Does your schedule seem to weaken during July, August, and even into September? Tiffanie and Kristy dive into both proactive and reactive measurements your practice can do to keep things chugging along. This includes creating a schedule template that works for everyone no matter the season, creating an ASAP list, working on recare before the schedule falls apart, and more.
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Transcript:
Tiffanie (00:00)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners, and welcome back to another episode. Today it is myself Tiffanie and Miss Kristy. I am always so happy to podcast with any of the ladies here at the Dental A Team. ? but Kristy, you are a favorite. You bring a calm and a sense of peace to my life, and I appreciate you being here for us. It's fairly early in our day on a Monday morning, and ? back.
From I'm just back from vacation. Kristy, you've barely had a couple days back from vacation. So we're really just jumping right in today and knowing that I had podcasting on my schedule. Coming back from vacation was slightly stressful. Remembering that it was with you really truly calmed me. And I was like, yeah, that's not gonna be an issue. Easy peasy Monday morning. So Kristy, thank you for being here. Welcome to the podcast today. How are you? How has your summer been so far?
DAT- Kristy (00:54)
Yeah. I'm so happy to be here with you and start our week off like this. it is it's hot here in Arizona right now. So getting this done early and being able to ? be cool while we're doing it is is a relief. But yeah, summer summer's going well so far.
Tiffanie (01:03)
Mm-hmm.
That's fair.
Good, good. It is hot here and we've actually had a super mild summer so far. ? we came home, we were in Hawaii last week and we were it was funny because actually the people who live in Hawaii ? were like, you're from Arizona, this must not be too bad. And I was like, actually it really isn't, it just has that added humidity. But we were with ? we were with my fiance's like company puts on these trips and so there were people from all over the country there and you could see the people from the Midwest like
dying and there's I was like, gosh, I guess this is hot. But once you I feel like when you're in the heat when heat is such a normal everyday occurrence, ? living in Phoenix area, when you go to other places like hot is just hot and it we didn't feel quite as affected. But then coming home, this like 101 yesterday felt like 120. Without that humidity, it really is a different it is a different kind of heat. So I I feel you. But you've got your pool
And you've had a ton of pool time, which is awesome and I love I love having you here in Arizona.
DAT- Kristy (02:19)
Yeah, me too. And it's I agree with you, Tiff. Everybody's like, it's so hot there. And I'm like, but it's hot here. When you get that humidity and stuff other places, it's like it's it's so different.
Tiffanie (02:20)
Good. Good.
Yeah.
Yes,
yes. We had ? some family here over the weekend and one of them said, Yeah, it's hot. He's from Austin. He's like, But you can breathe here. He's like in Austin, it gets so thick you can't breathe. And I was like, This is very true. We can breathe. It does feel like an oven when you're baking those those cookies, you know, you open the oven and it comes straight at your face, but you know, hot is hot. So I agree. Mildish summer but super hot still.
And ? with the summer upon us and beautiful weather, we do love the heat. We do like to get out of town, ? go see some water, some oceans, or really just hang out in our pools. So we do get the summer slumps here in Arizona as well. But I think a lot of the country ? they're really, really traveling a ton. We get a ton of visitors over the summer, ? which is wild, but we really do from like March to November get a lot of travelers here in Arizona. So
With that said, we know that schedules can really fall apart. Even here in Arizona, they do. Unless you're a pediatric practice, my pediatric practices are thriving during the summer because parents are getting all the kids' stuff done. and probably my ortho practices as well. Kristy, you probably have worked with a few of those practices who are probably thriving right now, and I hope thriving the rest of the year. But for those practices that are really, really having that like summer slump.
We thought we'd give some ideas, some things we work with with with our practices every single day ? here at the Dental A Team. So gosh, Kristy, some of the pieces that I see and I and I think honestly, May this year was was weird for a lot of our clients. I think across the Dental A Team, we all kind of all of us consultants said, Are you guys experiencing this? Did your practices have this? And May just kind of was a weird month. It was a down month for a lot of practices.
DAT- Kristy (04:17)
Yeah, yeah.
