Did you know there’s actually a right and wrong time to implement key practice indicators (or KPIs) in your office? Tiff and Dana reveal what should be firmly in place in a practice before you start assigning metrics for success. They touch on KPIs position by position, staying human amid the numbers, and more.
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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 I love podcasting. You guys know that I love spending this time with you. And I love getting to spend the time with my consultant team as well. So I have Dana here with us today. Dana, how are you?
DAT-Dana (00:16)
doing pretty good. I'm excited to be here. It's not that often that I get get dedicated podcast time with Tiff, so super excited.
The Dental A Team (00:22)
I know,
I know it's because I schedule us long and we bust out a ton and then we don't see each other for a month on podcasting at least. So I agree, I agree. Well, Dina, it's springtime here. We like to call it springtime, which I think that Arizona just doesn't know when spring starts and ends because it goes straight into summer. So realistically, these drop in May, recording in April. I don't know when spring is, but it's hot. We've had a little bit of a cool down.
You've had a ton of sports and it's a beautiful time of year. How's everything down in your neck of the woods of Arizona going?
DAT-Dana (01:00)
It's good. It is. It's beautiful. Now is the time where like you just love being in Arizona. I feel like, we don't really get a spring. It's kind of like a mismatch of random weather, like week by week. But now is the time where I truly love being in Arizona and get to be outside a ton. And, you know, if we could just get this wind to go away that's been hanging around down here for a couple of weeks, it would be perfect, really.
The Dental A Team (01:05)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, my sister and I were talking about the wind yesterday. It really has been very strong, very strong. Yeah, especially where you are. You guys get whipped real bad with some wind. Yeah. Well, I'm excited that we're here today, that we're inside. It's supposed to warm up again. I think cool down. Who knows? It's going to rain. Maybe you might get rain. I probably won't. It's going to be great. It's going to be great.
DAT-Dana (01:35)
Yeah.
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (01:48)
I
wanted to chat today, something that keeps coming up for me on client calls, especially for new clients that come in. know that Nikki and Pam and Trish, you and I are pretty tapped out. So we're not getting a ton of new clients, but I know Nikki, Pam and Trish bring ? oftentimes to our co-labs, really doctors looking for how to speak numbers and how to speak KPIs. We get it a lot. get people asking, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. That is our email address and we have people that
that pop in all the time on really how do we get our team to love doing KPIs and love watching them and kind of a leadership team standpoint, how do we do that? So I thought it would be interesting to chat a little bit today on the flip side of KPIs. And Dana, think we have an interesting perspective. Number one, we say this all the time that we, anything that we train, we try to duplicate in our own company. We try to create that space here. So we do a leadership.
a ton in our company. We train on leadership a ton. That's kind of like our year two process for clients coming in. We work a ton on systems year two, ? or if systems aren't done yet, might be year three, but we really hone in on leadership a ton once practices get kind of the baseline groundwork done. So with that said, would say Dana, number one, I'd want to look at how far are we in our practice? Like, are we to the point now that we've
that KPIs, they matter or that they make sense, right? Because you've probably seen it and I've definitely implemented too early KPIs with Teams too. So finding that perfect timing and then obviously there's other aspects to it. But Dana, how do you feel about that? And what are you seeing with your clients you've worked with for many years, many of your clients? So when do you kind of see that KPI leadership standpoint roll in?
DAT-Dana (03:40)
Yeah, I agree with you, Tim. do think it is like practices when you are building systems to like to add KPIs on top of that when it's like we don't even really know what we're doing to kind of get to these points. ? I do feel like that's a little bit too early to kind of roll out KPIs. I think like when you have your systems in place, when you have job descriptions in place and when you really
feel like you have a team that kind of knows what they're doing and knows where the business is headed, I think that is the time to really start to implement KPIs.
