3 things to make 2020 outstanding
Coming up to the New Year is the time for listening to useful advice and pondering about the coming year. In that spirit here are three things that I think you should do in 2020 if you want to make your practice prosper.
Get your image right
Practices make two big big mistakes with respect to their image.
The first is they look like everyone else. Nothing about their practice stands out. They are generic. The problem is that, if you present your practice as "plain vanilla", then your means of competing is reduced to just being price.
Ponder how you can be different from the crowd in 2020.
The second mistake is presenting a dirty, cluttered or disorganized image. A high end practice near where I live has large weeds growing all along the front of the building.
Patients will make adverse assumptions about your cleanliness and attention to detail if your office is messy or poorly maintained.
Clean up to prosper in 2020.
Do an exceptional new patient examination
As I travel around I see most new patient examinations are pretty cursory. A quick look around, two bitewings, a clean and the patient is back out the door inside 30 minutes. So unimpressive but unfortunately so typical.
How can you diagnose proper dentistry with a five minute look around and 1 minute looking at some bitewings?
Patients know when you are really taking care with an examination. Regularly patients would say to me: "That's the most thorough examination I've ever had." And, whenever they said that their openness to comprehensive dentistry was very high.
So, if you want to up your case acceptance and also differentiate yourself start doing a comprehensive 60-minute examination.
Get over your fear of rejection
The famous dentist, Dr L D Pankey, said that the "majority of dentistry is not completed because it was never presented".
So true. Most dentists have a pathological fear of rejection and that leads them to only discuss treatment with patients that they feel the patient will accept.
Instead of telling the patient about veneers they just mention a few cheap composite fillings. Instead of implants to stabilise arch collapse they watch it happen year after year and say nothing. Instead of comprehensive periodontal treatment they offer a quick and cheap scale and clean. Instead of full mouth rehabilitation they just patch up a few of the worst teeth.
Patients want good dentistry but if you never offer it how will they know?
All the best for a great 2020.