Dedicated to helping doctors and their team have an office that is not only highly productive and fun but one that allows them to consistently exceed patient expectations.
October is National Dental Hygiene Month – This is the time of the year where we celebrate the work our awesome dental hygienists do (which is way more than just “clean teeth”), and we help raise awareness on the importance of good oral health.
Hygienist Appreciation Spotlight
During the month of October introduce your hygienist(s) on your social media platforms. Share a photo and some fun facts.
Celebrate your amazing hygienists all month long (they deserve it!).
The Daily 4 – Talk to your patients about the importance of practicing The Daily 4
Four steps that lead to a healthy smile:
Brush: Using a soft toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste – Brush your teeth for two minutes at least twice a day.
Floss: Floss between your teeth once a day to remove plaque that brushing your teeth fails to remove.
Rinse: Rinsing with an antimicrobial mouthwash helps to reach the bacteria that brushing, and flossing cannot.
Chew: Chewing sugar-free gum after a meal will help produce saliva, which fights cavities, neutralizes plaque, strengthens enamel, and cleans food debri from teeth.
Social Media Post Content Ideas to Boost Engagement During October
All month-long share posts and short videos on your social media platforms regarding the importance of regular preventive dental visits to the dentist.
Video Topic Ideas:
Proper Brushing Techniques
How to Floss
Benefits of Sealants
How to choose toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.
Good Snacks Bad Snacks
How Fluoride treatments benefit children and adults!
What do to about bad breath
World Smile Day: 1st – Invite your patients to share pictures of themselves, their family, and/or their pets smiling on your Facebook page to be entered into a drawing to win a prize. Goal: fill FB newsfeed with happy smiles!
Photo Backdrop & Smiley Props – Set up a photo area for your team and patients to take pictures to celebrate world smile day. Share to Google My Business, Facebook, and Instagram
Kids’ Goal Setting Week: 3rd – 9th – Share ideas for dental hygiene goals for children. For example, for your young patients, design a hand-out that includes a toothbrushing chart to track their daily brushing progress. You could even have a fun gift that they can enter to win by turning in their completed brushing chart to the office at the end of the month.
Ideas of Special Offers during the month of October
Complimentary Adult Fluoride Treatments
Free Electric Toothbrush for your New Patients seen in Hygiene
Gift Of Health Certificates (for your patients to share with a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or family member.)
Hygiene Department Management Tips & Ideas
Hygiene Re-Appointments – The best way to keep your patients active is to be sure to reappoint them for their next hygiene continuing care visit when they are there at the office and still in the treatment room.
Also, help more of your patients say yes to your treatment recommendations and have them reserve their appointment at the time treatment is diagnosed and presented to them.
You should be tracking both your pre-appointments and your re-appointments. This is important if you want to reduce patient attrition and reduce the amount of money and time spent trying to reach these patients later on down the road.
If you enjoy the dental leadership, management, and marketing tips and ideas that I share each month – I would love and truly appreciate for you to please take a second and share a review/recommendation for me on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK Thank you very much!!!
Wishing you all a wonderful dental hygiene month!
Have you signed up to receive my complimentary dental marketing and practice management ideas that are sent right to your email inbox each month? If not, take a second and sign up. Or send me your email address (bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea
“There is no way that the quality of patient care and experiences will exceed the quality of the people who provide it.”
It’s true if you want your patients to consistently have great experiences, accept your treatment recommendations, and refer their friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers to you – it takes a quality, happy, and productive team. Of course, though, it starts with you!
Set the Example – Treat your employees how you would like them to treat your best patient!
If you want to see a positive change in your practice, you must consistently lead by example… be the change. It starts at the top. You set the tone for the day, make certain that it’s a happy & productive one. This includes any employee in a management position – if you have employees complaining about your office manager, take it seriously. A toxic office manager will destroy your practice over time, at the very least, cause a staff turnover nightmare. In fact, any employee that is toxic to your vision, to your team, and/or your patients…needs to go. It’s not easy to make the decision to terminate someone’s employment, yet absolutely necessary if you want to improve your practice. It’s been said that “what you allow you encourage.” Once you make the decision to no longer tolerate or allow the poor behavior and attitudes in your practice, you’ll breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Doctors, if you would like to grow and improve your dental practice and have wondered what it might be like to work with me and what coaching is all about… please feel free to reach out to me to schedule a complimentary, no-obligation coaching call at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.
Communication – “The art of communication is the language of leadership.”
