PM
MANAGEMENT
The Hard Truths About Your Practice
To be successful in any endeavor – whether it’s business in general, the delivery of
acknowledge, and most importantly, act to address the hard truths or realities you
discover – if you are to ever experience sustainable, long-term, healthy growth of
any kind, personal or professional.
In my work with over 1,000 dentists in the last 23+ years, and from 15-years of
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viders and successfully exiting in 2018), I’ve observed several “hard truths” or lessons
dentists who are not experiencing a growing practice, a higher income every
year, and lower levels of stress struggle with. Yet, once they identify for themselves
those truths, their growth explodes in nearly every category – to include what I
consider the ultimate measure: overall happiness.
Make no mistake – this seeking of truth is not easy. And, unfortunately, most of us
either don’t care about, can’t or won’t face these lessons even when they are presented
with undeniable support and evidence. Frankly, it’s why most practices are
not growing faster, adding more hygienists and outgrowing their buildings!
Let’s start with an easy truth: Nearly every single dental practice in America is
losing at least 10% to 15% of their patient base EVERY YEAR. That includes your
practice. In over two decades, I’ve talked to a single practice owner who actually
had a system in place to track, address and attempt to regain lost patients.
Is it coincidence he owns 14 practices? Is it coincidence that his retention of
patients is the highest I have ever heard of (yet even he loses 5% of his patients
annually)? Is it coincidence that he has to do very little external marketing for his
practices once they reach about 1,500 active patients? Is it coincidence he made
a fortune selling just a piece of his multi-location empire? Or, coincidence that
patient referrals make up more than 50% of his new patients every month, in every
location?
This dentist realized early on in his career, the importance of patient retention and
that in fact, retention is the HOLY GRAIL of practice growth. He also realized that he
was the only barrier in discovering the truth of why patients leave. He was willing
to face what is NOT a comfortable experience. He learned the hard reality that if
you want to uncover why patients leave, you must be willing to expose the ugly
underbelly of your practice and be willing to accept exactly why. And, then, most
important, be willing to do something about it.
When you do undertake this brutal exercise – asking patients why they left (not
delegated to an employee, but you actually participating), you’ll discover why
members” is actually a troll in sheep’s clothing and runs off more patients than you
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cover that your patients don’t like your hours or days of the week you’re open and
they are simply inconvenient. You’ll learn your hygienist is actually hurting people.
You’ll learn your phones are not answered for days at a time (Friday-Sunday evening,
for example) which communicates, albeit not so subtly, that your patients feel
like you’re more concerned about your precious three-day weekends than their
well-being. You might even learn that patients can’t stand your horrible breath or
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