Sheri Kay from ACT Dental Practice Coaching shares one of the most common questions she is asked.
It seems as though every conversation I had this week was about one thing: “how do we bring our numbers up?”
What a great question! Having many of my most brilliant moments ever I came up with hundreds of thoughts and ideas and over and over again tempered it all and asked one simple question in return: “how much are you and your team talking about dentistry?”
You see at the end of the day there really are hundreds of ideas that can work to help with the health and profitability of your practice. AND at the end of the day none of these things will work if you and your team are spending more time talking about the kids going back to school than you are about what is possible in your patients’ mouth.
Don’t get me wrong. I deeply value personal conversations and the power of connecting on a personal level with each and every patient. It is imperative that you “know your patient” and that they know you care not only about their teeth but about them as a person. AND at the end of the day I have to believe that each patient comes to visit you with their primary goal being that you will help them have a healthy smile.
Just today a dentist told me that he knows his hygienist is afraid to talk about dental issues with her patients because she is so close to them personally. She is afraid to scare them, or hurt their feelings, or make them feel bad if they can’t afford any work. Really????? My years of experience tell me that it is extra important to talk with the people we care about. AND the better your relationship, the higher the trust, and the easier it is for patients to say yes. If you and your team truly believe in the dentistry that you provide it should be natural to be excited and passionate about offering the very best care to each and every patient each and every day.(Ok that one was long too)
Think about your patient conversations and hold a mental image of a giant scale. Put personal conversations on the left and dental conversations on the right. Which way is your scale tipping? As I observe practices it is so easy to see that the most successful practices spend more time with their conversational scale tipping to the right.
Think about this as a team and make a commitment to talk about dentistry! Keep in mind that many dental professionals have never learned HOW to do this. Look at digital images of teeth together and practice simply talking about what you see. Learn to develop some curiosity and interest with your patients. When you do, amazing things will happen and your patients will start asking about to make their mouths healthier. Know that it’s ok to talk about the family and the dog as long as you then shift all attention and intention to the real reason your patients walked in.
How cool might it be to talk about this scale in your huddle on Monday morning? Ask every team member to tip their scale to the right just a little bit… and then watch what happens!
Blog Contributed By Sheri Kay
COO & Lead Practice Coach ACT Dental Practice Coaching
great blog, thank you and keep it up!
Thanks! :-)
Great thoughts!