haven't been touched. And I'm not saying everybody's got thirteen thousand, but everybody has inactive patients. Every month patients go inactive. That's your attrition rate. Every month patients are sliding out the back door, like Pam talked about, and we're focused on new patients. You got 24 new patients, but you lost five.

You only have nineteen patients added to your patient base. So those five patients, when are they being touched on? So that reactivation program or campaign, I really have them focus, Pam, on those patients who are not active in the practice and just getting touch points onto them like emails. You can do phone calls too, but really making sure we're hitting those people who have an established relationship, just maybe haven't come in, they forgot. What do you what do you do?

Pamela (13:43)

Yeah, no, I I love that and I think that's really true. I think sometimes in dentistry we think we haven't seen them in 18 months, they've forgotten about us,

Tiffanie (13:52)

Yeah.

Pamela (13:53)

but I don't think so. I think that they still think, that's my dentist. And

Tiffanie (13:58)

I agree.

Pamela (13:59)

right when they even if it's been two years and they haven't been in, you know, people may not be as conscientious about coming every six months. That's okay, but we still want to reach out to them and whether that's by email, whether

It's you're making you know a big email campaign to reactivate those patients, or it's a texting program, right? That you have. I think you know, look for those patients that haven't had an exam and reach

Tiffanie (14:27)

Mm.

Pamela (14:27)

out for those patients just to get them back in. And like you said, it takes some time to do, but when they are prompted, I think, and they know that you care, they're more likely to just give you a call. And in this day and age, I've

believe a hundred percent what you said people are not picking up their phone right yeah so it's yeah I might pick it up either I don't pick it up either unless I recognize the number so

Tiffanie (14:47)

Yeah. Yeah. I'm not. I no ain't nobody got time for that. No. Yes.

And I'm ready to talk to them. I still have to be ready to talk to them. I have to be in a space. I have to be in a mindset. I have to be ready to engage in whatever this conversation is that's about to come. So even if I recognize the number, I'm like, I don't really have the space for it right now. So I will call you back. And then six months goes by and I'm like, wow, I never did that.

Like I never I never finished that. So then two years goes by, right? I have a friend that was we were messaging on Instagram just last night about her wedding and our wedding coming up and all of these pieces. And she's like, I can't believe how big Brody is. And we realized my son is 18. We have not seen each other in person since he was a baby. She lives three hours from me. Like we put that together and I was like, gosh, but the reality is it didn't feel that long. It felt like

It was just the other day because we have this this social media connection, right? She's in front of me. And so it felt different. And so when we're in front of the people, even our email correspondences, things like that, if we're in front of them, that time passes differently. It doesn't feel as long into your point, Pam. With all of those correspondence continuing to go, you still feel like that's my dentist, right? That's my practice, like that's who I'm going to go to.

when I'm ready and how many patients have we answered the phone for and they're like, my gosh, I can't believe it's been two years since I've been there. I'm like, time really does fly. so the reactivation campaigns are huge. And to me, I think of those patients almost like new patients, right? Because they haven't been seen. And so they they need a full workup. They need all of the pieces. You didn't spend any money to get them.

And their appointments are easier because they already have a relationship with the practice. So it's way less work, time, and money to reactivate people than it is to continue to search for new patients. Let the new patients come in, let the new patient flow be there, and reactivate patients simultaneously.

Pamela (16:59)

Yeah, a absolutely. And I I love your point that it's just it's should be part of our processes. It should be part

Tiffanie (17:05)

Okay.

Pamela (17:06)

of our systems. And you know, if we tend to let that go, we're letting a huge opportunity just pass us by. And just if we focus only on those eighteen months patients, you know, we're doing a huge disservice truly to our

Tiffanie (17:20)

Absolutely.

Pamela (17:21)

patients. And I I think it's really wise to keep that going. you know, whether that like

you like we said an email campaign or a texting campaign and just put it on a system so you know whatever that is tackle it by you know x amount of patients per day per week however you're gonna do it just systemize systematize it so that you are continuing to hit those patients reach out

Tiffanie (17:49)

Yep, I

have a practice I talked to about this last week and she was like, Well, do we do this every month? And I'm like, actually, you're gonna do it twice a month. And you're gonna have one that's 18 to 24, and then you're gonna have one that's 24 plus, and they're gonna go twice a month because every day someone new falls into one of those categories. And so no matter what, you're hitting them multiple times in the foreseeable future, and eventually they're either gonna call back and say, Hey, we moved out of state.

Or they're gonna call back and say, Thank you so much for sending fifteen emails. You finally got my attention and I'm scheduling this appointment.

Pamela (18:23)

Yeah, and and that's a really good point, Tiff. Like being conscientious and really aware of when you are deciding to delete a patient, right?

Tiffanie (18:36)

Yeah.

Pamela (18:36)

I think there needs to be some actual communication and that you've talked to that patient and they say, Yes, I have moved, and you don't know what happened. They could have said they were gonna move and they didn't, you know. So and then we just delete them out of our system, and I I don't think that's

right thing. I think we need to be really aware and have have a system built in. If you have talked to the patient and they told you that they have moved, then okay, I get that. But we don't just go deleting patients willy-nilly.

Tiffanie (19:10)

I totally agree. I totally agree. And even I have doctors that are like, well, I just purchased this practice, right? So like I need new patients. And I'm like, my gosh, phenomenal. Everyone who's ever been in that practice is a new patient to you. You've already paid for them. So let's get as much as we can out of that before paying for more new patients.

Pamela (19:30)

Absolutely. And I have several practices like that right now that have just purchased in the last two years. And I remind them of that constantly because they, you

Tiffanie (19:39)

Yep.

Pamela (19:39)

know, and and right we hear this all the time in dentistry. I need more new patients. I need you have a gold mine sitting there. And so

Tiffanie (19:48)

Yeah.

Pamela (19:48)

go go mining. Go get them. They're

Tiffanie (19:50)

Yes.

Pamela (19:51)

yours.

Tiffanie (19:52)

Yes. I agree. I agree. And when they say the team says, I don't have time, great, let's strategize and let's find the time. And like you said, Pam, like so many things can be automated right now. And I think everyone prefers the automation at this point. It's not I think in twenty eighteen to like twenty twenty two we were really still fighting that automation piece. But now it's twenty twenty six at the time of recording this and we are we are ready for it. Just allow to use it. Yeah.

Pamela (20:19)

I I agree a hundred percent. Like we can do more in the dental let's not stay back in those ages. Let's move forward to, you know, with

Tiffanie (20:27)

Yes.

Pamela (20:28)

the times. And I it just makes life easier anyway because people are oriented that way now. So

Tiffanie (20:31)

Yeah. I agree.

Pamela (20:34)

yeah, so I think great point. Love it.

Tiffanie (20:36)

Always impressed me how dentistry can be so forward thinking and have so much tech in the back office, right? We've got C B C T scans that were never there when I was physically in office. We've got all these scanners, we we're making crowns in office, they're making dentures, they're painting dentures and doing this in office and blowing my mind. But we still have paper charts in some offices. Like I can't

I can't understand, my brain can't understand the difference, the stark difference in the back office versus front office, like forward thinking and and movement there, the advances.

Pamela (21:13)

Yeah.

I I could not agree more and you know

Sometimes we have people that are just sort of stuck in doing that

Tiffanie (21:20)

Okay.

Pamela (21:21)

and that that's okay. But embrace it because I I'm gonna tell you it will make your job so much easier to embrace that

Tiffanie (21:28)

I do.

Pamela (21:29)

technology. And I think the front office is more difficult to move to that direction. You know, when I go in an office and I see them handing the patient a paper chart, I'm like, okay, well, and and that is applicable in a lot of areas. Okay, in some places, I get that, but

And you know, digital is the way of the future. We need to catch up. And once you make that switch, you will go, my gosh, this is amazing. It's so awesome.

Tiffanie (21:59)

I agree.

I totally agree with you. Yeah, I love it. Well, I think those are two incredible systems that really truly help build a profitable schedule and help prep for if you're gonna have a September, have a September, but also it helps prep you for even the busy period. It just keeps it consistent. And when you can build that consistency into anything in life, it becomes less chaotic, especially when you can build the consistency back into your schedule, whether it's hygiene.

or doctor side, these patients have to come in somewhere and they will all be caught within a recare system andor a reactivation system. So Pam, this was incredible. I I knew it was going to be amazing. I knew it was going to be very easy. Thank you for your time today and everyone, all of all of our listeners here today, if you're interested in these, obviously reach out. If you don't have them in place or you're like, gosh, maybe you guys have something that's a little bit different.

Reach out [email protected]. We're always happy to share as much information as we possibly can. You can also go to hello, nope, to TheDentalATeam.com No, hello. You can go to TheDentalATeam.com and you can always schedule a call with us to chat about any of these pieces. [email protected], TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, leave us a five-star review so that we know that you loved and enjoyed this. Pam, thank you so much for your time today.

I know we had to reschedule this as well. Thank you for being flexible with my schedule. you are an incredible consultant and you are so valued on our team. And I cannot wait for all of the listeners to hear this. So Pam, thank you.

Pamela (23:34)

Thank you, Tiff, it was a pleasure.

Tiffanie (23:37)

Of course, of course. All right, listeners. if you are driving, go sit down somewhere, listen back to this, take some notes, reach out to us, hello at the dunalytime.com, and as always, have an amazing day. We'll catch you next time.

Kiera shares three approaches that will help you consistently and quickly fill your schedule on a daily basis: maximizing your current patients, creating the perfect handoff, and building consistent marketing.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we're gonna talk about what to do when you've got like holes in the schedule. I wanted to have a tactical one. I just came from a practice that is like an amazing same-day converter. but I want to just like talk about like it's very, very stressful when you're looking at your schedule and you just see holes, like holes everywhere. And so, what can we do to fill those holes? How can we make sure you have a very productive practice? and it's not always a marketing problem. It's not necessarily that we need more patience.

Let's just figure out how we can do like what are some simple things to help you fill those holes to have a very pro productive, predictable schedule. And like really, there's going to be holes. So let's make sure that team members and doctors have a really good solution. That way we can make sure that we take care of it. So I want to talk to you about like if you're not busy enough, how we fix it, where we can get that growth with predictability, and like three things that are gonna help you consistently fill your schedule on a regular basis. So

Dental A Team, we've worked with hundreds of practices across the nation, you guys. This is something that we see. This is something that's common. We consult them in person. We consult them virtually. And it's just something of like filling a schedule is always top of mind. It's always how do we how do we make sure it's consistently up to goal? and I think it's just a discipline. It's not something that is always talked about. It's a, it's how do we make sure, like what are the, what are the core tools to get my system? And

I think that that's just a way for you guys to to be able to be consistent and you don't need to worry about as many new patients. Like it's still a thing and I'm not here to just click it away. But this is like, let's just look for opportunities that are already sitting inside your practice that are easy. Again, they're already in the toolbox. Let's just pull these tools out for you. So what are three big areas that you can focus on quickly to help you? So I would just came from an office. It was awesome. I swear this office, like they've got holes and they just make it rain every day. It's like, all right, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna convert?

And I will say being really, really good at same day conversion is going to be a great thing. So it's maximizing the patients you already have. So instead of going after new patients, like what are the ones we already have? So what this looks like, we like are gonna look at our unscheduled treatment plans. We're gonna look for patients that are overdue and hygiene, and we're going to make sure that we're reactivating and recare and then making sure we're reappointing all patients. So number one, like a good morning huddle can fix a lot of this. So I love people to prep the day and let's all talk in huddle.

To see who has outstanding treatment. And if we are consistently doing this, of every patient who has unscheduled treatment and we schedule them in office, like the fastest, easiest way is like not going and hunting and looking at lists, but it's doing the things in office that day. Also, every morning huddle, which patients need cleanings. You can fill your schedule so quickly with a great morning huddle and with people coming prepped and prepared. So front office team members take notes. Their clinical team should be giving you a wealth of knowledge. And then as patients are coming in, we are going to be scheduling.

Any treatment that we can get scheduled and any patients due for cleanings, whether we have an opening or not today, it's good hygiene, good practice for us to get those patient schedules in office. It's so much easier to schedule them when they're in office rather than chasing and hunting them. So, number one, when they're coming in and do it through morning huddle. Number two is we need to have a set process where we're calling unscheduled treatment and recare every single day. I'm not joking, every single day. Let's make sure we have good processes. I had an office.

We just worked on it for three months. Everybody, we had a huge list of this. It hadn't been worked in years, and we're like, we're gonna get a process and a system in play. So we listed it all out. We divided the list amongst team members and we went to town. And then every single week we reported how many pay like how many dollars we were able to schedule and how many patients we scheduled. I want to say in three months they scheduled about $500,000 of unscheduled treatment. To me, that is a great use of time in three months. It's an incredible way. Every single week they were doing it. We found out who the best person was at it.

What their verbiage was, but we've got to be calling every single day. So you've got to be able to have it. There's so much out there. Unscheduled treatment, usually, like the practice I was in, and they had a bunch of holes. They're like, here, we have so many holes. I went and ran the unscheduled treatment report. They had $1.7 million worth of unscheduled treatment. And in the last six months, they've added an additional 700,000. Now, could that be duplicated treatment plans? Absolutely. But do I also believe that there's a decent amount of treatment sitting in that schedule?

You better believe it is. So, with that said, I want you to know that these items can be taken care of. You can get them done. They can be great for you. Get that process. I recommend at a minimum. Let's start with five calls a day on unscheduled treatment, unscheduled recare. Let's just have that. It's kind of like brushing our teeth. Okay. We brush morning and night. We call unscheduled treatment. We call unscheduled recare every single day. All the time. That's just part of what we do. It's part of our process. We do confirmation calls. We do unscheduled treatment and recare calls.

We also schedule every single patient that comes in for their treatment. We also schedule every patient due for recare. Another thing that you can do is you can ask when you are scheduling for recare, who else do you have that we can schedule? I cannot tell you how many people we've scheduled from family members. Me and my husband, we don't go to the same dentist. Guess what? We're about to start going to the same dentist. They ask us who we can schedule? We got scheduled together. It's very easy, it's very convenient. Just ask. It's a great way for you to fill those holes. So

You are usually sitting on tons of production opportunities that we already have. We just need to dig in our gold mine and actually be consistent with that. The fastest way to grow is usually already just sitting there. So unscheduled treatment, unscheduled recare. Let's talk about morning huddle. Let's make sure we're making those five hygiene calls a day. Like, I'd love you to do more than that. I'd love you to just fill your schedule and always have it full. But making outbound calls on a consistent basis, minimum five up to Tiffany, you sever team call, 50 calls a day. I'm not joking. So

Know that five is really, really, really low. And make sure it's a call and a text. Don't just go the the easy way and do a text, a phone call and a text. You get double whammy and call at times when people are gonna be around. So I usually like to make calls around eight, noon, or around four. It's usually when people are gonna be the most around that we were maximizing our time. So we can run the unscheduled treatment list. I always run it every single month. Divide the list up amongst every person. If we have an opening in the schedule where we've got downtime, everyone's expected for every 15 minutes of downtime we've got, we are going to be making.

Five calls. You can do it for 30 minutes, but everyone give the script, have everybody do it. It's there. So that's one tip to fill your schedule very easily and keep it full. The next one is gonna be like, let's boost our case acceptance. I kid you not. Like we don't need to go after more patients. A lot of times we just need to improve that case acceptance. So getting really good. I work a lot with offices when we do our consulting on just improving case acceptance. It's one of the fastest, easiest ways to grow a practice is just to get more patients to say yes.

If you're a great clinician and we're diagnosing, we should get patients to say yes. I have an office that I've been working with for several years. And truly, what we do for the bulk of our time is we work on their treatment plans and we just improve it and we improve it. We grow them usually a million to two million every single year, just by working on case acceptance, not pushing more new patients, not doing a lot of systems. It is truly just working on case acceptance. So when we have patients that are like, let me think about it.

We're not getting treatment plans scheduled. We also have low treatment plans. So it's a closing cases, but also diagnosing enough that's going to be there. If you want to produce your like the goal should be you're diagnosing at least three times what you want to produce. Then we need to be closing those cases. So what we need to do on this is it's strong handoffs. So I usually recommend NDTR. You've heard me talk about it million times. We'll link those if you haven't heard it. Welcome. It's next visit, date, time, recare.

So we gotta tell every patient what the next visit is, be clear and concise, what the date is to return, how much time, like one week, two weeks, three weeks. Do not say ASAP. I had an office I've been working with for years, like, I tell them ASAP, and I was like, excuse me? No, ASAP is very different for everyone. We're gonna say when you're scheduling my schedule align, or one week, two weeks, non negotiable. How much time is needed for that appointment and also recare. I've also had teams tell me, like, Kiera, we already know.

I know you know, but the patient needs to hear it. It's gonna help you get higher case acceptance. So everybody says that we involve the patient, we don't just talk to each other. The patient's involved in that. So strong handoff, NDTR. Make sure they all have it. Then after that, what we're gonna do is we're gonna have really strong case acceptance and we're gonna track on a treatment tracker. I have an office that does an amazing job with this. They track every single treatment plan. They come through what is it? They have multiple doctors. How is each doctor doing? What's their case acceptance?

How many dollars are we diagnosing? And we review it weekly, if not monthly, across the board. That way, doctors are constantly improving their case acceptance. We're constantly improving our handoff. Hygiene is constantly teeing up treatment. Let's get better and stronger to where we get this high case acceptance. You do that alone. Your diagnosis, your handoffs, and your closes are going to improve. What we track and measure improves. You probably have so much treatment that's not being diagnosed. So hygiene and doctors work on what would doctor do? Let's tee up treatment. Hygiene should be able to.

tee up treatment, 90% exactly what a doctor is going to diagnose. Doctors should be able to come in, give a perfect handoff. We then take that up to the front office. And then front office is really, really strong at being able to schedule first. Then let's talk about objections. Let's work through it to get them scheduled. I love a strong treatment coordinator who just closes like, let me think about it. Let's work through that. What are the reasons? I have an entire thing on root causes and objections and how to work through objections. So if you guys want to know a couple of objections, I love these.

I love to work with treatment planning. and these are just things of what are their objections? So we gotta go into this case acceptance, 80% psychology. Everybody says yes to me. There's always a solution. We're gonna find it together. Assume that they wanna do this. All right. So, like, yes, they want to do dentistry. We present the treatment plan, we edify the doctor, we schedule first. People think I'm crazy to schedule first. Schedule first, it puts it in. We are doing treatment. How you pay for it, that's your decision.

But on this, we're going to make sure that we're scheduling first. And I'm not going to say when do you want to get scheduled? I'm going to say let's get you scheduled. I've got Monday or Wednesday. Which do you prefer? Then after that, we're going to then present the trim plan. So it's going to be $76, it's going to be $7,600. Insurance is estimated for this amount. This will be your total out of pocket when I see you on Wednesday. What questions do you have for me? I want you to be rock solid confident moving forward. Now, fun fact, today I was in an office. there's only one gal up front. The other one wasn't there. And

I got thrown right back into the saddle. I was answering phones, I was scheduling, I was treatment planning. I was like, whew, gotta see if I still got it or if this is just something I podcast about. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to know Kiera Dent still has it. I'm still very good at treatment planning. Closed every single treatment plan I presented today, had all of them signed, it did same-day treatment today in office, doing this exact formula. Went in, presented it exactly like I tell you here. Every single patient signed, even if they have questions or objections, we then tie it back.

