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Dental Industry Trends

5 Tips to Improve Your Dental Practice Staff

In today’s dental practices, it’s imperative to surround yourself with strong team members. They will be the difference between becoming successful or not. This is why building a strong team is vital in helping your practice meet its full potential. But often, team members aren’t meeting your expectations. Instead of helping your practice flourish, they are holding your practice back. But how do you turn team member(s) into thriving ones who excel in their roles? Here are 5 ways to improve your dental practice staff.

Lead Through Guidance: Someone needs to take the lead. Don’t sit back and expect the office manager or lead assistant to set the expectations for your practice. Every employee needs guidance and direction in order to become successful. Create and present job descriptions outlining clear expectations for each position within your practice. Set aside time each month to have a one-on-one with each employee and offer positive and negative feedback outlining missed opportunities and how to improve.
Take Your Time When Hiring: When the time comes to add a new position or replace an employee, think about what you are looking for within this position and take your time filling it. Most practices take the first qualified person who applies, not thinking how this new hire will affect the existing team members dynamic, or if this hire can be groomed into a future position. Developing and implementing hiring procedures will pay off in the long run. Ask potential candidates to be interviewed by another team members. This will assist in the selection process and open up communication within your team.
Invest in Your Team: The importance of investing in your team can’t be stressed enough. It’s important to invest time in training new, as well as, existing team members when implementing new policies and technology. Proper training will help your team members become more efficient in their roles, and make them more confident in their skills. Happy employees make businesses thrive.
Raises Need to be Earned: Don’t give out raises just because it’s the right thing to do, as this sends a wrong message to your team. Team members need to earn raises, not just receive them because it’s expected. During the review process, set measurable goals and expectations to better determine if a raise should be earned through performance. Set clear expectations so all team members know exactly what it takes to earn a raise. Setting these expectations will motivate team members to excel in their roles.
Call it Like it is: Sometimes great ideas on paper don’t actually work out. When this happens, admit it and ask for input from each team member on what did and didn’t work. Once a mistake has been identified, and a new procedure is in place, the team members can get back on track to becoming a great dental practice staff.

Making the right choices with your dental practice staff isn’t easy. You need a strong team behind you to help you reach your practice’s goals and objectives. Follow these tips and soon your team members will be happier and more efficient as they work towards a common goal.

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4 Ways to Improve the Patient Experience at Your Dental Practice

Don’t take this personally, but most patients don’t enjoy going to the dentist. Many patients have bad childhood memories, know that they could potentially experience pain, and that the visit could be expensive. The goal is to have every patient walk out of your office with a smile on his or her face wanting to spread the news about how great his or her dentist is. So how do you do this knowing the odds are stacked against you? Here are four ways to improve the patient experience at your practice and ensure you will continue to grow your patient base.

Impress Them as Soon as they Walk in the Door: First impressions are everything! Make sure the person sitting at the front desk gives the patients a warm smile and a sincere welcome to your practice. The front desk person should focus on the details by using the patient’s name. This gesture may seem simple, but it is actually a big deal. Studies show by using someone’s name in a sentence, you validate their worth and let them know that you care about them. Engage in a conversation with them and take notes for future visits and conversations. Ask them about their family to show that the pracitce care. This will help ease anxiety and, ultimately, improve the patient experience.
Introduce Everyone: Make sure the office manager, dental hygienist, dental assistant, doctor, and anyone else who will be working with the patient introduces themselves to the patients. Again, using the patient’s name will make him or her feel like they are seeing friends, and new patients will notice and sense a warm atmosphere.
Body Language: Pay attention to your body language when interacting with your patients. Crossed arms, indirect eye contact and turned away shoulders while they are in the treatment chair are all signs that you don’t care about engaging with them. However, direct eye contact and speaking to them directly will show your patients that you care about engaging with them.
Practice the K.I.S.S. Method: Remember, different people process information differently. When speaking to your patients, speak clearly when explaining procedures to them, allowing them to process the information. Sometimes it’s helpful to leave the room for a few minutes. This will give them time to process the information and to think of any questions or concerns they might have. Overcomplicating the explanation by rambling on and on will only cause more anxiety.

Every practice can benefit from taking a few minutes to look at their patients’ own experience. Whether you have a little or a lot to work on, it’s worth taking the time to improve the patient experience. A little effort to improving your patient satisfaction could be the key to growing and improving your practice.

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