It is critical that potential patients walking into the ortho practice become starts. The treatment coordinator must be completely focused on those prospective patients and parents. Parents must be carefully handled when they call, when they enter the office with their child and, finally, when treatment is accepted. Ortho growth in the post-recession economy depends on truly excellent new patient experiences.

Among the most critical aspects in learning to deal with difficult or confronting situations with patients is the old axiom that says, "it's not what you say but how you say it that counts."   93% of communication is non-verbal.  While it is important to remember mom's admonition to "watch what you say," it is even more important to monitor your tone and body language when speaking.  Words comprise only 7% of the message; 38% of the message is auditory (volume, rate of speech, intonation and inflection, even accent); while 55% of the message is derived from visual aspects (facial expressions, body language, even what you are wearing or the environment you are in.)  If what you say doesn't match up with how you sound or how you look when you speak, the person will think you are, at best, insincere. (For example, if someone were apologizing to you for some situation, and was laughing while speaking, you wouldn't believe the apology was sincere.) 

Observation patients represent future production. Now, more than ever, a well-run observation program is one of the best, most productive approaches to growing your practice in this post-recession economy.

The thriving orthodontic practices in today’s environment all share common elements in their practice growth plan: a vision of the desired patient flow (new starts and active patients), determining the target audience, a variety of selected strategies, and implementation of a task list and tracking of referral strategy efforts. In speaking with hundreds of doctors within the last year one point became very clear; the old way of creating growth is no longer working… business as usual no longer creates the desired results!

Be sure to check out Part 1 of Balancing the Personal Touch with Technology by clicking here.  Carol discussed Benefits of Technology and Benefits of a Well-designed Website and Digital Images.

Technology has infiltrated the orthodontic industry at amazing rates throughout the past 10 years. Although technology continues to be in the forefront of our practice goals, it is important to remember that it is not the bells and whistles of technology that will bring or keep patients in your practice.Implementing technology to your practice can enhance the overall practice image, streamline your daily protocols, as well as enhance your patient/parent communications. It is critical to remember the importance of balancing technology with consistent and sincere personal interaction with your patients and parents.

If you haven’t noticed, being recognized as an orthodontic specialist and retaining the  market share as an orthodontist has become more and more challenging. The end result  and the process of creating a beautiful smile that is also functional have always driven orthodontists to not compromise with patient care, technology, and education. It is just  unfortunate that a general dentist can do orthodontics in a six month period and not really worry about occlusion but rather focus on what the consumer wants: the front teeth  aligned, braces on the teeth in as little time as possible, and less cost! Oh, and throw in  the fact that the insurance companies love the lower benefits being paid out to policy  holders on behalf of the non-specialist! All this adds up to the orthodontic specialty being  challenged to project the difference with the level of patient care they provide and the  benefit of choosing this specialty!

Running your clinic on time is a challenge for many offices. One determining factor in a clinician’s ability to keep on schedule is the importance of good clinical organization. Having the side units, clinic, and sterilization area clean and well organized will help the clinical team work more efficiently. If the clinic and side units are well organized and the clinicians have everything they need they can easily adjust the procedure for late patients or patients with breakage.

Retailers have edged the Christmas buying season up so that it now begins before Halloween!  “Black Friday” has spawned “Cyber Monday” for online shopping; and the mobs of super-sales shoppers have become violent in their quest for “the deal.”  The number of younger people who have never watched nor heard of “It’s a Wonderful Life” has exploded as younger generations can’t understand how anyone could watch a movie in black and white, especially one without explosive special effects.  And the second biggest retail day is the day after Christmas when the stores are jammed with unhappy gift recipients seeking to cash in on the day-after sales.  Is this what “the season” is about?

You’ve seen it and heard it many times… You wait in line to pay for your items in a store and you look up to find a sales associate whose eyes are glazed over and sounds like a broken record, “Did you find everything all right?” in a way that you know asking this question is required by management. Not exactly a positive or interesting experience.