How in the world do you get a patient to feel that way, and actually say it to other people? Talk about referrals!!!!

I can only write about my experience because it happened to me. I knew of this dentist’s reputation because he had been through The Schuster Center Management Program quite a few years ago. He had a practice in Illinois, but 10 years ago he moved to Scottsdale, AZ.

Not only was his office decor and design top of the line, his team was wonderful, the dentist was wonderful (kind eyes I like to say when I see some little twinkle of kindness in someone’s eyes). I was shown the entire dental office right down to the sterile room. And if you couldn’t ask for more, the treatment room dental chairs face the gorgeous McDowell Mountains! So close you feel like you could reach out and touch them. The office was mostly very open with many glass partitions and everything was neat and in it’s place.

My new dentist did a thorough examination listening to me about how I felt about my teeth, my concerns over technical quality, margins, etc., what I’d heard from other dentists about my teeth and then of course how I wanted them to look.

I’m an artist, so my view may be different than others, I didn’t want bright white perfect looking teeth. I wanted color variations from tip to top of tooth like my teeth and striations like my teeth. In other words, I wanted my teeth from when I was about 30 maybe, because I’m older now and I didn’t want people to look at me and think, “she just had her teeth redone, “ but instead think “she still has pretty teeth for her age.”

This dentist said to me, “Vicki, I’ve been doing this all my life and I know what you want because I’m an artist, too – just in dentistry.” He said we will pick out color together and will discuss our process together every step of the way.

I was sold before I ever got to the “case presentation” room. I felt he was honest, he was technically good and he was an artist because he showed his work with patient’s pictured “after” on his walls as art. “I was at home.”

Just a side note for all dentists out there, please put together a portfolio of your work. Especially if you’re selling cosmetic dentistry. And, for heaven’s sake, have your own teeth done. I can’t tell you how many dentists do not have their teeth in the state they are trying to sell.

After the exam, I was escorted into a very comfortable private room (not his personal private office) but a room with a computer and room for obviously (at least to me) case presentation with patient, spouse or significant other, and attending team member.

I know a little bit about case presentation (the dreaded “selling” that dentists feel they have to do). Honestly even knowing about it, this dentist listened to my every concern, gave opinions, showed me his work, gave me a price break when he saw I was feeling overwhelmed with paying out a large amount of money in these economic times (and not a lot – just a bit to make me feel that he was trying to help me) and offered delayed payment plans if I needed it.

How much more could I ask? He didn’t get full mouth restoration, but he got half-mouth restoration.

The appointment was set up and of course any patient waits anxiously for that arrival date. It was a 3.5 hr. appointment. That day arrived today. I was shown his wax-ups. They looked great but I had a few concerns about the size my teeth. I’ve always thought my teeth were too big. It’s hard to judge what teeth will look like in one’s mouth vs. on a model.

He explained to me that he did not know what dentistry was done underneath the existing crowns, but he would explain the process to me and we would discover together. Which we did. I was always asked if I wanted a mirror to see what he was discovering. Usually, I did.

A problem arose with a front tooth that I broke when I was 9. I wore temporary caps until 17 then crowns the rest of my life. He found a crack in the tooth so I need a post placed for strength. Pretty much standard stuff under other crowns during the prep and then finally new resin temporaries were placed and I got the mirror again. I shouldn’t have worried about size, they look beautiful and still are only temps!

I was truly amazed at the difference in my appearance. I love the new teeth with just a couple of tweaks which any self respecting artist would make! Meanwhile, I will wait anxiously for my next appointment – for the final porcelain crowns and my new smile.

When I was done I complimented my new dentist and his chairside assistant. I told them that I had gone to three dentists, but when I came here, I felt at home! They thanked me, and I thanked them. Then, the doctor said to me, “You tell Mike for me that he was instrumental in putting me on the right path over 20 years ago – that is the reason I am where I am today!”

Once again, Dr. Michael Schuster has helped change a dentist’s life. By the way, Dr. Schuster’s Case Presentation course is probably the “best” in the country! If you want to know more about it, please call us at 480.941-9393 or visit our website: www.SchusterCenter.com.

I didn’t ask permission to use the dentists name in this blog so that is the only reason I left it off, but I will refer any one who asks me to this dentist once I get his permission. You can reach me at vicki@cfpd.com. (And dentists, I’m also talking to you – get your teeth done if they need it.)

CONGRATULATIONS!!! – Chris Ellison, Practice Development Coach/Faculty and The Schuster Team

There are plenty of dentists whose very lives are coming unglued because of their BLIND FOCUS ON PRODUCTION.

