Dental News - Is a blind spot costing your office thousands?

Jay Geier, USA

Wed. 2 January 2013

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Odds are your practice is suffering because of a blind spot that I guarantee you’re not aware of. A blind spot that is costing you $5,000 to $54,000 a month (maybe even more). A blind spot that, if removed, could boost your new patients by 20-50 percent, maybe even as much as 100 percent.

It all started about 15 years ago. I was vice president of marketing for a large private practice in Georgia. My sole responsibility was generating new patients, and my livelihood depended on it. I employed every imaginable tactic to get new patients — screenings, health fairs, referral programs, contests, magazine ads, newspaper and yellow page ads — just to name a few. I think I even wore a sandwich board and waved to drivers passing by at one point.

It was never a question of whether or not my efforts were successful. They generated hundreds of calls every month, but the hard-earned calls just weren’t translating into new patients.

As you can imagine, this was a beast that had to be tackled. So I rolled up my sleeves and started sinking my teeth into it to figure out how to close the huge gap that was negating every marketing dollar spent and costing the practice thousands of dollars a day.

I was able to use our practice as a learning lab. I worked day in and day out to discover the blind spot and figure out how to get rid of it.

I knew I had cracked the code when the calls started translating into booked appointments and our staff set a practice record, scheduling 601 new patients in one week.

Turn your largest expense into your greatest investment!

To eliminate the blind spot in your practice, it doesn’t require an additional investment. It doesn’t require a new source of new patients. It requires an open mind because it almost seems too simple to be true. The secret lies in your telephone and your team, specifically your front-desk team. Both are investments you have already made, but they are not being leveraged to their peak performance potential.

No doubt your staff is courteous and helpful to everyone who calls your office — and while that’s a good thing, it’s simply not good enough. In fact, their courtesy is probably resulting in lost new patients. And lost new patients means lost money. For example, let’s say your average new patient is worth $1,500. Then one lost would cost you $1,500, five lost would cost you $7,500, and 15 would cost you $22,500. And that’s just one month’s worth. Imagine the impact of that over an entire year or how the impact would increase drastically if your patient value is higher.

Being courteous and helpful are not praiseworthy qualities if your staff doesn’t produce a profitable result and, even worse, if it is costing you money. Actually, effective “closing” skills are the attributes your staff should strive to master. But you can’t just expect them to possess this and know how to effectively use it. No one is born with these skills. They must be taught, then practiced, then reviewed on an ongoing and consistent basis.

Not knowing this could cost you tens of thousands

If you are among the majority of dentists who are spending money to market your practice you are absolutely not an exception. In fact, the reason for recognizing this blind spot and taking action to eliminate it is even more compelling because you are investing thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands, to get your phone to ring. And if the phone rings and it’s a shopper and the shopper doesn’t translate into a new patient, you might as well take every dollar, one by one, and flush them down the toilet.

Revenue-producing dream team

It takes a lot of skill — and an open mind — to scrutinize your practice to create positive change.

It takes even more talent, knowledge and a gift for teaching to work with your staff on the fine points of the changes needed to take your practice to the next level, and way beyond. But it’s worth it and it’s a win-win.

Your staff can be one of your best and most profitable marketing tools if they are trained and you leverage them correctly, but if not, they could cost you thousands.

Create a plan to get your staff trained. Talented employees want training. They want to perform better and contribute to your practice’s growth and success. If you have someone who doesn’t, they shouldn’t be on your team.

Jay M. Geier is president and founder of the Scheduling Institute.

Note: This article appeared in Dental Tribune U.S. Edition, Vol. 7, No. 10, October 2012 issue.

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