Amazing. Let's talk about it. Tell me what's going on. Tell me more. I want to understand. Tie to their driver. Is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity? You go past the no two times. Let's look at it. We don't plant like objections that they didn't talk about. Don't talk about money if they don't bring it up. Don't talk about time if they don't bring it up. Don't talk about pain if they don't bring it up. Wait for them to ask those questions. Don't sit there and plant it. If they don't say it, don't bring it up.

if it's a spouse objection, I'm like, what questions do you think they'll have? I want you to be sure you're fully prepared to answer all their questions. At work, absolutely, let's get you scheduled. I, Kiera, would hate to forget about you. So, like, if something comes up, no problem. Just give me a jingle, I'll take care of it. but this way I don't let you slip through the cracks. I would hate to forget about you. They will schedule. Everyone wants to be important. Money, let's talk about it, will never be cheaper, more predictable than it is today. Time, like they should already know that through that perfect handoff. It's gonna take 90 minutes, it's gonna take two hours. Like,

We can figure that out. Pain, like this is what most patients experience. Like, don't make it worse than it is. Don't make it better than it is. Like be honest with them so they trust you. If it's overwhelming, let's make sure we've got a clear next visit. Let's don't give them five options. There's so many ways that you can overcome objections. It's not hard, but you do need to track it. You do need to measure it. We do need to get better at our case acceptance. It is one of the fastest, easiest ways to grow your practice without needing to go and get more new patients.

You just increase your diagnosis and your case acceptance and your handoffs. Having a nice case acceptance protocol where we practice it, we rep it, we repeat it. I love it. I've been able to get about 15 treatment coordinators across multi-offices, really, really strong. Then we go to the next level. So, like people who weren't able to present like $1,000. Now they're presenting $15,000 cases with confidence. What's the next level? What are we struggling with? What are the areas that we're not able to close? Let's work on that. What's the objection you're hearing?

Kiera, people are maxed out on insurance. Okay, let's work through that. What are they saying? Let's role play through it. Let's figure it out. But having treatment coordinators and doctors realize that case acceptance is an art. You need to just keep constantly refining and improving. And if you don't have it in your calendar to work on your case acceptance at least once a month, you're missing a ton of opportunity. That's with your treatment coordinator, your hygienist, and your doctors. Let's work through it. Let's look at all the ones that are going to be like let's look at everybody who didn't say yes this month.

Why didn't they say yes? Let's role play through it. Let's hear what we said. How did we present it? How could we present this better? What like case acceptance is usually won or lost within one word. It's usually one or two words that you said. Like listen to it, record yourself. Listen back to the exams. Share those exams. Share how we presented it. Front office, record yourself. Let's listen to it. You listening to it back is going to teach you so much more than what you think you said. What people think they say versus what they actually say. People are like, Kiera, I didn't say that. And I'm like,

No, actually, I was like standing here and you did say that. Or they're like, I hear all the time. so do you want to get that scheduled today? Why did you just ask that? Let's get you scheduled today. Let's schedule you. Then it's like, well, you know, you want morning or afternoon. Why don't we say, like, doctor dentist does their fillings at 8 a.m. or 3 p.m.? Which works best for you? They're a doctor. I never go to the dermatologist and they're like, Kiera, when does it work best for you to come? No.

They're the dermatologist, they're the oral surgeon, they're this. They tell me when I can schedule. It's not the other way around. Let's start doing that. Let's start helping patients see that they're so lucky to come here. Now that doesn't mean we can't be accommodating, but it does mean that we don't walk ourselves into traps accidentally. So improving your case acceptance, having a solid case acceptance protocol, you focus on that. You're gonna grow your practice faster than anything else. So review it, have it set, review this every single month, non-negotiable, and you will grow.

Then the step three that you can do, it does come into marketing. Okay, okay, okay. but having consistent marketing, not random marketing. So marketing is predictable, so it's not like panicking, like, we don't have patience, let's market. Marketing is one of those things where you've just got to be it's like branding. You're out there constantly. So we're out there and we have getting reviews. Reviews is the fastest, easiest marketing that doesn't cost you a penny. Like you can get 12 or $149, I think is what it is.

Just tell them Dental A Team sent you. I think it's about that. They'll send out reviews for you. Like, sure, that's $149. But if it gets you reviews and patients, very inexpective. The best marketing is Google reviews by far. You can have that in your office. You can have things where people are talking about it. You can talk to patients. You can ask patients for it. Like you have to have a way to be collecting reviews. It's the fastest, easiest way to grow. Be involved in your community, have referral system where people they refer patients to your practice and it's a consistent referral. And then track your marketing performance.

Do that. What I find is most people do not stay consistent on that. Everything I told you comes from consistency. It's consistency on scheduling. It's consistency on morning huddle. It's consistency on calling on scheduled treatment. Then it's gonna be on case acceptance, reviewing it, diagnosing handoffs, like just practicing that and then having consistent marketing where we look at this. You stay consistent on those three things, your practice will grow. Period. It will. But we all get crazy and we're like, we're so busy. We're so busy that we're running ourselves into open schedules.

I also have a rule. My team knows you do not leave the practice with holes in the schedule. Period. That's you have an ownership. If you're over my schedule, you do not leave without that schedule being full. Period. People can do it. And guess what? If that's the standard and expectation, they get really good. Because we all don't want to stay late. But you are calling. You're sending out those outbound calls. Our case acceptance need to be this. Own the case acceptance. Have the doctor schedule to go. That is your baby. You take care of this. We review it. Have people own these areas.

But really own it. This is going to help you tremendously. So growth's not always about just getting more in people. There is so much growth and opportunity in your practice right now. Every single office I go into always has unscheduled treatment. They always have unscheduled recare. Always, always, always. Let's go for it. Let's start asking. Who else can we schedule? There are so many easy ways. Let's diagnose, let's check our case acceptance. Let's watch our marketing numbers. Do this. Be consistent.

You just need to do a better job with the opportunities you already have there. It doesn't have to be crazy. It doesn't have to be hard. It's there. and so I just want you guys to know that it's very doable. Now, if you need help with this or your team's not bought into it, if you're like, my gosh, my schedule's light, or we have this and I hear you on the podcast, but I can't get my team bought in. Reach out. We are the literally the dentist and team experts. We do this for a living. We are really, really, really freaking good at it. So reach out. [email protected]. Let's make it to where we have a consistent, predictable schedule. Let's get these systems in place. I worked with an office for three months.

500,000 collected. We worked with another office, millions added to their practice every single year, consistently, just by doing reps with our team. It's not always about reinventing the will. Sometimes it's just being consistent with the will you already have. So let's make like, let's make magic with what we already have. Let's take care of those patients we already have. Let's dig into those. I promise you it's way easier than you think it is. Let's just be consistent and let's pull the right levers that are actually gonna grow your practice with ease.

Reach out. I'd love to help you. [email protected]. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

How do you manage money more effectively? How can you stop being surprised by taxes? How do you turn your cashflow into something predictable? Kiera answers these questions and more, with three monthly habits you can build to create profitability.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today's topic is one of my favorite. It's money, taxes, and making a money-making machine. Yeah. Yay. Let's talk money and taxes. Because honestly, this is what everybody hates. And I'm not a CPA. I'm not a financial advisor. I'm none of those things. I'm just a girl who loves to help practices be more profitable. Help dentists like make and keep the money that they deserve, but doing it in an ethical way as a smart business owner. Because honestly, do you know how many people come to me and they're Kiera, I just want to become the CEO of my business because I don't get it, I don't know how. And I love

Helping people become competent running their businesses through systems, team, vision, you name it. I love to do it with you. So what I found is like a lot of times doctors don't have a production problem. They have a money management problem because you don't freaking know how to do it. You learned how to drop that box. You learned how to make that. This one was funny, guys. Like, why in dental school did they tell you you're doing an I L F filling? Like, come on. Like I remember seeing that and I was like, wow, dentistry. Or like I love when there's new people and they're like, Yeah, doc, we need a B O. And I'm like,

All right, or we could do like an OB, like it's fine, whatever. Or like I remember someone was like, What's a do? A DO I was like, my gosh, that's hilarious. So there's so many things like you've learned all that, but you didn't learn how to like manage your money and talk about it. So I have seen so many practices where they're a multi-million dollar office, but guess what? They're strapped for cash, they're not able to do these things. And the goal is not to like just produce more, it's to build a practice that creates consistent wealth for you. Now, team members listening, I want you to know you want your doctor.

To be insanely wealthy. Like you do. You want the practice to be wealthy because you want it to be cash flowing positive. Because if it is, you're happy. It's more stable, it's more confident. And I'm not saying like, I want your doctor to be wealthy. I want them to do well. You do too. Because guess what? If they're doing great, that means you're doing great. So I want you guys to walk like, how do we manage money money monthly? How do we stop getting surprised by taxes? And this is Kiera's tactical way of doing it. Talk to your CPAs. I'm not able to be that person, but I'm gonna give you some quick tips that work really well.

And then make sure your CPA validates and does it that's best for you. And then also, like, how can we turn this into predictable cash flow? Like that's what you're looking for. So let's do it. And to me, this is where I just see so many. We work with hundreds of offices across the nation. We're Dental A Team, we're experts in dental consulting. We work with dentists and teams. We either are virtual or in person, we're obsessed with making your life better. We call it the yes success model, where it's focused on you, your vision, your team, getting that organized, business fundamentals, earnings and profitability.

And then system structure and scalability. Like, how do we take it and turn it into that? That's what you're looking for. You want to make more money, you want to have less time that's spent in the office, you want to have more efficiencies. Like, let's do that together. That's what we're about. And really, today I get jazzed about this because so many offices are like, Kiera, I don't know where my money went. Guess what? I was that way too. Like, truly, it's so obnoxious. Because I know you are producing it. You need to just make it. Like, and how scary. I think about poor dentists. Like,

You go out, you do your fillings, you don't know if you're gonna get paid for it. You hope and pray that someone's collecting that money, but you will literally have no idea. Then the next thing is you get slapped with taxes, and you're like, my gosh, I have no money. Let's get you money. Like you went to dental school, you have so much debt on you, like you deserve to be a profitable business owner. So, like I said, just three things. Sorry about that. I'm just gonna yank this. Three things that you can do that are monthly habits to create profitability. You good with that? Let's get profitability.

cash flow and financial confidence. Here we go. So number one, dun dun dun dun, it's super sexy and not. All you gotta do, you gotta review your numbers every single month. Not when you're nervous, but as a consistent thing. You can join me. I've talked about it so many times. I call it the MMs. It's morning money meditation. That's it. Just do it. Like roll over. I turn on the call map or I'm into Joe Dispenser right now. there was another one I was listening to for a hot minute. I think it was called I don't even remember.

Was called. I can't even tell you guys. I don't remember. It was like this activations, I think is what it was called. That one was a fun one. It was like manifesting like multiple millions, like whatever you want do. but I meditate, I get my mind right, and then I look at my bank account. So join me on it. But I feel like a lot of times people just they don't know it, they don't get it, they just hope their CPA does it. my financial advisor will get it. I don't need to look at this. I'm just gonna do dentistry. Like, no, pull your head out of the sand. You are a business owner, you've got to look at it. So

We review our numbers before there's a problem, not when something fills off. So things to be looking at on a constant basis. What is our collection and production ratio? And I'm talking production in net, not gross. We got to be able to make sure, like, I don't care. I know Delta Dental's terrible. Guess what? That's all you can collect. So stop feeding your ego. Let's feed the family. Let's look at real numbers. What is that percentage? It needs to be at 98%. Half of you have a money issue, not because you have a money issue, it's because your team's not collecting. Teams, collect the money. We did the work.

Collect the money, fight with insurance, fight, fight, fight, get that money. Like you've got to. So we need to know what those two numbers are and you need to be at 98% collections. Okay. That's number one on your money. Number two is what's your overhead? Should be at 50% or less, 20% doctor pay. You gotta do this. What are we spending in those categories? So I like to look at our payroll percentage. I like to look at our supplies, labs. those are like the main big ticket items within that 50%. Doctor should pay should be sitting between 20 and 30%. All right, let's look at that.

Then beyond that, there's also probably money sitting in your AR. We should never have more than one month's worth of AR sitting there. So if you're producing $200,000, your total AR should never be more than $200,000. That's just the way the game works. So those are things we're gonna look at. All right. You gotta look at did we hit our goals, production, collection? What's our overhead? Did we overspend? Why? What improved and what did it? So we're gonna look at our PL. So I look at.

All of our team, all of our clients, they're on add it to analytics. So you usually have an online analytic. We build a KPI scorecard for all of our clients. Every client has it. So we're looking at what's our goal? What's our production? Is it red or green for that week or that month? Is it red or green for the collections? What's our collection percentage this month? What's our collection percentage year today? Because some months are gonna be low, some months are gonna be high. That's normal business. But we got to make sure we're collecting enough for our BAM, our bare ace minimum. And if not, we need to have savings for that. All right, so we have all that.

Then we also have an overhead calculator. I love the overhead calculator. I'm obsessed with it. We finally nailed this overhead calculator. Like it is, it's dreamy. Because what we do, I like to see this. It's a rolling month. So for those of you watching, great. I'm gonna share a screen. For those of you who are listening to the podcast, I'll explain it. Don't worry. So on here we have a scorecard. So this is one of my favorites. It's the overhead one. So what we do is we have our goals. So we set in our goals.

Like payrolls 30%, supplies are 5%, labs 7%, facility and equipment 8%, advertising 2%, less you're in growth mode, office supplies less than 1%, insurance half a percentage, professional services. We put in there your consulting fee. You're welcome. I want you to see that you can pay for consulting and be profitable. Bank charges and fees, I hope and pray they're less than 3%. They should be lower. And if not, you can get with Moolah. Phone internet utilities, less than 5% or 0.5, excuse me. And then other is usually 1%.

All that totals up to 60%. That means our doctor pay is probably gonna be sitting in at 20% or 30%. How can we trim this? A lot of people can produce more and have less payroll. We can outsource different things. Could we get our supplies lower? Can we order things differently? Labs, like let's look at that facility and equipment. Can we get that lower? Can we reduce our rent? Advertising, office supplies, could we get that down to a half a percentage? Professional services, like what if we got it to 1%? Or one of the fastest, easiest ways is we boost our production.

And it's gonna actually offset it and get it to a 50% overhead. Then what's amazing is we have our year to date. So what is it? What's our collection amount? We always want watch that. Year to date, and then we do a difference. So what's amazing is as you scroll through, we do January, February, March, April, we have our total overhead. What's our doctor W2? What's our doctor distribution, doctor salary? I want to see what percentage it is. This really quickly shows you what's my overhead, what's my doctorate, and then what's my EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

What's our total expenses, not including debt services? What's that? We want that to be sitting at 80% or less. And it gives us a dollar amount. So we're able to see it month over month and then year to date where we sit. What's the net profit? So in this practice, because they're at 60%, their net profit can only be at 10% unless our doctor pays lower. I don't really care how you do it because distributions are distributions. So if you want to take the profit, you want to leave it in the business, you got to make sure that the practice is paying for your life. Then we have all of our debt services. This is usually where people get stuck on cash. You're stuck on cash.

Because you have your profit, but then your profit doesn't pay for your debt services. And then after your debt services, those debt services a lot of times are not tax deductible. So then you're getting whipped on the other side with your taxes. It's really just this like yin and yang back and forth. Then we look at it. Now, taxes, we put it at 37%. Talks to your CPA. That's the highest tax bracket. You might not be there based on what your profitability is. But we have all this. So this way everything's dialed in. Every single month we're looking it over. I'm obsessed with this because I love it. I made my CPA make one of these.

What's our difference? How is this? What's our year to date? We go over this every single freaking month. Give the PL. Let's fill this in. Let's teach you how to do it this way. The more intimate you are with the numbers. I know people are like, I don't want to fill this in. Can you do it for me? No. I'll teach you one time, but then you're gonna fill this in. Why? Because if you look at this every month, think you're gonna get better? Yes, because what you track and measure improves. Okay. So that's what we're looking at. When we talk about our numbers, when we talk about these different things.

This is how you review your numbers monthly. I kid you not. Now, my gym trainer, I'm gonna talk about her a lot. You guys, I went on a really incredible gym training. All right. I decided when I turned 40, which I'm still like anybody who's got some good tips for like I'm halfway to 80. Do you guys realize that? Like, shoot, that's a moment, okay? Like, that's a moment that I'm still processing. Anyway, I decided I was going to be fit and 40.

And I was like, I'm gonna be the best shape of my life. So my trainer and I have been working out with her for about two years. We set a goal. I hired this incredible photographer. His name is Kai York. He's out of Spain. Go check him out. His photography is absolutely incredible. And I was like, I'm gonna do this incredible fitness journey. And I'll tell you, she was like, Kiera, you've been working out for two years with me. She said, if you want to get to what you want, you've got to start tracking your metrics. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Food, food, food. Daddy daddy da.

I'm so busy, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then I was like, fine. So she made me do this like intake form again. And the intake form said, How committed are you? And I remember writing, I'm 100% committed. How committed are you? So I went back to the coach. He guys, I'm a little sassy. My coach and I have come to like this really good place with each other. we have a very great relationship, and I'm super thankful for her. And what was crazy is I went all in. I am on 80 days of tracking my macros 100%.

I usually hit it right on track every single time. I'm not perfect, but I am consistent. I weigh in every single day that I'm home. So we weigh in, measure, do all the measurements every single day consistently. We were like three months into this journey. And I was a girl who was anorexic as a girl who was like never gonna get on a scale. I was like, I don't track it. And she said, Kiera, like we worked a lot on this of anorexia things. And if it ever got to a spot where I felt like it was trickling back.

It was a no-go. But she helped me see that like I'm just using this information to be able to make changes in my life. I was using this information to see, okay, if I ate certain things, how does that impact my weight? I wasn't going after a certain number on the scale. Our ultimate goal, because my my vision is that when I'm 90, I can freaking run faster than my grandkids or people younger than me. I want to be this like freaking ripped 90-year-old lady with cotton candy pink hair. Like that's that's really the vision.

I don't want to be frail. I don't want to be feeble. Yes, I'll sit there and like crochet and knit. I'm still gonna do like some like granny things. I wanna do that. That like feels exciting for me. But I want to be like so strong. So it wasn't about a number on the scale, it wasn't about a body fat percentage. It was truly I want to be in the best shape of my life that's physically strong. Like I wanna be strong. I want to be strong, like not skinny. Like I used to be going after being super skinny. now it's a how can I have like the strongest and take care of my body?

The whole reason I bring this up is because when I track and measure, I got the results I wanted. The first time in my life, I've said, I want a six-pack, I want a six pack, but she's like, Kiera, you've got to track and you gotta measure and you've got to look at it. We use it as data and we make decisions based on that. I bring that up because I feel like your metrics and your numbers, looking at them monthly, looking at them daily, looking at them weekly are the same thing. We don't get obsessive. Like for me, I could have gotten very obsessive and gotten right back into habits of anorexia. That's not the path. The path is to be my strongest, most fit self for you.

Your path is we're gonna be the most profitable fit practice that you can have. We gotta track it, we gotta measure it, and we gotta look at it constantly. But that way we make decisions based on it. So I want you looking at this. This is how you're going to be able to be financially free. This is how you're gonna have money. You're gonna be able to be like into that predictable money-making machine for you that's profitable. You're gonna have profitability, you're gonna have cash flow, and you're gonna have financial confidence. You've got to track and measure, otherwise it will never improve. And I'm just saying, like.

So we have a KPI scorecard that's gonna track your collections, your production, your payroll, your overhead, your profitability, our AR. Then we're gonna have like if one of those is off, then we can dig deeper. But if you look at those at a high level, just like I'm tracking my metrics, I promise you you will improve. What gets measured, like improves. So let's do it. Let's do it together. and I believe your story tells, like your numbers will tell a story long before your bank account does. And it's a way for you to track and measure, it's a way for you to validate. so

Put it on your calendar, have a nice little financial date with yourself. also have this in leadership. Our leadership team looks at our KPIs every single week. Every week, non-negotiable. That's what we do. And some people are like, well, I don't want my team to know numbers. Yeah, it freaks me out sometimes. But guess what? This is part of the game of business. And if I can't trust my leadership team to know my numbers, they might not be the right leadership team for me. Leadership team members, your doctors need to have profit. They've got to pay taxes on that. They got to be able to take care of themselves. And guess what? They work hard. Let them have big dreams and visions.

