Did you know January is one of the best months to reactivate patients?

Think about the retention rate and see what's the percentage of patients you're retaining. The problem is practices are always looking for new patients because the back door is always open. Some of us have two back doors open!

You need to stay in touch with people and mix up the types of communication with your patients, it keeps the interest there. That's what Sandy discusses in this episode and gives you a system on how to reactivate your patients, retain your existing patients, and she shares the best methods, formulas, and times on when to do this.

You get a text message from a staff member that says they can't come to work today, now what do you do?

In this episode Sandy talks to us about the proper steps we need to take with handling staff members who seem to be absent or miss a lot of work days for whatever reason. We discuss how we can remedy this and how you can ensure it doesn't spread to other employees. She also gives us a step by step process on how to start this system today!

You may have heard this or possibly, some of you listening, may even think this way: "we don't have a production goal because we are patient focused".

Knowing your income and taking care of patients are two different things. In this episode Sandy gives us the exact formula you need to boost your production. She also lets us know how patient care is woven into this. There is a way to reach production goals without the patient feeling like you are upselling or pushing treatment on them and Sandy let us know how to do this.

A great way to look at it is: "Production goals" are the food.. The type of food is patient care.

In this episode we dive into our Facebook group: Dental Gumbo and answer questions you have asked Sandy in the recent weeks.

Sandy answers and discusses these 3 main questions:

• How early to confirm appointments?
• How do you deal with assistants or hygienists not showing up for work (slightest cold)?
• How to present 3rd party financing as an option and favorite company?

Lately in the last week or two people are thinking ahead and what they'll do differently in 2023. And we love it!

In this episode Sandy gives us 10 key principles we MUST upgrade or improve within our practice!

They are:

1. Low retention rate.
2. Too many broken appointments.
3. Bonus systems that don't work.
4. Poor Recare systems.
5. High accounts receivable balance.
6. Low treatment acceptance.
7. No marketing or poor marketing.
8. Phones!!
9. Too many people are falling into the "practice management of the month club".
10. Doctors not setting performance expectations for their team.

Listen to the episode to discover more details and strategies on how to improve each key element.

A lot of your employees are planning their whole Christmas around their Christmas bonus. However, is a Christmas bonus really necessary? How can you make this "bonus" work for you and how can you stop it if you don't have the funds but feel the "need" to do it because you've done it in the past?!

Sandy gives us the instructions, script, and formula on what we need to do to be consistent with rewarding our team. She let's us know how she doesn't always agree with the Christmas bonus but has created a system on how this type of bonus can work for you and the practice.

Most dentists and especially practice owners, watch their money, and the decisions they make to KEEP money is causing missed opportunities and keeping the income down. Now, saving money is not a bad thing, that's not what we are discussing here. We are talking about how often we step over dollars to pick up pennies.

In this episode Sandy gives us about 7 main reasons on where we stumble and mess up. These 7 reasons/ mistakes are causing an illusion that we are saving money, when in reality we are missing too many opportunities and hurting our potential and profits.

If you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall in Sandy's Scheduling Academy, this is it!

Should you add 3-4% on the dental bill if people are going to use credit cards? The quick answer is "NO"! This can easily make your patient lose trust in you. Remember people don't carry cash or checks as much anymore. More and more people are using credit cards. When you add the 3-4% on the patients bill, this is working against your internal marketing!

In this episode Sandy breaks down for us what we should do if our terminal/ credit card charges come with a fee and how we should present it to the patient. We also discuss other great alternatives that you should adopt now to easily get the money from the patient without hassle.

Did you know if your team is less than 10 employees, you more than likely should NOT have an office manager! Some practice owners put someone who has some dental experience in the front and name them an office manager. That is not the right thing to do.

In this episode Sandy breaks down the real responsibilities of an Office Manager and when is it time to bring one on. We also discuss how promoting or having someone considered an "office manager" can actually cause more harm than good. We also discuss how to demote an office manager and discuss the proper script and terminology on how to do this.