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30 Years of Dentistry: Lessons Learned Joe Steven Jr., DDS

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Last year marked my 30th year of practicing dentistry in Wichita, Kansas. Thirty years of dentistry! Wow, time flies when you’re having fun! I would like to share with you the top lessons that I have learned over the last 30 years that should help any office become more successful. Having presented seminars for the last 20 years, I have had the pleasure of visiting with thousands of dentists and believe that I have learned valuable information from them and throughout my career about what it takes to succeed in dentistry.

The number-one lesson I would like to start with is how to get more new patients into your practice by “prioritizing” what is necessary to do that. I have said this many times before, “I seldom see a problem that could not be solved by having a large flow of new patients into the practice.” Most practices that struggle do so because they do not have enough new patients coming in every month. Sure, of course, there will always be other problems with staff, insurance, etc. But when you have a great flow of new patients every month, most offices will be more profitable which makes those other problems much easier to deal with.

For the last 30 months here at Riverside Dental (our new name since my daughter, Jasmin, joined us), we’ve been averaging around 100 new patient referrals per month. We do no external advertising other than our Web site (www.riversidedental.org serviced by Dental 101 at 888-956-1010). We depend on the old fashion “word-of-mouth” source of referrals. And yes, that still is the best there is!

Good patient services will usually result in satisfied clients, but a highly successful practice needs more than that. We need patients who are excited about our office and our entire staff, and go out and spread the word. To do that we have to genuinely win them over. And the simplest way to win patients over is to “just make ’em like ya!” Most patient referrals come from offices that accomplish this. That’s what all great PR really breaks down to. They “like” your office; they feel good when they come in; they feel important. “Like” is such a simple trivial word, yet comprises so much more meaning in the overall goals we want to achieve. I would rather our patients “like” us than respect and admire us, or consider us extremely professional, or appreciate our excellent decor, or come to us for our quality dentistry. These are all good things, but unfortunately they don’t even come close to being as effective for winning patients over as simply “making them like you.”

We’ve all been to seminars where they recommend that you should always ask for referrals from your satisfied patients. That’s good advice but I have only done that once in 30 years! I went in on a Sunday to reimplant a tooth that was knocked out during a baseball game. The patient’s mother appreciated it and asked me how they could possibly repay us for coming in on a weekend. I handed her several business cards and asked her to share them with some of their friends who may be in need of a new dentist. I have to confess that it made me feel very uncomfortable doing that. I do realize though that the more you do it, the more comfortable it becomes. I’ve heard that from many dentists and they get great results. Give it a try!

But, I truly believe that if you genuinely win over your patients, they will be so excited with your office that you won’t need to ask for referrals. They will be more than happy to tell their friends about your exceptional office! Just the other day, I was so proud of my daughter. I was up front when she was dismissing a patient, and her patient turned to me and said, “Your daughter is a hero back at work!” I acted curious and she said, “Yep, we all talk about how she’s the best dentist around, and that’s why we keep sending our co-workers here!” Way to go, Jas!

When she joined our practice, needless to say, she needed to learn a lot about the real world of dentistry. I continue to help her with diagnostics, clinical efficiency tips, etc. But, the number one thing that I’ve always stressed to her from day one was about how to treat every patient as a VIP. She quickly saw the results that come from that.

The great thing about this concept is that it works in any office regardless if you practice in a small town or in Manhattan, New York. It’s actually probably more important in a large city because you need to separate your practice from the average dental office. Plus, it’s even more beneficial in a large city because of the massive number of possible patients that hopefully will hear great things about your office!

There are many other benefits other than new patient referrals that will be gained by making our patients “like” us. When people like each other, they consider themselves as friends. We want all our patients to consider us as friends. Friends are more likely to stay in our practice, pay their bills, keep their appointments, accept our treatment proposals, and not as likely to take us to court for some ridiculous dispute. That’s why our office is so concerned with doing those little things that literally make our patients like us. You have heard many of these things many times from various seminars, books, and/or CDs. They range from post-treatment care calls to jotting down personal notes about our patients so we can discuss topics of their interest at a later date.

So, why don’t more dentists adopt this philosophy? I have found that many dentists stifle their own personalities because of old beliefs of a rigid professional dental business concept. Many great personable staff members are also held back by a rigid “professional” dentist. While presenting our seminars we’ve heard horror stories from team members that make us question where some dentists’ priorities are. We hear of staff members being reprimanded for making a patient laugh while in the treatment room. In my practice, that deserves a bonus! Too many dentists are so obsessed with trying to be professional that they are overlooking the big picture. People are people wherever you go, and they like to be treated the same way you and I like to be treated.

Think for a moment. Usually your favorite restaurants or other places of business that you support are establishments that treat you like you are special. While in dental school at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, my wife and I would always suggest going to a certain supper club when going out with another couple. It wasn’t until I was in business for myself that I realized why we always went there. It wasn’t because of their better-thanaverage food or service. It was because every time we went there, we knew there was a good chance that the owners, a husband and wife team, would come by our table and allow us to introduce our friends to them. That made us feel important. It’s essential that we do the same for our patients. In a busy office you need to have a team that can win over your patients. Our staff guidelines for achieving this are not written in a policy manual. It’s just a simple philosophy that is very easy for staff members to adapt to:
  • Imagine every patient has these four letters on their forehead: MMFI (Make Me Feel Important) and treat them accordingly.
  • Talk with the patient about their interests, not ours. It can be any topic, not just dentistry.
  • Be caring, compassionate and sympathetic to our patients’ needs.
  • Have fun with the patients and have a good time with them even during treatment. It relaxes the patients many times better than nitrous oxide or a valium.
The common factor that must apply to the above points in order for them to become effective is that we must all be genuinely sincere and interested in our patients and convey this feeling towards them. It is not enough just to repeat certain scripts or bits of dialogue when we communicate with our patients. It is not simply the words that we say, it is the feelings behind what we are saying. We are all too familiar with the pleasant saying of “Have a nice day!” that we hear at many discount stores and other businesses. I think we all will agree that we can sense which employees are really sincere about saying that to us or are just saying it because that was written in their job description. We have to be sincere!

Many dentists are willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on high tech equipment, continuing education courses, advertising, or beautifying their offices. But, they overlook the most important priority of how to truly win over their patients. Each one of us needs to meet regularly with our teams and discuss how we can continue to improve in that area. That should be everyone’s number-one priority!
Author’s Bio
Dr. Joe Steven graduated from Creighton Dental School in 1978 and has been in solo practice in Wichita, Kansas up until June 2007 at which time his daughter, Dr. Jasmin Rupp, joined him. He is president of KISCO, a dental products marketing company, providing “new ideas for dentistry,” and is the editor of the KISCO Perspective Newsletter. Dr. Steven along with Dr. Mark Troilo present “The $1,000,000 Staff" & the “Team Dynamics” seminars. Dr. Steven also presents three other seminars: “Efficient-dentistry,” “Efficient-prosthetics” and “Efficient-endo.” Dr. Steven also provides the KISCO Select Consulting Program to dentists in the form of a monthly audio cd recording. (Contact info: jsteven@kiscodental.com, 800-325-8649, www.kiscodental.com)
 
This story, originally published in the KISCO Perspective Newsletter, is reprinted with permission.
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