Just like you have big dreams and visions. Let's make sure we make both come true. Kate, now number two. I'm off my rant. I hope you guys loved it because I loved it. Number two is we got to do whatever your CPA tells you. I'm not a CPA. I can't really like get into that lane. And I'm not trying to get into that lane. I'm just saying for me, taxes were my biggest enemy. At the end of the year, I had a huge tax bill that I had not been saving for. And I know my was like, but Kiera, it's great. You get all this money. And I'm like, yay, but I don't have that money. I spent it.

Like, I don't know, people spend their paychecks. It's just like mystery. And I don't like living in this like, can I spend the money? Can I not spend the money? That never feels good to me. So what I decided to do with my CPA is we put it together and every single month I was like, this is a freaking equation, guys. Whatever my profit is, I need to just save that much money. Like that's it. Why do we like wait up for a quarter or wait up for six months or wait till the end of the year? And then I'm like, shoot, you want me to pay how much? Like, where's that money?

To me, I'm very proactive. I hate being reactive. So I had my CPA work with me. You can talk to your CPA. They can do this for you. Say, I don't like the quarterlies. I like to save it. For me, I personally put mine over an ally, A-L-L-Y. I know their interest rates are not as good as they used to be, dang it. But I'm still making money on that. And then I've got the money set aside. So when they ask me for my quarterly, they ask me for my end of year. I'm not freaking out about this money, but non-negotiable for cure dent before the end of the month, every single month, that money moves. Non-negoti, I don't care what it is.

I move away a distribution. So I have put money, it's profit first model. I do money for taxes. I do money for our BAM for our company to make sure we have that. And then I do our profit moves every single month, non-negotiable. I don't care if it's a good month. I don't care if it's a bad month. But what that does is it forces me to make sure our collections are in place. Do this. You guys are totally able to do this. Okay. So what happens is every single month, my CPA tells me, Kiera, this is where you were. This is your profit. This is how much money you need to put away for taxes.

Is it technically retroactive? Yes. So in June, I'll be moving money for May. Okay. So some months you're going to have a really high month. Then you get September. That's really fun. You still got to find the money because guess what? It doesn't change. You have to go find that money. I move that money out of my bank account into a third party account. So it sits over an ally. It does accrue interest over there, but it sits there. I don't touch it. It only is paid for taxes and I have them labeled into buckets. So it's my taxes, what's my company? Bam. And it moves. This is a disciplined skill.

You do not need to have this hard. For me, I also realized it was taxes, it was tithing or charitable contributions. And then like 401k. So when I used to do a SEP IRA, that was a fun throw because I had to pay that money too. Then I also have end of year bonuses. I hate doing this in December. Like I hated December. I used to dread December. I'd cry every December. Let's stop that. Whatever money you're paying out, if you know you're paying bonuses at the end of the year, let's figure out what it is divided by 12. Let's set that money aside every single month. That way you have it available.

I will tell you this will reduce your financial stress faster than anything else. So let's just do it. And for me, taxes, it's just an operating expense. For me, like that's just part of doing business. I don't, it's not, it's not like money lost. It's just a line item. Like I just need to put it in the bank account. What I also love is because I save every single month. So I kid you not, this is what Care does. I'm happy to put you on my like, I don't really have a text thread, but pretend I do. If you want to be a part of it, great.

By the end of the month, every month before the calendar flips to the next month, my money has moved. Non-negotiable, it will move. So I do have a doctor where we like text at the end of the month to make sure we're both moving money. and so what I do is I move it. What happens is at the end of the year, typically we're making expenses or doing corporate expenses, things like that, capital expenses, excuse me. And when that happens, from there, what we're able to do is we're then able to determine what our tax bill is going to be at the end of the year.

Every year that I have done this, where I save every month, I do 37%, like or whatever your tax bracket is, talk to your CPA. At the end of the year, every year, I'm eight years strong on this. So I feel like it's a pretty good track record to be sharing information. Every single year, I've saved more money than I actually need to pay for taxes. How many of you have done that? Like, that's it, because I put it on my goalboard. I said, That's it. I'm gonna become a freaking tax expert. I read tax books, I like talked to my CPA. I was like, I am sick of crying in December. We're gonna resolve this forever.

Now every single year I have more money than what I used to have. And I say that that's my tax refund. It's been a very long time since as a business owner actually get a tax refund, but that's the way I'm able to have a tax refund. And then I use that money for whatever because it's free. Like I don't have to be worried. I can spend it. And what we do is we make sure the business has enough to pay for my partial life. We have enough to save for taxes. And then whatever's left over to me, that's your like, it's your tax refund. Enjoy that, baby. Like have a good time. I also always have money for quarterlies. I have money set aside for that. So I've never stressed out.

So when the CPA says carry you owe X amount, I'm like, yep, here we go. Off it goes. And I accrued interest on So I feel even happier because I've been accruing interest on that money and I've been saving it. So tax planning is cash flow planning because most of the time I've noticed that business owners get stuck on their taxes. It's cash flow and it's very stressful. So I genuinely believe like your IRS bill should never be your largest surprise. Like, guys, you can do this. So

I set up a meeting with my financial my CPA and my financial advisors. I meet with them every single month. And then I do usually mid year. So it's coming up right now. I'll be meeting with my CPA. Where am I at? What have I paid? What do I still need to have? Where are we projected? Am I high? Am I low? What do we have that at? Every single month they tell me how much I need to save for taxes. Your CPA works for you. Make them work for you. So reserve it. Now, if we're behind, because a few years I've been behind. But guess what? If I'm doing that meeting in June or July,

I have six months to make up that cash. Or if you guys have like some of you are paying back taxes and it just breaks my heart and I'm sorry. So what we do is we just pay a little extra every single month and we just set that. So whatever they tell me, tack on 10% of my debt, we're gonna pay that down, we're gonna pay that back. There's ways that you can do this, and I'm happy to work through any of it. This is what we talk about in our mastermind. Like, pick my brain because I got so sick of crying. Like I said, I'm not a CPA. Your CPAs tell you all that. I'll just tell you I'm a

I'm an entrepreneur over here and a true business owner. It's had to figure out how to make money not be stressful and actually have a cash flow. All right. Number three is how do we make this like predictable cash flow for you? So I think for you, next is going to be like this is all dentistry. So how do we convert like production into profit? So being a good dentist. So we're gonna have strong case acceptance. Make sure patients are saying yes to your dentistry, collections percentage at 98%. Make sure overhead's where it needs to be. Let's make sure our schedule is scheduled efficiently.

Let's make sure that we've got consistent patient and team retention. two practices honestly can collect the exact same amount. One's gonna have profit and wealth, the other one's gonna have stress and overhead. Like the difference is our systems and are we staying consistent? What's our morning huddle? Like I was just in a practice, they're doing so well. And I was like, hey, we're not talking a huddle about how we win. Like let's let's add that in. So they're prepping. I promise you their production's gonna go up every single time I'm in office, their production spikes. It's just that's a little Dental A Team magic because people get excited, their production goes up.

But you've got to have those. Like you've got to have consistent systems. We've got to have consistent case acceptance, consistent schedules, consistent collections. Like those things have to be there. We have to control our overhead and see it. Consistency is not sexy, but it's how you get results. I hope you heard that. Consistency is not sexy, but it's how you get results. It's not perfection. I did not say you have be perfect. You guys, when I'm doing my cut, I was in the best shape of my life. I'm still so proud of myself. I wasn't perfect.

You better believe I still ate Reese's Easter eggs, guys. I freaking love those. You want to make me happy? Ship me those. Please. Like, I love them. they have to be the big eggs, not the little ones. The peanut butter to chocolate ratio is very different. And I peel off all the chocolate. I just want the peanut butter. Like, I'm there for it. I still ate those. I wasn't perfect. At the end, I was perfect. I was literally just eating chicken, rice, and almonds. Like, ugh, chicken for breakfast. Yeah, that was the next level moment. but I was perfect for two weeks.

But I was consistent. I wasn't perfect. You don't have to be perfect. You do need to be consistent. So having those systems, and I want you guys to just look to see in your practice where is one money, like where is it leaking in your practice? Is it in our case acceptance? Is it in our scheduling? Is it in our collections? Is it in us not looking at our overhead? And let's fix it this quarter. Let's set that as a quarterly rock. Let's get it fixed. So, as a quick review, I've ranted on this. I hope you guys loved it. But like truly, I want this to be like money and taxes. And how do you get out of the rut? And how do you stop crying?

How do you actually have cash flow, not cash slow? Like, let's get the cash flow, guys. you gotta review your numbers monthly. I'd recommend it's actually weekly, but start with monthly. You gotta plan for taxes every single month. And then we gotta build systems that turn it production into profit. Like just focus on those ones that are gonna put money on your books. You've got to be able to have this financial confidence. Like it's not a hope, a wish, a prayer. It's by being consistent. It's about being stable. I know that I'm gonna always have money for taxes. Always. Like that's just a discipline. That's a standard, and I will not go below that.

I will not ever go below. Like that's just my standard. We gotta cut, we gotta figure it out. And I love it because it forces me to innovate, forces me to squeeze the juice. Like I will pay myself. I'm not gonna sit here and not like you people just need to live below their means. Like, save 10%. I've always paid 10% to charitable contributions. I'll tell you if you don't do that, I'm not saying you gotta do charitable contributions, but they have shown that people that do save and don't live on everything that they spend.

Actually, you're able to be like the most successful people. That was a great study. I didn't even know it. And I heard it and I was like, wow. But I think it's because it forces us to see that you don't have to live on every single penny that comes through. You're actually able to live below your means, set these as standards, make them and be disciplined. And if you're not great at this, reach out. I love to help people with this. Like you don't have to have this be unpredictable anymore. We can get it to where it's cash flow confident. And I want you to be confident. So reach out.

I do believe that financial success is not good luck. It is just having systems and consistency. That's all it is. So reach out. I'd love to help you understand your numbers. I'd love to help you improve this. I'd love to have you have a practice that really does create genuine true wealth for you. I've got doctors that are asking me for a private mastermind where it's like, how do we wealth generate beyond? So first step is to stabilize, next step is to have structure, next step is to scale. So reach out. I'd love to help you. I'd love to help you guys create real wealth.

Your practices should be assets, not liabilities. So let's get it to where it's cash flowing positive. again, it can really truly be yours. I went from crying all the time to feeling confident as a business owner and I love to share that with people. So reach out [email protected]. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

So many offices out there think growth has to come from new patients. Tiff and Kristy share specific areas in your practice where you can increase what you're pulling in. This includes fee analyses, unscheduled patients, a finely tuned schedule, and more.

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Transcript:

Tiffanie (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. We love podcasting. We love giving out so much great information. And more than anything, we really love sharing our journeys with you guys, us consultants here on the team. We get to be in office with you, a lot of you. we get to be on the road, we get to go to CE courses, we take a ton of CE courses. The gal who's podcasting with me today is a CE maniac. she's always just looking things up and

And learning and growing. So we get to learn and grow. We get to boots on the ground, test things out, and then we get to deliver those ideas and those thoughts here to everyone on this platform. So thank you for being a valued listener. We hope that you enjoy today's content and please, please, please share with a friend something that we're very passionate about is reaching as many people as we possibly can on this platform and others. So whether you are a current client, a future client, or a forever podcast listener alone.

We just ask that you share this information, you pass it along to a friend, so that they can get some great nuggets as well. And Kristy, I have Kristy here with me today. And like I said, Kristy, you are just like a learning magnet. I love it because you just have this broad spectrum, this range of things that you love consuming, and you bring so much knowledge to the Dental A Team consulting team. So, Kristy.

Thank you for being here with us today. I am excited for today's topic. and before we dive in, how are you? How has your podcasting been? You listen to, you consume a lot. And then you you're

DAT- Kristy (01:37)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (01:38)

someone that consumes but also utilizes what you consume, which I think is a special skill. So how are you? How's your world? How's your learning? What's new for you?

DAT- Kristy (01:47)

Yeah, it's going good, Tiff. it's beginning of the week, so it's always fun to dive in and hear the things. I think lately it's really been around insurance and getting payments on time. They're doing some sneaky stuff with payments, so keeping clients apprised to that and making sure the revenue's coming in. But beyond that, like you're right. I I do like to to listen and stay up on things so that we can share with our

not just our clients, but even like you said, future clients or people listening to the podcast.

Tiffanie (02:22)

Yeah, I agree. I know you're gonna say insurance. That has been a bug this year. Insurance

DAT- Kristy (02:27)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (02:27)

the insurance bug is what we will call it. and

DAT- Kristy (02:30)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (02:30)

I love it because I know I can I can pick your brain for so many things and you do stay up on so many forums and you're always reading. but then on the opposite end of that spectrum, like I know I I know you will what does Kiera call you? A truffle, a truffle hunter, right? Like you're gonna find those truffles in the forest.

within the insurance and the billing world, but also you love leadership, like growth and development and this the non-dental leadership podcast of the world and books and we're always talking about that stuff. So I think it's really cool and very valuable for everybody and and gives you just a ton of credibility as we speak to a lot of the things we're gonna talk about.

DAT- Kristy (03:15)

thank you, Teff.

Tiffanie (03:16)

Of course. and yes, it is early in the week starting my

Starting my Monday podcasting is really fun. And starting my Monday podcasting with Kristy brings it down. It's only 10 a.m. and I feel like it has been a whirlwind this morning. So knowing

DAT- Kristy (03:31)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (03:31)

that I'm here, I'm like, okay, actually we're gonna breathe. So I hope all of our listeners feel that. Kristy brings a sense of calm to every every space that you enter. so thank you for doing that for me today. I need it.

DAT- Kristy (03:44)

Absolutely, my pleasure.

Tiffanie (03:46)

So, Kristy, this is something I think you're really great at. I do go through and and this was the first podcast on our list, and I was like, Yeah, this is Kristy's podcast. If we do no more

DAT- Kristy (03:56)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (03:56)

today, it's at least this one. And we really wanted to speak to the podcasting world here and and dental listeners about how to find growth within a practice without physically growing the practice. And this is something that has come up a lot. And I think Kristy.

I've at least had a lot of I've been experiencing this. I've had a lot of practices that are like tapped out on space, right? Like physical space. And after 2020, right? The year of 2020, March to December, this massive boom, right? We had this tank of like, what are we gonna do? And then we just had this massive boom and this influx. And so I think what I saw happen is a ton of practices remodeled or they did expansions, they added as much as they physically could.

And they're kind of tapped out. I know I have you know some that are like if I build anymore, I don't have parking where my patients gonna park. And so

DAT- Kristy (04:50)

That's seven.

Tiffanie (04:51)

they're finding themselves in this space or they're finding themselves in this space where maybe they don't have the finances right now to physically build or the capability and it doesn't make sense to. So we push growth. We're always saying, you know, seven to ten percent, ten percent is our goal, at seven percent is a minimum, a bare minimum to keep up with inflation. And my

Clients, you know, a lot of my practices are looking at me like, okay, Tiff, like that's crazy. So I wanted to chat today through some ideas that we utilize and Kristy that you bring to the table specifically to increase that like dollar per hour, that bottom line, that production collection space without physically increasing maybe even our patient base. Cause Kristy also have got a ton of practices.

that are struggling for new patients. We're like scraping the bottom of the braille all trying to find new patients. So yeah, that's where we're at. We're just like, how do you grow without pouring water on a plant and growing it, you know?

DAT- Kristy (05:52)

Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Tip, I love this subject because so many offices think that it all has to come from new patients, you know? And sometimes new patients can be expensive if we're looking for outside marketing, right? And we have so much to tap into within our practices already. And first and foremost, I always like to say when's the last time you did a fee evaluation? a lot of people after COVID.

really didn't tap into this. And I speak to doctors almost every day who think they were at the 80th percentile. And when we look at it, they're down in the 40th or 50th percentile, you know? And I also say tip with that, a lot of docs are hesitant to to look at this because they're like, I'm so high PPO. And I always say, hey, if you don't raise your fees, they're never going to raise theirs either. So

Tiffanie (06:47)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (06:48)

Taking a look at that first and foremost is huge.

Tiffanie (06:51)

I totally agree with that. It's something that's overlooked. I love what you said about the PPO space because so many doctors are like, what difference does it make? I'm tied to these fee schedules or nobody ever sees my UCR. Well, they do. The insurance companies see it. And I actually have a practice, I don't remember who I was podcasting with, but we spoke about them a couple weeks ago that they do their fee analysis and updates in during the summer. It's their slow time and so

DAT- Kristy (07:16)

Mm.

Tiffanie (07:18)

they do it during the summer.

when there's space and there's time because January, you know, that's an influx of just

DAT- Kristy (07:24)

Basically.

Tiffanie (07:25)

yeah, is it crazy. And so they move that task to the summer, which I think is really smart. And we actually just went through and did a fee analysis and found that they're they have a couple of insurances that are paying in network almost to their UCR fees. And their UCR fees are not low, right? They're getting like a thousand to eleven hundred dollars for a crown.

So when we requested a fee increase, right, they're like, hey, we're already paying 90% or 95% of your UCR, so we're denying it right now. And to your point, Kristy, they need to change their UCR because their insurances are following those UCR fees, right?

DAT- Kristy (08:06)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (08:07)

And so many practices overlook that and just go with the flow, and they just like muscle memory, they just keep.

you just keep doing it, right? You're like Dory, just keep swimming and you just don't think about what's behind you. And increasing

DAT- Kristy (08:20)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (08:21)

those UCRs makes a massive difference, especially when you're a PPO

dentist in the area that's at that 50th percentile. You need to be way higher. And if no one's seeing those UCR fees, great. Then guess what? You don't have to have that conversation with your with your patients.

that their fees are increasing because you increased fees. Like no now your insurances see those fee increases and then you can request fee increases from them for your fee schedules.

DAT- Kristy (08:49)

Yeah, exactly. I think it's a it's a huge missed opportunity if if you haven't looked at them in a while. And and I like to say look at once a year. I mean, it it really is worth it and it fluctuates. And don't forget your products if you're selling products. Like make

Tiffanie (09:05)

Yes.

DAT- Kristy (09:05)

sure you're updating those and looking at invoices. Make sure you're you're charging the correct, you know, a lot of offices don't add on for like

toothbrushes and that sort of stuff, you could actually be going in the hole if you haven't looked at it in a while. So

Tiffanie (09:20)

Absolutely. I have had so many practices that were that look back, you know, they haven't done it in three, four years and they look at it and they're like, my gosh, I'm literally losing money on fluoride. Like, we haven't updated our fees, so my fluoride costs more than what I'm charging my patients. And I'm like, Yeah, and that's an easy

DAT- Kristy (09:37)

Crazy.

Tiffanie (09:38)

one. And even like to your point the oral bee and crest and all of them, they increase inflation, right, is everywhere. So if your goodie bags are, you know, costing a certain amount

Add that in too. Take that into consideration because you've got to pay for those somehow, and we forget that those freebies are coming out of our overhead somewhere. We've got to make

DAT- Kristy (09:59)

Yeah,

agree with you, Tiff. you know, the other area that I like is looking at your unscheduled patients. I mean,

Tiffanie (10:07)

Right.

DAT- Kristy (10:08)

so many of my practices have a whole practice within a practice and and we get busy and we think we we don't have time to call on those. And I like to say it's a proactive and a reactive approach and making sure we're touching it every single day is huge.

Tiffanie (10:25)

Yeah.

Yeah, and to your point, that's a like a reactivation campaign. This is not just it's also including, but it's not just patients who were due last month that didn't come in. Those are very top of mind. We're hitting those. 90% of our our our practices are hitting those recare due. Recare coming up, recare six months past due, one year past due. This is patients who haven't been seen in 18, 24, 36 months because

To your point, there's a practice practice within a practice. I have practices, I know we both do. The physical practice has been around for 30 plus years. You may have been the newest dentist, the newest owner. So maybe you've only been there for two, three, five years, and you're thinking active patient count, but you've got 30 years of this physical space being there of patients who per perhaps haven't seen a dentist or been touched by your recare efforts.

