Accelerate My Practice Blog

One of the questions the AMP team gets more often than not is, "How can I grow my dental practice year over year at the same level?" Believe it or not, it's not as hard as people may think. When it comes to growth in your Dental Practice, personal life, or any business for that matter we see a lot of the 'Yo-Yo growth', which can be closely compared to 'Yo-Yo Dieting'.

How could uncertain political times affect your dental practice? Have you taken any time to consider this real possibility? The CEO of our dental practice management company is constantly traveling across the United States and lately he is hearing a lot of uncertainty from all types of business owners, not just dentists, who are concerned with how the upcoming election will affect them. In some cases they are already feeling paralyzed by the fear. It prompted him to want to reach out to all dental practice owners, dentists, and hygienists, everyone that is a part of a dental team somewhere to say don't hunker down and wait to be negatively affected!

Political elections have been happening for hundreds of years. There are always at least two sides fighting it out with no one getting along, massive conflicts of opinion, name calling, etc, that will never change. What can change is how you choose to deal or not deal with it. Can you imagine for instance, where we would be if back in 1939 during our countries worst economic meltdown two men by the name of Bill Hewlett and David Packard abandoned their dream of producing electronic equipment?

YouTube.

What do you know about YouTube except that it's a site your children go to often to watch silly cat videos? If you're like most of us you probably don't know that YouTube fluctuates between number one and number two with Google in term of search volume! Pretty amazing stuff, so today Accelerate My Practice will walk you through the basics of how to use YouTube to optimize the web presence of your Dental Practice resulting in New Dental Patients.

Welcome to the first segment of Accelerate My Practices' series on Dental Marketing, Dental Marketing 101. This series will help you as the doctor and your dental team with an understanding of Dental Marketing! By now you probably know that Accelerate My Practice typically addresses marketing towards the end of your program as opposed to at the start. Doing so sets us apart form most other dental practice management companies.

Having a dental practice vs. having a brand. Do you have a brand? Is branding your dental practice really important? Do you know how to develop a brand, if you dont have one? If you do have one, does your dental team support your brand and it's mission?Branding is very important in that it's an easy way to let the public know what you stand for. You are essentially advertising yourself and your practice to potential new patients through your brand. There are a lot of people out there searching for a certain type of dentist. How great would it be to let them know right from the start what you're about?

Experience greater insight into the health of your practice.

How do you get dental patients to listen to what you want to say, how do you get them to truly hear you and pay attention to what you have to say? I think we find this to be an issue in dental offices often.

‘Living life to the fullest’ is something that we’ve all heard, but how seriously do we take it? Doctors, team mebersm, all have a tendency to get stuck in our own routine, going on about the days, in a fog, doing nothing to change our direction. What would you like people to remember about you? What would you like someone to say about you at your funeral?

In the third part of the Implant Case Episode on AMP TV we realize how many topics are addressed in a surgical office when it comes to advanced surgical cases. Think  about the diagnostic wax up process, when to include an orthodontist, immediate vs. delayed loading options, space limitations, digital vs. analog techniques, surgical guides, 3D printing, planning how many implants are needed for different people, designing different prosthesis, how you begin to provisionalize an entire arch if you need to, what abutments to choose/design, the CBCT...the list literally can go on forever.

We believe one of the major obstacles in dental treatment presentation is getting to the dental patient's "WHY." WHY do they want this treatment; how is it going to impact their life? If the dentist can get to that WHY, you will get to the emotional connection. You are on your way to getting the patient to "want" it perhaps even more than they "need" it.

"The pursuit of knowledge is never-ending. The day you stop seeking knowledge is the day you stop growing." Brandon Travis Ciaccio made this very powerful statement that we should all consider in everything we do. With that being said......What do you think is your dental edge? What is your passion in dentistry that would encourage your dental practice to grow? How do you keep your dental team motivated?

We are excited to have the opportunity to share Jan's Dental story today and provide our Dentists and their teams with a dental patient's perspective and how to present dental treatment options.

Imagine the last time you bit into an apple; how long has it been? For Jan, it has been decades since she could enjoy that simple pleasure. Jan reached out to AMP for a second opinion; she doesn't have the finances to move forward with needed treatment so she started doing research on how to obtain the financial means to save her smile.

How does the drama in your dental practice evolve? Why does it evolve the way it does? Take a second to undersatnd the roles yourself and each one of your team members plays in the office. 

In my opinion, with the experience I've had in offices, the Scheduling Coordinator position is one of the toughest in the office; IF it's not handled correctly.

An empty chair isn't always a bad thing. I've been told that an empty chair can generate up to quarter million dollars in revenue per year. A practice can use this chair to put the emergencies that they might otherwise not be able to see and they go down the street to another office that can accommodate them. As you have probably seen, an emergency exam can generate anywhere from $100 to $1,000 plus in production.

Are you challenged with the feeling of not being good enough?  Do you have team members in your dental office that may feel this way? As an owner or employee of a dental practice, it is key to case acceptance and a positive patient experince that everybody feels appreciated and knows their worth. 

As the owner are you demonstrating this?

This is said to be one of the more powerful topics we'll touch on, the content and video example in this show will make you more aware of how we allow others to question our self-worth.

So often AMP comes into a dental office with concerns from the hygiene team on how to treat the periodontal patients that need this care yet have gone years without it. It is often asked of us in puzzlement on how to approach these patients after the years of not addressing either their periodontal health…. Or not.

You'd be shocked to realize the importance of a great Hand Off from the back to the front or the front to the back of the office and how you must warm up the patient, how a proper introduction works, what questions need to be answered before a patient even has the time to ask them and what language to used... Are these things you've thought about?

Do you have a solid Hand off in your Dental Practice?

In life and in your dental practice, do you want people to tell you what is right or do you desire to hear what makes you feel good?

What happens if a patient of yours bates you into a political conversation, backing you up in the corner, and you don't know how to get out! Then it gets weird because you don't happen to agree with the political stand your patient is pursuing.

The challenge with accountability is no one wants to be accountable! Look at our recent political climate. Pass the buck, point the finger, blame, blame, blame. Is this how it works in your Dental Practice? Is this the mindset?

Look at those that function the best, accountability is huge. Look at the companies that run the best. They have great understanding as who does what, who is in charge, who is responsible and if something is not done, they have a go to person to ask why or how come.

You're sitting there wondering what you need to do to get more traffic through the doors of your dental practice, right? Well, with all those dental marketing companies out there...how do you choose? Good news is, YOU DON'T HAVE TO!

Whaaaaat did I just say? I said, "Don't choose external marketing"! Let's take a look at some options you have with growing your dental practice with internal marketing!

We've all been in a tense situation with a boss or co-worker in our dental practice. But, this is all part of life in the dental field, we all experience dental office struggles. Honestly, it happens in other work fields, in schools, or even in our families. When these challenges arise, how do you show up? How do you respond?

Are you wanting to bring new patients into your dental practice? Where do you start? Are the Yellow Pages and print ads a good idea for dental marketing? Let's take a look and find out if it is good investment for your practice.

Do you have a plan or office strategy to get new ideas in motion for your dental practice in 2016? Are you using the great untapped ideas your dental team has to help your practice? What have you done to accomplish your goals so far in 2016? What can you as the doctor and your dental team do to pull together to make your dental practice a better business and experience for patients?

Does the schedule in your dental office going sideways more often than not? Are you and your team members running behind? Maybe we need to address some time management strategies that will make your day run more smoothly. Let's take a look at what we can start with in the office to help your day stay on time!