Most businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (including private dental practices) are still feeling the effects of the Coronavirus and necessary restrictions on day-to-day life. Put simply, it’ll be a fairly long road to normalcy.
In such circumstances, most businesses focus on survival and reduce funding to anything that seems non-essential. Marketing and employee training are often two things that get cut during economic downturns.
While the basic premise behind “tightening your finances” is correct, deciding what gets cut is where most businesses get it wrong. Employee training is one of those areas that can directly impact the bottom line yet businesses prefer to minimize it during hard times – not realizing that they are putting their business at a clear disadvantage to competitors that continue making training a priority.
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Watch our Dental All-Stars podcast with host Eric Vickery, All-Star’s Lead Mastery Coach, and Alex Nottingham JD MBA, All-Star’s Founder and CEO. Erick and Alex discuss why a focus on training is critical for your long-term success.
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Let’s take a closer look at how discontinuing employee training will impact your practice and at the core benefits of continued training even during challenging times.
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Improved Staff Efficiency & Productivity
Every dental practice owner wants team members who function at the peak of their ability. However, they fail to acknowledge that the ability to perform at your best is an acquired trait. Even the best athletes need continual training to stay sharp. Your staff is no different.
Training will expand your employees’ knowledgebase and skills thus giving them the confidence to tackle the job with surety and intent. Moreover, well-trained staff will approach a problem with a “can-do” attitude rather than brushing it under the carpet or escalating to the owner.
Additionally, your front office team’s performance in handling calls, appointment requests, and scheduling is profoundly affected by training. This has a direct effect on overall office production. Developing phone and customer service skills also has follow-on benefits in improving show-up rates, case acceptance, and referrals.
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Streamlined Scheduling & Improved Workflow
As a practice owner, time is your most valuable asset. Working with a scheduling coach can help you get a better understanding of where each of your billable hours is being spent. The newfound information will streamline your team’s workflow and maximize your productivity.
Here’s a common scenario:
Most small practices contend with disorderly scheduling and don’t usually allocate specific time slots for types of procedures. There’s no categorization and new patient appointments are often “bunched in” between existing patient appointments.
However, getting a new patient through your doors is only half the battle. The other half will be won by how they’re treated during their visit. Turning a new patient into a profitable patient requires that the staff take time to nurture the relationship – listening to the patient’s issues and setting appropriate expectations wh...