DAT- Kristy (11:21)

Yeah, absolutely. And I love those ones because you already have a relationship with them. So

Tiffanie (11:25)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (11:26)

you even if you've physically inactivated them, you can run an inactivated campaign and and systematically touch these people to remind them, Hey, I'm still here. We'd love to see ya, you know.

Tiffanie (11:39)

Yeah.

Yeah. I have a lot of clients that do that reactivation campaign and they're like, okay, but what if they've moved? What if they decided not to come? He's like, great, then you get to clean up your system as well and remind those patients, no matter where they live, they need to see a dentist. So if our goal is to ensure that our patients are healthy, you're still handling that because you're still reminding them to find a dentist and

To me, those are new patients, right? And you said earlier, like a lot of a lot of practices will put all their eggs in a basket of a new patient. And I think that comes from the early 2000s of everything was new patients. There were so many consulting companies and I just everything we heard in dentistry was new patients. You heard nothing else, new patients in production. And that's evolved a ton because I think people got tired of being new patient mills, right? Where it was like,

We see so many patients, but we're not worried about what's happening to them after they leave that first appointment. And that has dramatically shifted. And that's where this comes into play. So even if you haven't physically, maybe you've been there for a year or three years, you haven't met that patient yet, that's okay. That patient

DAT- Kristy (12:49)

Sure.

Tiffanie (12:50)

has a relationship with the practice, with the building, it's memory, it's driving up to the place that you've gone.

three, four, five times for your dental care. That's my dentist, right? That's my dental practice. So then you have that opportunity now to build the relationship one-on-one with that person as they enter.

DAT- Kristy (13:10)

Yeah, agree with you, Tiff. it it's look at the number because I bet you would be surprised at how many patients you have sitting out there. And if truly you are at a capacity, you guys can go through those and look at them strategically. If they have outstanding treatment, those patients potentially could be could be coming back in not just hygiene, but in the doctor's chair too. So

Tiffanie (13:32)

Yes. Yes.

DAT- Kristy (13:34)

yeah, there's a gold mine sitting out there most of the time, and it just takes tapping

Tiffanie (13:36)

Yeah. Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (13:38)

into it.

Tiffanie (13:39)

I have a practice that had nineteen thousand patients had touched this physical building at one point or another. Nineteen thousand people in this small town. And I was like, Yeah, stop paying for new patients. Just just physically hit those patients with emails. You just automated emails that go out once a month and you're gonna get you're gonna get patients back because I've seen it and you're gonna get patients that call and say, Hey, actually I moved out of town. Great.

clean up our system. So I love those.

DAT- Kristy (14:06)

Yeah.

You know, Tiff, even to that point, how many offices look at how many new patients they get, but take it one step further and see, okay, we had thirty new patients this month, but only twenty rescheduled for another appointment. So making

Tiffanie (14:21)

Right. Mm-hmm.

DAT- Kristy (14:22)

sure when we have them or having those conversations to keep them and capture them as they're coming in as well.

Tiffanie (14:29)

Yeah, I have I had that conversation last week with a client and they asked the great question of okay, is that that they scheduled for their treatment or they scheduled their six month recare? And I said, Great question because I love definitions and both

DAT- Kristy (14:41)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (14:43)

because so many patients, Kristy, so many people are like, yeah, sure, we'll schedule. And then they cancel in two weeks

DAT- Kristy (14:49)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (14:50)

or six months right before their visit, right? And you never see them again. So if they had treatment diagnosed and didn't schedule that, but they scheduled their six month visit.

That's a little fishy to me. So I said both. And that

DAT- Kristy (15:01)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (15:02)

leads into that case acceptance space too. We're only watching we're only watching case acceptance of an overall and we're not differentiating to are the new patients accepting versus just maybe recare's accepting that we've already had this relationship because then you're seeing what's that relationship we're building with the new patients? Are they sticking or are they canceling?

DAT- Kristy (15:23)

Yeah, 100%, Tiff. I think there's a couple other areas too that come to mind for me when it comes to the growth. And it goes back to what you were saying in the case acceptance realm. Like what I found lately is people really have to have some strategic resources for patients to accept treatment, you know?

Tiffanie (15:43)

Mm.

DAT- Kristy (15:44)

So from the realm of finances, making sure we have ways that patients can say yes.

Tiffanie (15:50)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (15:50)

You know,

and really measuring when they don't, what what stood

Tiffanie (15:54)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (15:55)

in the way.

Tiffanie (15:56)

Yeah, I love that. And that seems to be I think in for my client base, what I've seen is scheduling hurdles and finances, making sure

DAT- Kristy (16:05)

Yep.

Tiffanie (16:06)

that there's an easy way to say yes to the price. and making sure that blocked scheduling or whatever it is that you choose to use for your scheduling that it that it works. I've got a lot of patient or a lot of clients that

their patient appointments, like they're just throwing things on the schedule to try to fill it. Like especially the ones that are struggling to fill a schedule, they're just grabbing whatever they can. And

DAT- Kristy (16:31)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (16:33)

without utilizing a blocked scheduling method and filling it in that way, we do a really big disservice because I think Kristy, what I've seen at least, is sometimes those patients that are in, those appointments that are in that should be an hour, are now taking an hour and a half, two hours because there's other stuff mixed in.

And so then we are making our days longer and like, okay, if we're scheduling that, now I need two hours in the future. You probably didn't. You probably just didn't schedule correctly around it. And so you're actually losing a ton of time throughout your day to be more productive. And to your point, Kristy, that's the growth. If we can condense our schedule and do things more effectively and more efficiently, we can add more production onto the schedule.

DAT- Kristy (17:20)

Agree with you. again, too, in this day and age, a lot of people don't like taking a lot of time off work. So consider

Tiffanie (17:27)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (17:27)

doing more on your patient while they're there. Give them give them the choice, you know, let them decide. Are you the type of patient that likes to do what more in one treatment, you know, or do you

Tiffanie (17:39)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (17:39)

want to come more frequently?

Tiffanie (17:41)

Yeah, and that goes into your being able to say yes to the treatment. I think that's a that's a space as well because if you come at me with like two, three, four appointments, I might be like overwhelmed by the idea and not want to start anything because I can't finish it. And if

DAT- Kristy (17:57)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (17:58)

my schedule is too difficult to envision being able to finish all of these appointments in a timely manner, I might just back away and say, you know what, I'm not ready to start anything because I can't figure out how to do it all.

DAT- Kristy (18:09)

Yep, agree with you, Tiff. And lastly, I think I hear a lot of doctors say, All my patients are so healthy. All my patients

Tiffanie (18:16)

Yes.

DAT- Kristy (18:17)

are so healthy. And I I truly think that that's a huge missed opportunity too. It's a great time to take a step back and just say, Hey, what are your long-term goals for your teeth? And maybe now that you've repaired damage in my mouth or gotten rid of infection, this is a perfect time to talk about the cosmetic things that a lot of doctors

Tiffanie (18:37)

Wonderful thing.

DAT- Kristy (18:37)

love doing, right?

Tiffanie (18:39)

Yep, I had that conversation with two or three doctors just last week that I do we hear that constantly, right? Well, I need new patients because my patients are healthy. That's fantastic because what if you could do really fun work on healthy patients? There's ortho, right? And ortho, I love when when practitioners look at ortho as a way to prevent future issues, right? So if you're misaligned, especially the lower anterior.

Always right. There's always something there. So it's perio, it's chip teeth in the future, it's losing teeth. Like, how can we help how can ortho become a preventative measurement? And then to your point, cosmetics, whitening. My fiance just asked me the other night. Like he hasn't talked to his dentist at all about it, but he's got two, he's got an implant with a crown and he's got a crown.

And they're discoloring. They're they're years old. They're probably like six years old at this point, right? And so they're discoloring. And he's like, What do I even do? Right? Thank goodness. I'm here and I I'm like, well, let me give you your options. You can do four,

DAT- Kristy (19:46)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (19:46)

six, eight. Let me tell you what I would do. Let me tell you who I would like all of these things. But he isn't talking to them about it. He's talking to me about it. So how many patients do we have that don't even have someone to talk to about it? They're just sitting there wondering.

Could this be better and afraid to say something because it's an embarrassing or confusing or an unknown? Like so many things hold us back.

DAT- Kristy (20:13)

Yeah, it's crazy. A lot of my clients have heard this story, but the same thing happened with my mother-in-law. Like literally

Tiffanie (20:19)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (20:20)

when I was in practice, you know, family would come, but she went somewhere with her friends and she saw somebody with a beautiful smile. And next thing you know, she's going to their dentist. Yeah, she came back.

Tiffanie (20:30)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (20:32)

But my doctors were like, What the heck? And I'm like, But you never asked or showed the possibilities, you know. So don't

Tiffanie (20:36)

Yeah. Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (20:39)

forget about your healthy patients. Like, take that step back. And this is a

perfect time to discover is there anything you don't like about your smile, you know.

Tiffanie (20:47)

Yeah. I

love that you gave that a story because my fiance literally asked me, Who would I need to go to? Is that something that insert his dentist name can do? And I was like, Wow, this is wild. This is wild. And

DAT- Kristy (21:03)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (21:04)

so I've had so many people, I'm in Phoenix, right? We're both in Phoenix, right? So Scottsdale

DAT- Kristy (21:08)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (21:09)

is right around the corner, right? Just

DAT- Kristy (21:11)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (21:11)

a little a little twenty-five to forty-five minute drive, depending on where you are in the valley.

Everyone thinks you have to go to Scottsdale for cosmetic treatment, right? I

DAT- Kristy (21:21)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (21:22)

can't get whitening, I can't get veneers. If I'm going to get veneers, right? We have people and legitimately there are a lot of dentists there, a lot of dentists everywhere who do great work. Scottsdale and LA. People fly in from other states to get dentistry done in Scottsdale and LA because they think that's where they have to go.

His people don't know. He's worked with he's been a patient at this practice since he had the emergency situation with his front teeth.

DAT- Kristy (21:51)

Well.

Tiffanie (21:52)

And he's like, should I go to him? And I'm like, I can't speak to his work, but I can say he he does them. You know,

DAT- Kristy (21:58)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (21:59)

so it's like you just don't know what you don't know. And so if we're not having those conversations, I think that's a massive space of growth. And if you're not someone who loves to do that, fine.

What do you love to do? You know, how many missing teeth are there? Do you like bridges? Do you like implants? Do you like how many missing teeth are within your recare? How many missing teeth are coming down the pipeline of patients that are in your database?

DAT- Kristy (22:25)

One hundred percent. And or even maybe you've added new services to your service mix that even your existing patients don't know you're doing.

Tiffanie (22:33)

Yeah, yeah. I agree. And it doesn't have to be Botox, fillers, threads. Like you don't have to be

DAT- Kristy (22:37)

Right. Yeah.

Tiffanie (22:40)

like, okay, well, I've tapped out my crowns and my fillings. Like I've gotta offer these other things. If you want to offer it, great, do it. But if it's not like a desire that you have to be this aesthetic dentist in that capacity, don't do it. You don't have to do all on force. Find something that you love.

that you can add to your service mix or something that's within your service mix to Kristy's point that your patients just don't even know that's there.

DAT- Kristy (23:09)

Yeah. And lastly to wrap it, Tiff, I think so many people don't realize tapping into their own patients to earn that growth, like through social media and that sort of reviews, referrals, you know what I mean? Like give your patients a reason to refer and and even talk about you. Like bring that presence around so your existing patients can share why they love you and others will follow them.

Tiffanie (23:38)

Yeah. Yeah. Don't be the dentist that your patients are like, I don't know if they're accepting new patients or not. Let me call and find out. Like, no, just let them call and find out. So I agree.

DAT- Kristy (23:46)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (23:47)

I agree. I think fee schedule increases. So if you haven't done them recently within the last year, do it. I do love the idea of moving that to the summer or whatever your slow period is. If you're a pediatric dentist, don't do it in the summer. and then looking at service mixes, so what can you do more of?

And looking at your schedule and making sure that you're utilizing as much time as you possibly can and that this that the schedule makes sense. I love that.

DAT- Kristy (24:14)

Agree with you

and don't forget that reactivation.

Tiffanie (24:17)

Activation, that was the other one. Yeah. Don't

forget those 19,000 patients that are sitting in your database somewhere. So, yes, I love

DAT- Kristy (24:21)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (24:23)

that. Kristy, these were phenomenal ideas. Thank you so much. thank you for

DAT- Kristy (24:27)

Absolutely.

Tiffanie (24:28)

making it easy. Thank you for helping so many clients. And for our listeners, if you need some Kristy wisdom, you need some Dental A Team help, please reach out. We're always here. [email protected] or TheDentalATeam.com website. You can sign up for a quick free consultation as well to see if

what ideas we have. It doesn't mean you're signing up. It just means hey, tell me, tell me what are some ideas that you guys have. And we have a ton of free resources on that website as well. Drop us a five star review as always and let us know how we can best help you. [email protected]. Thanks guys.

Re-releasing a Dental A-Team podcast favorite!

Tiff is on the pod to chat with Kiera about an office she just visited which needed some attention on its collections and accounts receivable. To give an idea of where this practice sits at, its collections are at 80% and case acceptance is at 56%. Tiff shares three points she touched on with this office:

• Three tactics to put into place to raise collections

• Establish tracking methods

• Spun complaints in a positive direction

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we are bringing you something so special. I am so excited because this is one of our most popular episodes from the archives. Whether you're hearing this for the first time or catching it again, I am so excited because it's jam packed with a ton of takeaways that you can start using right now in your practice. We have released thousands, literally thousands of episodes. And I wanted to start bringing a few of these amazing episodes back for you. So I hope you enjoy. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.

on the Dental A Team podcast.

speaker-0 (00:32)

and you guys don't worry. We say we travel in the Dental A Team, and this time you might actually hear proof of it because I have the one and only Tiffanie Trader back on the podcast. She is getting ready to fly home, just finish up with an office, and we definitely got her to podcast while she's at the airport. So Tiff, where are you at today? How is this podcasting going?

speaker-1 (00:54)

podcasting is gonna be fantastic because it is because I put it out there into the universe and I am I'm actually in DC, which is funny because it's funny because I thought I I thought I booked a different airport and I thought I booked an airport I had been to and then on the way here I was like, Yeah, I've surely never actually even been to DC and anyways it's been fun. This is how my life is.

speaker-0 (01:18)

So funny travel story about Tiffanie and airports. We always giggle about this. Tiff, do you want to tell about the one time like this is like real life consulting one one for you guys? Do you remember the time that you maybe missed your alarm? You set like twenty five of them, but that's fine. Like I've seen your phone and there are seriously like, Wake up, no, like really wake up. No, like you've got to get out of bed. Like that's all your alarms that you have. But like what happened that time? Because it was a really funny travel experience.

speaker-1 (01:42)

Here's the thing, Kiera. I just want to point out that I am in Virginia right now. It's

speaker-0 (01:47)

Yeah.

speaker-1 (01:48)

the only state that I have ever, ever, ever had any travel mishaps of any sort have been either coming to or leaving Virginia. I have Virginia stuck

speaker-0 (01:59)

Is your

speaker-1 (02:00)

here. I've gotten stuck here on a layover. Like Virginia just doesn't want me to leave, I think. So I slept through my alarm leaving New York, coming to Virginia.

because my flight was at six thirty in the morning, which is if you know me at all is not

speaker-0 (02:16)

It's okay. It's all right. We all make decisions that we shouldn't have done. And I'll be honest, sometimes when we're like booking the travel, we're like, yeah, that seems like a really good idea until we actually have to live the travel we booked for ourselves and we're like, That was a really bad idea. So

speaker-1 (02:30)

It was a poor choice.

speaker-0 (02:32)

You're

up late. I remember you were texting me late at night that night and I'm like, Tiff, your freaking flight leaves so early tomorrow and you're like, I'll be fine

speaker-1 (02:40)

Yes, but I was fine because I actually figured out that it was quicker to drive to where I needed to be than to fly anyway. So

speaker-0 (02:49)

Only after she missed her flight. So it was you know a win.

speaker-1 (02:52)

Because

I had to pivot. I had to be at an office that afternoon and I was like, shoot, how do I do this? So pivot or die is like what we live and breathe by. so I mapped it and I went and I got a car and the car rental guy was like, my gosh, this is absurd. so I drove a car from New York to Virginia and it was by far my favorite road trip of working experience because it was beautiful. I got this in so many I went through

It was like fall time, but I got snow, I got fall leaves changing. I have like every possible season.

speaker-0 (03:27)

It's

one of favorite stories that I definitely feel like needed to be recorded for all of our posterity to hear and all of you listeners. So this might be mine and Tiff's like journal time over here. But this is liter

speaker-1 (03:36)

I think I've I think I've now flown out as of today. I will have flown in and out of every airport in Virginia.

speaker-0 (03:45)

Well, I'm glad that you're able to get the last one knocked off your list today. but you guys, that's literally the day in life of a consultant. I think it's it's fun to point out the fact that like in offices when things don't go as planned, like literally pivot. I know Tip and I have many times, I mean the time that I almost got deported out of Canada, hashtag I was literally a one hour drive across the border, but no, I flew back down to New Jersey and then back trying to get across the border.

And it would have been way better had I just driven. So I think also it's like looking at it. I mean, had we mapped it, now when people are booking travel, we're always thinking like, Could you drive there faster than flying? 'Cause there's always alternatives. So I love it. Welcome to Virginia. I'm glad you're coming home. Glad your office was there. Let's kinda like

speaker-1 (04:29)

office was in New Orleans. It's

fine.

speaker-0 (04:34)

Everything's fine, guys. Everything's fine. We are totally competent in dental offices and we're about like seventy-five, eighty percent competent traveling. We have that like twenty percent lack that we definitely are not great at.

speaker-1 (04:44)

It

just needed to hit Virginia as a state this year, so I got it in.

speaker-0 (04:48)

Good job, Tiff. So actually let's like deep dive on your practice you just came from. this is not the topic we were going to go on, but I just realized like we're talking about you leaving an office. Kinda walk us through some of the things you just implemented in that practice that you were in, just so people can kind of get an experience of what it's like having a consultant in their practice.

speaker-1 (05:05)

Yeah, I think that's fun. Yep. So this was and I love a bit or die.

speaker-0 (05:10)

Don't worry, we had a totally different topic, but like why not why not just keep with this consulting travel theme?

speaker-1 (05:16)

I like it. So yes. this is my second time in the practice. This was Ashley actually saw this practice probably like a year ago, I suppose. so she saw them first and Ashley's no longer with us, wildfires, crying, lots of tears.

speaker-0 (05:29)

Decided

to get married and move away and become a practice manager. It's fine. That office got real lucky. I shout out to them.

speaker-1 (05:37)

Yeah. So anyways, this is their third visit. So it's really cool to see the progression and the growth that they've experienced, but then also like the holdups that they've had. So it's like, yes, we've been consulting them for a little over a year now. but there's still so much to be done. So this week what we did yesterday and today was we focused really heavily on collections and AR because they're just

struggling a little bit in that area and they're having a hard time dialing it into where it's coming from. So it was really fun because we saw the issue and then what I did was I kind of worked my way backwards, right? Because I think in any practice you can find something that's wrong and then I can tackle that person. Right. So I can go straight for the billing representative and the office manager and be like, why aren't you collecting? Where's your money? But it's not just them.

that are the the only cause of that, right? So the only effect of the cause. So we backtracked, we looked at everything, we realized, hey, patients aren't always getting signed treatment plans. Like patients aren't even they're not always getting told what they're going to owe in the first place. So then when they're coming in, it's a little bit more difficult to collect because I noticed we have a crown you know, a crown was in last week and they paid a hundred dollars. And so if you know anything about

Crowns in dental insurance, typically a hundred dollars is not going to be the copay required. So I thought, okay, why is this patient only paid a hundred dollars? Well, probably because this patient was not prepared to pay the six hundred dollars that he had owed when he came in. So we kind of backtracked. So we figured out, okay, our collections percentage is low. It's about 86% for last month, and overall for the year they're hovering in the mid 80s.