Tiffanie (04:19)
And I think a lot of people went on vacations. So for whatever reason, June was a little bit better, but we're into July now and we can kind of see those summer slumps hit July, August. And then in September for most of the country, Arizona, we start going back to school next week, which is wild, mid-July. But for most of the country, they're going back to school end of August, ? towards like beginning to mid September. So we see this weird slump for the next few months. And Kristy, I thought it would be interesting for us to really kind of dive into some things that
we can do as proactive measurements and then also reactive measurements as these things come up. Kristy, I think that dentistry is super reactive. ? and we tend to like sit around and wait. We don't even realize that we're doing it, but we're waiting. We're reactive. We're reacting to decay. We're reacting to periodontal disease. We're reacting to patient scheduling, the patient's canceling, to the phones ringing, to
DAT- Kristy (05:00)
True.
Tiffanie (05:16)
someone needing something from us. Everything is like a reactionary process, but I really love putting in some proactive measurements to give us back some of that control. I think, Kristy, that is you thrive in all of the areas, but I really think that you thrive in some of these proactive measurements because I I think you're so calm. And and I think both of us thrive in a sense of peace.
And for us, those proactive spaces and controlling as much as we possibly can, like why wouldn't you do it if it's available? So I think that that for you is something that keeps that sense of peace going for you. With that said, there are some pieces that you've worked really hard on in your career becoming a freaking rock star at. So I would love nothing more than to hear from you on how you help guide your
teams and your practices in making sure that they have a schedule, that their schedule is working for them, you know, no matter what time of year it is. What are some pieces that you love to work on with your clients?
DAT- Kristy (06:24)
Yeah, well for one thing, Tiff, you know, we we love to project out our year. And so in projecting out the year, we can see those trends of the time of year where maybe, you know, we all like to think of September, but it doesn't have to be just that time of year. You know, there are some areas of the country that maybe ? people go more camping and ? different activities that
Tiffanie (06:41)
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
DAT- Kristy (06:53)
affect their schedule, right? So with that being said, I love to have a templated schedule that can meet the needs of the practice. If we if we have a scheduling template in place, at least we're doing our part to try to control it the best we can. And so with that too, I always like to think of what big procedures maybe could we drive during that time. You know, maybe it's ortho starts or maybe it's a big case, you know
Because again, from the business owner, the bills don't stop. We have those demands to meet, even if maybe we're closed for a week during that summer month.
Tiffanie (07:33)
Yeah. Yeah, I completely agree. I had a client ask me a few weeks ago why like what else does block scheduling do? If we're already if we're full, right? If our schedule is full and we're getting close to goals, like aside from there being a template that shows where things go and it helps people to be able to schedule, because that's something I love is the the training of the schedule or the ? removing the thought.
process of trying to figure out where to schedule someone. I love where can we simplify things so that I can use my brain power in something else. So I had a client the other day say, you know, okay tip, like try to convince me, why else? Why else block scheduling or productive day scheduling? So Kristy, what is your what is your take on it? Because you've spent a lot of years working specifically in that realm of productive scheduling.
DAT- Kristy (08:24)
Yeah. To that point, I I think for the team members, we have to remember that's our sanity. The schedule is our day-to-day operations. And so when we say it's been a chaotic day, truly we probably have to reflect back on ourselves and see what did we do to create that that chaotic day? And remember
Just because we may have seen 30 patients in one day doesn't mean we were productive. And so having that scheduling template is going to give us the best outcome possible for our day. And like you said, Tiff, if we have it plug and play and we teach team members these are the type of things that we put in this type of block, we're gonna we're gonna have a better outcome. And yes.
The component we don't control necessarily is the people, right? But if we build it to have the best outcome, we're certainly gonna be far better off in the long run than we would have been without having. You know, I always like to say if you and I, Tiff, are gonna drive from here to New York, if we don't have GPS, it's gonna be a crazy drive. We may be be going back roads when we didn't need to. So
Tiffanie (09:17)
Yeah.
Okay.
DAT- Kristy (09:40)
Again,
think of your schedule that way. We're formulating it in the best possible outcome. And again, when we have those slump months, we can change our template for that time to make sure we ensure or to ensure we have the best outcome for our day.
