Back to basics

My husband and I shared a good laugh this weekend. A new washer and dryer were installed a month ago. My husband, Tim, bravely installed it with a friend. When the first load of laundry went into its spin cycle, our whole house shook violently. It took several weeks before Tim got back to the installation process. He fortified the floor, set the washer and dryer side by side, even dismantled the machines to look for something wrong. After many hours of frustrating efforts, I called Maytag. The very young female voice on the other end of the phone asked if we had removed the “packing straps and bolts” from the machine when it was installed. I was told that if not, then the machine would shake frantically. “Oh Honey. Did you remove the packing straps?” In looking at the installation manual, guess what Step One says? Remove the packing straps. Problem solved!!!

How often do you feel that you need to complete a lengthy process of trial and error to figure out the solution to a problem? Dentists tend to be isolated in their approach. They don’t really know what is causing their production to decrease or their collections to plummet. I recommend several things:

1) Know your numbers. Set goals and range norms in place to follow daily, weekly and monthly.

2) Have a business agenda at one of your team meetings each month. Discuss the numbers and the problem areas with your team. You will be amazed by what their insight is.

3) Go back to the basics with your systems. There is a good chance that what was step one in a system for phone enrollment, appointment scheduling, your new patient exam, financial arrangements has been missing for some time. It could be that a new employee never got that bit of information or an employee of record just didn’t want to do things the way you outlined them.

Oh, the mystery of step one. Where do you feel that you can go back to step one in your practice? Call me if you would like the help. My number is 8132-251-6401 and my email address is jamisonconsulting@verizon.net.

Spring Cleaning

In Tampa, Florida you know that spring is in the air. The oak pollen is driving most people crazy. It leaves everything coated in a yellow dust that is tenacious in clinging to everything that it encounters.

When yellow pollen needs to be cleaned, it requires a deeper scrubbing and evacuation of the stuff. It occurred to me that during this deepening recession we as dental business owners must be digging deeper. This recession doesn’t seem to be easy to brush away.

Spring cleaning is a time of renewal. The act requires that we plan our approach to the deeper cleansing. We create time to take a little longer with our process. We know that it isn’t something that we do daily or weekly and so we do a better job with spring cleaning.

In your dental practice, determine what problem areas need to be addressed. Schedule time to discuss your approach with your team and take some of the time that may now be available to you due to broken appointments to conduct training, research answers and share with the team or actually clean the office. When cleaning the office, tour the facility as if you were a new patient with a discerning eye. Examine the parking lot, the grounds, the entryway, the reception room, the appearance of the business office and each treatment room. Get rid of the old magazines, mountains of brochures and sticky note wallpaper. Dispose of tattered posters and old ceiling tiles. Paint the baseboard. Freshen the reception desk with weekly flowers. Spring is in the air.

This is a good time to get rid of the newspaper in the reception room. There isn’t any good news anyway and they look messy as the day goes on. Be selective about the magazines in your reception area also. Keep the bloody disasters off your counters.

I know that spring is a time for opening the door again. Be open to doing things differently. If you wish to have an objective eye look at how you are meeting your patients, please call me at 813-251-6401.

Picture yourself once your cabinets and closets have been cleaned. It feels great to see the fruits of your labor after a day of spring cleaning, doesn’t it?