The Dental A Team (04:11)
I agree. And I think what that really boils down to and what you just described is the basics for so mission, vision, core values, job descriptions, and then looking at like the basic KPIs, even new practice KPIs, but getting a team to like love doing their own KPIs per position is that next step. So those practice KPIs, like you're saying, Dana, those are the ones that are going to tell us if the systems that we're doing are
benefiting the practice. Are they creating the results that we want? So production collections, new patients, maybe marketing RLI, but really narrowing it down and simplifying it so that they can start to see those to-dos, those things that they're doing every single day that are in line with their job description, they're adding value to those KPIs and then kind of taking a step back and layering it. I know when I look at KPIs and I look at our KPIs in our company, I really try to look at, what is like
What do they mean? How do they apply to my position and to your position or marketing's position? Does it make sense for that KPI to be attached to that person or that department? And then ultimately, what's the impact that it's making on the overall results, right? What is the company going for? And Dana, how do you help reverse engineer that? Because I watched you do that with a lot of practices. Dana's like,
Amazing. She's so good at pulling out meaningful, impactful KPIs per position. And I think your hygiene experience helps you to see those spaces because those back office ones are really the hardest. So how do you help practices reverse engineer that? How can they take a look at that today just from maybe from like an overarching big standpoint? And then we'll narrow in.
DAT-Dana (05:59)
Yeah, sure. So I think it really comes down to just like you said, Tiff, making it meaningful, making them see that the things that they are doing every single day, we spent times building the system, we created these systems. So let us have an easy tool for you to know that if the input that you are giving every single day is getting you a certain result. And so I think that I love that you use the word meaningful because I feel like that we get asked all the time, like, how do I have
motivate my team to care about numbers? How do I, you have to make them meaningful for them, meaningful for their position, meaningful for their impact that they are putting into the practice and into patients. And so I think that that is, I think that's kind of where the magic happens. It's like, you've got these overarching goals. So then breaking them down into, let's say, quarterly goals. And then what can each team member do daily, weekly, monthly to help impact or move those quarterly pieces. So I think it is chunking it down, but, to the point where
team members feel like they actually, like the things that they're doing impact them. And I think when you can make those connections, we can say, hey, you've got to keep the schedule full. Well, what does full mean? Right? What do, what does full mean that like I am winning that day or I am hitting that goal or I am like being super impactful. And sometimes too, it's just relating it to.
Yes, these are numbers, but at end of the day, typically numbers equal patients, right? Typically numbers equal impact into the community. Typically, like it means how much we're improving the overall oral health of the patients that leave the practice. And sometimes when you can tie that like, yes, you filling the schedule equals that or yes, you hitting your period goal equals comprehensive care.
When you can link those things with team members, that's how you motivate them. That's how you make these numbers meaningful to just say, hey, I need you to hit 95 % of schedule to goal, right? Well, yeah, that's a number, but what does it mean for that person? What is the impact it does for the practice when they hit it? And like taking time too to celebrate it when we see it.
The Dental A Team (08:02)
Yeah. And something that that changes for us, Dana, that dentistry has always in my opinion been like a just do it because we said to do it, right? You build the same way we've built since 1995 because that's how we do it. Right. And we've not, we're super innovative when it comes to photos and CBCT scans and tech and all of these cool things that the back office is using. So doctors and dental assistants are like, heck yeah, this is so cool. Dentistry moves so fast. But then the rest of the team is like,
Does it? Like I'm still doing, I'm still scanning papers. Yeah. Like what the heck? It's not, it doesn't innovate in the other areas. I think now with AI, we're seeing a lot of innovation and I think a lot of front office team members are probably like, Whoa, I'm not okay with this because that's never been dentistry from the front office standpoint. So my point in that is when we have a KPI and when you were speaking, I'm thinking like make five calls a day, make 10 calls a day. Why?
DAT-Dana (08:34)
Still confirming.
The Dental A Team (09:02)
Why am I making 10 calls a day? Because my ultimate goal is that the schedule is full to 95%. So then tracking a KPI of how many calls am I making? So what's the impact that I'm making towards that goal? And then I think, Dana, what you made me think of is really being able to take a step back and saying, is that thing that I'm doing impacting the goal? Because I don't want to just make 10 calls because you told me to make 10 calls. I want to make 10 calls because it's
positively impacting my overarching goal of 95 % scheduleful and that's positively impacting the impact we're having on the community. And so when it rolls up that way and it doesn't feel like they just like do this because I told you to do it, I don't think we work that way anymore. I think in the 90s, 2000s, we did. When I first got into the workforce, I was like, just tell me what to do. I'll just do whatever you, just give me a list, I'll check it off.
