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Howard Speaks Howard Farran, DDS, MAGD, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine

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How's the Reception in Here?
– by Howard Farran, DDS, MAGD, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine

How does the owner of an NBA team win a championship? Take a look at Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. Does he get out and sprint up and down the court every night? Does he dive into the stands after errant balls? Does he dunk the ball after a fast break? No way! Jerry Buss couldn't dunk a basketball if he were jumping on a trampoline underneath the basket. Any dentist can see, if Jerry Buss wants to win, he delegates the basket making and rebound getting to talented players who can do it. Makes sense, right?
Now, thinking along the same lines, how does a dentist make his or her practice successful? Does the dentist answer the phones? Does the dentist schedule patients? Does the dentist prep the operatory before every procedure? Does the dentist check patients in and out? No. Like Jerry Buss, you have to delegate to talented people!

When I'm doing a root canal, I'm in the zone. A nuclear bomb could go off in the next town over and I'd never know it – that's how focused I get. If the phone were to ring next to me and I'm in the middle of a procedure – I don't care if it's a new patient or my lab or the president of the United States – the last thing I'm going to do is answer it. I'm too busy doing dentistry. That's why I have a front desk.

But how is your front desk performing? A couple months ago I wrote about the necessity of having a good team (Editor's note: See "Win Like George" on page 10 of the September issue of Dentaltown Magazine). If you can't trust your employees to do a good job, maybe they need better training (or maybe you need new employees). But what if you're satisfied with your front desk? Does your front desk have enough time to spend with someone on the phone or check someone out – the right way? And by "the right way" I mean with care, calm and understanding. I've visited many dental practices that only have one person manning the front desk. She's answering the phone, putting everyone on hold, asking the person checking in to fill out necessary paperwork and asking the three people at the window behind her to wait in line before she checks them out. She might be busting her butt, trying to ensure everyone gets filed through, with all of their questions answered and follow-up appointments scheduled, but while she's checking out one person, the two people on the phone who have been on hold for the last 10 minutes hang up and call the dental office down the street, meanwhile the third guy in the check-out line just leaves, even though he's been told he needs two fillings (and when the front desk person calls after him to say she'll call him later to schedule a follow-up appointment, she never does because she can't find the time). That's how dental offices end up with 4,000 or 5,000 inactive charts and wonder why nobody comes back.

You can have the most talented person working your front desk, but once she has to choose between the new patient on the phone and the person checking out, you've got a problem. She might be a superstar, but she can't do everything at once.

It is time to stop thinking of your front desk as overhead.

The dentists who show up to team-building seminars without their staff are the same people who think of their support staff as burdens who are only there to take care of the filing and answer the phones, so they're not bothered while they're working on their patients in the operatory. You can't win doing this – in fact, you're not even in the game.

I love my front office staff. Know why? They are a productive and motivated team! They didn't get there overnight; it took proper training and close scrutiny of each employee's job description – two key elements for a successful front office. Let's take a quick look at both of these in detail.

Areas of training to evaluate in your front office are:
  1. How well does your staff know your practice management software? Are they able to efficiently schedule a patient when they call? Can they produce, for their needs and for yours, the necessary reports from the system? If not, get a qualified trainer into your office ASAP! Practice management software has come a long way and if used properly can manage your recall, treatment planning, billing and outstanding insurance. But remember, it is only a tool and it is up to your properly trained staff to utilize the information to generate production.
  2. Have you invested in phone training? We use Jay Geier's Scheduling Institute training program and have found it to be awesome. Whichever program you choose be sure your staff is recorded and evaluated on a regular basis. Your staff will develop a system to answer your phones efficiently and effectively. Add that to a productive templated schedule and you are on your way!
Let's look at job descriptions. I don't have one person manning my front desk; I have three and an office manager. Each member of my team has a defined job description. What's great about that is each person is an important piece of the puzzle and when it all comes together it's complete and it works. There's no double work and nothing gets lost in the black hole.

Take a look at Thomas Watson Jr. He was the president of IBM from 1952 to 1971, and dominated the computer market. If you were to ask him how to go about doubling your sales, do you know what he would tell you in one sentence? Double your sales force. Simple, right? If you want to double your sales, double the amount of people selling your stuff. Your front desk should be selling your practice, and if you want to sell your practice more than you already are, you need to add to your team.

There are a lot of people out there trying to teach practice management. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone tell us that in order to keep costs down, you need to reduce your staff labor. Why is it that in baseball, whoever spends the most money on the best players always ends up in the World Series? And why is it that whenever I meet a dentist whose practice nets (not gross) more than $550,000 a year, he or she always has a high labor cost?

I get belittled all the time when I tell other dentists that I pay my staff 27 percent production. They say, "Oh, Howard, that's not right. You should be paying your staff something closer to 20 percent." Well, sure, I can go ahead and make it five percent if I wanted to. I'll just walk into Today's Dental tomorrow, fire my three amazing receptionists and office manager, fire my three outstanding hygienists, and get rid of my four awesome assistants and fill all their positions with the cheapest labor I can find. I'll just put an ad out there on Craigslist for a receptionist. I'll pay minimum wage, no benefits, no 401(k) and no vacation time – the cheapest staff possible. Still think I'm going to pull in several million dollars next year? Think I'll net even one new patient next month?

You get what you pay for, guys. The world's greatest receptionist can turn one phone call into four appointments. The world's greatest receptionist attends every single practice management class she can find. Docs, get your front desk on Dentaltown.com and make them start taking a free practice management continuing education course each week.

Stop treating your staff like overhead. Start treating them like professionals. Start treating them like practice builders. Start taking them to practice management classes with you. Hire an office manager to take you to the next level. Stop trying to manage everything and start delegating. Loosen up on the reins and let your team focus on the business of your practice while you worry about doing good dentistry. But remember, you can't have one without the other.
Howard Live
Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, MAGD, is an international speaker who has written dozens of published articles. To schedule Howard to speak to your next national, state or local dental meeting, email colleen@farranmedia.com.

Dr. Farran’s next speaking engagement is November 29 through December 1, 2010, at the Greater New York Dental Meeting in New York, New York. For more information, please call Colleen at 480-445-9712.

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