Surely by now you realize that working in that crown today is immensely more profitable than having the patient come back tomorrow. I don’t know if you have checked lately, but, newsflash, people don’t wait in line to get into our practices like they wait in line for a thrill ride at an amusement park. If that person were already in your chair that means that most likely they have already taken off work for that day. They already had a babysitter if they had kids. They had already psyched themselves up about coming to the dentist.
They would have probably made the buying decision right then and there without their spouse since they were already there. Once they go home, a myriad of bad dominos might fall. They might be scared to miss work again. Their babysitter might fall through for the next day. Their spouse might convince them that they didn’t need to spend the money on a tooth. Or, just plain old, they might decide that they didn’t want to go back to the dentist because “No offense Doc, but I hate dentists.”
Your staff can make or break a same day service. Many times they don’t have good guidance to allow them to accomplish high value tasks in a timely fashion. This is one of the major causes of dentistry not being offered today. Your staff operates on their own set of rules if you don’t clearly define their roles. Without your guidance, you might hear, “I ran out of time to get that done, and I know how you don’t like for us to get any overtime.” This story displays what I am talking about.
An assistant who was in charge of the lab cases told her doctor that she didn’t have time to check and see if Monday’s cases were in on Friday because she got her 40 hours in and had to leave. Knowing that she had been allotted the entire afternoon on Friday for this, he asked what had taken up her time. She said that she had been pouring up models even though other assistants could have done that task. So, in the end the assistant put in 40 hours, but a very important denture case didn’t make it on time to the office.
This resulted in a very irate patient, an embarrassed doctor, a defensive staff, and a loss of many, many referrals. This could have all been avoided if the doctor had laid out a simple set of job descriptions for each position with a priority rank of the important procedures. There also needed to be a team leader or office manager that could intervene and make sure that the plan was being followed by all parties.
There are a simple set of secrets that dental staff follow and doctors know nothing about.
Once you discover the secrets that your staff members are hiding, you can break down the barriers that have sapped productivity and caused squabbling in your practice for so long. One of the greatest findings of Dr. Griffin during his consultation with dental practices has been that once everyone is aware of the few little things that have been nagging at them, they can resolve longstanding issues and enjoy fun, profitable growth to superstar levels. You can get your free CD explaining the 5 most common Staff Secrets at http://www.dentalstaffsecrets.com.