Tiffanie (09:58)
Yeah, completely. I agree. I love your GPS analogy. That one always makes me really happy. Especially because my internal GPS is wild and I would be going like I'd end up in California real fast. Like five hours in, I'm like, I'm at the coast. Like I would be in San Diego. So I I do love that one. Now with the productive scheduling as well, I love rules, right? I love their I love it being easy.
And if we're gonna implement a system, we have to have tools that do make it easy that don't, they're not causing more chaos. And and for the short term, right? Implementing something new, there's always gonna be a little bit of chaos. There's always gonna be hurdles, you're always gonna find those spaces. But in the long run, it should make your life easier. And something I come across with that, with the block scheduling is that people become very black and white about it because it's a block and they're like, well, we didn't find a crown, right? We didn't find a crown, so we have a hole in the schedule.
And I love and doctors are fearful of that, right? And and office managers. But mostly doctors are like, okay, cool, but I don't want them to not schedule because they didn't find it. And I'm like, well, that's the wrong thought process, right? We need to back up a couple steps and say, this is our ideal. This is what we want it to look like. And in the event that we cannot fill it, something hasn't come across, which is a completely different episode, different podcast. If you're not finding it, you're not getting it in your schedule.
That's a that's a completely different subject. But if that event has occurred, you didn't fill that hole, then I usually say, Kristy, and I I think we're probably on the same page here, I usually say 48 hours ahead. So two days ahead, fill it with something. I don't want you to put like, don't delete a crown block for an occlusal filling. If you don't have to, like that would be like today, maybe. ? but
DAT- Kristy (11:36)
Mm-hmm.
Tiffanie (11:45)
Fill it with something so that we're productive no matter what. And we might not reach goal because we didn't fill it with what we needed to within that production, but we're still a little bit closer and it allows us for same day treatment as well. Do you feel the same, Kristy?
DAT- Kristy (11:58)
Yeah, I 100% feel the same way. We have to make our minds go back to when COVID happened and we think of those non-emergent things. And yes, when you have a good templated schedule, you probably are gonna push out some of those occlusal fillings, Tiff, like you were talking about. And it's okay. Unless it was like so blown out, which your doctor's gonna tell you we need to get them in sooner than later. But in those instances, the great news is you're gonna build up your priority list.
Tiffanie (12:13)
Mm-hmm.
DAT- Kristy (12:28)
too. And so when those summer slumps hit, now we've got other other options to choose from as well. So I love that you made that point. And and it goes back to all of us forming those agreements together. And we all have to honor what we said.
Tiffanie (12:45)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love nothing more than an ASAP list. I used to live and breathe in that ASAP list because it was just so easy. And the way that we do our scheduling at Dental A Team in general, with you know, notating like how how early or how soon we want them to come back, putting dates on it, and then also with the block scheduling, all of those pieces help us to build that. And that's that's another thing I get asked by clients all the time is okay, well, what if
you know, we we are too full and we can't see them. We don't have it available. We you tell within the next two weeks and my next appointment is three weeks. And I'm like, that's fantastic. Put at three weeks and then add a note in there and add them to your as soon as possible list so that you have a group of people who are like, ? great, because Doc wanted to see me sooner than that. Yes, absolutely, let me come in. So I love that you mentioned that. And for your summer slump, like
That's beautiful. Your unscheduled list, your broken appointment list, your ASAP list. I love a broken appointment list because they were already committed at some point. And so they're usually a little bit easier to slide into those last minute ? slots in the schedule. So there's a million things that we could go on with that. But with that said, building those opportunities is huge. And we're in the summer now. And so maybe right now you might be realizing.
that you don't have those opportunities built and you're like, gosh, okay, cool. Sounds great, ladies, but I don't have an ASAP list. Or I don't we, you know, we were so full in the spring, we didn't we weren't able to make recare calls. I hear that one all the time. Well we're too full. So if we make recare calls now, we have nowhere to put them. Like, well, I know. I hate that I hate that statement. And I get it. I've lived it, right? We've all been in office and we've lived that and
DAT- Kristy (14:29)
Mm-hmm.
