Tiff and Kristy shine a light on key performance indicators that won’t just propel a dental practice to success, but any business. This includes knowing your numbers (stop treating them like the bogeyman!), locking in production, case acceptance, and diagnosis.
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Transcript:
The Dental A Team (00:00)
Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. You guys know that we love podcasting. I hope we have a ton of newbies here who don't even know who we are. I say that because our reach at Dental A Team is something that we are intentional about and intentful on expanding further than you guys can even imagine. So something that we are very intentional about at Dental A Team is looking at how many lives have we impacted.
and how many lives can we impact. And we know that dentistry is vast, business is vast, so we also know we have some listeners here who aren't even in the dental industry, but just business owners in general. We love that and we wanna welcome all of you. So all of you who are here today that have been listeners for a long time, welcome and thank you so much. All of you who have shared these podcasts with others, thank you so much because you are helping us serve our mission.
And for those of you who are new, know that Dental A Team is mission full and mission forward and we are here to help support you in the best ways possible. So welcome everyone. Today's topic is gonna be super fun. But first, let's welcome Kristy to the show. Kristy, how are you today, my dear? Thank you for being here. It's a Tuesday afternoon for us, so it's a little wild for a podcasting day, but how are you doing over there today?
The Dental A Team (01:17)
Doing good. Hey, ? we had a big warm up and now we're kind of on the downside of it. So the weather's perfect and couldn't complain. And I get to spend time with you.
The Dental A Team (01:28)
I agree. I know I do love podcast days. So this
one's a long time coming. This one was a long time coming and it's true. We definitely were both in Phoenix. The Phoenix area, I should say. Everybody always says, where are you? And they're like, is that Phoenix? Like, it's all Phoenix. So we are in the Phoenix area and it definitely got warm really, really early, probably two months earlier than normal for the, for the,
temperatures that we were experiencing. So we've definitely felt like, gosh, we hit summer really early, but we're getting a little snippet of springtime right here around the corner. So I agree. I'm very, very excited for this cool down we're experiencing. With that, I think that's actually like a really good thought process to start on. We have our warms, we have our cools, and with quarter one having, you know, it's behind us at this point, really looking forward to see what the other three quarters look like.
Was that a warmup for you? Was it cool down? We have some practices that are onboarding right now, some new practices that are onboarding to Dental A Team that are like, gosh, I've been in a cool down or they're about to onboard because they're in conversations with us and we've had kind of a cool down for that first quarter, meaning maybe we're not tracking quite as well towards our goals as we could be, but I've got a few practices. I talked to one specifically just today that is in a massive warmup and
Kristy, I'm gonna brag for a second. I saw them just a weeks ago in person and we did our in-person visit and we, gosh, it was our first one ever and the team was just phenomenal. They jumped on board. The doctors were just floored at how well the team jumped on board with the goals. They've never talked goals before. I increased them by quite a bit, by like 17%. I said, you guys can do this. I know what you're capable of and you know what, Kristy, as of last
Friday, which there's still two days left in the month technically for them. They were 82 % towards their goal and they were $20,000 ahead of any month yet this year. So, it was just really cool and I brag about that and I talk about that because I want you guys to know the possibilities and one of the things that we did, I told them today, I said the best part about what we do is that we make small tweaks in areas that make massive differences. We're not completely overhauling anything.
we're saying what can we tweak in the best way possible to get a different result than what we're getting. And what we tweaked, one of the biggest pieces that we tweaked was looking at the numbers. They they weren't looking at them. And I remember in January or December, they said, Tiffanie, how are you gonna promise us that we're more profitable? And I said, well, what does more profitable mean? And they were like, well, we're making more profit. I said, well, what profit did you make? They were like, well, don't know.