Job Expectations & Job Responsibilities – What are the performance expectations for your team? Does each employee clearly understand their role in the practice?
Hello, Good Morning! – Make it a point to greet your fellow team members every morning. Let people know that you see them and acknowledge them with a hello.
Thank you – Express your appreciation. Saying thank you improves your office, your health, and the patient’s experience.
Commendation – Commend your employees when you catch them doing something “right”. Commendation boosts morale. Applaud & reward the behavior and actions that you want to see more of. Simply thanking your team at the end of the day goes a long way in making them feel appreciated.
Creativity – Host “Brainstorm Sessions” with prizes for creative marketing ideas, solutions to improve office efficiency, welcome more new patients, patient retention, and how to have more fun as a team.
Accountability – “Great teammates hold each other accountable to the high standards and excellence their culture expects and demands.” – Jon Gordon
Work Space / Office Appearance – “Clutter in your physical surroundings will clutter your mind and spirit.”
Clutter represents indecision. Decide to get rid of the office clutter!
Staff Lounge / Lunchroom – What does your breakroom/lounge look like? Is it a space that you can relax in and enjoy? Consider cleaning it up, organizing, re-decorating, and stocking with healthy snacks and beverages for the team.
Work Hard, Have Fun, Create Beautiful Smiles.
Have FUN! – You spend far too much time together at work to not have some fun too! Create a fun and stress-free environment with Team Building Activities and Events!
Here are some ideas to get you started…
In Office Fun: Potluck lunch, Send an Ice Cream or Coffee Truck to the office, Carry out lunch (team choice), Crafts, Games, & Puzzles. Turn the music up and dance. Make little appreciation gifts that you can give out to your patients at their appointments.
Healthier Teams – How about team exercise/yoga classes? Or Monday morning breakfast smoothies? Or walks outside during breaks.
Fun with Social Media – Utilize your social media pages and your Google My Business page to show your patients and potential patients what a fun office you have.
Videos – post fun team videos on your office social media pages.
Employee Work Anniversaries – Celebrate employee work anniversaries and post pictures to your social media pages.
Pictures – take fun/silly pictures with the team and your patients to share on social media, your website, and in newsletters.
Fun Dress Up/Theme Days –
What: Decorate the office, team dresses up, small prize giveaways and snacks.
Book Club – Purchase team building/self-improvement books for your team. During your monthly team meetings or at your daily huddle discuss portions of the book. Consider purchasing electronic devices such as a Kindle Fire for each employee and download books that can be discussed during a “book club team meeting”.
Check out Dental Office Leadership, Management, Marketing, and Team Building Book Recommendations here from Betty’s Bookshelf
If you have some favorites that you think I should add to my list, feel free to shoot me a message at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com – Thank you.
Incentives/Rewards – Sometimes unexpected rewards work better than expected monthly bonuses for reaching goals. Every office is different, so if you have something that is working well for you and your team continue doing it. However, if you would like some reward/incentive ideas for reaching daily/weekly/monthly production, collection, new patient, service/product, social media, and other goals but want to keep the rewards unexpected or more spontaneous, here you go…
In addition to simple, yet appreciated, thank you cards; Spa Gift Card, Good Ol’ Cash, Lunch/Breakfast, Purse/Tote bag, Gift Baskets, Plants/Flowers, Jewelry, Movie/Theater Gift Cards, Tickets to Sporting Event/Concert, Amusement Park tickets, Restaurant gift card, Gas cards and Car Wash Gift Cards.
Outside the office Fun: (depending on your location and current pandemic restrictions/cautions)Bowling, Painting Party, Shopping, Dinner, Cooking Class, Wally Ball, Sporting Event, Spa, Escape Room, Field Day (Team up with other offices), Concert, Skating, Batting Cages, Mini Golf, Pottery Class, Theater, Pool party, Skiing, Nature hike/walk, Etc.
Continuing Education – Continuing education, not just for the providers but for the entire team is a wonderful way to ensure practice growth. Not to mention, it’s a great team-building experience, one that will give you a happier and motivated team. You can do this with in-office training, webinars, lunch and learns, and seminars/classes outside of the office.
Consider incorporating a dental continuing education class with a fun event, for example, CPR Course and Pool Party.
Regular Team Training – Don’t hold back in this area! Investin your team. Thoroughly train any new employees on your practice goals, systems, software, telephone skills, dental procedures, protocols, etc. However, training isn’t just for your new employees, everyone in the office needs regular training.