But I think as we evolved as humans, as dentistry is evolving, and now as there's more innovation coming to all aspects of dentistry, we're in a space now where we really have to know, why am I doing this thing? What is it for? Because I don't want to work for nothing as in money. I don't want to work for nothing. I don't want to do this if it's not helpful. I want to change it and do something different. And I think, Dana, in my opinion,
you know, the practices that I'm seeing in the forums that I'm seeing, I think there's a big wave of that mindset that really wants to know the impact.
DAT-Dana (10:28)
I agree with you. think that like technology is great, but I think some a side effect of technology is it's made us a little bit skeptical, right? So we ask more questions than we have before. think that we do, we want to know why we want to know like all those background pieces. And I think too, like, I will say, I think it's still a side effect from COVID is like we value time. And so I don't, feel like as a society, we don't want to be wasting time. We want to try to get our time back. And so
The Dental A Team (10:36)
Yeah.
DAT-Dana (10:56)
If I have to spend time making five calls and it's not making an impact or I don't have that link on like why I'm making them and then it's pushing to the goal of my 95 % and that is incorporated into the practice goal, right? I want to know those answers because I don't want to waste time making calls just because you said I agree with you.
The Dental A Team (11:14)
Yeah, and we want to feel valuable. So we want to feel like we're valuable in our position. And we want to feel like the things that we're doing are daily, whatever, monthly, weekly, all of those things that we're doing are valuable. Because I also think to your point, Dana, COVID taught us too that like, this is going to sound maybe so controversial. We are not like we don't have to stay stuck anymore. It opened up a whole new world.
I think for a lot of people who felt like they fell into dentistry and that like, this is just their path. This is where they need to be. This is the position they'll always hold. There's nowhere to go. You know, it changed a lot has changed in the last six years that we're still trying to understand. And on that, one of my least favorite questions is how do I motivate my team? And you don't motivate your team. inspire your team.
DAT-Dana (12:05)
Thank
The Dental A Team (12:09)
by being who you are, your culture, your mission, your vision, like what are we serving? What are we doing here? Inspires people. Motivation is very short. So yeah, like I always say, Dana, I can motivate you. I could probably convince you and motivate you to go for a mile run with me. Does that mean you're gonna be a runner? No. You're gonna do a mile with me because I motivated you to, I motivated my sister to go for a hike with me yesterday, right? Is she gonna go hiking again today? No. Would I? Absolutely.
Cause I'm inspired by how I feel when I'm on the mountain. So that like difference really, it gets me that, that question of motivate and it always Dana, I hate the word always, but I swear to you every time, I don't know if this is just me. They're like, if I give my team these KPIs and I ask them to measure these things and do them, I need to pay them more. And I'm like, they're like, how else do I motivate them? If I get, if I dangle this carrot at the end.
maybe they'll do these things. And I'm like, well, is that not their, like, is their job not this piece? Are you not already paying them for this? We're just not tracking it. So they could be doing 50 things that don't matter, that aren't making an impact. And we may be able to measure and replace them with things that do matter. I'm not necessarily asking for extra work aside from the tracking that takes 30 seconds, but that motivation space.
Like I want to sub box all day, but Dana, are you seeing that too? And how do you feel about that question?
DAT-Dana (13:40)
Yeah, absolutely. guess I probably get asked that question at least once a week, right? And I do agree with you. It is, well, what can I do to motivate them as far as bonus, as far as activity, as far as, and like those things are essentially great, right? If there's a space for it. But I don't think that those are tools that are ever really needed to me. If you are feeling that way.
The Dental A Team (13:45)
Yep.
DAT-Dana (14:02)
Your goals themselves aren't inspiring. Your vision itself isn't inspiring because those should be the inspiring pieces that spur the motivation to do the daily work. And so if you are asking someone in your life that question, if you are asking yourself that question, if you are flat out asking the team, what can I do to motivate you to get there? The there is not inspiring them. And it's probably not inspiring you, which is why you're digging for the next layer or this bonus or this
push of some way because those foundational pieces aren't truly inspiring the team or you yourself.