Okay, well how do we know if we're making more if we don't know what we made? And so really just focusing in and being intentional about looking at the numbers and looking at where we've been and where we can go. It opened their eyes to really even see the possibility because I increased them slightly and it's going to be a massive difference for them and their numbers. And so
I say that, Kristy, I think your warmup and your cool down kind of gave me a little spur of excitement there because we definitely see those seasonalities within dentistry and business ownership too. And something I think that keeps us on track no matter what seasonality we're in is really focusing in and looking at those top KPIs at least. So we can dive and we can go minute and track the smallest things and that's fine too.
But I wanna talk today about really those top four KPIs that every business owner should be looking at. And I can say business owner because realistically, it transfers to any business. I know people who are in, like I've helped chiropractors before, we've helped eye doctors. I've talked with financial advisors about their businesses and marketing companies. they're so, all of it kind of transfers very seamlessly. It's the systems behind it that gets you there that are different for dental.
Kristy, with all of those words that I have said, welcome to the show, sorry for stealing it all. What do you feel like, if I were to say top two KPIs, what would your first two KPIs for any business owner to track really look like? What would they be?
The Dental A Team (05:47)
Yeah. Well, I think it has to start with what do we need? What do we need to cover the bills for the month? Because that's our first benchmark, right? Otherwise, all of the numbers are just numbers. We don't really know where we're going. It's funny that you were talking about that TIF because my mind went to, I don't know why in dentistry it's so taboo to talk numbers, but literally, could you imagine if you had to pay your bills for the month and you never opened your bank account?
The Dental A Team (06:16)
Yeah, I mean, I've done it and it's really scary. It's stressful. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (06:17)
I just, yeah, it's like, is there enough to cover it? Yeah. So
definitely I think the number one benchmark has to know what's our BAM that we have to go for, and then we can start digging into what are our goals to get there.
The Dental A Team (06:36)
Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. And by bam, she means bare ace minimum, you guys. What does it take to pay those bills and to keep the business thriving? So your bare minimum comes prior to your loans, prior to your owner pay, really prior to savings, right? Prior to profiting. So this is like, if I were to sell today's business, my business today, I was to sell this company to someone else, what are the financial obligations that they would take on?
That's going to be your employee costs, your marketing, your supplies, your rent, all of those pieces, your top line overhead and really figuring that out. And then adding into that, what does it look like to pay my loans, to pay my debt, to pay myself and to profit on top of that? So you get your bare minimum. Yes, I can survive. And then you get your thrive. How do I thrive? How do I pay for the things that and the lifestyle that I want? Now that's my goal.
including some profit to add back into the business later or savings, you know, for those rainy days, for those compressors that go out, all of those fun pieces, making sure we've got that in savings. So I totally agree. Making sure that that benchmark is there and that's going to be your collections, right? But it also transfers right directly back into your production. So those give you your top two KPIs right there where it's your finances. So we're looking at
What do we need to collect? What does my bank account need to have deposited every month in order to thrive? And then within my production, how do I ensure that comes? Now, Kristy, something I see practices do, which I don't necessarily disagree with, I think that it just makes it more difficult than it needs to be, is to track for collections. And so in the huddle, they're like, okay, we need X amount more in collections. The reason that I have opinions on that and is
is because we don't have as much control over the collections as we do over the production. Now, over the counter collections and what our patients owe us, we do. We have control over that, we can get it. And we have some control over insurance to the extent that we're following up, we're submitting and following up correctly, but their timeline to pay us, we have no control over that. So on a Monday, I mean, I've put in myself $80,000 worth of insurance checks on a Monday.
and then gone three weeks like, my gosh, when are we seeing more money? Because it fluctuates so much. So I think having that collections mindset is one piece, but translating that into, okay, great, now we need to know how much production it's going to take in order to collect that amount. ? It seems to translate. Do you feel the same, Kristy? And have you seen that too?
The Dental A Team (09:20)
Yeah, 100 % tip, I support that. ? Always we're gaining or we're looking to have that 98 % or higher. That's just kind of a given. But truly the production is where we need to keep our eye to get there. absolutely 100%.
