The Dentist's Network #51


	Voice Technology Comm. Advertising Promises Salary Reviews

Dr. Lorne Lavine
Dental Technology Consultants
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Effective Communication with Voice Technology

A dentist opens a small office in his neighborhood. He spends a conservative amount of money on dental equipment and leaseholds, and sets aside space for future expansion. His wife works the front desk and helps to run the business. The first patients consist of friends, neighbors and employees from local businesses. In its first months, his patient list grows to 200. As years go by, the dental office realizes significant growth.

A large dental office constructs a huge multi-discipline facility in the same area.The facility has state-of-the-art equipment, breathtaking architecture and sophisticated computers. But within a few years of its grand opening, the new facility is sold and is no longer an existing dental office.

Although this example may seem farfetched, it’s not. Why is it that the smaller office withstands the test of time and competition? The answer is simple: communication. The most successful dental offices have found ways to communicate effectively with their patients and promote interaction between their patients and staff in consistent, creative ways.

Unfortunately, the average dental office has a staff-to-patients ratio that is far from ideal. With the average dental office employing the equivalent of 5 full-time staff to service more than 1,000 patients, each employee is now responsible for providing positive experiences for more than 200 patients, in addition to their primary roles within the dental office.

There is no secret to what dental offices need to be successful. The more important question is… How can offices with limited resources and staff communicate more effectively with their patients? As patient populations increase in size and diversity, management is forced to adopt new technologies to better maintain the “small office” feel in a “big box” world. By understanding their patients, an office can tailor schedules, specialty programs and hours of operation to better suit their diverse needs.

Traditional forms of office communications have included signs, posters and newsletters. These take time, money and effort to produce but are viewed by only a small percentage of the patients on a regular basis. These modes of communication offer only minimal uptake by patients.

With vast improvements in the quality and functionality of hardware and software for message-delivery systems on the market, advanced technologies now make it possible to communicate with large groups of people in a short amount of time—in a way that is personal, professional, and interactive, and also cost-effective. Two such technologies are the PhoneTree automated telephone and MyProAudio’s Instant Audio for Email and Websites.

The dental business has been exposed to companies like PhoneTree for many years. The concept that is new to the industry is the technology of using audio in emails sent out by MyProAudio.

Addressing the struggle to get one’s message across via an increasingly crowded Internet, MyProAudio.com President Doug Comstock recommends a communication channel neglected by most businesses: audio.

“We are more receptive to an offer made with audio than one in text alone,” notes Comstock, citing research concluding that people remember only 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear and as much as 50% of what they read and hear. “Audio increases sales because when we hear a voice, we feel the presence of a real person. A voice can convey warmth, sincerity, enthusiasm and many other appealing qualities, helping to build a personal relationship.”

There are many ways to customize these services. For example:

Use voice testimonials. Honest, unrehearsed voice testimonials furnish instant credibility.
Use staff voices to welcome patients to your practice.
Inform your patients about holidays, schedule changes, etc.

MyAudioPro.com provides Ear-mail Audio Postcards, Audio Testimonials, Instant Audio Players and Web Audio Buttons all for one low annual fee. Its products begin playing instantly when clicked on and couldn’t be easier for a novice site builder to integrate into a page design.

Whether you are a small dental office or part of a multi-disciplined health center, effective communication is vital to the success of your business. By offering patients the products and services they want, your business is only addressing one piece of the puzzle. Increasing patient awareness through modes of communication that “touch” your patients can increase patient interaction, case acceptance and, ultimately, patient satisfaction.

Lorne Lavine DMD is the Founder and President of Dental Technology Consultants. Dr. Lavine holds two prestigious certifications, the A+ Certified Technician designation and the Network+ Certified Professional. These designations demonstrate proficiency in computer repair, operating systems, network design and installation. Dental Technology Consultants provide dentists a full range of services relating to the implementation of technology.

Dr. Lavine can be reached at drlavine@thedentistsnetwork.net.

Louis Malcmacher
DDS MAGD
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Psst. Want To Make A Million Dollars? Read This!

