Ep 78: The 3 Things That Hold Practices Back

Dr. Eric Tobler began his career as a dentist in his family’s office, working alongside his dad and his brother. As his career progressed, he learned more about practice management and developed an interest in dentistry’s innovation and technology. Today, Dr. Tobler is the Clinical Director for Mortenson Dental Partners and helps integrate new technology into their practices. He has keen insight into what’s useful in dental practices and how to introduce new equipment to teams and get results quickly. In this episode, you’ll learn: The importance of early success with new technology How to get the team on board with new equipment What to do when a new piece of technology is rejected by the team How to evaluate new technology and decide what to purchase Recommendations on what technology to bring into your practice Dr. Tobler will be taking the stage at our upcoming practice growth conference, The Champions of Dentistry Summit, happening April 25-27 in New Orleans. He’ll be talking in depth about which emerging technologies are worth investing in and how to seamlessly implement new equipment into your practice.  In-person and virtual tickets to the conference are still available at http://www.championsofdentistry.com 

Dental practice success depends on getting patients into the chair for the care they need. Without effective phone calls and scheduling, practices miss opportunities to deliver treatment.  Today, Cory Pinegar is joining Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs on The Double Your Production Podcast to talk about the challenges of converting phone calls into appointments. Cory is the CEO of Reach and he’s sharing how to capture more incoming calls and boost the conversion rate. In this episode, you’ll learn: How missed calls impact practice performance (on average, about 30% of incoming calls are missed) Scripts and scheduling tips for reactivating overdue patients How dental practice call volume fluctuates throughout the day and how to staff for those peaks How to supplement call support in your practice to get better phone call results   To contact Cory or learn more about Reach, go to https://www.getreach.co/ 

Victoria Roos Olsson is an expert in leadership development and has coached leaders across the world for the past 20 years. She works closely with the FranklinCovey innovations team and is one of the authors of FranklinCovey’s bestselling book, “Everyone Deserves a Great Manager: The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team.” Today, she’s joining Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs on The Double Your Production podcast to talk about the leadership skills needed to create a strong, positive atmosphere in your dental practice. In this episode, you’ll learn: How to spark real employee engagement (and why reasons for engagement differ from person to person) Why intentionality is crucial in building and maintaining a great company culture How to keep a company culture strong and positive (and how to correct behavior that doesn’t align) How to maintain good energy throughout the day by managing 5 key things We’re excited to announce that Victoria will be joining us as a keynote speaker at our upcoming Champions of Dentistry Summit, April 25-27 in New Orleans, LA. To join us for the conference, register at http://www.championsofdentistry.com 

Dr. Paul Schempp is a behavioral scientist and professor at the University of Georgia where he studies decision making. Through his vigorous research, he’s uncovered how to make better decisions consistently and how to avoid bad decisions. Today, he’s sharing: How great decision makers use data to predict their future environment One skill that separates great decision makers from those who are mediocre How to make good decisions in the midst of uncertainty The neuroscience behind high-pressure decisions Why it’s important to think through contingency plans How the Dunning-Kruger Effect impacts decision making And more… Dr. Schempp will be joining us as a keynote speaker at this year’s Champions of Dentistry Summit in New Orleans. At the conference, he’ll be sharing the science behind the most impactful dental practice decisions.  We can’t wait for his session and we’re honored to share the stage with him this year. If you haven’t yet, you can get your tickets to the 2024 Summit here: http://championsofdentistry.com/

Money conversations can be awkward, and talking to dental patients about the cost of care can be daunting and uncomfortable for both the patient and the team. Today, Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs are sitting down with Jay Letwat from Sunbit to talk through ways to make these conversations easy and straightforward so patients get more options and more access to the care they need. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why outdated thinking around financing causes added stress for patients and the team How old financing models and tools prevent patients from taking advantage of payment options How to talk about financing in a way that feels easy and smooth for patients Why the fear of treatment cost can lead to missed appointments and how to get in front of it Verbal cues that indicate a patient is interested in financing options How production and case acceptance rise with third-party financing  To learn more about Sunbit’s payment technology, go to https://www.sunbit.com 

In today’s episode of The Double Your Production Podcast, Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs are answering a common question we hear from clients at The Team Training Institute, “Should owner-dentists and associates attend team training days?”  If you’ve ever booked an in-office training day with us, or are considering it in the future, it’s important to know who should be in the room in order to get the best results.  In this episode, you’ll hear Dr. John and Wendy’s thought process behind these decisions and their advice for getting the most out of a training investment.

In Part 3 of this series, Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs are sharing the best technology to use to raise case acceptance in your practice. One of the most important pieces of case acceptance is educating patients and making concerns visual for them. Because patients usually can’t see what’s happening with their teeth, they don’t understand the severity of the disease or decay. If dental offices can make these things visible to patients and improve their awareness of the problems, patients begin to understand the necessity and urgency of treatment and will more readily move forward with needed care. The tools discussed in this podcast help to make oral health more visual for patients and help dental teams run more smoothly and effectively.  Listen to hear Dr. John and Wendy’s top recommendations.

In Part Two of this series, Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs continue to discuss how to raise the case acceptance rate in a dental practice by creating smooth, effective patient handoffs (or trust-transfers). Patient handoffs are a little-known secret to great case acceptance because they’re an important opportunity to build trust, demonstrate excellence, and ensure understanding with patients. When handoffs are handled poorly, patients lose confidence in the recommended treatment and hesitate to move forward with their needed care. When handoffs are done right, patients are put at ease and more readily accept treatment. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why most handoffs should be done in front of the patient (and how to include them in the process) How to use smooth patient handoffs to build trust and connection with patients How to structure a handoff to make sure the team is communicating the right things quickly and efficiently How smooth team transfers can help doctors preserve more of their mental energy throughout the day

In this 3-part series, Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs are explaining ways to increase the case acceptance rate in a dental practice.  When a practice doesn’t have a well-defined and consistent case acceptance process in place, patients don’t get the information and reassurance they need to move forward with necessary dental care. When this happens, their health declines, the team gets frustrated, and practice performance declines. But what we’ve learned working with practices across the US is that with a few key systems in place, the case acceptance rate can rise very quickly, leading to healthier patients and a stronger practice. In part one of this series, you’ll learn: ·         How diagnostic inconsistencies hurt patient trust and lower the case acceptance rate ·         The importance of clear diagnostic criteria across the team ·         How to strengthen patient trust and connection ·         How the team can support and echo each other in patient conversations   Listen now here or at www.theteamtraininginstitute.com/podcast

When you talk with the team about your practice goals and share key performance indicators (KPIs), are they excited and motivated to reach those numbers or do their eyes glaze over? Today, we're sharing a segment from one of our recent practice growth retreats. In this session, Heather Driscoll is talking about what you can do to create more excitement and energy around your biggest goals. Very few dental professionals wake up in the morning excited to increase production by a certain percentage or improve accounts receivable. But, they do wake up excited to connect with patients and improve their health. So, it’s the job of the leadership to connect those dots. In this session, Heather is breaking down exactly how to design a system like this. You’ll learn how to share key metrics without boring the staff and create real momentum around the activities that not only make the biggest difference for the practice but also for patients. Learn more at https://www.theteamtraininginstitute.com