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DTUS0413

Dental Tribune U.S. Edition | April 2013 A17INduStry NEWS Is a blind spot costing you thousands? By Jay Geier Odds are your practice is suffering because of a blind spot that I guarantee you’re not aware of. A blind spot that is costing you $5,000 to $54,000 a month (maybe even more). A blind spot that, if removed, could boost your new patients by 20-50 percent, maybe even as much as 100 percent. ‘Sandwich boards’ not enough It all started about 15 years ago. I was vice president of marketing for a large private practice in Georgia. My sole responsibility was generating new pa- tients, and my livelihood depended on it. I employed every imaginable tactic to get new patients — screen- ings, health fairs, referral programs, contests, magazine ads, newspaper and yellow page ads — just to name a few. I think I even wore a sandwich board and waved to drivers passing by at one point. It was never a question of wheth- er or not my efforts were successful. They generated hundreds of calls every month, but the hard-earned calls just weren’t translating into new patients. As you can imagine, this was a beast that had to be tackled. So I rolled up my sleeves and started sinking my teeth into it to figure out how to close the huge gap that was negating every marketing dollar spent and costing the practice thousands of dollars a day. I was able to use our practice as a learn- ing lab. I worked day in and day out to discover the blind spot and figure out how to get rid of it. I knew I had cracked the code when the calls started trans- lating into booked appointments and our staff set a practice record, schedul- ing 601 new patients in one week. To eliminate the blind spot in your practice, it doesn’t require an addi- tional investment. It doesn’t require a new source of new patients. It requires an open mind because it almost seems too simple to be true. The secret lies in your telephone and your team, specifically your front-desk team. Both are investments you have already made, but they are not being leveraged to their peak performance potential. Courteous, helpful isn't enough No doubt your staff is courteous and helpful to everyone who calls your of- fice — and while that’s a good thing, it’s simply not good enough. In fact, their courtesy is probably resulting in lost new patients. And lost new pa- tients means lost money. For example, let’s say your average new patient is worth $1,500. Then one lost would cost you $1,500, five lost would cost you $7,500, and 15 would cost you $22,500. And that’s just one month’s worth. Imagine the impact of that over an entire year or how the im- pact would increase drastically if your patient value is higher. Being courteous and helpful are not praiseworthy qualities if your staff doesn’t produce a profitable result and, even worse, if it is costing you money. Actually, effective “closing” skills are the attributes your staff should strive to master. But you can’t just expect them to possess this and know how to effec- tively use it. No one is born with these skills. They must be taught, then prac- ticed, then reviewed on an ongoing and consistent basis. Not knowing this can cost you thousands of dollars If you are among the majority of dentists who are spending money to market your practice, you are absolutely not an exception. In fact, the reason for recognizing this blind spot and taking action to eliminate it is even more compelling because you are investing thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands, to get your phone to ring. And if the phone rings and it’s a shopper and the shopper doesn’t translate into a new patient, you might as well take every dollar, one by one, and flush them down the toilet. It takes a lot of skill — and an open mind — to scrutinize your practice to create positive change. It takes even more talent, knowledge and a gift for teaching to work with your staff on the fine points of the changes needed to take your practice to the next level, and way beyond. But it’s worth it and it’s a win-win. Your staff can be one of your best and Are you ignoring $5,000 or even more every month because you failed to identify and address an often-missed blind spot? Photo/Denisenko, www.dreamstime.com JAy M. Geier is president and founder of the Sched- uling Institute. He helps his clients reach new lev- els of success and create a lifestyle they dream of — using their practice as the vehicle. He has a unique ability for getting results in a practice by leveraging its current resources, with a primary focus on getting the staff to take more own- ership and responsibility and teaching them how to produce results. To see how your staff is performing with new patient calls, visit www.schedulinginstitute. com and click on “Take the 5-Star Challenge.” Call the office toll-free at (877) 317-6514 or send Geier an email at Jay.Geier@schedulinginstitute.com. Help your front-office staff convert more calls into confirmed appointments most profitable marketing tools if they are trained and you leverage them cor- rectly, but if not, they could cost you thousands. Your staff wants to contribute to your practice's growth Create a plan to get your staff trained. Talented employees want training. They want to perform better and contribute to your practice’s growth and success. If you have someone who doesn’t, they shouldn’t be on your team. This year, the German-based Komet® organi- zation celebrates its 90th anniversary, a mile- stone that underscores the company’s long- term commitment to the worldwide dental community. Since its start, Komet has brought countless innovations to dentistry, and made the brandsynonymouswithprecision-engineeredro- tary instruments. When Komet’s young found- ers adapted their mother’s sewing machine for the milling and production of a small range of dental burs, they laid the groundwork for a global organization that, to this day, prides itself on its ingenuity, imagination and creativity. Each decade brought significant increases to the product range, and new materials and power systems for dental treatment and instrument manufacture have continued to propel expansion of the company’s instrument line. Komet leaders emphasize that everything about the organization reflects back to the company phi- losophy of merging tradition with innovation. These seemingly contradictive values guided the company through decades of challenges and triumphs, resulting in an enduring cor- porate strength. As it was in 1923, innovation re- mains the heart and soul of the Komet business tradition. Komet kicked off its year-long anniversary celebration by unveiling the company’s new logo and corporate image. In undertaking the logo redesign, artists aimed to capture the spir- it of the times while assuring global recognition of an established, trusted brand. Following the motto, “evolution rather than revolution,” the project moved forward to support the Komet values of quality, innova- tion, and tradition, aiming to honor and uphold these valueswhilemovingforward.Tomaintainthecompany Komet USA celebrates 90 years of innovation identity, the primary, longstand- ing logo elements were retained: the distinctive Komet lettering has historically been associated with the company’s values of tradition and quality, while the spiral has long stood for dynamic and innovative power. By combining the two elements in a unified circle — which matches the shape of rotary instruments — the designers effectively cre- ated a contemporary look that blends the tradition and quality recognized around the world. Throughout 2013, Komet will celebrate its young founders who turned a simple idea into a worldwide phenomenon. The celebration includes Komet custom- ers, friends and even competitors, recognizing that each has played an important role in the company’s journey. (Source: Komet USA) CDA BOOTH NO. 1769 AACD BOOTH NO. 202