Tiffanie (14:33)
I hated making calls, so I would use every excuse in the book that I could to get away from them. ? but then we would come to a summer slump or a September and Doc's like, okay, well, where are all the patients? We've got 3,000 patients. Why aren't they here? Well, they haven't been contacted in six, eight months because we were full. So now you're gonna start to see as well some of those.
protocols that you have in place, those systems that maybe aren't working quite right, or we just let them slide away. So now might be the time to like re engage that and get those calls going again to try to fill the schedule, but at least get them going and get the systems and protocols in place while you have the time. ? one system, yeah.
DAT- Kristy (15:19)
Yeah. Tip you, I was
gonna say you you mentioned something earlier about, you know, our handoffs and creating that sense of urgency to come back. One of the things that I love to do is in your morning huddle, doctor, kind of look ahead, see how far out you are booking. And when you're asking patients to reappoint in two weeks or three weeks, it's more realistic. You know when your next available is. And here's the thing, you know, Tiff, I'm a huge fan of verbiage, but
if you know you're booking two weeks out, give your give your admin team a little bit of grace, like help them with that sense of urgency and, you know, sometimes just saying, Hey, I would love to see Tiffanie back in two weeks. Will you please get her scheduled as quickly as her, you know, schedule and mine can align around that two week timeframe. Then if it's two and a half weeks, patients not like, doctor said two weeks and we have to say, no, we don't have two weeks, you know.
Tiffanie (16:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, mm-hmm,
DAT- Kristy (16:18)
So
Tiffanie (16:18)
yeah.
DAT- Kristy (16:18)
look look out and see how far you are booking and help give your admin team a little bit of realistic time framing there.
Tiffanie (16:26)
I agree. I think every doctor should know their schedule. They should be looking at their schedule as well as the team. I have a lot of teams that will come in in the morning and look at their schedule and I'm like, gosh, I've done that. I've done that with the schedule that we run where I've got calls all day and I'll come in in the morning and I'm like, ? golly, because I didn't look at it before and I learned real fast to start prepping my day. And so making sure that we're all looking ahead in the schedule is huge. I love that, Kristy.
DAT- Kristy (16:28)
Yeah.
Yeah.
The other thing I was gonna say to that Tiff too is ? I I like that you and I know recare is another subject that we can do a whole podcast on, but it truly is a proactive and a reactive model. And so many practices don't work recare until the schedule falls apart. And I I'm just not I'm a fan of always working it every day, both frontward and backward. And you guys don't be apologetic if you're booking out.
Tiffanie (16:58)
True.
DAT- Kristy (17:18)
You can use that to create that sense of urgency. And that's another way to get patients to stick to your schedule. Because if I if I say, my gosh, Tiff, we haven't seen you since December of last year. And ? by the way, our hygiene is in high demand. We're actually booking into the fall. You're gonna jump on that a lot faster than, you know, if if I say, Well, we have a hole in the schedule today and I thought of you, you know.
Tiffanie (17:25)
Mm.
I absolutely
agree. And I think like psychologically what that does as well. If you if you did call or you're calling in to schedule and you're like, gosh, you're it's six weeks before you can see me and they're like, Yeah, we you know, it fills up real fast. What I'll do is I'll call you, you know, as soon as we have an available open if it does. But then when that patient does come in for the recare appointment and their hygienist is like, Hey, let's get you scheduled, they're like, Yes, because I it was really hard to get in this time.
DAT- Kristy (18:10)
Exactly. Yeah.
Tiffanie (18:14)
So I want to make sure I'm on the books. And so it re-solidifies the urgency as well in scheduling while they're in office. So I think that it helps no matter what to keep that schedule full and it reduces to your point the cancellations last minute because they do know how difficult it is to get in the schedule. I completely agree. I think also making sure that we're ? we've got some sort of proactive measurement around pre-collecting.
DAT- Kristy (18:28)
Yeah.
