FYI there is a tremendous program being offered to help you better understand the Internet link for your practice. It is in Austin Texas at The Hyatt Lost Pines Resort on March 23 and 24th. It is being offered by ACE (The Academy of Comprehensive Esthetics).

Lecture & panel discussions will feature dental experts Dr. Tom Hedge, Dr. Marvin Berlin, Dr. Kent Smith, Dr. Peter Boulden, Dr. Curtis Westersund, Dr. Gerilyn Alfe, Dr. Anthony Vocaturo, Dr. Tim Hale & Dr. Peter Masci.

You’ll also have the opportunity to learn from industry experts Mr. Zach Hoffman of Dental SEO, Mr. Jim Higgins of Smile Reminder, Mr. Tim Kelley & Mr. Tim Healy of TNT Dental, Mr. Dan Scott of Roadside Multimedia, Mr. Howie Horrocks of New Patients, Inc., Dr. Bill Jackson of PlanetDDS, and Ms. Jennifer Poppers of ShopPR.

Do not miss this tremendous chance to get on board with the newest wave in attracting new clients to your practice and increasing your bottom dollar.

A New Approach….Way Out Of The Box Thinking

Hey you guys here is a new twist. I was reading in HEALTH magazine that there is a dentist in Boston who makes “tooth whitening house calls”. Right in your own home he will take impressions of your teeth, make whitening trays and leave you with all you need to brighten your smile without leaving your own kitchen. He even offers to come to your office on your lunch hour to get you on the way to a whiter smile. Pretty different approach, I wonder how many he converts to actual patients in his office or if he even has an office??? He only charges $300.00 for this custom service. Sure sounds like a terrific deal for those too busy to get to our offices.

Here area few vital items that should be included in that Initial New Patient Telephone Contact:

• Name
• Referral Source
• Practice Descriptive Statement
• Reason For Appointment
• Home Address
• All Contact #’s for verification
• Credit Card Number to Reserve Appointment Non Refundable if no show
• Packet if Time
• Web site Address to Fill Out Forms On Line
• Info Must be at Office 48 Hrs in advance
• Initial Feeling Regarding Client
• Appointment Date & Time

This is valuable information to gather prior to scheduling a New Patient in your office. It will help you start to develop a relationship with them and help them see that you are different from the rest.

Monitor patients in the office and where they are

communicate between Team members

Check this new system out looks pretty neat. We downloaded trial version and are playing with it. I have no vested interest in this just think it looks neat.

www.Patient-Tracker.com

It is time of the year when in some practices things slow down. I have never really figured out why; maybe because of tax time or maybe it is an after the Holiday lull. There have always been things you can do, chart audits, special discount offers, email reminders of unfinished treatment plans, etc. Well here is a new one. Every existing patient who is being seen in hygiene for re-care take a shade and talk about whitening. Explain to your existing patients on their re-care visit that the “standard of care” in dentistry is changing. That you are now taking a full series of digital photos on all new patients when they enter your office. Get them into an empty chair and get photos on them. These patients of record deserve to see their mouths the same way new patients are seeing their mouths. It opens their eyes to the need to get some the dentistry they having putting off for years done. Give them the opportunity to have their comprehensive exam brought up to “the new standard of care” in your office.

A dozen long stem roses of various colors in a beautiful vase, to the client/patient who just got their smile make over. The note should be personally done. And have the gift delivered to their place of business.

Theater tickets & a gift certificate to dinner

We have done tickets and parking pass to The Cincinnati Bengals Games Or Cincinnati Reds, sports nuts love it

Movie passes (make great gifts for monthly recare card drawings)

Subscriptions to magazines you see them always pick up in the office

Gift certificates of all kinds always work well for families

Tiffany’s has a great gift catalog they will send to you

The Ritz Carlton also has a gift catalog

Something as simple as ordering cookies on line from one of the great gourmet cookie companies like www.christiecookies.com

It is the little things we do to show our appreciate that say we care. So in your busy practice assign someone the special job of the all important “Thank You” follow up.

I will talk about consumer psychology on the web, how to get postioned number one and in many places on page one, listing services – which one’s are good, how my one year Einstein project worked out, how Google, MSN and Yahoo search works,  web site design – the good, the bad, and the ugly, web communication tools and how to stay in touch with patients, and much more.  This will take up the morning.