The Dental A Team (09:38)
Yeah, and I think when we talk about other businesses, so dental is production and collections, but in any business, it's revenue, right? Revenue generated and still again, collections, right? So the revenue generated, the product sales, so you might be in product sales, know even like chiropractor kind of, those modalities, the medical field is still gonna maintain that production kind of collections thought process, but when you get outside of that,
you might be into a product sold and revenue generated situation, especially if you have credit card sales, because you're going to lose a percentage of that, or if you have payment plans that you offer trickles in maybe by quarter, your payments trickle in by quarter, those types of things are going to make it so that you're looking at both of those. And if you're getting payments,
even if you're like maybe an ortho practice, we have a lot of ortho practices that we work with or that we invite to listen to the podcast, right? You're likely doing some sort of in-house payment plans, which we definitely have a love hate for. So there are options around that, but a lot of ortho practices are still operating off that modality. And so they're trickling in monthly or quarterly payments and insurances are paying monthly or quarterly on those. So.
If we're only looking at the collections, we might find ourselves in a lag of production sometimes, which then generates a lag in collections later. And then we go, my gosh, let's write this wrong and we need to produce more to collect more. And we're constantly in this warm, cool toggle of back and forth seasonality within it. So I think you're right, focusing really in on the stability of both is gonna give them that headway that they need.
The Dental A Team (11:23)
100%. They go hand in hand, right? And so many times we're looking to bridge that gap with just collection. My front desk isn't collecting. And you're like, you're not producing.
The Dental A Team (11:31)
Yeah. Yeah, yes.
Yes, I agree. I agree, which I think leads into a couple other really great KPIs. And one of them you made me think of is like the case acceptance, right? So I think case acceptance in it and all of these you guys should see that they kind of flow up into each other. So your case acceptance obviously flows straight into your production, flows into your collections.
And Kristy, what you just said made me think of case acceptance. And I want you to tell the team here, everyone listening, why what you just said was, collect more. My front office needs to collect more. And they're like, well, you're not producing. Why does case acceptance feel the same for me? Why did that make me think of that?
The Dental A Team (12:15)
Yeah, because truly clinically, we've got to get our patients bought into the treatment and get them to saying yes to what we're prescribing for them. And that number really matters, the number that we're diagnosing, because again, if we're only diagnosing 50,000 for the month and we need to hit 100,000 for that goal, it doesn't matter how well we collect, we're not going to hit that target.
The Dental A Team (12:41)
Absolutely. And we harp on the front office team, right, our treatment coordinators, call, call, call, get the schedule full, get the schedule full. But if they're not bought in, if the patients don't understand, and if the diagnosis isn't there. If we haven't diagnosed enough, so maybe even our treatment case acceptance is mediocre or high, you might have, ? we'll say a low goal, right, a normal.
The Dental A Team (12:54)
Yes.
The Dental A Team (13:06)
practice goal, $100,000 a month, right? So nothing massive, just kind of your standard single doctor, maybe one to two hygiene goal, $100,000 a month, and you've diagnosed 40,000, and you're like, yeah, but my case acceptance is 72%. Stellar, stellar, you still have room to grow there, right? We've got some percentage to make up there, but also we need much more than $40,000 if we're hit a $100,000 a month benchmark. So I totally agree.
The Dental A Team (13:21)
Yeah.
Yeah.
To that point, Tiff, that's why I always say people like to brag on that percentage. And it's true. At 72%, I would brag too. It tells me that the patients you're seeing really trust you because when you do recommend something, they accept it. However, I would much rather see you diagnosing 100,000 and getting 50 % than 72 of 40. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (14:01)
I totally agree. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (14:04)
Got it.
The Dental A Team (14:04)
Yeah. And I think that that school of thought for me has been fairly recent within the recent, you know, five to seven years or so. I think when I was in practice and I was just in my day to day, I never thought too far outside of the case acceptance. And I think in dentistry, we really didn't, we harped on case acceptance. And that was like the big number and it was the big target and treatment coordinators were harped on. I mean, we were
battered on call, make more calls, get them to say yes. And it's like, gosh, we really did call everyone we can. And so that mindset I think has shifted in the recent years and it's still just as important. And then we're also looking at the pieces that get us to that point. So like you said, stellar, phenomenal case acceptance and what if you diagnosed more and still maintained that yes model.
that you've proven you can acquire.