Tiffanie (18:41)
is huge and I know there's a lot of pushback on that one as well. But there's so many there there are so many things that you have to pay for first. Like you guys ordering online, everybody orders online and you pay for it well before you get it. There have been so many times my Amazon orders have had to be like completely canceled because it just never showed up, right? It's like being delivered, being delivered for days, for weeks, and then it just never shows up. Brody's got a part for his car he's been waiting on for over a month that's just never shown up that he's paid for.
DAT- Kristy (19:01)
Yeah.
Tiffanie (19:10)
So I think the idea of collecting for the treatment before it's done can go to the wayside. Like everybody's everybody's doing it in some fashion. And to me, what it does, well, for me personally, what it does is I've already spent the money. Right. And I know that there's like all these like girl math things all over the, you know, Instagram and the social media platforms or whatever. But it truly is once you've spent that money, you've accounted for it being gone. Now thinking about having to spend money.
DAT- Kristy (19:36)
Mm-hmm.
Tiffanie (19:40)
stresses me out. And so thinking about spending the money on something I'm not really excited to spend it on, and then something else enters my life. The the bag or a vacation or anything under the sun, something I wanted for the house, or I decided to have a barbecue and invited my whole neighborhood and I spent all the money that I anticipated spending on the crown, well guess what's going to be canceled? But if I've already spent
even a portion of that money, so it's reducing the amount that I'm spending in the future. The psychological aspects of it, you we could do a whole podcast on that, but it seriously changes the game because you've already spent the money. Your bank account has accounted for it being gone. And so you you don't you're less likely to cancel. And so Kristy, I think we both work really hard with our practices to proactively collect something. ? how have you seen
DAT- Kristy (20:34)
Yeah.
Tiffanie (20:35)
in your dental history, how have you seen that change the game as far as keeping a schedule full and especially maybe during the summer?
DAT- Kristy (20:43)
Absolutely. Tiff, I'm I again am a huge proponent of managing things on the front end. I I almost can debunked all of our problems because we have probably caused them either in our verbiage or actions that we do. Inadvertently, of course. We didn't we never meant for it to happen, but it goes back to ? just using verbiage like the reservation fee versus cancellation fee, you know?
Tiffanie (21:10)
Yeah. Yes.
DAT- Kristy (21:13)
I I would much rather have a reservation fee than a cancellation fee. And again, if we're saying we don't want cancels, you can't focus on the opposite. So why are we why are we saying patients cancel all the time? You're sending the message. It's okay to cancel just by saying that. So here's the other thing. ? I would much rather if a patient isn't solidified on the treatment and they're unwilling to put money down for that reservation.
Tiffanie (21:22)
Mm.
DAT- Kristy (21:41)
I would much rather know now today than day of because now I have to struggle to fill that spot. And again, it doesn't mean that I'm writing them off if they can't pay for it today or put the reservation down, but it just gives us the opportunity to create more value for that treatment and re enroll them in the process. But to your point, yeah, I'm a huge fan. And you know, look at it from a perspective that you're trying to help your patients, much like you said, Tiff.
Tiffanie (22:09)
Mm-hmm.
DAT- Kristy (22:11)
Even if I had four hundred dollars in savings, I may appreciate splitting two hundred now and two hundred later so it wasn't wiping out that four hundred dollars all at once. So yeah.
Tiffanie (22:21)
Yeah. Yeah. And not two
hundred day of service, two hundred later. It's two hundred before service, two hundred at service.
DAT- Kristy (22:27)
Yes.
Yes, one hundred percent. It just makes it more manageable and and psychologically, like you said, it's not all coming out at one time. So and there may be patients that are like, no, I'd rather pay the whole thing at now, you know, at one time. Great, let's go ahead and collect that now and you won't even have to stop on your way out, you know, unless something changed, obviously. But you you get where we can we can influence that behavior.
Tiffanie (22:44)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah, completely agree. ? so we've got block scheduling. And I and I as you were speaking, I was thinking too, during the summer summer slowdown, if you have a summer slowdown and you're not doing block scheduling yet, it's actually a really great time to start implementing it because your schedule is light, because you can you can put it in and you can start changing and working around it. We have so many even startup practices that come to us and they're like, Well, I don't have enough patience yet. I'm not busy enough yet. I just need everyone. And I'm like, no, this is the
perfect time because you have a blank slate to play with. So let's create it and fill it in again with those 48 hour rules. So I think block scheduling, Kristy, we talked a ton about that, productive scheduling, that's gonna be massive. pre-collecting, making sure we're utilizing our call lists and making sure that all of those systems are in place. This is a really good time to make sure that you have those systems, that they're there and that we start using them. And then quickly a couple of ideas we chatted ?