I like to see ninety eight percent for my practices or higher. I usually tell my Medicaid practices, Medicaid slash PPO providers, ninety-three to ninety-five percent just because Medicaid takes so long. So ninety-eight percent is what we're looking for here in this practice. So eighty six percent was like, my gosh, how are how are we paying the bills? So we back chopped and we started implementing they did NDTR for us like a boss. We've done that twice to the guys don't know the N D T

speaker-0 (08:00)

And you're new, that's a perfect handoff. So next visit, date, time, recare. And I will say it's magic sauce when people do it. So good to know this office was which is great. It's good. Like Tip, I love that you're breaking this down. And I think offices should do this. Like when you find a gaping hole, don't go after it. Look at all the pieces that factor in to find out where is the true breakdown. So we already know that the handoff and the doctor exam

is spot on. We are crushing that. Our handoffs are good. Our doctor exams are great. So that's not the cause of the collections being low. Like good job Tiff of checking that box to ensure and I hope people are able to see that that that's what you're doing in this. Like you're assessing to find out where the breakdown is at.

speaker-1 (08:38)

And I think that's right. And as you're saying that, it made me think of like treatment planning, right? So doctors, you go in the operatory and if you just looked at a tooth and you saw this this piece of decay, right? No x-ray, nothing else. You just look at the tooth, you're like, okay, there's decay there. We need to get it out. Let's do a filling. Okay. So you do a filling, you get in there, because you haven't looked at the x-ray yet, you get in there and you're like, holy cow, that's not the only problem. So I think of it as like

You go in, you look at the tooth, but you also look at the x-rays and all the other evidence that you have. You look at you know, intra-oral photos, you look at structure, all of these items to assess what the patient needs on that tooth. So if you look at the x-ray, maybe the x-ray shows like all of this patient's pain is actually stemming from a huge abscess at the root of the tooth. Had we not looked at the x-ray, we might have just tried to fill it, right? So I kind of think of that of something like that when I go into practices. So I do see, okay, there's an

issue so we're we're bleeding money right so there's an issue but what's the root cause of it so I think that's great what you said Kiera because it made me think of that like it's really we go in and we dig for the root cause so overhead is high collections are low so what's the root cause so handoffs are working great the diagnosis is there the treatments there the schedule's pretty full right they're producing 120 grand with two doctors and two hygienists that's not bad per month

so we really diagnosed. So we ramped up treatment planning with the front office, ramped up treatment planning, which should ramp up over the counter collections, and then we tackled cancellations, which I think cancellations across the board, across the country, and all of my practices have been really high lately. I think it's just a product of the mentality that we're living in right now, and a product of what we've become. So that aside, we just set some new goals. So

Over the counter collections and collections in general, they I set them another goal. So their goal now is 98% by the end of the year. Okay, and remember they're at about 86% now. Case acceptance, they're doing dollar for dollar. So case acceptance, dollar for dollar is set at 75% is their goal. They're hovering at about 56% right now. And then I want to see cancellations at less than 10% every day. So they'll do that by week and they're tracking all of those items.

It is actually really fun to hammer in the collections because the front office ladies are like, I don't know what I don't know why she keeps saying collections, collections, why are you saying collections is an issue? We collect the money. We collect all the money over-the-counter. We we don't let patients leave without paying. And so I said, Okay, totally fine. So, what we did was we set, we created a new tracker, right? So I created a tracker for them for over-the-counter collections. If they do not

collect in full from a patient, they've got to put it on the tracker. So it's just in their Google spreadsheets, something the office manager can check in on, but it's going to hold them accountable. So number one, I saw that you know we had a few patients we weren't collecting over-the-counter 100% from. So there should be some names on there. Number two, they're not going to want to fill out the tracker and they're not going to want anyone to see your name on there. So hopefully it will ramp up that over-the-counter collections.

But then also they had a good point. If they feel like they're collecting over the counter correctly, maybe it's on the back end where it's like our claims, you know, our treatment plans are are not accounting for downgrades, and maybe our claims are coming in, EOVs are being paid, and we're left with balances, it will show. So I took the problem, diagnosed what needed to happen, implemented three items and three different goals that should help. And then

allowed them the grace and the space to say, okay, fantastic. We're gonna push real hard on these items to ensure that your over the counter collections is happening exactly how you're saying that it is, just because I want you guys to kill it. And the proof will be in the end. Right. So if I see that over the counter collections is better and now our overhead is decreasing our collections is higher, then I know we tackle the problem.

If it's not and it stays where it is, and we start saying, okay, it's actually left over after insurance, we actually tackled that problem as well because we've we have our insurance, the team who's doing the insurance verifications are gonna start they're putting down grades in now. so that should be resolved as well. But it was kind of fun to see where it's like sometimes we think we're doing something and we can say, like, I always do this thing, which always and never are never accurate, right? So like

always well whenever I think like I always do it I'm like okay so I don't always do it so I need to like back off and take a look at the area where I probably could improve. So as soon as I hear something that I'm like okay I totally get it. It's like a it's a defensive space and we do feel like we're killing it in that area and it's great if we are you might be so we're gonna put this into place to see that to show it. So let's prove that you are doing the things and it's not you on the opposite side of the spectrum.

We're putting attention on it and so no matter what, whether you were doing it before and you're doing it y now you're doing it even more or you're doing it the same as before or you weren't ever doing it, it's going to improve no matter what, because we're putting attention on it.

speaker-0 (14:01)

I love it.

speaker-1 (14:03)

That's what we did in this caucus.

speaker-0 (14:05)

So I think there's like a c quite a few pieces I wanna highlight from it is number one, I love that you talked about how you see an issue, but that issue is usually a symptom of a bigger problem. And so it was collections are low. And so you found three other areas to fix. I also love that you put tracking into place. And I also love that you took what people said of I'm always collecting and spun it into a really positive way. Cause some people be like, Okay, well, I get that you say you're always doing this, but the reality is we're not collecting. You didn't make them wrong. You said, Hey

I hear you. Let's actually track this and prove that you guys are really doing it. So like I'm on your team versus I'm making you wrong. And so I hope a lot of people listened and heard that. And I think that that's one of the beauties of coming in person. Because over the phone, I can't we can't move and navigate as easily as we can in person. In person we're able to see, okay, here's this broken piece. Let's go fix, let's look at the whole way up the chain to see where is the broken link. Because down below we know something further up is broken. But then we can get the in

entire team working on it. So you see quick, fast changes in a practice that are usually sustainable. So Tiff, I thought you did so many awesome things in it. And I know you tackled so many more pieces. Like that's just a quick, I mean, we're talking 15 minute synopsis right here where you're like, hey, I was there for a day and a half, but let me give you a quick 15 minutes. But I hope people took that. And so I'm like digesting this in for an office of how do you take this and make this applicable to you is number one, when you find a problem, look to see like what are all the pieces up ahead of that problem that got there.

To get to collections, what has to happen before collections? Insurance verification, inputting information, sending claims, getting the checks back from insurance. Are they getting lost in the mail? Do we have EFTs set up? How are we posting it? What about downgrades? What about our write-offs? Then you also looked at like, okay, what creates that copay amount for the patient portion? That's treatment plans. Are we giving every patient a treatment plan and having it signed and putting that copay amount or the amount that they owe in the appointment box so that way everybody knows and we just collect that?

Then let's go back even further and say, first and foremost, how's our case acceptance? Like, are we even having good handoffs to get the treatment that's diagnosed, to get the case acceptance, to get the schedule, to be able to then send it out. So that's why we love what we do. Like I just broke all that down. I'm like, that is what we freaking do, and we love it. We love it so much. But I hope you guys take it and diagnose that. And if you have a hard time seeing up that chain, Tiff and I are really good at seeing like, okay, here's the billing system, here's the case acceptance system, here is our new patient acceptance.

system like here are all these systems that could be impacting your collections. Let's look to see where it's at. Let's come up with some tracking. Let's give your team goals and then let's see magic happen. So if you guys are needing help with that, always email us [email protected]. But gosh Tip like way to way to kill it at that practice. I love I love hearing your recaps after a practice.

speaker-1 (16:52)

Thank you. Yeah. And you're right. We did a ton more, especially on the collection side. but yeah, I love it. And I love the diagnosis piece and really seeing like the light bulbs go off and doctors and teams too. So and I think you're right. I think it it can be done over the phone. It just takes a lot longer. And and I think we do miss pieces because it's a biased opinion. I'm I'm relying on the team or the doctor to provide me the information. I'm not seeing it firsthand. So

It is much more effective when we're able to get in practice and probably I'd say the f first one in office is like, okay, this is a good starting point. Second and third in office are really where we really I mean, we dig deep on those suckers because we know we know the practice at that point. So totally. I love it. I love it.

speaker-0 (17:38)

So fun. Well, Tiff, as always, I love you headed to offices. I love you representing our company. And it's fun to see. So I hope you guys like take this into yourself. Put on the Tiffanie Kiera consultant hat. Look at your practice. See if you can uncover those spots and where it might be broken further up the chain. And if you can't see it or you also want to pick our brains, email us. [email protected]. And as always, thank you all. Thank you, Tiffanie. Thank you all for listening. And we'll catch you next time

Kiera Dent (18:04)

I hope you all loved today's episode as much as I did. It is crazy to think that this many episodes have been released since we started the Dental A Team Podcast. And I started looking to say, my goodness, our listeners need to be reminded of some of the things they may have learned a year ago or two years ago or five years ago, because so many things in our practices weren't relevant back then when we heard them, but they are relevant today. And I would be doing you a huge disservice if I didn't re-release some of these episodes for you to remember, to refine.

to optimize and really truly if you ever need a topic or you're like, my gosh, I wonder if the Dental A Team has anything like this, go onto our website, TheDentalATeam.com, click on our podcast tab and you can literally search any topic. So whether it's overhead or hiring or firing or team morale or engagement or case acceptance or hygiene or associate onboarding or whatever it is, we have so many episodes for you. And so I am going to intentionally be

re-releasing some of the top best episodes for you, pulling back some of the ones that I needed to remember, some of the things that I feel for you to really, really relearn right now and to re-remember, or if it's the first time, welcome. I'm so happy you're listening to it, but I hope you truly enjoyed today's episode. I hope that you share this with somebody. I hope that you go and implement today because we only have one day. We only get today. And so making today the best that it possibly can be. If we can help you in any way, shape or form, reach out [email protected].

And as always, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

It's a common trajectory: Dental schools create great dentists, but they don't create good business owners. Kiera shares three critical (but attainable!) tips for creating a profitable, scalable, and enjoyable practice, so doctors can continue doing the work they love.

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I'm excited to chat with practice owners, office managers, and to kind of just talk about like what every practice owner should know. But I think a lot of us learn that too late. Myself included, I feel like business owners, I feel like we are great at our craft, but at business we learn it a little too late. And so I think that like I looked at all of our students at Midwestern and they learned how to be great dentists, but they didn't.

learn how to become great business owners. And we hear this all the time. I'm not saying anything new. I just think that a lot of practices hit ceilings because it's not their clinical skills. It's the business outgrows their knowledge. It's like, hey, take me to the moon. You're like, I've never been to the moon. And so I think just being able to help practice owners today realize in office managers, like leadership systems and financial decisions really are like the core. That's why we call it the yes success model. So you, that's the leadership,

systems and earnings. Like that's really what makes up a successful practice. But I feel like that feels so easy. But I want to just walk through like what are three things that every business owner needs to know to have a profitable, scalable and enjoyable practice. You guys the Dental A Team like we work with hundreds of practices across the nation from startup practices to multi-million dollar offices. And what I realize is the challenges are all the same. Like it's fundamentally stays the same. It just gets bigger or smaller based on the size of practice that you're in. And so

I think so many people know how to work really hard. I think so many people outproduce their problems. I think so many people they just it I hear all the time when people are calling to work with us, like Kiera, I just don't know what I don't know. And so today I just want to go through like, let's just talk about three things that I feel like every single business owner needs to know and some tactical ways that you can implement this. So hopefully it takes you from being stuck to unstuck. If you've heard this in the past, maybe you're hearing it at a different time. I know for me these are three fundamentals that I go back to no matter what phase of the business I'm in.

No matter what size of practice I'm in, none of that. So number one is going to be your leadership is like completely the like growth of your business. And your business will never outgrow your leadership. And so your business is a reflection of you as the leader. I remember reading Jocko Willink's book about that extreme ownership. And it was like everything about your business is a reflection of you. And when so when I'm frustrated of the systems or the scalability or the lack of accountability, that's me. And so when we have that.

I hate this, but I love this. Is where can we get consistency? Where can we stop the firefighting? Where can we like make sure that we've got stronger accountability? And where can we make sure that the doctor's not carrying everything? Because I think so many doctors are like, I'll just do it. I got this. Like, I I'm a hard worker. I know how to GSD. I know how to get through this. But I'm like, okay, we've got to figure out how like being a leader is not just a title. How do we create more clarity and how do we create more consistency? And how do we develop leaders and owners within our organization?

And so for this, like when I look at our leadership and how for you not to get stuck in that, like being a great leader is being able to make hard decisions. Being a great leader is how do I create clarity and consistency for my team? Being a great leader is how do I make sure that my team understands the numbers and we use those numbers to guide our decisions. we were going through a whole list the other day of of topics of leadership. And I was like, gosh, I like leadership is

It's a journey. It's an evolution. It's not something that you just do overnight. and I think about Kiera as a leader when I first started and she was erratic. I was like, I was turbulent. I had so many pieces. but leadership is maturity. it's how do I get people to buy into a vision? How do I rally them and how do I get them to buy into a vision? How am I to be a CEO versus a manager and really understanding the difference of those two hats? How do I have time management where I

Truly focus on the most important things, not just because I'm capable of doing it, but because I'm the only one that can do it. How do I delegate and work through my team? How do I like learn people and work to their strengths and work to their superpowers? Working through my team, not just working with my team, using my team. How do I have the art of influence? How do I grow my team members into incredible people? How do I see that potential when I'm hiring? How do I hire better? How do I figure

like leading, managing, and holding people accountable. How do I have consistency? How am I an example, but not the one who has to do everything? how do I value my team? Do I see them as an asset or a liability? How do I help my team feel valued without being the one who does it all? Like there's a there's a there's a great quote over here today that says I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is try to please everybody. And that's by Herbert Swoop. And I thought about that as I was prepping for the podcast today of

That's I think in leadership where I'm not trying to please everybody. I'm going to make decisions that upset people, but I'm always going to make decisions that are in the best interest of the business. how do I own my mindset and make sure that I'm showing up with that clear, sharp mind? How do I have like mental health and grit and make sure I'm having that? What about creating culture, getting a team of ownership, having like my office manager, doctor, duo and having that relationship? What about performance management of my team?

So when I look at this and I think about this, like leadership, like you developing and growing as a leader. And I think that when I go back to this of like a lot of owners just think like I owned it, I got the title of a leader. But leadership is this evolution and this journey. It's becoming, it's evolving. It's all those pieces I listed off, and yet it's not a, it's not a checklist. Like, how do I learn to listen and not react? How do I learn to have my team come up with solutions rather than me?

So I rattled off a lot and all those can hit people at different phases of business. And I believe that I can check one of those off and then I can move. And then my team will double in size or our business will double in size. And I might have to go back to the beginning and the basics again of like, all right, I gotta figure out again how to work through my team. we went from having where me and our team was doing it to where now we're bringing on the C suites and the leader I need to become to manage a C suite versus the leader I needed to be.

Run when Tiff and I were just running the business together. The way I act and interact with my EA and personal assistant today versus when I first had one. It's an evolution. It's a leadership. It's an evolution of who you are. And so it's how do how do we become better at leadership? And I would say listen to podcasts, read books. some I I go back to fundamentals. I read the go giver constantly, I read traction a lot. It's so but boring. Like, sorry, Gino, it's very boring.

read the book, How to Be a Great Boss, Crucial Conversations, Discipline Without Punishment. Those are just some great books, but also look at great leaders and what do they do. For me, I'm a big mimic and mirror. So I talk to people, I talk to dentists that have really great cultures. This is why I love our mastermind group. I bring the best of the best of the best together. And I know because we work with all of them and I know our dentists personally, I have a lot of my great core leaders that I know are just dynamite leaders.

I have them share what do they do? How do they have it? How do they have performance reviews? How do they give cr like critical feedback? Some of the dentists early on in my career. I had them practice these conversations with me, like literally would have to send me voice memos. Practice your leadership skills. Use a consultant. Let's talk through how we're gonna have this conversation, how are we gonna talk to our team about this? But really I think like if I break it down to the nuts and bolts, it's how do I get a team to buy into a vision? How do I make sure that we hold accountability and ownership?

And how do I make sure that I maintain consistency and clarity? I think if I boiled it down and that's a rift on my own side, like not prepped, those would be the pieces I'd boil down. And so how do you become a stronger leader in those areas? And again, there's just indecision is worse than a wrong decision. And so just making those decisions, being more confident in yourself. someone once said like 2.0 is sitting here, and I think about Kiera 2.0, like she wasn't born, she was created.

Leaders are not born, they're created. You've got to like flex and strengthen that leadership skill because your practice can never outgrow your leadership. And if you want to get to the next level of growth, whether that's financially, whether that's profitability, you have to flex and become a different leader. If you've got pure chaos in your office, that's you. If you've got people who aren't falling through, that's you. And that doesn't mean you have to go fix it. I mean, that's you tolerating that. And that's the standards of your practice. Your business will always fall, not to what you say, but what you tolerate.

And so being that leader that raises the standards, I this year I was annoyed. I was like, okay, we're going for outcomes over activity. I realized I was tracking activity, but that's not moving our company forward. We need to be tracking outcomes. Our team is flourishing. But me as a leader, I need to be looking down the line and seeing, and I need to be developing myself as well. I go to the gym, I put myself into a complete fitness competition where I wanted to get to my best physical, like PRs, physical fitness. I went through

A cut. I've never done a cut before. I push myself physically, mentally, often because to me that's a a different pressure test that's gonna sh like allow me to show up better as a leader as well. So it doesn't even have to just be within your practice. Discipline at the gym, discipline in working out, discipline in how you show up, discipline in how you eat, those things are going to make you a far superior leader. I will tell you.

Going through a cut where I had the least amount of calories, I was the strongest, most sharpest leader I've ever been. And I was exhausted. But I knew I needed to show up and I needed to be stronger and I needed to think better ways. So those are going to be some zones hopefully that will help you on leadership. The other one that I found that a lot of people miss is we talk about so often, but systems truly do create freedom, not restrictions. And I think people think that they need to have really strong and lots of systems. And even our team was doing this, but realistically.

There's just a few core systems that need to be in place. There's not a lot of systems that actually need to be there, but they do need to be consistent. They do need to be scalable, and they do need to be followed through on. And so when we look at it, our team was going through and there's there's business fundamentals like core value, vision, mission, org chart, meeting cadences, figuring out our BAM, figuring out our projections, looking at our overhead. Like those are business fundamentals. And then there's systems. And we actually broke it down and we're like, gosh, if we just put into place like 10 core.

Most things are going to get better. Most things are going to get fixed. Most things are going to get resolved. But they're not sexy. They're not fun. They're not things that I'm like, my gosh, like, let me get on a podcast and tell everybody, like, let's just fix these seven items. But that's all it really is. But I think that what happens is we want to continue to scale. We want to continue to build. For me, I want to reinvent, reinvent, reinvent, reinvent. But that's actually not something that's going to grow us. And so it's like,

Just having KPIs that we track and monitor and we use those to make our decisions, having a solid morning huddle with an agenda, following set meeting cadences, having proper handoffs, having a proper scheduling protocol, having case acceptance protocols, having a collections protocol, working on new patients and referrals, having a period protocol, recare reactivation. Like those are really core items that if you have those systems where you follow them and we scale them and everybody's doing it the same way, 95% of your problems get fixed.

