You might be familiar with what we like to call The Ultimate Backup Routine – the routine you go through each day to back up your data, images, and any other important files you need. You back up your data daily, weekly, and then monthly on external hard drives, and you store those hard drives in a safe, off-site location. You might also cross your fingers and hope that these backups work in the off chance you might need them.
Topics: orthodontic practice management, orthodontics, cloud computing, cloud, security, no server, edge cloud
By Roger P. Levin, DDS
In the last few years, we are seeing a new syndrome, a course of action (or some may say inaction) that is usually a serious marketing mistake. I call this syndrome “single focus marketing”. Single focus marketing means that the orthodontic practice focuses on one marketing area and not much else. Examples of this mistake in marketing include focusing only on internal patient marketing, relying only on a strong social media program to bring in new patients, hoping only that referring doctors will continue to refer or increase referrals, or concentrating only on advertising or community relationships.
Topics: Marketing, Referrals, orthodontics, Roger Levin, Social Media, community promotions, referral marketing, COVID-19
By Derek Dohrman
It’s that time of year again. The time to start thinking about the end of the year. What does that mean in terms of Edge Cloud? End of year reports! Here is a list of recommended and optional reports that you can run for accounting and practice wellbeing.
Topics: orthodontic practice management, orthodontics, production, edge cloud, strategic planning, year-end reporting, reports
By Roger P. Levin, DDS
Leaders by nature love to share knowledge, information, and expertise. In fact, one of the hallmarks of a great leader is that they always spend time educating and teaching others. That is why you so often see retired fortune 500 CEOs take part-time teaching positions after they complete their business career. In a sense, successful CEOs always have to be teachers.
Orthodontists that create a culture of ongoing education and information dissemination will build better teams, and better teams build better practices. The challenge for orthodontists is that they are so busy with patient treatment that they lack time for teaching or taking advantage of “teachable moments.” This is one of the reasons that many orthodontic teams stagnate, and when a crisis such as COVID-19 emerges, they don’t have the ability to pivot in new directions to help the practice stay at high levels of productivity.
Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, leadership, COVID-19, recovery, education
By Michelle Haupt
Buying an orthodontic practice management software is a big deal, as it is the foundation of your practice. With the proper solution, you will be able to run an efficient, on-time, profitably practice, and spend more time with your patients. There are many things you should consider before purchasing a software solution:
Topics: orthodontic practice management, technology, orthodontics, cloud computing, success, management, software, planning, strategic planning, education
By Roger P. Levin, DDS
The orthodontic team that you worked with pre-COVID-19 is not the same team that you have now. They may look the same from the outside, but everyone has changed somewhat on the inside. Some team members that have decided not to come back. Others have to change their work schedules due to family issues. Even if you’re fortunate enough to have your entire team back, they may have safety and personal concerns that affect them at work.
Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, trust, team building, COVID-19, recovery, compassion, transparency
By Michelle Haupt
It’s only November, you shouldn’t be thinking about taxes yet, right? As a small business owner, taxes, and more specifically tax deductions, should be on the forefront of your mind, especially during the last months of the year.
Topics: orthodontic practice management, orthodontics, strategic planning, value, tax deduction, taxes, Section 179
By Roger P. Levin, DDS
It’s no surprise that orthodontic fees have always been a factor in parent or patient decision making. However, Levin Group is projecting that fees will become even more important from a competitive standpoint. To aid parents and patients in their decisions, it will be necessary for orthodontic practices to create a highly specific system for communicating value within the new patient experience. Most orthodontic practices feel they already communicate value to the potential new patient, but they now must raise their communications to a higher level. This can only happen if an effective system is designed and unfailingly followed.
Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, COVID-19, recovery, strategic planning, competition, orthodontic fees, value
We all could go for some precedented times right now. Nevertheless, since we are still in the unprecedented times of 2020, Ortho2 is here to help you feel a little more like what used to be. Since the pandemic began, telehealth has seen a 3,437% spike in usage*. That’s a lot of people looking to do routine healthcare online.
Topics: Ortho2, orthodontics, online forms, edge cloud, Online Scheduling, COVID-19, two-way texting, Edge Portal, inVisit, virtual appointments, online bill pay, Edge Reminders
By Roger P. Levin, DDS
The COVID-19 crisis has changed orthodontics and dentistry permanently. One of the biggest effects of the crisis is that dentistry has probably advanced five years in about ten weeks. This means that certain inevitabilities, trends, and market positions have already changed even if supporting data is unavailable and the trends are not yet obvious. As a result, it will never be business as usual again.
Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, COVID-19, recovery, strategic planning, data analysis, competition