DAT- Kristy (23:45)
Mm-hmm.
Tiffanie (23:57)
prior to hopping on here was one was making sure that our confirmations are far enough in advance that we're getting them con confirmed, but also that we're doing it far enough in advance at least two days. I like a week and then three days and then two days, but I want at least two days, if not three or four, to refill a schedule. So when you're thinking about confirmations, think less about how annoying you think you are and think more about what you need in order to build a solid schedule.
and make sure that you guys have what you need in your practice. So I think confirmations are huge. And then Kristy, you mentioned promotions as well, like summer promos. And what have you seen, what have you done and worked with practices on when it comes to summer promotions?
DAT- Kristy (24:41)
Yeah, absolutely. Tiff, I think if there's services like especially bigger services, because we know maybe we have a week off this month, maybe you do your Invisalign special. That's a great time to run, or any any promotional items that way. But also you could even have some fun things like, we're doing a Blackstone Grill giveaway scheduled during this this month and get your name in the drawing. Or you know what I mean, get creative and have fun.
Tiffanie (24:47)
Mm-hmm.
I love that.
DAT- Kristy (25:11)
And use it for a win win. We're getting our patients healthy because we're getting them scheduled, but we're also filling our schedule to meet the practice needs.
Tiffanie (25:20)
Yeah.
I actually really love that, Kristy, because normally the promotions I love the I love all of it, but your blackstone, the way that you said that, because normally those promotions are for ? reviews or for referrals, right? So refer a friend and get entered to win. But I loved what you said there when you said schedule this month and be entered to win. So that promotes the scheduling because honestly, I'm the type of person
that I'm like, well, I'm gonna spend the money anyways, so I might as well spend it now and potentially girl math, get this free. So then like my money, but if I me being me, I would split it then I'm like, well, my appointment plus the blackstone, right? Then I only paid $300 for this. Like that is brilliant. As psychologically dental, there's so much that goes into dentistry that is psychology. And it's not to trick people, it's to make it easier
And to make it more fun and engaging for them to say yes to their health. And Kristy, you nailed it with that. I love that. Thank you. Yeah.
DAT- Kristy (26:24)
Awesome. Thank you. Yeah,
it's so funny because literally last week I was talking with clients and I'm like, what's the first thing you always usually hear from patients when they come in? Even like if we ask, how was your day day today? It's like, great, till I got here. And I always say, Well, it's funny because nobody's standing outside the office, like holding a gun to their head saying, You have to go to the dentist, right? But yet they walk in our doors.
Tiffanie (26:36)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
DAT- Kristy (26:51)
So
they're coming for something. Let's just use it as a positive win to get them healthy and meet our needs. Yeah. Yeah.
Tiffanie (26:57)
I love it. Thank you. Thank you, Kristy.
And with that, listeners, I encourage you to re-listen to this as many times as you need to, especially if you are driving right now. ? pull off to the side of the road, take notes, get to the office, take notes, but re-listen to this and then pick two. We gave you a slew of things that you can work on. Pick two that you're gonna work on right now. Save the rest maybe for August, ? September, kind of proactively.
measure these out. Kristy, thank you so much for all of your tips today. I truly do love our time together and I love picking your brain. If you're not doing a promotion, I you just I love that. I'm excited for that. So if you're not doing a promotion like that and you have the space within your budget, go do it. But pick two of these things that we talked about today. And as always, we are here to serve you guys in the best ways that we know how to.
We have all of these tips, but we also work on implementing these things with our practices. So while you might hear it here on the podcast, working one-on-one with someone to help implement them can be a real big game changer. So reach out to Hello@TheDentalATeam.com for more tips, tricks, and to talk to us about how to implement these processes. Kristy, thank you so much. ? and we'll catch you next time.