Every day when I get to the office, I find on my desk a pile of mail, as do you. For some reason, I always feel that going through the pile of mail is the first thing that I need to do before I can do anything else. Even in this day of instant messaging and email, in which anything really important will be sent to me immediately, the good old snail mail still holds some kind of magical attraction despite the fact it has probably taken two days to a week to actually get to my desk.

So let me share what my dental office mail looks like; I’m sure that it is a lot like yours. Here is a piece of mail that looks attractive. The outside says, “If you ignore this opportunity, you’ll be losing money!” I open this letter to find that some new “marketing genius” is going to help me (and many other dentists like me) get new patients with his “secrets.” Oh, look, those secrets are going to cost me $1,500 down and then $40,000 over the next year. I’ll pass. Well, let’s open the next envelope. Look at this! It’s another “marketing genius” who is actually a dentist. Well, after reading the information inside the envelope, I learn he used to be a dentist. He started practicing at age 25 and he says he made so much money in dentistry that he retired at age 29. You can buy his secrets for $1,995 and then pay him another $2,500 each month for the rest of his natural life to get some monthly reports about how to make gobs of money. I’m not as upset by the price as much as I am upset by the fact that I am 20 years past his retirement age.

You know, I really have to go see patients, but I can’t help but open up another envelope that is screaming at me with a line on the outside that says, “This one trick will increase your production by $90,000 each month.” I better read this before I see today’s patients because I am always looking for ways to increase production. This one has to be good. I opened up the letter to find that a dentist once sent a mug filled with flowers to a patient, after which—the letter claims—the patient then did $30,000 worth of dentistry. If you do this three times, that will be $90,000. For other tricks of the trade, I can get this special report on other ways to woo my patients into more dentistry.

These examples of come-ons are becoming very commonplace in dentistry and, believe it or not, dentists are falling for them. As I lecture to hundreds of dentists each month, they tell me how they wasted their time and money trying to find the silver bullet inside some of these ridiculous offers and outrageous claims. Every dentist wants to know what the one thing is they can say, do or give away that will attract new patients and make them go for big treatment plans.

Here is my advice. STOP WASTING YOUR MONEY! Live by the old adage, “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.” The time and money that you waste in some of these silly schemes is money that can be invested into a soft-tissue and hard-tissue Waterlase laser. If you want to make more money in dentistry, then offer your patients what they want—like learning how to do minimally invasive Lumineers. Do you use Arestin, Captek by Trident Labs and CareCredit to get patients to pay for it all? These are just some of the technologies that will let you do faster, easier and better dentistry.

Do you offer oral cancer screenings like Vizilite Plus in addition to your oral cancer examinations? Speaking of oral cancer, do you teach your patients how to do self-examinations for oral cancer? (Go to www.oralcancerselfexam.com to learn how and to be listed!) Patients will look at you differently because now they know you care about them as people. Now they perceive you as a real healthcare provider who cares about their total health.

Here’s the secret you’ve all been waiting for: There is no fast-track, get-rich-quick way to make money in dentistry. You will not find the secrets of success in dentistry in an envelope sitting on your desk or in an email. Like any business, dentistry requires hard work, putting the time into your practice and learning the business.

I have a confession to make. Because I speak so often to so many dental professionals, people assume that I know it all. I will be the first to tell you that I am always learning things, especially about business. How can you learn the business of dentistry? Going to courses helps but there is a much better way— get yourself a great consultant for your practice. You don’t know what you don’t know. I find so many dentists trapped in their own little world with no idea that the opportunity is much larger than the way they are looking at their practices. I have a business consultant to help guide me. A good consultant will pay for him- or herself many times over.

Sally McKenzie, CEO of McKenzie Management and a The Dentist’s Network member, heads an outstanding consulting group that can break you out of your slumber and kick you up to the next level. They will teach you what you don’t know and help guide your practice to new heights as they have done for so many other dental practices for 30 years.

You will be successful by refining your clinical skills, learning what patients want and giving it to them, adding new line extensions and services to your office, and being an excellent communicator so that you can talk to your staff and to your patients. The secret to your success is not found in outrageous claims that come in the mail; rather, your success depends on you! Work hard, get great guidance and consulting, and enjoy life!