The Dental A Team (15:01)
Absolutely, Tiff. And I ? also say in the case acceptance, if it's low, go back and look at your service mix. know, sometimes in dentistry, we're so used to looking for the problems that a lot of doctors say, well, I have healthy patients. have healthy patients. When's the last time you took a step back and celebrated that they're healthy and said, holy cow, this is the perfect time to see if you would love something changed about your smile?
And now you've diagnosed something cosmetic in changing their life too in that way.
The Dental A Team (15:35)
I totally agree. Yeah. Yeah. I have a few practices. I think this happens often, especially I would say on practices that have been around for a long time and maybe a new doctor comes in or really we just have been doing things the way we've been doing them for a long time. And we dive in and we look at our perio percentage, right? So that's part of our diagnosis is also how much perio are we diagnosing and what's that case acceptance looking like. And we dive into that and oftentimes it's down like
to 10%, you know, and our goal is 30%. I usually say 25 to 30 % is a pretty healthy perio department and 25 to 30 % of perio or of hygiene should cover your production and to get there typically you need 25 to 30 % of that production to be perio is that definition there. So when perio is coming in at 10 % it's like, cool.
That tells me we've got a lot of really great opportunities right here in our own patient base. So what are we doing today that's kind of being nice to patients and appeasing ? fear that we might be holding inside for them rather than being kind and diagnosing and telling them the truth on what their circumstances do look like? Are we appeasing and doing profis that should be?
that's our P's and periomaintenances. Are we doing a third pro fee because we're like, oh, it means something more. Are we doing periomaintenances and charging profies? And then still, we one to three scaling? Like all of these pieces, right? And then I have a couple of associate doctors that I love, associate dentists. I think they're so cool. I think they are some of the most coachable, sincere humans I've ever met. I don't know what it is about the associate space, but they're ready to learn.
The Dental A Team (17:05)
Yep.
Great.
The Dental A Team (17:25)
And I have a few that I've talked with. Kiera always says to diagnose one more thing. It doesn't mean make something up and find something. It just means if you have the mentality of what's one more thing, you're less likely to hold back on that large amalgam filling that's leaking into the body and saying, hey, yeah, we need to take that sucker out when you do a crown. You're less likely to watch something that you truly know needs to be diagnosed.
and just having that mindset changes the game. And I talked to a doctor today that he's increased his just we're not even done with the month yet. And he's increased his production average by almost $20,000 this month, this month. And I said, what changed? What's different? And he said, well, I've been taking a lot of pictures of those massive shadowy leaking amalgams and just showing my patients that and doing the diagnose one more thing. They're doing it. And I said,
Like you're just, it's so incredible. So it's not to say we hit the number, it's to say we're hitting the standards that we should be hitting with an dental practice, which means I'm treating my patients really freaking well. And that was just so cool to see today. that production leads to collections and that case acceptance and diagnosis leads to your production. And it really tells you some sincere stories within that.
in order to get case acceptance, in order to get diagnosis, unless you really do have, if you're a brand new to the office doctor, you just bought the practice, you got a lot of new patients, okay? I need to say that because a lot of you undervalue how many new patients you have. They're new to you. They maybe have been at that practice forever, but they're new to you and you are a new set of eyes. So take that into consideration.
And then for all of my practices, new patients are a massive piece of that. And Kristy, I think for me at least, tell me if you have a different one that you recommend because I love them all. But I think new patients really are that kind of icing, you know, that cherry on top, the icing on top of the cake piece that really pushes it all together. What do you feel about that?
