Year End Pressures

In the blink of an eye, the New Year will be here. December is usually a very very busy month. Patients trying to maximize their yearly insurance benefits makes for a hectic schedule. A good problem to have, but one that creates an inordinate amount of pressure on everyone. And the holidays in general, with shopping, and parties, and family gatherings and kids out of school, are quite stressful. Certainly not the best environment to be able to sit down and take the time to carefully plan for 2018 and develop strategies on how to improve the performance of your dental practice.

From my vantage point as a coach working with many successful dental practices seeking ways to become more successful, I get to see first hand on a daily basis the good and the bad, the elation and the frustration, what works well and what doesn’t. Here is a list of five common problems – in no particular order – that I repeatedly observe. Finding a fix will go a long way towards creating growth and increasing your profitability.

• Front desk overload.

• Inability to consistently stay on time.

• Inconsistent and/or schizophrenic Internal Marketing.

• Lack of leadership and poor communication with staff by the doctor.

• Not enough second visit treatment plan consultation appointments.

My plan is to write a weekly blog post – rather than my normal every other week – and attempt to address each of these five topics with as much detail as possible. Hopefully these posts and the suggestions they contain will be good source material for some January staff meetings.

So go ahead and enjoy this Holiday Season, but please be prepared to set aside the necessary time as 2018 unfolds  to introduce some system changes in your office that will give you the maximum opportunity to make  2018 your best year ever.