Dentaltown November 2021 - 10

howard speaks
column
Getting to 'Yes' By Tracking 'No'
If you're not tracking the number of patients your
offi ce turns away by saying " no, " you'll miss out on
opportunities to say " yes " to getting more patients in
treatment.
In an era of increased competition and added
convenience, it's not enough for your practice to offer
quality dental care only from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5
p.m. weekdays. I'm also always amazed by the number
of practices that close up shop for an hour while the staff
takes a lunch, yet still wonder why their numbers aren't
where they could be. Lunchtime should be prime time
as far as your scheduling is concerned, because that's
your patients' most frequent opportunity to leave their
workplace during a weekday and head to your practice
for treatment. Why would you literally shut patients
out of your practice during this high-demand window?
How regularly is your front desk team turning
away callers who ask if the practice offers evening
appointments or Saturday hours? You won't know if
nobody tracks those calls, and if you're seeing a lot of
them, that indicates an opportunity to increase your
organic fl ow of new patients. But you'd have to change
your " no " answers to " yes " answers to make that happen!
Knowing the numbers
Getting your whole team involved in this
process is what will really pay dividends. When
your team comes into the offi ce each morning, do
they know the practice's breakeven costs for the
day? Do they know you've got to make $2,500
just to pay the bills? If you're at $1,500 because
you've had some cancellations, maybe instead
of closing at noon like you always do, lunch is
scheduled only after you hit your
break-even point, so you could come
back after that and make nothing but
net income. Or at least stay open and
stagger the staff schedules so someone
can always be around to take calls
and see patients!
How many times do patients call
with a dental emergency, hoping to
get squeezed in that day? If it happens
by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine
10 NOVEMBER 2021 // dentaltown.com
frequently but you're unable to fi t them in because all
of your chairs are booked for the day, this is the time
to consider adding another operatory. Again, it comes
down to tracking how many times you have to say " no "
to a patient, and fi guring out when it fi nally makes
sense to change your answer to " yes. "
Your front desk team should also be tracking how
many patients call to ask if your practice accepts their
particular insurance plan, or Medicare. You need to
know what the demand is: Are you getting asked to take
a dental plan four times a month, or four times a day?
The results should help determine your decisions
about what you choose to carry-or not carry. But you
won't ever have the answers if you're not tracking the
questions. You can't get to " yes " unless you pay attention
to how often you're saying " no " !
Can you think of more situations where you realized
your practice was missing out on getting more patients
into treatment? Please share your thoughts and suggestions
for readers in the comments section under this article
online at dentaltown.com/magazine. ■
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Dentaltown November 2021

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