The Dental A Team (19:44)
Yeah, I love that you said that and we're giving them the cherry on top because we're just giving the fifth metric TIF. But with that being said, yes, one of my favorite things to look at is how many new patients you got and how many during that month actually got scheduled for a next appointment. So you're getting them, but sometimes they're leaking out the back door too. So take a look at that. You guys will be surprised. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (20:00)
Yes. Yes, that's cute.
Yeah, I
totally agree. I totally agree. had a doctor yesterday text me and she said, what's our new patient reappointment rate goal supposed to be at and what's our reappointment goal supposed to be at? And I was like, heart eyes that there's two separate questions. It's not just reappointment, it's new patient versus re-care. And that was phenomenal because those two are very different things and we wanna make sure that the patients we're getting in, one are the right patients for our practice.
The Dental A Team (20:25)
Good.
The Dental A Team (20:37)
And two, we are getting them to schedule back. So I totally agree. I think your top four KPIs, production, collections, case acceptance slash diagnosis, and your new patients and your new patient retention is key. There's a ton, I think, that we could add. Like that just makes me go, okay, well, what about attrition? What about reappointment rate? What about, like, there's so many more that we can add in. But for our newbies that are new to numbers.
Those four KPIs will get you so far for a while. I'd say focus in on those.
The Dental A Team (21:13)
Yeah, I was going say we never drop those ones, right? They always stay at the top. So they are the key foundation. And again, it gives you peace of mind that it's not just going off of a feeling. We know when we're succeeding. And if we're not, then we have the power to change it.
The Dental A Team (21:31)
Absolutely. think with that, right, Kristy, knowing where your new patients are coming from is also a tangible piece because I want to know that my patients referred to me. Like I want to know that I'm doing well because I'm getting, I'm hitting my numbers. So I know I'm doing well there and my patients respect me and love me and want their friends and family to come to a safe dentist. And they're referring back to our practice. That's the highest compliment you could get.
The Dental A Team (22:00)
agree.
It's like full circle, right? You know you've tied it in a bow when they're referring back to you because they love you. Yep.
The Dental A Team (22:00)
I agree. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, I love it. Awesome. I hope you guys found this helpful. Your top four KPIs, and we slid some extras in there. I like to do that. Production, collections, case acceptance, and diagnosis. New patients and new patient retention. Those are all gonna be really, really sincerely so helpful for you. If you're already doing those and you're like, okay, cool, girls, what can I add on to that? Awesome, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are always here to help our team of
Experts will answer all of those emails and just so you know most of those emails come straight to us as well and that we might not be the one who types the answer but the questions come over to us so we can ensure that you get the answer that we would have given you personally. You can also chat with us anytime. Head over to our website, TheDentalATeam.com. There's an option there for a free consultation with our team to really see and evaluate where you're at, where you can go, and what gaps are in between. So whether you're working with us now,
working with us in the future or just a forever listener, we are here for you and we wanna hear from you. So, Kristy, thank you so much for diving into those with me today. I know metrics are your jam. You guys should see her spreadsheet. We have our own spreadsheets. We have two spreadsheets that we use. We have our own in-house spreadsheet. We have our scorecards we use with our practices and Kristy has her own scorecard that she uses with all of her practices. So if you need metrics helps, Kristy, you're the girl.
Just, I think you thrive in numbers and I love it.
The Dental A Team (23:37)
Thank you. It's fun because you can gamify it, you know, and I want people to have fun with it. Don't ever think it's a bad thing. If you know you have knowing the game, right, then you can fix it. So thank you.
The Dental A Team (23:50)
Yeah,
I agree. You're welcome, thank you. You've taught us all a ton. And you guys, that's a wrap for right now. We've got more podcasts to come, so hit that subscribe button. If you haven't hit it yet, you'll get notified when there's new ones that pop up. I come on with the consultants often, but Kiera does a slew of podcasts on her own and with special guests, so watch out for those. We have a lot of really cool people that hop on our podcasts with us. So Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, subscribe here.
Give us a five star review below. We'd love to know what metrics you're already watching and what metrics you add after today. Thanks guys and we'll talk to you next time.