We all need revenues. All businesses need revenues. The question is HOW DO YOU GET THEM? Do you get them by seeing 75 new patients a month, running them through your practice like cattle and manipulating them in the hygiene room to get a crown?

Or…

Do you establish rapport, trust and a caring and sincere relationship with your patients to co-discover what the person wants and needs? Do you co-diagnose their existing condition with care and do your very best to help them get what they want and need?

The production and money-based ways of dealing with people is to manipulate them. In contrast, relationship and trust-based dental professionals seek to help people. They make good decisions and form a long term relationship with each patient.

THE PRODUCTION BASED dentist eventually becomes an IDIOT. Staff isn’t motivated by anything other than money. Dentist isn’t motivated by anything other than money. Instead of creating a ‘professional environment’ of high trust and low fear, the environment becomes a nightmare.

I fully realize we are in the most severe recession we’ve seen in nearly 100 years. But those practices that have focused on QUALITY, TRUST-BASED relationships are sailing thru this time and in many instances, having their best year ever.

There is only ONE MODEL that creates FINANCIAL FREEDOM, TIME FREEDOM, RELATIONSHIP FREEDOM and PURPOSE FREEDOM…and it is the model that we teach at The Schuster Center.

The one and only model.

Dr. Michael Schuster

–Call us about how to integrate proven models and strategies into your dental practice for higher profitability and personal satisfaction… 1-800-288-9393 or visit www.SchusterCenter.com

1. Case Studies - Many of our clients have told us how much they have benefited by reviewing a completed case as a team. Questions such as, “What could we have done better relative to the patient’s treatment”, and “Clinically, what could we have done to improve the outcome?” are great customer service questions.

2. Recare Review - Once a month, the hygienist should report on the patients who were due for hygiene this month, who is accounted for and who is now missing in action. What is their strategy for contacting those patients and more importantly, why did they not respond to the retention efforts?

3. Structured Messages - This should be an ongoing project. You created a number of messages during your Management Program but your practice has an enormous opportunity to refine and create more as a team. Many offices only use structured messages for phone conversations but you can use these for virtually any face-to-face interaction. The format can be used to help with your pre-clinical interviews, chair-side education, and financial arrangement conversations.

4. Communication – Your ability to communicate your thoughts, feelings, ideas, values and beliefs are determined by how well your practice runs. We often limit ourselves by only thinking about how we communicate person to person. However, you might consider reviewing all of your printed materials to check for the consistency of the appearance and the message you are sending. Your web site, yellow page ad, signage, phone messages, collection calls, etc. should be evaluated on a consistent interval.

5. Career Development - The best practices hire and retain the best people as employees and are responding quickly to changing market conditions. The doctors are not satisfied with the status quo. They continually upgrade facilities, processes, and the skill of their employees. Many of my doctors lament about not having enough time to get trained on power point or digital photography. Why not send a team member?? Don’t forget to invest in talent and keep them intellectually challenged. Many of my best clients have mismanaged very talented team members by not investing in their development. Take time to plan out your employee’s career path so they continue to be renewed and recommitted to your practice.

The opportunities for creating the practice of your dreams are unprecedented. But so are the difficulties, for competition is more intense than ever. The critical success factor for your practice is the quality of your team. Authentic team members who are mature and committed will make your vision become a reality. However without meaningful staff meetings in place, your opportunities for success will be limited.

Many dentists believe that if they just increase the number of patients seen they will have financial success. Dentists have been told that bigger dental practices will produce more money for them. But this production model assumes that the dentist’s fixed costs are indeed “fixed” and quality time spent with patients will not become a problem.

Fixed costs aren’t really fixed, just constant. Dentists soon realize that they must add staff, increase office space, or keep more materials on hand to handle a larger practice. But when fixed costs increase, the overhead percentage increases and net profit decreases.

Most dentists are not aware that their introduction to marketing and management of their practice was influenced by research of manufacturing. This manufacturing/production model doesn’t apply to dentistry or other service industries.

Those dentists who believed in this model now find themselves spending more time managing the business side of the practice and less time with their patients. As the pressure increases to produce more business, neglected patients go to another dentist who cares about them. Eventually, dentists realize that they can’t produce their way out of the “bigger is better” trap.

What do they do then? Some dentists sell their businesses to a management firm and become a paid employee of “their” practice. Others file bankruptcy or use consultants for a “quick fix.” Most continue to struggle day to day, looking for a way out. Let’s look at a model that does reflect what actually happens in a dental practice.