The Dental A Team (14:39)
I was thinking that same thing. If you're not inspired by the work that you're doing, you're not inspired by your vision or why your team's not going to be inspired either. And we've honestly lived that, Dana. We've lived that in this company where we were like, it just doesn't hit and it didn't hit Kiera. And we could tell and Kiera was like robotic because we were trying to hit a goal. So we all became robotic trying to hit a goal and it didn't hit right.
we failed and we had to take like 15 steps backwards and say, why did we fail? Where did we misstep? And it was because our why what we were really going for wasn't inspiring enough. it was like, honestly, even this year's vision is narrowed down to one of the best that we've had in years because it's narrowed down to the impact on a personal basis. And that's what consultants love.
dental team members love, right? Our favorite stories are the patients who came in after traumatic experience or cosmetic work or whitening, or they had a crown that they were afraid to get or fillings that those are first fillings and they're 42 and they're not scared anymore and they're coming in and they're so happy. Their whole demeanor changes because we've been able to change how they view dentistry. That's what we're here for. And when people dig for that, why? And I hear the, I hear the, ?
I want to, what is it, delivering smiles, delivering smiles to Maricopa County. Like, are you, is that why you're here? You want to deliver smiles? No, you want to change lives by giving them a different perspective on dentistry. You want to teach them something about dentistry that they never knew existed. You want to make them feel confident because they have a healthy place to go. They have somewhere that they know they're loved, taken care of, seen and heard, and they're getting quality dental care. Like, that's what you're here for.
DAT-Dana (16:29)
Yeah, and in the end, are
you creating smiles for Maricopa County? Yes, you are, but like that's not why you show up every day. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (16:34)
Yes!
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And when people can key in on that, I literally see that light bulb moment of like, wow, that's exciting. Like I want to go do that crown. Yeah, you do. You do. Because it's more you're not delivering smiles to everyone. Right? It's an impossible feat. Like you're not going to create a new smile for everyone who walks through the door. You're not. Some people don't care about their teeth. And that's okay. Like how they look right aesthetics. Some people
don't need you to aesthetically change their teeth. Some people are coming in with straight teeth, white teeth, already veneered teeth, and you're not doing anything. But what you are doing is you're creating an experience and you're creating a space that they can come feel seen, valued, and heard and leave knowing that they were well cared for and they're a happier human when they leave your practice.
DAT-Dana (17:28)
Yeah, I love
that. Because when they can, maybe eventually they will care, right? And you'll be the person that they come to when they do. Or maybe eventually the cosmetic work they already had will need redone and you've created that space that they can say it. And so I agree with you. It doesn't happen every single time, but we're looking for the times that it does and we're making those times incredibly meaningful.
The Dental A Team (17:33)
Yeah.
tracks.
Yes, and when we can carry ourselves in a way that no matter what we are looking for, how can we positively impact this patient's experience? How can we make them a better person out to the world when they leave my practice? Like I want to inspire them. I want to make them happy. They leave feeling energized. They carry that on to the next person, right? So when we can make that's our focus that we're positively impacting the person who's standing in front of us, then we're showing up every single time. And our KPIs are like,
Hey, did you make 10 calls to make sure that people get back into this practice for their re-care so that they're well cared for and they don't feel like they have to find another practice that they start all over again? Absolutely, I made 10 calls. And when you get the question of, do I have to call? Can I just text? I don't care what you do, measure it. And if whatever you're doing works, we'll keep doing that. So if you're doing text messages and they're not working, try sprinkling in some calls.
see if the calls work too or double them up. I always say that because I think Dana, we get so rigid on what the system needs to be that we're like, no, Tiff and Dana, they said you need to do 10 calls a day. If that's your only takeaway from today, oh my gosh, right? They go, they're like, 10 calls a day, that's your KPI. And the team, maybe it's, you know, a 23 year old who is like, I don't want to get on, I don't want to get on the phone, I'm 41, I don't want to get on the phone. So like, I want to know that if I'm doing these 10 calls a day,
They are what is going to work. And if they're not, because we're in an age of tech and maybe voice small drops work better or text messages are working better, I want to do that. But it's going to be based on your community and not the person making the outreach. Because here in Phoenix, we got a lot of snowbirds. We got a lot of retirement communities. We've got a lot of people who, heck, like I don't want to, I don't want to do anything with my phone by the time I'm done with the day.
