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There’s no doubting that sometimes we do not see things that are common sense and logical.

That’s where a second opinion is often invaluable.

A second set of eyes that can see things that we for some reason are overlooking.

Have you ever wondered where you put your phone down?

Or where you left your car keys?

Or what you did with your reading glasses?

And yet another person can find these misplaced items in places where we’ve been looking.

How is that?

These scenarios are often quite common.

In life, sometimes we do things in a certain way because that’s all we’ve known…. until someone shows us a different way and we wonder why we never ever thought of it that way?

Or sometimes we carry on doing something one way and wondering what the better way may be, and why we can’t work it out for ourselves?

And other times we hear about a better way, but for some reason just cannot seem to get that better way to work for us at all?

This week one of my dentist coaching clients experienced a light-bulb moment.

She was reading one of my articles that I had posted this week through social media and thought:

“Why am I not doing that?”

She asked her dentist friends and none of them were doing what was in the article.

They’d not heard of it.

None of them were familiar with the concept.

And that is the concept of pre-blocking or templating the appointment schedule for the Dental Office.

What was interesting to me as the coach of this dentist client was the fact that one reason that I thought dentists were not templating their schedules was because of the difficulty of implementation.

In this client’s case it was because she was unaware of the concept.

To her credit, and she is an exciting new client that I have only recently started working with, I know now that she did know that there must be a better way than what she was already doing, but she just had never been exposed to what that better way was.

I’m really looking forward to helping her implement the processes of templating of the schedule in her office.

I know the benefits to her practice that will result from having a systematic process for booking in patients, as opposed to the classic old inefficient ways that most dental offices use, such as asking:

“When would you like to come in?”

And the partnering excuse of:

“But our patients can only come in at certain times”…

I know what her outcomes and successes will be, because I was able to create a templated dental schedule in my own dental practice where the patients once believed that they were the ones in control of my appointment book.

Remember, It’s Your Appointment Book. Either You Own It Or Your Patients Own You….

Have you ever called a medical specialist’s rooms to make an appointment?

Those appointments are so rare and usually only available a long way out, so that we say:

“I’ll take it!!”

to the first opening that we are offered…

And that control of the schedule that the specialist has is the certain control that we need in our office to successfully manage our own dental schedule.

Otherwise we find ourselves working late evenings and even on Saturdays and Sundays for patients who do actually have availability at regular times.

And *THAT* is an attitude that is out there in the Dental profession, sadly.

Recently I received an email that read in part:

“I hear that you should block schedule but I can’t understand why because if you don’t have anything for that slot then you don’t have a patient. Or patients that need the work can’t come at those times.”

There is a science to creating a perfectly templated and pre-blocked appointment schedule for your Dental Office.

And the process of implementation is not instant.

It is, a teachable and learnable science.

But the results and improvements of working in that rarified air of a pre-blocked office are staggering, and include:

• Better time management
• Better patient flow
• Better instrument flow
• Better production
• Improved efficiencies
• Better use and allocation of non-clinical time with arriving and departing patients

Multiply that increase in production over ten, twenty, or thirty years and then we are talking about significant income that is being left on the table when we fail to implement and fail to act on simple, learnable protocols and systems.

The great dental offices that I know manage their time with efficient pre-blocking, where the practice determines who has what treatment when, rather than the patients cherry-picking appointments.

However, effective pre-blocking can only be achieved when the front office team has the verbal and communication skills to be able to steer the patients into the appointments that are available.

Everything affects everything.

Mindsets and beliefs affect outcomes and results.

As do skills.

And different results do not occur in silos.

Everything affects everything else.

An open mind and a desire to improve and be better are the two biggest influencers on our ability to progress to a higher level and a better outcome.

Do you have them?

And if you do have them, can you as leader of your dental practice capitalise on them on your own?

Or do you need to hire people to improve the skills of your team?

Do you see all opportunity?

Are you missing some of the glaringly obvious?

Would an extra pair of eyes help improve your dental practice?

*****

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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