Of course, there's other ones. There's hiring, there's onboarding, there's leadership, there's all these other ones. But I think so many people don't want to just be at the basics. We want to reinvent the will. We want to do these things, like have job descriptions at the end of days. Like just do it. It's boring. It's not fun. People are like, wow, wow. We have to have a a morning huddle prep sheet. Why do pilots have checklists? Like the checklist manifesto. They create freedom, they create predictability, and they create systemization. That's all you need to do.

And I found that when offices follow it, when we have it in place. And for me, I also don't want systems to be something that people have to remember. How can I have it as a true system like Chick-fil-A where their burgers come out with three pickles every single time? How do I make sure that our schedule has the same system every single time? How do I make sure that our our handoffs have the same thing every single time? And I don't have to hope that 15 team members remember it. We're gonna put this in to where we have it consistent every single time, no matter who's doing it, no matter what new team member comes in.

That is scalability with systemization. And so have it documented, have it simple, have it repeatable. That's gonna get duplicated. So I think for offices, systemization really that that's the core. That's the systems. It's not sexy, but it is very, very effective. And then the third things that I think a lot of people don't realize, including myself, is you have to know your numbers better than anyone else. That's better than your CPA, better than your financial advisor. You have to know, and that's not just production, that's profit. Like I remember someone said,

production feeds the ego, profit feeds the family. And I think about this all the time. Like, you have to know your production. And I'm talking net, not gross, your collections, your overhead. Then within your overhead, like what is our payroll? What is our supplies? What's our marketing? What are our labs? What's our profitability? And then what's our billing and our AR? You know those numbers. You're solid. You can make so much stronger decisions. You don't, you have financial surprises, you make poor decisions, you're on reactive rather than proactive.

You grow, but you don't have profit. Like, I can't tell you how many offices I've that are singing the five, six, seven, eight million and they have no money. And I'm like, golly, you're making so much money, but you don't know how to keep the money. You gotta make the money and you gotta keep the money. All right. Like that's what we gotta do. So you have to make sure that our profit is there and we can't be willy-nilly. To me, you guys know I talk about the MMs. I do money and meditation in the morning. So triple for you morning, meditation, money. Look at it every single day. Look at your P and L.

If you don't know your overhead and your profit right now without looking, you gotta know it better. You have to. And that's a doctor and an OM. You must know this number. This number creates all the drive. Profit is the only number I actually care about. Like I can sit here, we can track all the KPIs, so many things, but if your profits down, everything else in your life is hard. Your profits up, most things in your life are really easy. Money solves a lot of problems. And so let's have profit. Let's have like I'm stressed out, I'm moving my hair around. Like

I don't enjoy this. This stresses me out because you've got to know your numbers better than anyone else. You don't sit here and lie, if your CPA is not delivering to you by the second of the month, like the second week of the month, get a better CPA. Like they work for you. You have to know your numbers. You have to be confident in them. And if things fill off, challenge it, question it until it gets right. Don't just sit here haphazardly. That is not a strong business owner. This one fires me up more than anything because I used to not know my numbers. My husband was like, Kiera, I don't get it. Why are you broke? And like,

I don't know. Well, I learned this great thing about AR. I had like a hundred grand sitting in AR that I didn't know about. We weren't collecting properly. You better believe I fixed that real fast to where I'm never gonna be in that situation again. And you layer by layer by layer, you get more and more and more financially savvy, but you have to know your numbers better than anyone else. You know your production numbers or so, I hope. If you don't know that number, but do you know your collections? Do you know your collection percentage? Do you know your overhead? Do you know your payroll percentage? Do you know your supply sip? If you don't,

You must learn that. So I'll get off my rant. But this was funny. They said production is a vanity, profitability is a reality. And I think that that's a good anchor line of yes, it is. Profitability is your reality. So your numbers are gonna tell the truth whether you choose to look at them or not. The truth is always there. Some of us don't want to like get on the scale and say weigh. I had a great trainer tell me, she's like, Kiera, that number means nothing other than giving us data and information. It's not my

Self-worth, it's nothing. Just like your profitability is just a number on a scale. It just gives us data. If we spend more money on payroll, this is the number that we get. We make better decisions if we know. But I will tell you, your success, your happiness, your stress is all tied to you knowing these numbers or not. And a lot of people are like, no, no, no, I don't want to. Yeah, right. You're sitting in stress constantly that you don't even realize. So know your numbers. Schedule a monthly financial review. Commit to knowing the story behind your numbers.

Like, do money meditation with me every morning. Just have your bank account on there. Just look at it every morning. Look at your PL every day. I don't care. Do not sit in excuses on your money. You're a business owner, you've got to know this. So I hope that wasn't too much of a rant. But I hope it gave you some good tips on how to have leadership. some good money books. I love Profit First by Mike McAllicks. I also love Money Master the Game by Tony Robbins. That was a long book, but it taught me a lot.

there's some great financial podcasts out there. there's also some really crummy ones. I The Psychology of Money was another great one that I read that was on financial. systems, the checklist manifesto is a great one. Come up for air is a great book. There's several great books based on where you're struggling. But if you notice, this is our yes success model. You as a leader, earnings and profitability, system structure and scale. That's what it is. And every single one of those will give you the yes success model.

You've got to take care of them. You've got to do leadership. You've got to do profitability. You gotta do systems. The yes success model follows constantly. So what part are you the weakest in? What part are you the strongest in? And where do you need to grow? This is the zone like you're not a great practice is not built by accident. It's intentional, it's focused, it's consistent. I had another great trainer. She said, Kiera, it's not about perfection, it's about consistency. That's I don't care if last month you didn't look at your numbers.

I do care if you consistently are not looking at the numbers. You aren't, I'm not expecting perfection, but we do have to have consistency. So how can you have more consistency? And if you're feeling overwhelmed, it doesn't mean you're failing. It just means that you've outgrown the current systems, you've outgrown where you're at, you've outgrown the knowledge. It's kind of like the Wi-Fi symbol. You're just popping up to the next level. And your next level of growth comes from working harder. Like it can, but it usually comes from knowing your business better, leading better, making better decisions with finances. So this is what we're obsessed with.

I love to help you. I love our team to help you. I love you to be a part of our community. We talk about this every single month. We talk about this in person. Come be a part of it. Like for me, I'm not going to get a six-pack without a trainer overseeing me. You might not be able to grow your business without a trainer overseeing you, an advisor helping you, somebody getting you out of the rut, somebody helping you get to that next Wi-Fi symbol. So let's help you out. Reach out. Hello at the [email protected]. You guys, this is your life, your practice. And I feel like these things are not known. I feel like they're kind of known.

But knowing and executing are the difference between winning and losing. Are you just gonna know the facts or are you gonna actually execute on it? The challenge is there, the choice is there, and I hope that you choose to be somebody who executes. Reach out, let's get you out of the hole. Come on, let's do [email protected]. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

Do things feel a little disconnected between team members in your practice? Tiff and Dana discuss the common signs that usually mean your practice could use a communication refresher, and then give advice on what can be done about improvement.

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Transcript:

Tiffanie (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back at you on the podcast slash video cast, which is still really weird to me. I think I spend more time getting prepped and ready for the podcast than I do for coaching calls, which is wildly, wildly annoying. And here we are. I secretly do

wish that we could just be off camera still, but I I know I enjoy watching the podcast and Aaron watches podcasts every morning. So here we are. Dana, you are my favorite podcaster on a Friday. I love ending my week with you. I love beginning my week with you as well. You are an amazing podcaster and just an incredible person. How are you today, Dana?

DAT-Dana (00:44)

Doing pretty good. Excited. I know this is a good way to like have a solid Friday. Get some tip time.

Tiffanie (00:50)

It is.

DAT-Dana (00:51)

Get to get to chat. it is a great way to end

Tiffanie (00:54)

Yeah.

DAT-Dana (00:54)

the week.

Tiffanie (00:55)

I agree. I agree. And I I was excited because I forgot what the schedule I look at my schedule a million times. This week has been weird. and I look at it a million times, a million times. I even put podcasting in a different color on my calendar so that I know that it's like it's coming. And then this morning I was like, Happy surprise podcasting today. Like two hours ago, I was like, my gosh, this is wild tough. I just can't get it together this week. But alas, I think it's because Brody's birthday threw me off.

He turned eighteen and that has been spinning my world. So here we are, Dana. You have littles at home. It's summer right now and at the point of recording this, we all have we all have some sort of children at home on some level. And how are how's your summer over there going with the with the clan? You have a whole clan.

DAT-Dana (01:44)

Yeah, it's going good. It's it's super busy.

Tiffanie (01:48)

Yeah.

DAT-Dana (01:48)

I feel like, you know, I get to summertime and I'm like, vacation and relaxation and it never happens.

Tiffanie (01:54)

No.

DAT-Dana (01:56)

but they're enjoying what downtime they get. They're enjoying, you know, being in sports and and the sunshine. So it's good

Tiffanie (02:03)

Good.

DAT-Dana (02:03)

overall.

Tiffanie (02:05)

Good. And I feel like school comes like school starts back up so fast. Like you think you have time and then it's just summer's gone.

DAT-Dana (02:14)

Yeah, I know. I'm like I can't believe it'll be here in like a week, really. Yeah.

Tiffanie (02:17)

Literally. I know.

Up here, in Phoenix they started going back to school last week. My nieces already had a week and a half of school.

DAT-Dana (02:24)

my gosh, that's

Tiffanie (02:26)

I know.

I know. But modified year round, that's what we like to do around here. And I think East Coast, they really don't go back until most of them don't go back until after Labor Day. So then they're like wildly thrown off with the mid July start of school.

DAT-Dana (02:41)

Mm. Yep.

Tiffanie (02:42)

But here we are. today we are talking about leadership and that's one of our favorite topics. I think Dana, you and I definitely thrive in the leadership world and like communication is really, really massive. I think both of us

thrive on communication in our personal lives as well, and just really, really look for those opportunities to create clarity, create trust, to be vulnerable. and all of those pieces. And today's conversation kind of encompasses all of those, I feel. And it has been coming up for me a couple of times, Dana you and I spoke. You've had it come up a couple of times on coaching calls as well. And really talking about and looking at that transparency space.

between a doctor and a team? And I think you and I have some really phenomenal ideas on this. And first I wanna work through kind of workshop with you backwards. Like what is it that a doctor can maybe find in their lives that says maybe we need a little bit more communication or or this space isn't as evolved as it could be? Like what are some signs and symptoms that you've seen within teams that say, hey, we're not

connected a hundred percent and there's a gap here because I do think Dana a lot of times the team knows and notices, but oftentimes the doctor, like to their credit, they're doing dentistry. They're over there working, they're head down and they don't always realize that there's a gap, but the the team does. So what are some of those signs or symptoms that you've witnessed with your practices recently or previously?

DAT-Dana (04:21)

Yeah, I think a couple big ones are when it's hard to delegate. I think to when like expectations aren't met, oftentimes there's a gap in communication there, as well as team members not feeling bought in, right? And

Tiffanie (04:37)

Mm.

DAT-Dana (04:38)

yet we feel like we're saying all the things, we're explaining all the things, and yet team members don't seem really bought in or really aligned.

with pieces, I think those are three that I notice pretty routinely in offices that there is just either a communication gap, a trust gap, or something, there's a disconnect somewhere.

Tiffanie (04:56)

Yeah, I love those. I think that's spot on. And within that like delegation and expectation and maybe even follow through. So maybe you've asked for things and the team's not doing it. you've asked for systems to be put in place and they're just not getting completed, or you see you maybe implemented some systems to get a specific result and we're still not hitting that result. those are huge, Dana. That was that was phenomenal. And

Some of them that I've seen too are like an upset manager, like an easily upset manager or a frantic manager, a frantic front office team. I feel like they get hit with it the hardest when there's a a gap and a disconnect and the like frantic or overwhelmed. I actually was listening to a podcast yesterday that was talking about the idea of like actually listening, of being a good listener. And

one spot that it brought up was this sense of overwhelm where a lot of people will come to us and say, gosh, I'm overwhelmed. There's too much on my plate. And so then what a manager or or an owner will do is say, okay, well let's look at what you got. Let's figure it out. And and I remember I told Kira this actually probably July. So probably like six months ago, I told Kira this. I said, Kira, you can find you and I are phenomenal at finding space in a calendar. We can find

blank space and and time in a calendar for the duties and the things that I'm supposed to get done. Right. And I think managers will say that too. Like, yeah, I can see the time and we'll look at things, Dana, and be like, I think they should be able to do this. So if they can do the things, but they're saying there's an overwhelm, this podcast talked about it's not necessarily always, sometimes it is, an overwhelm of physical tasks, like things that need to get done.

Oftentimes it's an emotional overwhelm that's overriding the tasks that need to get done. And so the the emotional aspect of it and sometimes it's that gap in communication can create this whirlwind sense of not being able to accomplish the thing. So I've seen that a ton in front office team members and managers where they're like, gosh, I can't get to the I can't get to the unscheduled treatment calls.

Because I I don't have time. There's no space. And I'm like, it's it they're not gonna answer. Like, leave a voicemail, send a text. Like ninety-nine point nine percent of the time people aren't answering the phone. So it really doesn't take that much time, but that's not the actual issue. Like, there's a root cause underneath that we have to dig into, and all of those things that you said, Dina, those are the symptoms that something else is going on. And I think usually it's an emotional.

space and a and a communication gap or an emotional distance between two people that causes that.

DAT-Dana (07:53)

Yeah, I completely agree with you.

Tiffanie (07:55)

And I think even at home, right? Like sometimes we're like, he never takes all the trash, or he never does this. I have to do everything. And it's like maybe we just haven't connected on an emotional level to be able to see the contributions that each of us are making. Like we're so disconnected that everything is then something. And I think that happens I say really all the time. Relationships are relationships, they're just like formed a little bit differently, but your connection and your communication is relatively similar.

So if anyone can see themselves in any of that, a team member, a doctor who's here, or a doctor who might think like, wow, I thought everything was okay, but I do hear the word overwhelm a lot or stressed or tired or I don't have, I don't have, I don't have time, I don't have space, I don't have s a spot to do it in. If you're hearing those things over and over and over again, it might be more of a trust gap and a communication gap.

than an actual physical tasks gap. So I beg of you before jumping to hire a new team member, because Dana, how many times have we witnessed that we must need someone else? And I'm like, you've got 16 people for a

DAT-Dana (09:08)

Right.

Tiffanie (09:08)

four op practice. You're fine. Or how

DAT-Dana (09:11)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (09:11)

many virtual assistants do you need? Before we jump to hiring a new person, number one, take a look at the space that you have. Dana and I have countless times.

talked through an org chart and an ops manual and all those pieces. We talk about those all the time because they work. So take a look at the space that you have, like what you're trying to create, what your practice is. What is the organizational chart? How who do you need physically? Not the people you already have, but like the seats. What are the seats that you need in your practice to be successful? Because if all those seats are filled, now we need to take a step back and say, okay, great, why isn't this working? And

If they're not filled, awesome, let's hire. But if they are filled, now it's just working reverse engineering backwards. So with that, Dana, how do you think the trust gap, right? Because I I really think communic communication gap is like when there's not communication happening, it's very easy to say we have a communication gap. But really what it boils down to is that without that communication, my trust is broken because I'm trying to figure things out.

DAT-Dana (10:23)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (10:23)

So

how do you feel are some common areas or ways that that trust gap is created between a doctor and a team?

DAT-Dana (10:33)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think the first and foremost thing that I see, and I have an office that really, really struggles with this. And it is that like the doctor will announce things or share things before they're

Tiffanie (10:46)

Mm.

DAT-Dana (10:47)

actually fully 100% in place or going to happen. And then when it doesn't happen, or he changes his mind, or he makes a different decision or pivots down a different path, the team members one feel like whiplash.

Right. And then two, don't always know when to trust the office manager and the doctor in that it is actually going to happen. Right. So when to prep themselves and when to really start to get things into place because oftentimes they've started those pieces and then it just feels like time or work wasted because the decision pivots or changes. And so it's really, really broken down.

Trust in that way because team members, one, aren't really sure if things are really happening. And then two, frustration happens on doctor and leadership when they're like, Why aren't they excited? Why aren't they bought in? Why aren't they ready

Tiffanie (11:32)

Yeah.

DAT-Dana (11:33)

to go? Why aren't they super motivated? Right. And that's because the team is like, Well, it's changed 35 times. And so we're just kind of waiting until we know for sure because we don't want to feel like we wasted our time, our energy, our effort.

Tiffanie (11:45)

Yeah. Yeah. I all I think when that not when I think a lot of times when those things happen, the team muscle memory reverts back to the original way of doing it. So then you've got a billing representative that's sending paper claims because she's like, I know this works, right? Yeah.

DAT-Dana (12:03)

Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffanie (12:04)

Yeah. And then you've got a doctor that's like, I'm paying AI Yes.

DAT-Dana (12:08)

I wanna be super tech savvy and I'm paying AI and we're still sending

paper claims. Yeah.

Tiffanie (12:14)

Yes,

and an office manager who's like, Well, I don't know what to tell you, but I've got an overloaded plate of things here 'cause I have people coming in my door constantly crying and saying they're overwhelmed. Yeah. Yeah.

DAT-Dana (12:26)

Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffanie (12:28)

And I think that's a common thing and I I I know that it's really exciting to like be on the threshold of innovation. And dentistry is constantly innovating.

And within that, we've got you know the scanners and the tech and the AI and the I mean, gosh, like the AI like pearl tools that are reading x-rays and now insurances are starting to use those things like innovation is constant in dentistry. And I think oftentimes what that makes us feel like is that the simple systems that have gotten us here also need to innovate and change. And so we're throwing all of these tech innovations from a back office standpoint now.

into every aspect of the practice, but we're also saying, okay, cool, well if I can do this with a scanner, why can't you do something different with insurance verifications? And it's like, I can't even fathom that. And then they're saying, okay, well, try this, try that, try this, try that, try this. And in dentistry, when you're trying to find a new bond and primer, cool, try it until you find the one that works. But when you're overloaded with like to-dos and

paperwork is what we'll call it, tasks. It's not as easy to try it and see if it works and continue to do that. So that innovative mind tries to cover so much ground that we do end up with so many changes and it's like a pivot constantly. Gosh, Kira and I had we had pivot. I don't remember Dana when it was. You might have been here for pivot. I don't remember. Yeah. Like I don't remember how long ago it was. That was

DAT-Dana (14:04)

Yep. Yes. Yeah.

Tiffanie (14:08)

the worst year of our

freaking lives in this company. We had pivot as a core value and we use pivot as a core value because we want to be on the threshold of inva innovation and we want to be able to roll with the punches. Like, okay, great, something came up, great. We we figure it out and we move on is what we meant by pivot. But what happened that year, Dana? What did that year look like?

DAT-Dana (14:27)

It was chaos because we also used pivot as a reason to be able to like justify lots of change, right?

Tiffanie (14:33)

Correct.

Correct. So we just like constant it was like this wheel that it just never ended, right? A wheel just keeps going, keeps going, but on every little tread was a new something. And so every time that tread hit the ground, it was a change, it was a change, it was a change. And I think it's really easy in business, and in entrepreneurship to do that because you are having to create, you know, Wells Fargo and Chase, like

They're they've got innovators on their team, but they're pretty steady eddy of what that business structure needs to look like. When you're an entrepreneur and you're super innovative, it's very easy to get stuck in that like let's jump to the next thing mentality. So again, if you're feeling yourself in this, don't worry, it's not just you, or we wouldn't do an entire podcast about it, by the way. And also there are solutions. And Dana, you've you said you've got

you know, practices you can think of, I think both of us do, because again, it's not just you, it's everyone that go through this. What are some ways that you help your teams and your doctors to bridge that gap when those things come up? Like when we're in this constant state of change and they're like, I'm out, I can't even get excited anymore. How do you help them bridge that gap?

DAT-Dana (15:50)

Yeah, I think it is it it is getting them to understand that like while change is really, really great, you have to understand that your team members are who is implementing the change. So be cautious and cognizant of how many things you're changing at once. Be cautious and cognizant that the team feels like, hey, yep, we've got this, we can do it independently, we're good, before we add the next change. So just really keeping a pulse on those pieces. And then two, just really

Making sure that you get to a certain point in your decision making process before you're

Tiffanie (16:25)

Yeah.

