Sally McKenzie

With the turning of the calendar comes the opportunity to start anew. In the coming months, resolve to make the most of marketing your practice. I recommend you start in a somewhat unconventional place - with your weakest link. In most practices this would be the team. Let me explain. Too often, poorly selected and poorly trained employees undermine the very best marketing a practice can buy, and too few practice owners recognize the impact employees have on marketing success or failure.

It's often said that a company is only as good as its people; that statement could not be truer in the dental practice. The quality of your employees reflects the quality of your care, at least in the eyes of the patient. Ensure that yours represent the best you have to offer. Never hire someone simply to fill a position. Instead, market the position by following a clearly defined employee recruitment and selection plan:

1. Write ads that will attract the better candidates. Remember, status and salary sell.
2. Update the job description to spell out responsibilities.
3. Use that as a guide in evaluating the strengths /weaknesses of applicants.
4. Use phone interviews to narrow the list of candidates.
5. Prepare standard questions and compare answers of applicants.
6. Test the applicants.

Computerized Internet testing tools available through McKenzie Management allow you to determine if the individuals you are considering are a good fit for the position and your practice. The procedure is simple, and it provides a scientifically-based tool you can rely on in making critical hiring decisions. And in the dental practice, every hiring decision is critical.

The next step in strengthening your weakest link would be training. In practices from Maine to California, the single biggest contributor to the failure of practice marketing efforts is a poorly trained practice team. The lack of instruction provided to business staff, in particular, costs dentists thousands upon thousands of dollars in lost revenues. They are not trained to properly answer the phones. They are not trained to build rapport with patients. They are not trained to create a positive experience for patients. Yet dentists can't understand why their marketing efforts repeatedly fail. In today's dental marketplace, there's no excuse for a poorly trained team. A wide variety of affordable training options are available, and many are right at your fingertips online or just a phone call away. Establish a training protocol in your practice to ensure that each member of your staff is prepared to fulfill their responsibilities to their fullest potential. You may find that your weakest link has more mettle than you thought.

Katherine Eitel

I heard a great quote recently by Aimee Mann: "If it's not happening now... it's not happening."

Unlike any other animal on this planet, humans can understand the concept of the future. A blessing and a curse, I think. Our big, powerful brains constantly desire to create a better life, an improved circumstance for ourselves and because we can conceive it, we set goals, ask questions, contemplate strategies, and move ourselves forward... for better or worse.

Of course, the downside is that same imagination that conceives improved circumstances and creates amazing inventions, also envisions mental movies of the future which are not to our liking causing us to worry, fret, hesitate, sometimes completely shutdown.

Other animals live primarily in the present moment. Their past experiences form them and they certainly strategize their hunting or foraging but only in response to their immediate needs.

We are the weird and wonderful mix of the two. Our minds imagine it and our bodies react like the rest of our animal kin. Adrenaline rushes when an animal feels frightened or desperate. In the human animal, this can be real or imagined.

Fall is the busiest time in my business every year. As I write this, I'm in the thick of it. It's easy for me to get overwhelmed and freaked out I won't be able to get it all done and meet all my obligations while still maintaining the life I want. I often catch myself imagining a disastrous end to a day, a week, a month.

This week, join me in heightening your awareness of how you are feeling and determine whether it is in response to a real, immediate reality or an imagined one. As you think about or imagine the future, whether it's the next hour or the next decade, if you experience negative emotions such as fear, frustration, worry, resignation, remember that if it's not happening now... it's not happening. Bring yourself back to what is happening and practice retooling your expectation of what's coming. Doing this, I find I am able to calm and center myself and hold on to a more positive expectation... and the best part... not only do I apparently keep creating a better and bigger future but I spend much happier times here in the present.

More About Katherine Eitel and Associates... 

Linda Miles, Founder

When asked to describe the ideal dental auxiliary, we all think about their ability to perform the duties they were hired to do. We also remind ourselves of the importance of their professional appearance, their team attitude, and their passion for being an outstanding caregiver to the patients they serve.

What stands out most in my mind besides the above-mentioned attributes, is the staff members' ability to communicate in an energetic manner. Dentist employers can't put a dollar value on outstanding communication skills, especially if they are a natural trait. While dental professionals go to classes or seminars that teach even the most timid behavioral style to communicate, they can read books on the subject, and memorize scripts, but born-in enthusiasm is a true gift.

With the first greeting on the telephone, patients and potential patients can tell whether the scheduling coordinator is happy, tired, bored, rude or enthused about the practice in which she works. Callers can detect the energy level of those within the entire practice. On a scale of 1-10 with ten being the highest, how does your office rate? This does not mean that every person answering the telephone must sound like a fresh Alka-Seltzer dropped into a glass of water. Quite the contrary! What it does mean is that the tone of voice must be sincere, energetic, friendly, and knowledgeable. This person must sound happy to be there and welcoming of those who make that call.