So I think measuring it and making sure those pieces add up to that value that you're trying to perceive to your patients.
DAT-Dana (19:56)
Yeah. And I think sometimes there's a misconception with team members in this TIF that like the number tells them something about them, right? And sometimes it can, but for the most part, what it tells us is if our system works or doesn't work. And so I think team members too, just being embracing and open to the fact that this is not necessarily, if you don't hit 95 % scheduled to goal, that doesn't mean you as a human aren't succeeding. It means that there's something in our system or something in our consistency that isn't getting us
The Dental A Team (20:04)
Yeah.
DAT-Dana (20:25)
there and so I think you can have open and honest conversations with team members too and say like this isn't a value for you as a human. This is a value for the effort, the work and the systems that we've put into place because you're right Tim, if I can get one person scheduled with 40 text messages or one person scheduled with three calls, my gosh, give me the three calls.
Right? So it is being able to evaluate and assess those things too. And I think so many times when we go to roll out KPIs offices get a lot of resistance because it's like, I don't want you to put like a number on me, right? Or I don't want it to feel like it is me, the person that is letting the office down or we're not getting the goals. I think think of it as a tool to evaluate our systems. Yes, our people too, but honestly and truly typically it's a systems problem and not a person.
The Dental A Team (21:15)
I 100 % agree. And I think that's where we start measuring the results instead of micromanaging the people. Yeah, I love that. You made me think too, Dana, that if you're not able to get to 10 calls a day or whatever your KPI is, if you can't get to them and you see the consistency is that you're falling behind, you're not able to do it, then take a step back and evaluate your time spent. Like what are the blockers that are coming up? Does this belong to that job description? So is it in the right lane?
Does it impact that person's goals that impact the companies? then like take those steps back. There have been so many times that I'm like, gosh, I just haven't been able to get to this. But next week, let me rearrange my schedule. I'm going to try a couple of things out to get it different so that I can try to get these done. And if it's consistently not happening, there's a blocker. There's something else going on. And it's not just that they're busy. I had this conversation a couple of weeks ago with someone. I'm like, there's no time. They're like, I see time. I'm like, okay, you know what? There is time.
There's no space left. So how do we get rid of some of the other clutter and rearrange to declutter my brain so that I still have output left for this piece of my job? And those conversations are really important. And your leaders, your one up above you should be able to help you unblock those. So Dana, I love this conversation. Thank you for having it. I think motivate versus inspire.
is really, really special. And when they're meaningful, impactful results, it makes a huge difference. So Dana, I would say action items for today. Number one, is your vision, your mission, your core values, are those things inspiring to you as a practice owner? And are they inspiring to your team? Do they fully know the definitions of them? And are we ready to make an impact on that community? Number two, assign some KPIs. If you've got that solid, you've got job description solid, you're working on some systems maybe, but
lot of systems are super clean and clear, then start doing individual KPIs. And Dana, I would say if they're not ready for individual KPIs, take that big, the umbrella, do your production, collections, new patients, and let them see how they're impacting every day. Dana, anything you want to add before we wrap for today?
DAT-Dana (23:31)
No, I think you hit it out. This was a good one too.
The Dental A Team (23:33)
Awesome.
I agree. Thank you. Thank you for riffing with me and busting this out Dana and you guys go leave us a five star review. We love to hear from you. We love to know how this impacted you and maybe how it impacted your why I always love that piece Dana and I live for a phenomenal why Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. If you need help with KPIs for individual positions, please reach out. Sometimes they get a little tricky with like dental assistance. Hygiene is kind of easy, but you get kind of bored with the flora, the perio. Just reach out.
We've got a million of them and Dana will help with all your hygiene and Britt. So anyways, that's a wrap guys. Thank you so much. We'll catch you next time.