Bonus points (and one-handed applause) if you recognized the play on the Zen koan (teaching riddle), “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
This isn’t a riddle, though. Thriving dental practices sound different than those that are scraping by. Here are some of the ways you can tell.
1. The phone is ringing, and answered.
Thriving dental practices answer a much higher percentage of their incoming calls. In fact, the data shows that the top performers have a 90+% answer rate. That’s an important statistic as a typical answer rate is in the 60-70% range. You might think that your front office answers every incoming call, or nearly so. And that may be true, but how many of those callers are placed on hold where they vanish.
Every qualified new patient caller that isn’t appointed wastes your marketing investment and represents money that you won’t get. Answering the phone has a direct impact on your bottom line.
2. Thriving Practices Communicate
Highly motivated team members go out of their way to break down silos and promote the flow of information. They’re quick to detect and point out problems, challenges, and miscommunication. They’re unafraid to start what might be an awkward conversation because they know that everyone is committed to the practice’s success as well as delivering the best possible patient care.
It’s not just work-related communication, however. Team members in thriving practices feel free to joke, laugh, and share their lives – with each other, and with patients as appropriate.
3. Thriving Practices Are Numbers-Driven
People do better with accurate and up-to-date information. Providing – in a non-judgemental fashion – performance data to all team members is an opportunity to celebrate successes, address issues, and keep everyone working toward the same goal.
Weekly team meetings, with current numbers pulled from Dental Intel and/or from SmartBox’s PracticeHQ
, provides the feedback team members need to perform their best.
4. Thriving Practices Have More Smiles
Whoever coined the phrase, “Enthusiasm is contagious,” hit the nail on the head. Because team members support each other, like each other, and pull toward the same goals, thriving practices are simply more comfortable to work in, and that comfort, ease, and sense of enjoyment are transferred to patients.
Thriving practices enjoy more relaxed and happier patients, and that benefits everyone.
5. Thriving Practices Make More Money
Success breeds success, and successful practices have the luxury of electing to take many more larger cases. In fact, some of the most successful practices emphasize larger and more profitable cases rather than packing their schedules with insurance-driven, low-value patients.
Arguably, larger cases are more rewarding for you and your team. Dealing with fewer but more profitable cases is also easier on your back and neck as well as your team.
What’s The Sound In Your Practice?
Hopefully, everything above describes your practice. If not, here’s a suggestion.
SmartBox Dental provides all the services necessary for dentists to grow their practices: website design and content, online and offline marketing, paid media, social media content, referral services, reputation management services, dental practice phone training, and more.
We can turn your practice into a thriving practice. That’s even in our name –”Helping Dentists Thrive.”
See what SmartBox can do for your practice by scheduling a Practice Growth Call.