A lot of dentists try to squeeze the last skerrick out of each and every tube of dental composite, while other parts of their dental practice are bleeding Benjamin Franklins, day in and day out.
What they’re doing when they’re doing this is they are tripping over thousand dollar bills while trying to pick up pennies, figuratively speaking.
With thirty-eight percent of incoming phone calls to a dental practice going through UNANSWERED to a message service or voicemail service, you would think that DOING THE MATH on that would be enough to cause every dentist to wake up screaming and crying in a cold sweat each and every night they go to bed.
But for some crazy reason it doesn’t…
And when you consider that most of those 38% of missed calls don’t leave a message and don’t make an appointment with you, but rather, go on to phone your competitor’s practice instead, the opportunity cost that is wasted right here EVERY DAY in your dental practice is frighteningly scary.
Most dentists are more concerned about saving money on the price of gloves and bibs than they are on the amount of opportunity wasted in the missed phone calls coming in to their dental practice each and every day.
“But I can’t afford to pay someone extra to sit there and just answer the phones all day…”
“My receptionist doesn’t have time to answer every phone call because she’s doing steri between patients when the phone’s not ringing…”
Here’s my take:
At present, your dental practice has a gross income and it has its expenses.
If one extra new patient makes an appointment and is seen, the fee that that new patient pays is nearly 100% profit.
This is because you’re not going to put on extra staff for only one extra new patient.
Your salaries are already being paid.
Your rent is not going to go up because of one extra new patient.
Your utility bills [phone and electricity] are not going to rise significantly because of one extra new patient [your office lighting is on anyway?]?
Really, the only measurable costs of seeing that one extra new patient is dental supplies? Which aren’t much? Maybe 3-4%? [And possibly the occasional bit of lab?]
“But I can’t afford to pay someone extra to sit there and just answer the phones all day…”
“My receptionist doesn’t have time to answer every phone call because she’s doing steri between patients when the phone’s not ringing…”
Here’s my take:
At present, your dental practice has a gross income and it has its expenses.
If one extra new patient makes an appointment and is seen, the fee that that new patient pays is nearly 100% profit.
This is because you’re not going to put on extra staff for only one extra new patient.
Your salaries are already being paid.
Your rent is not going to go up because of one extra new patient.
Your utility bills [phone and electricity] are not going to rise significantly because of one extra new patient [your office lighting is on anyway?]?
Really, the only measurable costs of seeing that one extra new patient is dental supplies? Which aren’t much? Maybe 3-4%? [And possibly the occasional bit of lab?]
So extrapolating out, one extra New Patient per day wouldn’t really impact much at all on operating costs, but would significantly impact on production…
What’s the value of a New Patient to your dental practice?
What does the average New Patient spend on their dental treatment?
How much busier would your dental practice need to be to make putting on an extra team member a viable proposition?
Let’s look at the numbers…
One extra New Patient in your practice might mean an extra three appointments in your schedule each year, for that patient.
If we worked 200 days each year, and we averaged one extra New Patient each day, that would mean we would need to absorb six hundred additional appointments into our yearly schedule…
Maybe we might need one extra dental assistant?
Maybe we might need an extra dental receptionist as well?
The annual salaries for these two additional team members should come to between $80K and $90K [combined].
With an average NP value of $1500 per new patient, one new patient each day added to the practice would add $300K annually to the dental practice billings [based on two hundred days worked per year]
So let me ask you this? Is $300K in and $100K-110K out each year an attractive business proposition for you to consider?
And also, with that sort of positive cashflow result, you could easily engage professional skills trainings for your team with a minimal impact on business profits. [As opposed to providing no training, or DIY training]
Economies of scale.
And of course, while the increase in dental production will be linear in relation to the increase in the number of new patients, the increase in costs are not linear, rather the costs will be appearing as a “delayed lagging step” process.
Your only question should be:
Remember, the unanswered phone is already happening at your dental practice anyway.
And fixing the problem creates immediate positive cash-flow.
Your only questions should be to yourself:
“When do I want to start fixing this problem?”
And
“How much money am I losing each and every day by NOT fixing this problem today?”
Something needs to change:
Nothing changes by magic.
The reason your business is where it is today is because of the decisions made in the past.
And the act of not making a decision, and doing nothing, is in itself a decision.
And a very bad decision.
Whether your business is known as the dental practice that always answers the phone with a smile, or it’s known as the dental practice where the phone always rings out, or where the customer call always gets put on hold; THESE ARE CHOICES.
The option of making a change for the better, today, is your choice.
It is your decision.
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*****
Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.
You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order
*****
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me at david@theupe.com
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