DentaltownUK May 2017 - 13

howard speaks

column

Truth is, men who say things like that are usually
jealous about how women can more easily have conversations about difficult things.
Let's define "gossip" as misguided, misdirected
venting-and that's something you don't want in your
practice, because venting rarely leads to action or solving
the problem. Instead, what you want is that staffer to
approach you and express her problems. Then you
walk her over to whomever she has an issue with and
everyone sits down, talks and works it out. It's inherently
uncomfortable-but occasionally necessary, if you want
your office to operate at a hum, without friction
Whenever I'm lecturing, female dentists come up
and say, "I have a problem. Whenever the old-man

dentist I worked with for the past three years snapped
his fingers, everyone jumped. But now that I've bought
his practice, whenever I snap my fingers and say the
same stuff he said, nobody jumps. Instead, they all
start asking questions."
They think that's a bad thing, but I tell them that
it's not. The real "bad" thing was when the male dentist
spoke and nobody replied: That was fear-based, because
they believed it was pointless to talk to him. I tell these
dentists they should feel honored that when they bark
out something to their teams, they bark back. If your
team is so easily sharing their concerns or ideas, you've
achieved something in your practice that most of us never
have and never will. It's a damn good thing.

See Howard Live!
Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, is an international speaker
who's written books and dozens of articles. To schedule
Howard to speak at your next national, state or local
dental meeting, email rebecca@farranmedia.com.

2017
MAY
5

Patterson Dental conference
Kansas City, Missouri

JULY 29-
AUG. 1

Pearly Whites conference

AUG.
18-19

Dental Summit Nashville

OCT.
11

Melbourne and Sydney, Australia

Nashville, Tennessee

Asteto Dental Labs study group
Saddle Brook, New Jersey

Practicing patience
with your patients
That goes for patients, too. If you're not
good at talking with people, hire someone
who is, or the practice won't succeed at
making connections with patients.
How does your team respond to people
who call the practice but don't know what
to ask? At our office, lots of folks call up
and say, "Uh ... how much is a crown?"
Valerie, who's been with my office for
years, knows that the proper response
isn't a dollar amount but, "Who said you
needed a crown?" She knows how to begin
a conversation founded in trust: "Well, why
don't you just come down right now? I can
have the doctor take a look, to see if you
even need one." When trust is conveyed
starting with the first phone call, it's magic.
That's why many phone systems have
two options: Existing patients call one
number, while new patients call a different
one instead. If a patient has been coming
to me for 20 years, I have more freedom
in how I communicate with her because
she already trusts me (or she wouldn't be
coming back for two decades' worth of
checkups). But new patients don't know
anything about me or my work, so it's
important to have a system that builds
trust right away. ■

dentaltownuk.com \\ MAY 2017

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