I love them all. I really do. I subscribe to all of their newsletters. I listen to their audiotapes. When there is nothing else on television, I even pop in one of their videos. So what is my concern with the new breed of practice management experts? They promise to have a solution to every kind of patient complaint.
We really are blessed in the dental field to have many fine practice management experts who have worked with thousands of practices and have helped dentists become more organized, more efficient, and especially more productive. These wonderful consultants are worth their weight in gold. What irritates me are the ones who claim, “If you don’t do it my way, then you can never be successful.”
They claim their techniques work for every practice in the country, with no bearing on location, socio-economic conditions, doctor personality, etc. They claim they understand how to win in the new era of health care that is upon us. They say they have all the answers. Let me say clearly that, over the years, I have tried many of the techniques presented by this new breed of consultant. I upsized my practice and then downsized my practice. I now find that I needed to right size my practice, which is exactly where I was in the first place. I tried to make my patients feel special by sending flowers unexpectedly, until I found out that, around here, it is somewhat inappropriate to send flowers to women unless it is for romantic purposes. I sent cute little notes to patients. I externally marketed, internally marketed, and cosmically marketed. Or is that “comically marketed?”
The really entertaining parts of dentistry are the almost daily come-ons that we get in the mail. You know the letters I’m talking about. These letters begin with headlines such as, “The One Word That Raises Production 80%,” “How To Get 100 New Patients Per Month With A $25.00 Investment,” and my personal favorite, “These Colors Make Your Patients Always Accept Treatment.” Or how about hearing some “expert” tell an audience, “My patients thank me for raising my fees.” I don’t know about you, but no matter how hard I try, or what I do, I doubt that my patients will ever actually thank me for raising my fees. My patients may be understanding as to why there is a fee hike, but I won’t be receiving thank you cards and letters of appreciation. Come on you guys, get real!
Then there are the management gurus’ rules for finding good staff. “Hire a people person,” they say. For the most part, this is good, sound advice. Here is my experience, and I’ll bet it is very similar to yours. I’ve had staff that were incredibly friendly and bubbly who my patients just could not stand. I’ve had dental staff that were irritable and grumpy who were just loved and adored by patients. Go figure.
There are those management experts who insist on providing detailed word scripts that you and your staff must memorize to deal with any possible situation that may arise in the office. There are those consultants who think that word scripts are a waste of time and it’s better to develop the staff’s personality so that they can indeed sincerely deal with any situation that pops up. So who is right? The answer is they are both right and they are both wrong. This really depends on the kind of staff you have in your office. Some people need and are helped by detailed word scripts and others don’t need them at all. Many practice management consultants will try to force their system onto an office even when the dentist’s personality may not fit into that system. What we truly need are lessons in common sense to clearly understand what our practice really needs.
This is my advice to all dentists looking for that spark to restart or get their practices going--look in the mirror, therein lies the answer. If you have been in practice for any length of time, you know what works for you but you may have forgotten. So many times, we put a plan into place and let it run on autopilot, thinking everything is going well. And it usually does for a period of time. Then we lose sight of what we are trying to accomplish, and forget what we were trying to do.
Look at your practice with a critical eye, just as you did when you opened the office. You are at a much bigger advantage now because you are filled with life experiences, and you know what works for you and what doesn’t. Let your staff be involved in this process as well, and sincerely seek their input.
When it comes to practice management techniques, I feel this is the most important lesson I’ve learned over the years. You need to find a practice management system that fits your personality and style. Not every technique, whether clinical or practice management, is suited to every dentist. The same applies to business principles. There are generic business principles, which will apply to every business, which includes dental offices. And there are principles unique to dental practices as we know them. We can use guidelines, forms, organizational charts, and systems to manage our offices. All of this is important. With all of the above, there will still be those situations that fall between the cracks. It has been said that 80% of your problems come from only 20% of your patients. It is how you deal with the tough situations that make you or break you.
Everyone is talking about evidenced based dentistry. Let’s instead turn to common sense based dentistry, both in terms of our clinical skills, judgment and practice management. Let’s bring good old common sense back into our dental practices and into our lives. That common sense will tell you that you cannot, and never will be, all things to all people. There will be those who love you, those who merely like you, and those who can do without you. Attract those who love you to your practice with the “like refers like” rule and take care of them. They will, in turn, make your practice less stressful, more productive, more profitable, and more fun.