As 2020 comes to a close there is a need to pay more attention to the production levels of your practice. This not only helps you plan for year-end but it also sets the tone for the start of the coming year.

As a busy practice owner, you hardly notice how productivity is affecting your bottom line until numbers start falling. Cancellations failed verifications, and complaints usually open your eyes to the need of having a team that is on top of their respective tasks. Monitoring, analyzing, and adjusting your systems as well as your front staff make it easy for the advancements of your practice.

Improving your Dental Practice’s Productivity

When you think of a productive practice you envision an increased number of treatments as well as improved services and products available to patients and customers. With this in mind, you can now start thinking about the various factors that contribute to how well your dental practice is performing.

Some of the factors that greatly affect your productivity lay beyond your dental chair. Online presence is one of the biggest factors. Patients reviews, social media presence and engagements all play a huge part in increasing your productivity. An improved experience on this front earns you more trust from your patients and in most instances almost assures you frequent loyal appointments from the same patient as well as a good referral. In addition, the same reviews will steer you in the right direction when aiming to make changes to your practice for the better.

1. The patient is king.

How you interact with your patients is the BIGGEST productivity factor for your practice. From the time your receptionist picks up a call from your patient he or she is already creating a mental picture of your practice and how they think they will feel after their treatment there.

To ensure a long-lasting first impression you need to invest in properly training your ‘ front-line staff’ for exceptional customer service. To make this simpler for you make sure your staff is well versed in;

• Interactive listening techniques
• Deriving concern/detail of what the patients are saying.
• Incorporate text-type platform as most prefer to communicate through SMS

2. Lessen Patient Wait-Time

As patients start rolling into your practice minimizing their wait time is the best way to improve your productivity. The less time they spent in your waiting room the more patients you see in your dental chair and the better impression you make on your patients.

Communication will also help you achieve this. Be upfront with a patient about their wait time. Giving them this heads up will be much appreciated by your patients and will also give your dental team a target time to work with. Meeting the time to a dot might be difficult but make sure you work within the time offered to the patient. A minute or two late is in some cases acceptable.

3. Confirm Appointments

Time management is important in improving productivity. Confirmation of appointments makes your practice more credible.  This will also help you  make a plan for the day knowing which patients are actually coming, which patients have rescheduled and which patients have canceled ( though we want to avoid the last one)

Your patients are also busy people who are prone to forgetting. As such it is important to give them gentle reminders that will keep them on track and your practice working with its scheduled times.

4. Assess Patient Feedbacks.

Customer service and marketing make for good productive factors for any dental practice. Establishing your presence on directory listing and social media increases the amount of feedback you can receive from current and potential patients.

While analyzing this might seem like something you can simply do, make it a team effort so as to boost the morale of your dental team. This will also help you with a broader point of view from your various team members.

The Internet has become the biggest influencer in the world. This means patients have a platform to share their thoughts and opinions at the push of a button. Patients are gained, maintained, or lost as quickly as it takes to type one bad review or quicker still when they see bad online ratings. This means engagement on your sites is mandatory if you want to build a loyal patient base and improve on practice productivity.

5. Treatment Costs

According to the ADA, the costs of dental treatments are the primary reason adults indicate why they do not want to book an appointment at a dental office in the next 12 months. Coupled with discrimination from insurance service providers plays a huge part in encouraging or discouraging patients from booking appointments with your practice. All of which affect the bottom line and productivity of your practice.

You can counter this by offering your costs upfront so the patient can make an informed decision on the treatment they need and how much they are willing to pay for it. Help the patient understand how much is needed and what is covered by their insurer.

6. Improve your Dental Office outlook.

Your dental office is your second home. Like any home, it should be presentable to welcome visitors at any given moment and leave a positive impression. Having a well-designed and organized office goes a long way in making sure there is a smooth workflow not to mention how much it helps sway the decision of a potential patient.

The outlook of your office goes beyond furniture and design. The culture of your dental team adds to the atmosphere that is in your practice. This doesn’t only make the patient more comfortable, it makes your dental team more eager to come to work in a well-maintained and orderly workspace. All of which translates to better production all-round in your practice.

7. Professional Morning Meetings

I know, morning huddles can be a bore and to some can even appear as a waste of time. This isn’t so. How you start the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day, which sets the tone for how productive your practice will be that same day. Morning meetings help to put your staff on the same page. This results in better team coordination as well as physical confirmation.

How can u best start your morning meeting?

• Go through the emergency patient protocol for the day.
• Look into any clashing appointments reschedules or follow-ups needed.
• What Handoffs or deliveries are expected during the day?

8. Simplify Billing

This is 2020 and to tell you to automate your billing would seem redundant, but we are going to say it anyway. Automated billing makes a world of difference in practice management. Find the best up-to-date billing systems that can be employed for your practice and keep it all seamless.

9. Improved Payment Platforms 

Now that your billing is sorted make the payment process itself easier. Your patients will appreciate an array of payment methods and acceptance of all banking services from your practice. This will also make it easier to improve cash flow and make your practice as productive as it can be.

10. Up to Date Dental tech Supplies

Dental technology is ever-evolving. Making your practice more productive and treating your now rising patient base needs you to invest in the best dental tech support. No! This doesn’t mean giving up an arm and a leg in buying it. There are insourcing partners that can help you get the very best tech support at a fraction of your would-be budget.

11. Show your team they are appreciated.

The key element in implementing all the productive advancements mentioned above is your dental staff. They know they are appreciated but always strive to give them a little more motivation. Offer your team small incentives to show them that they are an important part of the practice. Rewarding punctuality, increasing patient numbers, and reaching targeted goals goes a long way in increasing productivity in your dental practice.

In Conclusion

There are endless ways to increase productivity in your practice. From office appeal to the advancement of your dental team. Dental support companies like SupportDDS make sure you get the above results and more while saving you time and money.