Dr. Louis Malcmacher is a practicing general dentist in Bay Village, Ohio, an internationally known lecturer, dental consultant and author, and consultant to the Council on Dental Practice of the ADA. Interested in knowing more about how to truly enjoy dentistry? Click here.

Interested in having Dr. Malcmacher speak to your dental society or study club? Click here.

To reach Dr. Malcmacher, email him at DrMalcmacher@thedentistsnetwork.net or call 1.800.952.0521.

Sally McKenzie, CEO
McKenzie Management
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Everything's Going Up-Including Payroll

I know, you know, we all know that the cost of everything is going up. Just like you, your staff is paying more for life’s essentials, food, gas, electricity, and on and on. So when Rita pops into your office and spreads her financial worries all across your desk like the morning newspaper’s depressing headlines, you’re immediately feeling the pressure to try to help… again.

C’mon, what’s another buck-fifty an hour? Right? You start silently talking yourself into it immediately. “She’s a loyal, hardworking staff member trying to raise two kids on one income.” Or perhaps you’re worried that Rita is going to bolt if you don’t pay her more. “She has the computer system down pat. If I ask for a report it’s on my desk within the hour. Trying to replace her is not something I want to deal with.”

Of course, when an employee approaches you for more money, there may be many good reasons to award it and you may genuinely want to give the raise. But before you let those highly impulsive altruistic tendencies of yours take total control, take a deep breath and spend 10 minutes conducting a salary review..

Here’s why: Every increase in salary, no matter how seemingly small and insignificant has a direct impact on your overhead. A salary review enables dentists to quickly and clearly determine how much of a raise your practice can afford while keeping your total salary overhead in line with the industry.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that any raise could be so small its impact won’t be felt. Soon this little raise here and that minor increase there will come ripping through your profits, and I guarantee you’ll be stunned by the thundering impact.

Employee salaries should account for no more than 22% of your total overhead, not including benefits, which will run an additional 3%–5%. For example, if your staff salaries for January were $14,300 and your average monthly collections are $65,000, you are within the recommended industry range of 19%–22% of monthly collections. The salary review enables you to determine exactly how much more money you’ll need to collect each month to cover that “itty bitty” increase.

Your team may be utterly and completely deserving of a raise, but if they want to make more money the practice must also make more money, and every employee plays a vital role in accomplishing that. Start by taking a close look at those areas that directly impact your practice financials. Have you developed new strategies to boost hygiene production and treatment acceptance? What steps will you take to increase collections? Is rent going down anytime soon? What about equipment repairs?

Take a close look at collections. Make one employee accountable for collecting money, generating accounts receivable reports and following up on delinquent accounts. Your financial coordinator should achieve daily collections of 45% or higher. If you don’t already have one, establish a collections policy and follow it. Expect full payment at the time of service for all procedures under $200.

Monitor your money monthly. Review the aged accounts receivable report every 30 days. It should list each account with an outstanding balance and the date of last payment.

Total all monies over 90 days delinquent. The percentage should not exceed 12% of your total accounts receivable. If it does, delinquent account calls need to be accelerated.

Reinforce recall. Delegate responsibility for the recall system to the patient coordinator, and expect her/him to:

make a specific number of patient phone calls each day in a specific amount of time
schedule a certain number of appointments
ensure that a definite number of patients complete treatment
schedule to ensure that the hygienist achieves a predetermined daily or monthly financial goal—at 3x her/his daily wages
manage a specific number of unscheduled time units in the hygiene schedule per day

Consider your fees. They should be increased 3–5% each year. Overlap patients during just the first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes of each appointment. This will increase income even before fees are adjusted.

If you feel strongly that you want to raise employee compensation, by all means do so, but conduct a salary review so you know exactly how much it will take to cover the additional expense and have a plan to offset the increase.

Interested in speaking to Sally about your practice concerns? Email her at sallymck@mckenziemgmt.com.

Interested in having Sally speak to your dental society or study club? Click here.

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