Doing the things that go wrong, first?

I was speaking to a dentist last week and we were discussing the free appointments that he offers to his patients. He currently offers a 15 minute free appointment for tooth whitening and a half an hour free appointment for implants and smile makeovers.

The problem: he keeps running over, spending up to one hour with some patients. I delved deeper (as you know I do) and found out that, if the patient was interested in implants or a smile makeover,  instead of scheduling the 1.5 hour assesment and spending the remaining five minutes he had available building a relationship, he would start to do the things that go wrong first.

I paused and delved deeper again. He explained that  the things that cause him to run late  on the day of the assessment  are normally the photographs or they do not get taken at all because he is trying to save time.

He can’t win either way. He takes the photographs at the new patient’s free appointment and then runs late or he takes them in his assesment and runs late. Why? – because he is always rushing to take the dental photographs.

The solution: Dr “X” needs a Treatment Coordinator to see all of his new patients which we will implement very soon, in the meantime he has cleared an area in his practice which is perfect for taking photographs and I will be training his team to take them for him from now on. Dr X is excited, and glad he is about to delegate something that takes up a great deal of his time, and something that always goes wrong! Imagine how pleased he will be when he has a Treatment Coordinator as well!

Think about what you can delegate – what often goes wrong with your new patients and find solutions. The solution doesn’t have to be one that is provided by the dentist – your team can do more for you then you would ever imgaine!

Laura