DAT-Dana (16:25)

involving the team. And even your office manager, right? Another breakdown of trust that I see is it's like we either share too much or share too little, right? With the people

who then help us implement or help us guide those decisions. And so I think like figuring out that clarity of what is the right amount to share.

Or when is the right time to share and who those appropriate channels are. So just like you said with the org chart tip, I think as you're

Tiffanie (16:52)

Yeah.

DAT-Dana (16:53)

building out your org chart, building and knowing like, okay, when it comes to what I need to share, who actually do I need to share certain things with and having clarity amongst you, your leaders, and the people that are on your org chart about those things.

Tiffanie (17:09)

Yeah, that's beautiful. And it made me think of just like how much communication you have with those key players in the practice. And a and a couple of dissecting pieces there, Dana. The team and team members who are here doesn't need to know everything. The leadership

team of the practice needs to know.

what they need to know in order to push the needles forward. And as you were talking, I was thinking oftentimes doctors go like a full in it or out of it, right? It's either one or the other. And so they're either oversharing or they're sharing nothing because it's hard to find that happy medium. And something we do with our offices and something we do in our own company is we create those targets. And so when you have those yearly targets, those quarterly rock targets that you're looking at.

we're able to say, does this push us towards our targets or is this a distraction? And Dana, I think after the year of pivot, that's something we implemented and we stuck to because Kira is an idea like machine. She her famous words are, I have an idea. Right. And my famous words are awesome, what is it? Let's go. Right. I don't even need to hear it. And I'm like, yep, let's do it.

And so then the whole company just goes into this spiral. So it needs to be a space of of innovation. So you've got to have be able to have the ideas, but then you need someone, what's where Britt comes into our company really strong?

DAT-Dana (18:41)

Hm.

Tiffanie (18:42)

Someone in between the heck yes girl and the idea generator that says, hang on a second, is this pushing us forward or is this just a distraction? So they go on like I have doctors that have made them carry notebooks.

For ideas. It's an idea book or an idea board. It's like I've got all of these great ideas, but let's go back to them when the timing is right. So if the timing is right right now for that thing, great, let's add it to our list of to-dos or our changes or updates. Let's do it. Let's figure out how to do it and then implement with the

team when everything's ready to go. Don't implement prior and then we all figure it out together. You guys figure it out, you implement and then you follow through.

And all of those other things stay on that like idea board. If it's not generating what we need it to generate today, it might later. And Dana, I don't know how many times I've I've even gone back to my own boards, but that I've had doctors, I have one doctor in particular that I'm thinking of, and I hope she listens to this and knows exactly who I'm talking about. I know she will, because I bought her the notebook and the special pen and she would carry it around. She had it for years. And sometimes she'd go back to the other pages and be like

I don't even know what these words mean. I don't know what this idea was. So I was like,

DAT-Dana (19:59)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (20:01)

great. No reason to like try to figure it out, cross it out. If it was that important, it was gonna be that phenomenal and life-changing, you'll think of it again. It'll come back up.

DAT-Dana (20:11)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (20:12)

And otherwise that idea would have been something that we jumped on, right? So we jump and we change and we jump and we change, but we need to be able to have that space of discussion. So what I have a lot of doctors and office managers do is whether you've got a full leadership team or not.

Doctors and office managers are meeting weekly. I had to do this years ago with my doctor when I was office manager just to keep up with his ideas. And if I didn't catch him before he caught the team, I was

DAT-Dana (20:42)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (20:42)

in a frenzy, like backtracking, trying to fix things, right? I had people in my office like, why are we doing this? I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about. I've never heard that before. So I had to catch him and be like, nope, everything funnels here.

We talk here. This is where we talk about project status. This is where I tell you what where I'm at on the projects we've already said yes to. This is where you bring problems, issues, and ideas. Same for me. And we discuss them and we figure out what's being implemented to the team. So again, whether there's like a whole leadership team doing it or not, that trusted person in your practice who's supposed to carry things out is the person that needs to have these conversations. Even as far Dana, I think, as

Hey, in the next five years, I'd love to do a build out. Cool. But like that's not today. So then when you

DAT-Dana (21:28)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (21:28)

go to the team and you're like, yeah, we're gonna get bigger, some are gonna be like, yes, when? And five years is a long time. And others are gonna be like, I don't want to get any bigger. Peace. You know? Do

DAT-Dana (21:38)

Yeah. Yep.

Tiffanie (21:40)

you do that too, Dana? With those, I know we do it in our company, but those kind of like office manager and doctor meetings, do th are those working for your practices too?

DAT-Dana (21:49)

Yeah, they really are. And I think that it's it's the it's the doctor understanding that and then the office manager really making sure that we follow those lines

Tiffanie (21:57)

Yeah.

DAT-Dana (21:57)

and and really making sure too that sometimes we mess up, right? We're human and so we we skip over. But then also just teaching the team, hey, if something's brought to you that doesn't come from me, bring it back to me so we can talk about it,

Tiffanie (22:06)

Yeah.

DAT-Dana (22:07)

we can figure it out. but yeah, I feel like that is such a key tool into not feeling like

Chaotic, when it's not

Tiffanie (22:15)

Yeah.

DAT-Dana (22:16)

funneled down, when ideas are just thrown out there and we're just changing things and changing things and changing things because we had this idea, but it wasn't actually super important. And so we keep trying to change it and manipulate it to make it be important. When you have those kind of conversations, the chaos and the overwhelm in the office goes down and the trust really starts to increase too.

Tiffanie (22:37)

I agree. You said something there. You said, when something comes to you that I didn't bring, bring it to me. That's a huge space. And I think that's a space where managers can work really hard at bridging the trust gap between yourself and the doctor. A lot of managers are afraid to say what needs to be said to their doctors and you lose trust and that doctor loses trust in you too. If you're not willing to say, Hey, I this was brought to my attention.

What are we doing with that? Like what is that? I didn't you didn't come through me, which isn't not everything has to come through me, but I didn't know about it. So what is this? Not being able to not being able to say that, now you've got a huge issue, office managers, massive, because now you have asked your team to funnel to you like a dramatic little tattletale, and you're gonna start going, he did it again. there she goes, in front of your team.

Instead of being like, yeah, let me know, keep me in the loop, and then going and talking to your doctor. Because if you go and talk to your doctor, your doctor's like, shoot, you're right. I didn't follow I didn't follow the lines again. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Right? That's the trust gap, and that's the second, the second that office managers break that trust and start getting the team to rally against the doctor because they feel slighted or they feel like, he didn't tell me because he doesn't trust me.

No, we didn't tell you because the dental assistant was closer. It doesn't matter. It's not, it's not typically out of spite. It's not typically even thought about. It's this is the person who's the closest proximity to me right now, and I need to say it and get it out. Period. There's no malintent. Yes.

DAT-Dana (24:19)

Yeah. Because I'm afraid I'm gonna forget it, or I'm afraid, you know, or I'm so excited about

it. You're right. There's no malice in there. And I love how you said go back, and it's not, it's not you jumped over me, right? You skipped over me. It's hey, I just heard of this thing. This is the first time I'm hearing about it. What's my role in it? Right? Where

Tiffanie (24:38)

Yep.

DAT-Dana (24:38)

do what what am I supposed to do? What's the plan for

how I'm supposed to get this implemented. Do you've got a time frame? Do you have again, it's just you're kind of coming more from that curiosity of, hey, I heard about something I hadn't heard about before. What's the plan here? Because there is, again, like you said, that's just it's not ever malicious when it comes to those

Tiffanie (24:57)

Yeah. Yeah. It's not

DAT-Dana (25:00)

types of things.

Tiffanie (25:01)

it's not. I like to remind people we're not that important. Our egos tell us the opposite and that everything is about us and that they must be mad at us. Like I they're not thinking about us as much as we are. I'm not that important. So if I can if I can be like Chill, Tiff, you're not that important. As in like they didn't do it to you, just go find out the information. So if you can just come in at like a neutral space of

non-emotional attachment, not thinking that someone was doing something to you, you can get to the bottom line in the answer and start to train the habits that need to be trained. And I think Dana, those are two massive like earlier I was like, what are the action items? Like I think those are the two action items, right? As org chart, make sure that you know the order of operations, like who who talks to who, how do how do things get nailed down to the team and increasing those

office manager and doctor meetings, making sure that you're having those meetings and then office managers increasing your communication back to the doctor. I had to learn this with Kira that I wasn't always reporting back. And I was like, what like yes, I did my job. Like, stop asking me. Stop

DAT-Dana (26:12)

Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffanie (26:13)

asking me. And so many people say they're just micromanagers, right? Like, okay, yeah, they're micromanagers. And you know what? It's fine.

they have an entire business that they're trying to run. The way that you battle micromanaging is you report back. So

DAT-Dana (26:26)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (26:26)

guess what? It's fine. This like ideal that the society has come up with about micromanaging, like whatever, we just have to make sure that things are getting done. So delete the term and just say, I need to report back. So org chart, increase your meetings and your one on one meetings or leadership. And still I think even Dana

Even if there's a leadership team, I still think it's very important for the doctor and the manager to meet, even outside of leadership. And

DAT-Dana (26:52)

I agree. Yeah.

Tiffanie (26:55)

then managers learn how to report back and communicate with your doctors and bridge that gap of trust starting with you. Doctors, your f your last one is if you listen to this without your manager, share it to your manager. I think it might be good for them to hear too. Dana, any parting words or anything you can think of that we missed in those action items that I was really afraid we weren't gonna come up with.

This is how we do it.

DAT-Dana (27:19)

No, I honestly

I really loved this one and I think that there's a takeaway for everybody from owner, doctor to to to managers to leadership team to team in this. and these things take time to implement, they take time to incorporate, but truly the change in the trust can be massive.

Tiffanie (27:37)

I agree. I agree. All right. So beginning of this podcast, we talked about the ways that you can see that you might have a trust gap. And then we walked you through how to start bridging that gap. There's a lot more to it than what this 30 minute podcast allows for. So reach out, you guys. We are here to help. [email protected]. You can find us on the socials, Dental A Team, all of the places. And as always, leave us a five star review.

if you loved this and want to follow up, let us know as well. Cause again, this does go further than just this. Dana, thank you so much. and everyone we'll catch you next time.

Kiera shares ways practices can make patients feel valued from that first visit to their final treatment, including tips for establishing consistency, intentionality, and the genuine connections between it all.

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Transcript:

Kiera (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I wanted to just talk about how to help people feel valued. Like, I know that seems so cliche. I know you're like, great, but patience to team members, like, what are some of those secret sauces that just really make people feel that extra ump to feel that extra peace? Because honestly, patients don't leave because of bad dentistry. Patients leave because they don't feel seen, known, or valued. And I don't think it's about being overly nice.

I just think it's about being intentional. And so today I want to just kind of dive into something that's going to impact your patients, your team, your leaders. of just like little tips. What are some little ways? And I'll I'll do a patient side and I'll do a team side of how do you help people just feel valued, feel like humans? And the reason I want to bring this up is because I feel like this actually is a like, gosh, it's like the

Like the cheat code, if you will, to success right now. I feel like so many people are mean. I feel like so many people don't genuinely care right now. People are just not nice in the world anymore. And so to me, I'm like, this is the cheat code to success. This is one of the easiest ways for you to improve and to win in the patient experience, to improve and to win in the team retention experience. And it's one of those of like, how do we have a full journey and different little things to have? So

A lot of pieces that I'm gonna pull from are a book that I really enjoyed, Unreasonable Hospitality. If you haven't read it, read it. That one is one of my like go-tos that I think of often of how can I make magic moments for my patients and for my team. And that's really showing them and help them to feel valued. So a couple of things, and this ties to leadership and this ties to patient experiences. We've got to make sure that we're consistent, having consistency in how we lead, not having favorites, consistency in our patient experience. There was a book, gosh.

I can see the title of it. It's blue. You guys are gonna like write me an email and tell me what it is. But it was about this guy who went to the barber. And every time you go into the barber, it was a different experience. So, like the first time he got like a warm towel and a great shave. Then the second time he like got a shave, but not a warm towel, and then he got a drink. The third time, like towel, no shave, no drink. And he left. And I thought about it like.

Gosh, if you could just be consistent. I think about Starbucks. People say I go to Starbucks not because they have great coffee, but because I know it's always going to be consistent every time I go. And I think about this like people want that consistency. They want the experience to be consistent. They want their boss to be consistent. Like every single month we do one-on-one check-ins and I check in on you on your life and who you are. And we do morning huddles every day. Like things that can feel consistent with our patients. We have a warm handoff. Like it's

A handoff every single time where it just feels like we're a put together movie set, if you will. Like it's like we don't feel rushed. I remember I was in the ER for my appendix years ago. Yep. That was fun. That was a fun moment. And I remember the ER doctor just it felt like he was the nicest human in the entire world. I was not doped up on drugs. at the point, I was in a lot of pain still, but he was so nice to me. And my husband happened to like step out to go use the bathroom and

I remember he's like, Kiera, I saw that ER doctor and he was freaking running, like running. But as soon as he got to the door, he like put himself together, walked in, and was like calm as a cucumber. And I think for us in our patient experience, like we don't want to feel rushed. We don't want to feel like we are rushing through. You can be very efficient and consistent and help patients really feel very valued. So for example, we have a very consistent handoff from hygienist to doctor, where the patient's a part of it. We're not talking behind their head.

We're talking to them as a human, they're part of it. And like I call it the ICRP handoff. So introduction, compliment, recap the treatment already discussed, and do a personal note. This way the patient feels like you heard me, you listened to me. This hygienist has been actually taking care of me or dental assistants. Dental assistants are a little trickier, I get it. but if we say like, hey, Dr. Jones, this is Kiera, you met her last time. she's been doing an amazing job on her flossing. She's really, really ramped that up.

Just so you know, we already chatted. She knows she's got a couple of crowns probably on the upper right. She knows she needs to come back for that deep cleaning. and then she also knows that there's probably a couple of fillings on the lower left. And then just so you know, Dr. Jones, Kiera is headed off to Hawaii next month. and she's just we're so excited for that Hawaii trip. She's gonna absolutely love it. Well, now Dr. Jones can seem incredibly warm. Have a warm welcome, talk to me about Hawaii, compliment me on my flossing. Me as a patient, I instantly feel at ease and I feel like you love me.

You know me, you heard about me, you're going to take great care of me and you're genuinely interested in me. Then doctor does the exam. Doctor then wraps up with the next visit, the date, the time, the recare, making sure that's all done. Wishes me well on Hawaii because we've already made that easy connection. That could take five to seven minutes tops from start to finish. And that patient just felt like I had the most incredible experience with that doctor. I felt like the whole team is on board. Then that hygienist takes that front office team member up.

Or that patient up to the front office and they say, Hey, perfect, Dr. Jones on C Care back in two weeks. We're gonna start with the upper cro the upper right crowns. We're also gonna get her scheduled for that deep cleaning. Kiera, Sarah's amazing. She's gonna take incredible care of you. We've already got your cleaning scheduled for you. I can't wait to see you back in a couple of weeks. she's gonna take great care of you. Now Sarah picks it up and Sarah schedules me and perfect. Let's get you in with Dr. Jones. We'll make sure you're super taken care of. How was it today for you? All these different pieces for you.

Let's get you scheduled. We're gonna get you scheduled for that crown. Blah dah da. Gets me scheduled, sends me on my way. I have a great experience. That feels so consistent. And if that happens every single time where the doctor gets a handoff, the doctor handoffs to the hygienist, hygienist hands off to the front office or clinical team. We say it the same way. We have it. People feel like this experience was magical. They feel like, wow, they like really have their stuff put together. They feel very connected. They feel like they know me. I didn't feel rushed through the process.

You can be psychotic, rushed and behind, but that patient doesn't need to feel that because you are like that ER doctor where you are a duck on water and you're just paddling underneath, but you're taking care of all the pieces. And they're judging like patients and team judge the entire experience. So if we're talking about patients and helping them feel valued scene, practice these interactions. Practice how it is. We can practice how the new patient experience happens. Like, what do we say on the phone? How do we schedule them? What happens if it's ringing?

Also pay attention to when they walk in. Like, does someone greet them consistently every time? Do we have our coffee bar stocked all the time? Do we have like nice things all the time for them? Whatever our experience is, you don't have to go expensive. You don't have to have, but you just make it consistent for them where they can count on it and it feels welcoming. I will also do a hard, like no food at the front office. It drives me nuts. I can't tell you how many times I've walked in and they're eating, and I'm just like, stop it. I know you don't think it's that big of a deal, but it feels you're in a medical space. Stop that. Don't.

Front office, I used to be guilty of this. I had like my little snacks in the drawer. No, go to the break room, get your water in the back. Don't have clutter everywhere. Have it clean when they walk in. Make those patients feel like this is the best decision. It's clean. It's welcoming. Also, if you're on the phone, no problem. You can like wave to them. You can make eye contact with them. You can like point to the drinks. give them a little heart. Like you're so happy that they're there and so welcoming to them. When you answer the phone, smile.

Like every single time we smile, we're so happy to answer that phone. and to truly love them. And so if you do each of those little checkpoints, patients feel insanely valued. And then we pivot that to how do we make our team feel the same way? Let's have morning huddles where we do shout outs of core values. Let's have one-on-one check-ins with them every time. Let's every single day doctors like if you need to, I had a doctor set a compliment alarm where you genuinely compliment and say thank you. Not just a

Thanks for a great day. It's a, hey Kiera, thanks for rocking that root canal with me today. Like you crushed it. I couldn't do this without you. And I'm so grateful I can always count on you. Very intentional thank yous to your team members. Both sides of that equation make both people feel very valued. Doesn't take a lot of time. It's just very consistent. Other things I feel are just very confident on like next steps. And this ties to patients and team members. that's NDTR. Like, what is the next step at the end of my exam? Like,

What am I doing? Where are we going? How much time is this? That way patients aren't defaulting to like, I'm gonna think about this or whatever. Same thing with team members. If we've got one-on-one corrective action, like what is the next step? What is that process? Britt in our company, she does a lot of our operations in HR and she says clear is kind. And I think for both patients and team members to feel valued, to feel seen, what's clear? Like how do I make this as clear as possible? Clear is kind. So what are the next steps? Being very clear on our communication.

Making sure our treatment plans are clear, making sure we're asking what questions do you have, not do you have questions? Same thing with team members. Both of these are interchangeable. Like, here is the plan. What questions do you have for me? When we're rolling out a new training, what questions do you have for me? I'm going to send over the plan. This is what's expected of every person. These are the dates. These are the times. This is the expectation of what we're going to do. This way people feel certain. Certainty creates confidence and certainty creates value. People feel like

They're ready to go. Like confusion is the enemy of execution on either side. Confusion is where people feel anxious. People feel don't value. They don't feel seen. They don't feel loved. So how do we make everything with our patient experience and our team experience where we have clear communication, where it's drawn out, it's very much where people can just feel solid. You might not like the decisions, you might not like the treatment, but you're very clear. The communication was clear, the expectations were clear. Pieces were very, very clear for you. And then another piece is like,

Making sure we have genuine relationships, not just transactional relationships. So knowing people, like so if we have a big case, I'm really big on like calling those patients. There are pe places where you can have automated voicemails so it acts like you call them, but you don't actually have to call them. Medenta was fantastic at this. And you could just have a voicemail after a big case where it's like, hey, care, hey, like, hey, this is Dr. Jones. I'm just calling to check in and see how that appointment went for you. If you have any issues or any pain, please give me a call. I'm hoping that you're doing really, really well on all of this.

You don't even have to the patient's name, but it feels like you cared about them. what are check-ins? How can we check in to see how they're doing? like when patients come in, remembering little subtle things about them. So if care is going to Hawaii, we put it in our notes and we ask her, How is Hawaii when you come back in? Those little simple things create relationships. Same thing on the one-on-ones. If someone tells you that they're going on vacation, ask your team member how was that vacation? if it's their birthday or anniversary.