Costs are very high at the start up of a new practice and decrease as the practice grows. At some point, the dentist will be faced with a decision to hire more staff, increase office space and buy more materials. When this happens, “fixed costs” per unit and the overhead will increase.

Revenue per patient seen is very low at the beginning of a new practice and increases significantly as the practice grows. At some point, however, the dentists will see less return on investment with every additional patient. Efficiency is lost due to the limitation of the dental practice. As the practice grows larger, dentists are forced to spend more time in managing the business of the practice or pay someone to control the practice. There is a point where more patients means more money, but a diminishing profit margin.

What this means to you…since 1978, The Schuster Center has helped thousands of dentists identify and reach their optimal profit zone. In fact, 97% of the dentists who have learned and applied Schuster strategies and methods have achieved or exceeded their practice goals within the first year. If you’d like to learn where your optimal Profit Zone is, contact us to schedule a complimentary assessment. Call 1-800-288-9393.

Most of us have either read or heard this statement, yet we don’t examine it deeply enough. Almost everything has already been successfully done in some form in the past.

Excellence in any arena is more accessible than we traditionally believe. All success occurs when we think and behave in a certain way.  We each copy or originate a new way of thinking and behaving:  we call this a strategy.

Success in anything is originating or copying a strategy someone (who is successful) is already using. In many instances, it is originating or copying a number of strategies and organizing them together to produce excellence in the arena we have chosen.

Experts call this group of strategies a MODEL. We refer to it also as a STRUCTURE. In other words, a MODEL has a certain STRUCTURE that holds it together, keeps it together and enables the MODEL to produce the results or outcomes we want.

Remember behind every ACTION is a THOUGHT.

Mike Schuster

Call us about how to integrate proven models and strategies into your dental practice for higher profitability – 1-800-288-9393

In 99% of these conversations the standard answer is, “I have grown my practice production from $750,000 to $1,000,000 but I am still taking home $225,000.” If that isn’t frustrating enough, they go on to explain that in order to get production to $1,000,000 they are working much harder. So the bottom line is they are working harder, have less time and energy, for the same money. This certainly is not the business model they set out to achieve.

Don’t misunderstand me, in business we have to produce in order to grow. However, once your time and energy becomes overly focused on production, it becomes easy to lose control of other aspects of the business. How much time and energy is left for developing organization? How much time and energy is left for building trusting relationships with the patients? How much time and energy is left for building relationships with our families? It is easy to become focused on the production number. After all it is the ego number. It feels good to say we produced 1.5 million in 2008. It feels good to say we increased production 20% from the previous year. But what good is that moment of feeling good if we are not sleeping well at night.

The real number to look at is net profit. Practice profitability is what generates growth. Profitability is what generates wealth. If dentist “A” produced $700,000 and had a 52% overhead, he/she would be $116,000 more profitable than dentist “B” who produced $1,000,000 and had a 78% overhead. Who do think feels better about their effort at the end of the day? Who would have more time and more energy? Net Profit is the wealth number. Net Profit is the growth number. Focus on increasing net profit. You will sleep much better at night.

Contact me about quality dental practice management at www.schustercenter.com or 1-800-288-9393. Or email me at grant@cfpd.com.

It goes without saying that the objective of The Schuster Management Program is to teach dental practice management principles. Management is about organizing the business. In order to be efficient and effective, short and long term, business owners, including dentists, need to learn proven management principles. The Management Program does this extremely well, but other growth needs to occur also.

The next developmental step for successful dentists is leadership. Leadership is about imagining preferred futures, planning, building capabilities and inspiring confidence. Leadership is a recurring theme in the Schuster Center’s alumni program, Performance Coach.

The client who learns leadership changes his life and practice profoundly. Leadership creates value for everyone –team, patients and family. With leadership skills, the dentist becomes more influential and as he transforms himself, he transforms others.

Learning expands us permanently and teaching teaches us. Because we all have something to contribute and learn, the format for Performance Coach is community based learning. Alumni teach each other all year long during conference calls.

We never know until after the fact, what others needed to learn from us and we never know until after the fact, what we needed to learn from others.

As advocates for our clients, The Center is committed to our clients’ continued development. We want clients to experience the camaraderie of community learning, to feel the confidence and energy that comes from their own strengthened leadership and the gratification derived from contribution.

Your Center Colleagues and The Center Team hope you join us in The Performance Coach Community.

http://www.schustercenter.com