Is there a chance you might have some new dental equipment or training manuals just sitting on the shelf, collecting dust? It’s most likely because your team didn’t understand or appreciate the why and the how. Knowing why and how this new idea, technique, equipment, or procedure works, benefits the patient, the team, and the office is critical to enthused implementation.
Community Involvement – Visit the local farmers market, art/street fairs, Races/Run/Walk for-a-cause, Fundraisers, Parades, Etc. Be active in your community. Pass out freebies imprinted with your office information to the people attending these community events. Be sure to take pictures of you and your team out and about in the community and share to your social media pages and website.
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” ~ Dale Carnegie
It is my wish that these ideas and tips will help you and your team experience greater happiness at work. If you have any other ideas or things that have worked well in your office, I would love to hear about them. If you have any questions or concerns about what you’ve read today, please contact me at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.
Did you enjoy these tips and ideas? I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review/recommendation for me on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK – Thank you!!!
Have you signed up to receive my complimentary dental marketing and practice management ideas that are sent right to your email inbox each month? If not, take a second and sign up. Or send me your email address and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea!
Have you scheduled for some R & R in the new year? No, I’m not talking about rest & relaxation (although, you definitely want to schedule for that 😉 ) – the R & R that I am referring to is your patient reactivation and reappointments. Why is this so important?
Because when your patients are healthy – your practice is healthy. For your patients to smile healthy they need to schedule the treatment you’ve diagnosed and to come in regularly for their hygiene continuing care appointments.
Last year did you struggle with any of the following?
Low treatment plan acceptance from your patients.
Not knowing your active and inactive patient numbers.
Hygiene continuing care reports were a nightmare.
Too many holes in the schedule.
Poor treatment presentation skills.
Too many patients left the practice and you don’t know why.
Not enough time to keep your office social media sites current.
Don’t struggle another minute, plan now to make 2020 your BEST year yet! Get whatever help and training you need and want to make the necessary improvements. Feel free to contact me for a complimentary, no-obligation consultation at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com to see if a coaching relationship is right for you.
Today, I’d like to help you tackle one of those struggles… your inactive and unscheduled patients. Let’s reactivate all of your patients that haven’t been in for one year or longer and schedule your active patients that are currently unscheduled.
The start of the new year is a great time to make a plan for reactivating and reappointing your patients…. (attack that File Cabinet…or computer patient database!)
Ideally, daily, weekly and monthly efforts should be made to develop and maintain relationships with your patients in order to keep them active.
The best way to keep your patients active is to be sure to reappoint them for their next hygiene visit when they are there at the office. Also, help more of your patients say yes to your treatment recommendations and have them reserve their appointment at the time of treatment presentation. You should be tracking both your pre-appointments and your re-appointments. This is important if you want to reduce patient attrition and reduce the amount of money and time spent trying to reach these patients later on down the road.
Quick Side Note: Friends, if you do not know what your office numbers look like, or how many of your active patients are unscheduled, and so many other important key practice indicators; please take note of what those numbers look like. That is the only way to successfully grow your practice. You need to know where you’re at currently to know what your potential for growth is. To help you get that data quickly, like within minutes – if your PMS is either Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental you can request a complimentary, no-obligation practice data snapshot here:Game-Changing Awareness from Dental Intelligence – Within minutes we’ll identify your practice’s strengths and uncover hidden opportunities.
Now, back to Reappointments and Reactivations…
Control the Schedule – Same-day cancelations attempts and broken appointments must be handled effectively. The goal is to greatly reduce the number of same-day schedule changes and for the appointments that you can’t save be sure to reschedule them while the patient is still on the phone. (Unless of course, they’re a habitual offender!) See more tips here: How to Reduce Same Day Dental Appointment Cancellations and No Shows
However, if for whatever reason your inactive patient database is growing (you are tracking this, right?) – take steps now to welcome those patients back into the schedule. You can start by reaching out to them with a We Miss You reactivation letter and email.
If you would like a sample letter that you can customize to your practice for your patients – feel free to request one at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.
Some suggestions for your letter are:
Include a deadline to respond.
Use a handwritten colored envelope (Grab their attention!).
Have two offers: One for your patient and one for a friend, family member, co-worker or neighbor.
Make a call to the patients about a week after mailing the letter.
Be sure to document all attempts at contacting the patient and the response.
Include Social Media & Office Contact Information.
I hope that these tips and ideas are helpful to you.
I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review/recommendation for me on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK. Thank you very much!!