What ways can I foster the relationship? And to me, this is where I tie into unreasonable hospitality of how do I make magic moments for these people where they're like making meaningful moments in the everyday moments. So how do I help people feel seen, heard, and loved in both of them? So we don't just stop at checkout for our patients. We don't just stop after the one on one. We know them as humans. shout out to Tiff with her consultant team. She does Tiffany's connection time.

And she literally like meets with the consultants, talks to them, connects with them as humans. And I love that she calls it connection time because I feel like that's her building relationships. Connection time with your patients. How do I build those relationships? How do I remember who they are? How do I remember little things? I have a fee for service chiropractor. I love her every time. She's like, So you just got back from Kentucky? And I'm like, Yes. And she's like, How is like in your next trip? You guys are headed out to wherever? Like, I feel she knows me. She has a lot of patience.

But people want to be known, they want to be remembered, they want to be seen for birthdays and anniversaries, like big small big team, small team. How do you make that person feel seen, valued, heard? How do you do the small daily things where you're looking out, you're sending out thank yous? you guys compliment each other? Do you guys have a shout-out jar where you guys call out on each other? What can you do to make sure that there's strong bonds and relationships? Because people don't leave offices because of

usually money, sometimes they do, but typically it's due to a lack of a relationship, a lack of a bond. Tip told me she said, cure the reason I've been with you for almost a decade. Shout out to the TT Spiffy Tiffy over there. she's like it's because of the relationship we have. And I think about that and I know it can feel like as our team's getting larger, this is something I'm often questioning of how do I make sure team members feel seen, valued and heard. And I will say as a CEO, one of the things I do and as an office manager,

Gosh, I hope my team doesn't listen. I don't, I'm not perfect at this, but I do have a list of every team member and I actually hand write letters to them and I'll mail them to them. or if I know something's going on for them, I will make it a point to either ask about it or make sure I help out with certain things with them. I'm not perfect at it, but I do feel like when people feel seen, valued, and heard, we always for their birthdays, we have in a survey and we send them their absolute favorite things. And every time, and we send them a gift, we send them something personal for them.

when I know someone's got a rough day, we'll just send over a little treat. You don't have to have a lot of money, you just have to have intentionality. And this goes to patients and it goes to team members. If you know someone's birthday's coming up, like so many times I I check in at places and it's my birthday, and people get my ID. They type in my birthday and they don't say it. Like, could you just look ahead and see whose birthday's coming up? How could I like could we celebrate? Anyone whose birthday is in June or July? Tell your patient happy birthday.

If you see something that they did, how do you just build the relationship so it's not transactional? It's very much feels like a it feels like you know them, that you love them. And I would say that comes from genuinely loving people, from genuinely wanting them to feel valued, genuinely wanting to make a magic moment for them, getting excited. There's a doctor in Georgia that's on our team, and he got so giddy. He just got so giddy. He's like, Here, I'm putting together the holiday party for them. And

He like goes all out and he like spent all night decorating and he just got so giddy. And I love working with him. I love learning from him because to have that genuine joy and curiosity and excitement and love for your team, it filters into then how you say thank you to them. And I think it's seeing teams and patients. Do you see them as liabilities or do you see them as assets? Do you see them as value ads or soul sucking?

and the way you view them is how you're going to treat them and you're going to create more of that. So I might encourage you of just looking to see how we can do that. So just a couple of things, just as a quick recap for you, is making sure you are consistent, making sure you have clear communication, clear as kind, and really truly trying to build that relationship with them. and I think if you can can just again.

To me, these are the sprinkles on a cupcake. You've already got the cupcake, you've already got the frosting. I feel like the sprinkles really are what make the pop, the pizzazz, the the what makes you stand out from the other offices. All the other offices have a cupcake and they got frosting. Maybe some offices only have cupcake. Like they do dentistry. You need dentistry and you at least have some of the pieces. But to me, this is where I feel like value comes from sprinkles. And I think it in the analogy of this cupcake, the cupcake's the core. That's their job, that's their coming to the dentist. The frosting is

I don't know, probably their management and their clinical care. the sprinkles to me are what are going to set you apart and what people are going to remember. And I love the analogy because the cupcake is the largest, the frosting is smaller, and the sprinkles are really just the accent pieces. but it's crazy. I had a designer come out, we were doing some fun things and she's like, Kiera, it's crazy because the little things, like she literally like had a bowl and

rolled the napkins and like the placemats and put them in the bowl rather than just like I was gonna just stack them. And she's like, Kiera, those small little details are what make people feel like this is a home and it's cozy and it's warm versus like sloppy and not put together. And I thought about that and I'm like, it's those sprinkles that make people feel valued or make them feel like they're just a transaction or just a number on the page. And so I would I would encourage you to figure out like what sprinkle of these ones that we talked about can you do to make your patients and your team feel more valued.

Again, it's not more and I know I said more valued, but I think it's just intentionally valued where it's not doing more, it's being intentional. It's changing of how I do it. Can I be intentional on my thank yous at the end of the day? Can I be more intentional on my communication with them so everything's clear and mapped out for them? Can I have it where I have a consistent experience for my patients every single time? can I look to build the relationship a bit stronger and write?

a thank you card. It could take six months, guys. Like I'm not saying it's every single month. Like I have a list and I work through it and then I go back and is there a way where I can maybe change our birthdays and our anniversaries? Our team does videos for everyone and I know it's like we have so many. They come up so often. But to get like that takes 30 seconds from our teammates to make somebody feel valued and important and special. Those to me are the sprinkles. 30 seconds out of an entire eight hour day is so minimal. And yet

That's sprinkle on your cupcake. So where can you add the sprinkles? Where can you add the value? Teams deserve it. You deserve it. And I believe that this is the greatest way to like truly it's the secret sauce to win, to win, to hire and retain people, to bring in patients that feel valued, to feel seen, to feel loved. We're all looking to see how we can compete with others and how we can have a cutting edge. And I would say, like, add the sprinkles, add the sprinkles, stand out just a bit stronger. Everyone else has the cupcake. Most people have the frosting. Not all have the frosting.

But if you've got the cupcake and the frosting, add those sprinkles, help people feel valued. And if you're struggling with this, or you're like, gosh, that's just not my thing. As I said, we give doctors the the to-do of you put a compliment alarm on your on your phone and you do that. this is where I love to help people go to the next level to optimize, to scale, to have structure, but in a way that's not necessarily production scale.

But in happiness scale and fulfillment scale, which ultimately is going to lead to higher production, higher profitability. So reach out. I'd love to chat with you. [email protected]. Go make it a magical day. Go spread some sprinkles. Go share. Go love. Go genuinely enjoy what you get to do every single day. It won't be forever that you get to do this. So let's make it magical. Let's make it impactful. And let's make it meaningful with helping people feel seen, valued, and loved. And as always, thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Private practices — ever feel like you can't win against the DSOs? Kiera talks about what your practice can continue to produce that DSOs, with their multiple locations and bigger budgets, can't replicate.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I am excited. Today's gonna be a fun rift of a podcast for you. It's gonna be like, can independent practices like private practice still beat DSOs if you want to? This isn't a rag on DSOs, it's not a rag on private practices. It's just can private practice, independent practices still win against the DSO? Because I think a lot of people are losing faith and confidence and feeling like if I'm not a part of a DSO, I can't win. So I wanna just tickle our brains today.

Think about it in a different way and let's have a fun rift because you remember this is the best place. Dental A Team is the place where we are obsessed about helping you have your best life. We call it the Yes Success Model, where we focus on you and your vision, earnings and profitability, and then systems scale and structure for you. So that way you've got the systems, the structure, and the scalability for long term. I'm obsessed with helping teams and doctors align. I'm obsessed with dentistry. My last name's Dent for crying out loud. I love this. So let's do a good rift. Let's talk about.

Can we really still win? It feels like DSOs, they got so much money over there and like they don't have to worry about margins. But I don't think that that's necessarily true. And I do believe last year, now I believe I know, DSOs had their first down year last year. So like I said, there is no I don't have a dog in the fight. My dog in the fight is which I don't even know where that phrase comes from. So if someone wants to pen pal me and tell me about this, I mean I could sure I could look it up. But like if you know, send me an email, [email protected]. I'm Kiera. It's fun. It's fun to have a good pen pal over there.

But I I think my dog in the fight is what's gonna be the best for dentistry long term. That is my dog in the fight. I wanna make sure that we as a population, money talks. I don't blame you. Getting a good multiple for your practice, like, why not? You're in you're in the golden era of dental practices. Or so they make it put on paper. Make sure it really is the golden era for you if you choose to go that route. and a lot of people have been very happy. A lot of people have also had the shorts burned off them. Tell me why that's a thing too. Like,

How does someone get their shorts burned off them? I also want to know that phrase. I'm here for the phrases today, too, on the rift. And also, I'd love to know your opinion on this. So I'm gonna rift on my side and then shoot me an email. I'd love to hear. [email protected] so okay, the rift today. DSOs are all like, okay, let me just go back, backing it up. Ultimately, I hope that we preserve the sanctity of great dentistry for patients forever.

That's my hope. I don't care if it's DSOs, I don't care if it's private practice, I don't care what it is. But I do not dental practices are businesses. I also work in dentistry as a clinician. And I'm not okay with us squeezing margins and compromising care to hit margins. To me, that's just unfair. It's unfair for patients. I look at a lot of things in our healthcare system and I don't love it. And so I think that dentistry has been kind of the wild, wild west, and we've stayed out of a lot of it. And so I just hope that while we make

Decisions financially and personally, I hope that we think about our long-term consequence. And that comes for a lot of new ones. I think that there's more senior doctors who have been in dentistry for a long time. Like they're not as worried about the multiples. I think a lot of our newer doctors who have a lot of debt on this, there's an easy cash payout. I would just say and a caution and an ask is let's just remember that we've had pioneers ahead of us who have paved the way.

Let's continue to be those pioneers that are able to preserve and sanctify dentistry, whether that's through DSOs or private practices. So that's Kiera's dog in the fight. And I hope that you agree. And maybe you have a different opinion. So like let's have a good conversation. This is what we talk about in our monthly masterminds. So come chat, hang out. I'd love to have you there. okay. So can we win? Here are some thoughts of how private practices can still win against DSOs. So like DSOs, they do have more locations. They got bigger budgets, they've got bigger teams.

But I do feel like there's still things in private practice that DSOs can't replicate. So I think the biggest threat is if you feel like you can't compete and you give up because there are ways and you can still win. you don't have to outspend a DSO. You don't need to out execute them. I do think that there's still competitive advantages. And so really leaning into whatever is going to be best for you. And again, remember, my my long term opinion is let's just make sure that we protect and sanctify dentistry for the health of our patients. And yes, I want you to be a profitable business owner.

I think you can have both. I don't think it has to be one or the other. DSO or non-DSO. Now, private equity. I do have my opinions about private equity and I don't believe that they're always there for ethical reasons. and so I just say like make sure that the decisions you're making with your practice and your patient is going to help long term, the greater good. So those are my two cents on it. So anyway, just we work with a lot of practices. So I think that there's still ways that you can still compete against large corps, corporations. So number one.

I think is independent practices, private practices, they have a connection that I think a lot of DSOs lack. DSOs tend to have a burn and churn model. So patients actually knowing their doctor, trusting their team, feeling remembered, feeling valued, and making sure that it's not a constant churn. Now I will have a call out. There are a lot of private practices that I know that are also on a burn and churn. They're churning associates left and right. They're turning team members. I get that it's hard right now, but I will say that if that's your practice, you are not competing against those corporate organizations that have.

run of the mill doctors. So I think that private practices can have a consistent provider relationship. I absolutely hate going to the dentist. I actually have transferred away. Like I can get multiple doctors across the road, guys. I don't know if you know what I do for a living, but I work with a lot of dentists. So if I want sporadic care, aka I go into one practice, but I see different providers all the time. And I know we have the whole phrase of they're provide their patients at the practice, which is not wrong.

But I'd say the more consistent you can have of team of providers that's going to help you win. I'm not saying to keep team members just because of longevity. I am here to say though, consistent provider relationships I do think will outshine. Just like I hate getting a new hair person, I hate getting a new nail person. People don't like to change that. So I think that that's going to be a zone for you. So personalized experience and long-term patient loyalty. Those are going to be

key places that I think private practices can win. Now, DSL is listening, guess what? This is your edge as well. Like this is how you can have an edge. And ultimately we're all here for it. But these things need to stay and maintain. so I do believe that patients who see the same doctor, the same team for years are much less likely to leave based on price or convenience. Like they're going to stick with you. Why why? They don't want to change that up. I don't want to go show someone else my mouth and have that awkward moment where I just

Don't like I don't have this, so just know that it's a space where like you gotta you gotta be connected, you've gotta help them feel seen and known. And I do believe that that's that is a zone. Daos are gonna scale systems, but like being able to scale genuine relationships, I do think is a harder thing. So in private practices, watch yourself. Look to see do you have those genuine connections? Are we scaling genuine relationships? Is that something that we're doing in those personalized pieces? You can stand out and still scale and still be profitable. So

I just think maybe like if you're looking at this, looking at your team, wanting to have a reflection, what's a way that we can connect and create more personalized patient experiences? How can we keep like, if we want to keep a patient for life, what's gonna make them want to choose us consistently? If there's a competitor of price, if there's a competitor of convenience, how do we make sure those patients stay loyal to us? another thing I think that private practice can win on is believe it or not, in private practice, you can typically move faster.

So I know a lot of people when they interview coming to Dental A Team coming from large organizations, like, I love that there's not as much red tape, Kiera. I love that you can move quicker, that we can make decisions faster, we're more nimble. And I think that that is a a huge selling point for private practices to be able to out outpace. You can have faster decision making, you can have faster implementation, you have less red tape, you've got greater flexibility. That can also create chaos. We gotta make sure that we don't we don't flex too much. But

If patients are wanting something, we can usually make those calls. We can have a more personalized experience. We can have like great water bottles. We can have different things that make patients have it. So, like you can change scheduling systems, you can change patient experience protocols, you can have like different pieces that your patients can recognize and see. Where in large organizations, a lot of times it does take like months to implement these items. So I do think agility does create opportunity. And so for you to just look at this and think like, all right, what ways can we be more flexible, more adaptable?

Like you don't have to have permission to improve things. So if you don't have to have permission to improve, what are we waiting to improve? What things could be improved upon? How can we make a better patient experience? How can we make a better team experience? there's a doctor that I was talking to the other day, and he said, Kiera, I have like a lifestyle practice and I want to attract team members for that lifestyle practice. And I just thought, like, how crazy cool is that? Because I think like that is the agility, that's the flexibility of a private practice that also makes it a great working place.

For team members. Like it's not just about patients, it's also about team and attracting those. So that's another zone where I think private practice can still outpace a DSO for sure. and then I do think that systems can win more than size in a lot of ways. So a lot of times we think bigger is better. And I know a lot of times I'm intimidated as a smaller business, if you will, smaller, medium sized business compared to large organizations. You're like, they just have all of it, but it's not true. So

I've seen in a lot of our practices very profitable independent practices, really strong leadership, great patient experiences, clear accountability. And you actually can have scheduling protocols and case acceptance systems and leadership systems and financial systems. Smaller scale practices can actually have great, incredible systems in place. So I do believe that a well-run single location or maybe two or three locations oftentimes will outperform on profitability than larger organizations because of.

execution is a lot stronger. So it's having those systems that are clear, having those and I know a lot of people are like, but what systems? And our team kind of boiled it down. There's about like 10 to 15 core systems that every practice that they'll implement and execute on, they're going to thrive. And it's scheduling case acceptance, leadership, like our billing protocols, things like that, morning huddles, very basic, non-sexy, but having those systems is going to be much grander than size.

And the larger you get, yes, they try to implement these, but I do still feel like those systems can create those predictable experiences. They can have a more customized experience. And then if we don't like it, we can pivot that system, we can refine that system, we can make it better. So I just think it's like, how do you have the best run practice? Not necessarily the biggest practice. And so I would look at your practice and what are the systems? What are the gaps? Where do we slip? Where do patients maybe fill that? Where does our team fill that? Let's fix that. Let's organize that. Let's let's have that. That way we're able to.

To be able to outpace. And so there's lots of ways. I think having those genuine connections, making sure that we've got systems that grow with us, having strong leadership teams, having a great, like, I don't know, community feel. There's just something different. Think about it. I have a fee-for-service chiropractor versus corporate chiropractor. I've gone to both. And one is like run of the mill. I come in, I'm out, checked in, checked out, it's cheaper. But they don't know me. They don't have an experience. They don't spend time with me. I do think time that doesn't mean like,

10 minutes, it means genuine connection time. Those things you still can win. And believe it or not, a lot of our practices are sitting at 20, 30, 40% profit margins. You can still be very profitable and not need to be in a DSO. They have a ton, they can scale a lot, but I also think there's an autonomy piece, there's a creativity piece, there's a branding piece of you being able to brand your location as you, to be able to give an experience that is very custom to you, to your audience. So I do believe that there's still a way that private practice can.

win against DSLs. I think there's space for both. I don't think one's right or wrong. But again, like I said, my dog in the fight is whatever we choose to do, whatever pieces we're doing, let's just remember to keep the sanctity of dentistry pure. Let's make sure that we're doing what's in the best interest of our patients. Let's make sure we're not cutting corners on dentistry. We're not trying to fit people in to hit production goals just to hit production goals. We're not compromising the the products that we use to be able to to hit the right profit margins. I believe that

being the best for our patients will always, always follow profitability. So with that, right now, let's remember, like relationships, you get it. You guys also have speed and flexibility and agility. And you also do have systems that you can put into place that will like beat size. They have other things. They've got billing, they've got it, but think about it, you're gonna sell to them anyway. You might as well get those things in place and you might as well try on your own. So

You think they're gonna take over all your problems? You can do this on your own and you don't have to sell your practice. I had a dentist who was wanting to sell his practice. He's like, Kiera, I'm gonna sell to a DSO. And I said, Great, like I'm here for it. Let's rally. And then he's like, I said, let's just think through. Like when they buy you, what are they going to do? He's like, they're gonna expand the practice and they're gonna put systems into place. And I said, Well, do you wanna do that? And he was like, Yeah, like I'm gonna sell to them and they're gonna make all the money on the things that I could just do. And I was like, I'm really proud of you because you're exactly right.

So if they're gonna do that anyway, why not do it yourself and reap the rewards? We're here to help you. I helped that practice. We went took them from eight eight ops to 15 ops. They're doing amazing. They're on track to be a five million dollar practice this year. All those things the DSO would have done. We were able to put the systems in place, build the leadership team, expand the practice. They're crushing it. They're doing incredible over there. So again, flexibility, agility, great patient care. And where they go, because people are like, well, a DSO is the only person who's gonna buy me. That's not true. Stop limiting yourself.

There's lots of people. There's lots of options. Do you know how many people come out of school wanting to buy? They come out and they do want to buy. So don't limit yourself, you guys. People are like, they can't afford homes. That's not true. There's a lot of people willing to there might now need to be two partners instead of just one partner. It's okay. It's gonna look a little different, but that doesn't mean that that's the only option. So I really do think that private practice dentistry can absolutely thrive. I do believe that the practice is winning today, DSO or private practice.

Aren't the ones with multiple the most locations? They're the ones with the strongest leadership, strongest systems, best connection, best patient care. Those are the ones that are winning. So look at it. Do we have the best leadership? Do we have the best systems? Do we have the best patient connection? Do we have the best experience? And if so, fantastic. Make sure that all your patients know it. Make sure that people are talking about it. You guys can do this. I love helping private practices. Whatever your dream is, whatever your goals, if it's DSO or not, I don't care. I just want you to have your best life. And like, hey, before you sell, maybe let's chat.

Let's talk about it. Let's see if there's a way that we could actually take that load and that stress and that annoyance off and you reap the rewards before you go and sell. there's so many ways that we can do this. So reach out. [email protected]. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.