 In the afternoon Vijay Sikka, will demonstrate his Practice Optimization software that bridges your practice management software with your financial software.  E.g. Dentrix and Quicken.  Very cool stuff.

Jim Higgins will follow with high tech relationship marketing and why this is critical today.

Tim of TNT Dental will wrap up with more insights on web sites and web marketing.

The fee for the course will be 575 and you can register by calling or e mailing Corine@dentalhealthcenter.com or 513-777-7017.  I have a room with capacity for 20.

Tony

Computers, digital cameras, and photographic quality printers are all in the main stream of consumer purchases. Consumers are also accustomed to watching and learning via a television or computer monitor.

Our patients are these consumers.

These same consumers come into our dental offices and presentations utilizing these digital media are very well received. There is another advantage to using these media in that they remove the potential confrontation from the treatment plan. Seeing is believing!

Most people have some degree of confrontational tolerance. Some will avoid confrontation at all costs. Others welcome confrontation.
Dentists have been shown via numerous studies to be introverts. The numbers approach 75%.

Dentists that have a low level of confrontational tolerance (most of us) will not present a full and complete treatment plan in order to avoid confrontation.

What could be the confrontational answers?

“My old dentist, Charlie, who I played golf with once a week, said I was in great shape six months ago.”

“I’ll think about it.” In your mind this means – “ Gimme a break. You must have a kid going to college.”

“My gums have always bled. It’s normal for me.”

“I’m sure my insurance will cover those veneers.” You think – “She’ll flip when she finds out insurance covers nothing.

Let me present a new scenario for the new patient exam to eliminate the confrontational tolerance factor and present dentistry in a consumer friendly manner. This is the way we have been doing the new patient exam in my office for the last six months. Case acceptance has skyrocketed.

The entire process is centered on the new patient coordinator. The process starts with the new patient phone call. The call is not handled by the front desk person who is checking out patients, answering the phone and greeting patients. There are too many interruptions. The front desk person takes the call and transfers it to the new patient coordinator. The new patient coordinator has the uninterrupted time to establish the relationship. The new patient is invited to visit our web site, which reinforces what our practice is all about.

At the appointed time the NP coordinator is waiting for the NP. We can be pretty sure that the unfamiliar person walking in ten minutes before the appointment time is our new patient. Our NP coordinator starts off with something like – “ Hi, my name is Corine. You must be Sue Smith. Welcome to the practice. Let me give you a tour, and then we’ll sit down and talk in our conference room.”

After a “get to know you and what can we do for you” conversation, Corine will come down to my office and we will review her findings.

I will talk with the patient for about five minutes and we will start the digital photographic exam. The first shots I take are portraits in our studio. I use umbrellas and a hair light to get a professional quality portrait. I tell the patient that this shot is all about teeth. I want a big toothy smile. This lets the patient immediately know that we are different and professionals.

We then go into an operatory and take 14 intraoral shots. The patient is then introduced to my clinical assistant for radiographs. Corine and I then go into my office and discuss a treat plan while we review the photos. It is amazing how much more you see with excellent photographs versus a visual exam.

Corine then meets the patient in our conference room and reviews the images. She points out items of interest and allows patients to ask questions about their teeth. The patient sees their teeth like they never have before. They end up asking for dentistry so you don’t have to sell it! Corine presents a treatment plan based on their discussion and discusses finances and time frames. The patient is then told that the doctor will now do a clinical exam to confirm the findings and things may change a bit. My clinical exam rarely varies from the digital exam.

Periodontal conditions are assessed following this examination by our hygienist.

I have decreased my involvement in the new patient experience and substituted it with someone on my staff that has now created a relationship.

This gets back to the confrontational tolerance issue. The doctor will be more reluctant than a staff member to present the COMPLETE treatment plan. The staff member must believe in the doctor and should have a testimonial story to validate the message.

The doctor probably will not say that they do the most beautiful cosmetic cases, or that he is incredibly gentle. The devoted staff member can say this. If you toot your own horn, it will not come off as well as if a staff member did this.

chicagosmilespa.com

Download The Podcast Interview

If you have an oportunity to join a national campaign, like the LVI branding campaign, you should hop on the chance. www.lvidocs.com. Invisalign, DeVinci Veneers, Lumineers, Mac Veneers, Denturewearers.com, Britesmile, and Zoom II all have national consumer campaigns. If you perform these procedures, you need to get onboard with their marketing.

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