Friends, schedule some R & R and make it a GREAT Year!
Are you receiving my free Dental Leadership, Practice Management, and Marketing Ideas in your email inbox each month? If not, please follow today or send me (bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) your email address and I will send you an invitation to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea.
If your office is planning on participating in a community health and wellness fair or expo, I have some ideas to help you make it a big success.
Health Fair settings can be challenging for a couple of different reasons.
One, there are a lot of vendors and booths/displays so you’re going to want to make sure that your display table stands out. Your goal is to attract not detract.
Second, most people are there for something free. Well, I guess this really isn’t a challenge though because you’re going to ensure that no attendee leaves your table empty-handed.
Some may wonder what they should talk about and what sort of items they should give away?
How about these ideas…
Services/Talking Points ~
Teeth Whitening
Implants
Sealants
Smile Makeover
Orthodontics
Fluoride
Dry Mouth
Dentures
Oral Cancer (on-site screenings?)
Oral Systemic Links – the mouth-body connection
Good Foods / Bad Foods
Sugar (How much sugar is in your favorite drink display)
Healthy Snack Ideas
How-to Demonstrations – Proper Brushing and Flossing
PowerPoint Presentation/Videos on a laptop, tablet, or large monitor with before and after photos.
Use nice baskets, containers, and frames to display your items.
Keep your table neat but attractive – too much information and “stuff” will be overwhelming in that setting.
Call-To-Action & Appointments ~
Include a Big Call to Action with a deadline: You could hand out a sheet of paper that has a special offer on it: Complimentary Oral Cancer Screening, New Patient Special or Teeth Whitening Offer. On that sheet include some of the other services you offer. Also, include your social media sites and of course all your office contact info.
Or have a form they can fill out on a tablet.
Make certain that you’ll have the ability to schedule complimentary consultations and New Patient Hygiene visits right there on the spot. (Access to schedule…at the very least a copy of the schedule for the next 2 weeks.)
Very Important: Your display table must include friendly, smiling, approachable and outgoing team members. (also wearing professional & clean attire)
Other things you can do to attract people to your table…
Balloon Animals
Photo Booth w/photo props
Face Painting
Toothprints
Prize Wheel
Lots of free stuff! Which brings us to…
Give-Away’s ~
Bottled Water 0r Imprinted Water Bottles
Healthy Snacks
Xylitol Products- Gum/Mints/Suckers
Imprinted Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Floss / Imprinted Floss Cards
Imprinted Pens / Pencils
Magnets
Drink Koozies
Lip Balm (my go-to; www.lipbalmexpress)
For the little ones: Stickers, Dental Coloring Books with Crayons and Small Toys.
Reusable Bags with your Office Information on them is a handy give-away, one that allows them to carry their free gifts in and advertise your office for you If you’re not looking to spend a lot on the bags, please consider using small imprinted plastic bags so no one is fumbling with their gifts.
Raffle / Drawing ~
Electric Toothbrush
Whitening Pen/Trays/Strips
Gift Cards
Gift Baskets ( Themes: Dental, Family Games, Gardening, Seasonal items, BBQ, Winter, Fall, Spa, Etc. – don’t hesitate to team up with local businesses for basket items)
Free Teeth Whitening and or $ off Dental Treatment ( NOTE: they can either check the box for which one or all that they are hoping to win. Use a full sheet of paper with prize options and large space for them to fill out their name, email, address & phone (to be used later to send nice to meet you cards).
Should you decide to use a Prize Wheel instead of Raffle/Drawing be sure to find another way to capture their information so you can follow up with a “pleasure to meet you” thank you card after the event.
Social Media Engagement ~
Encourage attendees to “like” your office Facebook page and “follow” your office on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Perhaps you can offer some type of incentive/reward for visiting your social media sites. Make it easy for them to find your social media pages with QR codes that they can quickly scan with their phone.
Introductions ~
Take a few minutes before and after the event to briefly introduce yourself to the other vendors and businesses at the expo. Give them a gif bag with some of your office freebies. This is a great opportunity to build relationships within your community.
So many ways for you to have a fun and successful health and wellness fair. Do you have any other ideas that have worked well for you? Please, share them with me.
Did you enjoy these tips and ideas? I would love and truly appreciate for you to please take a second to leave a review/recommendation for me here on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK
Have you signed up to receive my complimentary dental marketing and practice management ideas that are sent right to your email inbox each month? If not, take a second and sign up. Or send me your email address and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea.
