Gary Kadi with NextLevel Practice

Most dentists think that new patients are the lifeblood of their practice, responsible for maintaining and increasing the success and cash flow of the practice. In fact, new patients typically consume far more energy and resources than most dentists realize. These dentists churn through the maximum number of new patients every month in order to maintain cash flow and the growth of their practices. Yet this approach doesn't provide a very high return on investment. Most of the new patients will cycle through the practice and be gone within a year, leaving behind a wake of diagnostic work performed leading to cases not presented, or cases inserted and not paid for. Either way, relying on new patients to shore up a dental practice is a recipe for disaster. Perhaps one dentist in a thousand realizes this.

 The four key elements in eliminating new patient inefficiency:

 First, establish the team as the patient's trusted advisor. Here comes the Ritz-Carlton warm and fuzzy. Here comes the love. Here comes your team, establishing themselves not just as a drill, fill, and bill operation, but as the most caring group of dental professionals your patient has ever encountered. It's your responsibility to institute a method by which your team is established quickly in the mind of the patient as the most trusted advisor the patient will ever need with regard to dental care. The system we have spoken about does this automatically. The patient clearly understands who is leading whom. This causes him or her to listen to you differently, as a trusted advisor.

 The second element in eliminating new patient inefficiency is for you and the rest of your team to be aware of your new patient's motivating values. In other words, what do they want out of their relationship with your dental practice? If you don't ask, you'll never know, and if you don't know, the chances are slim that you'll be able to meet their expectations and desires. You'll base your thinking on assumptions instead of the patient's reality. How can you uncover a patient's motivating values? During the trust exam,learn where your patient is in life. Ask the simple question, "Tell me about yourself."

 The third element in eliminating new patient inefficiency is to know the patient's fears and concerns. Just about everybody who walks into a dental office is afraid of something. Maybe it's the sound of the drill. Maybe it's the pain they associate with dentistry. Maybe it's the needle. Maybe it's paying for the dental treatment. Maybe it's just being there. But it's fair to say that a hundred percent of the patients who enter your office bring with them some sort of fear. It's your job and the job of your team to determine exactly what each new patient's specific fears and concerns are, so that you can address those fears and concerns. Again, if you don't ask, they won't tell. And if they don't tell you what they're afraid of, they will skip appointments and break agreements rather than face their fears.

 The fourth and final element in eliminating new patient inefficiency is that you've got to take time up front to educate the patient on how to participate in your practice. With new patients, you want to take positive, healthy control from the very start. Taking control means letting the patient know that there is a certain way to be a patient in this office, and it's different from the ways that patients are patients in the offices of other dentists and doctors.

 Just to recap: you should establish your team as the patients trusted advisor, be aware of your new patient's motivating values, know your patient's fears and concerns, and take time up front to educate the patient on how to participate in your practice. Hopefully these elements should help you welcome appropriate new clients into your practices - and screen out all the rest.