Dr. David Moffet, BDS, FPFA is considered the #1 Authority on World Class Dental Customer Service. If you can take what he has written in his book and implement it in your daily practice, you can replicate his same success in your own business. Never forget, owning your own dental practice is a business.
We would've had this done awhile back, but we just finished remodeling an entire dental office in just 45 days (post coming soon)! Anyway, we are back on track with our next book summary. This is a bulleted summary. If you want more information, grab the book.
by Dr. David Moffet
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Journey to Success
Chapter One: The Business of Dentistry
Chapter Two: Quality Over Quantity: Getting the Patients Your Really Want
Chapter Three: Creating A Winning Team
Chapter Four: Creating the Ultimate Connection
Chapter Five: Trapped by Time and How to Break Free
Chapter Six: Smart Money (or Beware of Shiny Objects
Chapter Seven: Practice Makes Perfect
Introduction: The Journey to Success
95% of US dentists are still drilling teeth at age 65! That's according to Dr. Omer Reed and unfortunately, it's probably pretty accurate.
One of the main reasons this happens is because dentists think the market dictates who comes to them and they don't actually choose their patients. This book is created to show you why that's wrong and how to fix it.
"It's not a matter of what the market dictates. It's a matter of determining which people in that market you want to serve and dedicating your practice to attracting and keeping those people."
The sad truth is, this is counter-intuitive to what most dentists think. But they're wrong. It is definitely possible to attract and keep those people.
This is a way to get out of "drudgery dentistry"
"The secret to achieving the dental practice of your dreams is providing The Ultimate Patient Experience for your clients by focusing on top notch, World Class Customer Service."
Dentistry is a business and you have to treat it as such. What's frustrating is you aren't really taught a drop of business in Dental School. One main thing that is learnable and a significant talent necessary for The Ultimate Patient Experience is being able to relate to people.
Chapter 1: The Business of Dentistry
To achieve real success, "dentists need to develop the mindset that dentistry is not just a craft. Dentistry is a business. The problem is, you don't learn much about business in dental school."
Although that is true, that does not give you an excuse. You can ask for help. You can get a consultant that actually knows dentistry and business. Dr. David Moffet is actually a consultant too.
One Size Does Not Fit All - Make sure you find a consultant that has systems and suggestions that can be customized to meet your needs.
What does work?
"An approach that assesses the needs of a dental practice and gets down to meeting those needs by focusing on World Class Customer Service and delivering an Ultimate Patient Experience. This produces the practice of your dreams, not anyone else."
Dentistry is a business, but it's a people business.
When you treat your patients like actual people, you build a mutual relationship of trust that grows your practice and keeps your clients.
World Class Customer Service is a culture and an ongoing process. When you deliver the Ultimate Patient Experience, you'll get a huge ROI in just 60 days, along with the following benefits:
- You'll attract the type of clients you want.
- You'll have a willing, winning team in your office.
- You'll eliminate time pressures.
- You'll have tools in place to make sure you're making the smartest investments for your practice.
- Each moment you spend in your practice will be less stressful and more rewarding.
The best advice Dr. Moffet ever received was from Dr. John Martin: "Run your business exactly the way you want it, from day one."
"The Best Advice I Have to Give Is to Treat People Better Than You Yourself Want to Be Treated."
If you can go one better than the Golden Rule then you will be successful at creating the Ultimate Patient Experience.
It costs nothing to say "THANKS"
Giving praise and gratitude reciprocates and has a downstream effect - Praise given causes that person to give praise and pay it forward. - It's a Win-Win!
Side-note: Make sure you aren't just CE=ing your dental skills, but CE you business skills too.
Beat Burnout by Giving Back - Giving back to your community and your profession is fulfilling and a great weapon against burnout.
Chapter 2: Quality Over Quantity: Getting the Patients You Really Want
- Let The Discount Shoppers Go -
"The Ultimate Patient Experience automatically attracts the patients you want"
Dealing with discount shoppers has a laundry list of negatives:
- They have an entitlement mentality, which means they expect perfection and they're rude if they don't get it.
- It waste your money on both ends - the discount before, the headache during, and the extra time trying to please someone who honestly doesn't deserve it.
- They will treat your staff poorly, no matter how great your staff is to them.
- They expect you to be running right on time and if they're 15 minutes late, you better suck it up.
- They are impossible to retain - and the cost of retaining a patient is so much less than getting new ones.
- They Drain everyone in your office.
- Their scenes can actually alienate the patients you really want.
"Life is too short to deal with nasty people. Cheapskate patients are an obstacle to a pleasant, profitable practice, so you have to let them go."
Focus on the patients you really want. You want patients that actually care about their teeth. If these patients have a problem with their teeth, they get it fixed because they want to keep their teeth. They are less demanding, more grateful and they enjoy spending their money on something that gives them a good return.
"They're willing to pay a substantially higher than average fee in return for the substantially higher than average services you provide."
You need to use "Customer Service Eyes" to help you get the Ultimate Patient Experience. That means studying every detail your customer will touch. Always be looking at every aspect of your dental office.
The Environment That Gets You What You Want
- Every aspect is devoted to building a relationship with your patient. Dentistry is Secondary.
- Make the patient feel welcome like they're a guest in you home.
- The Ultimate Patient Experience doesn't have waiting rooms they have client lounges. (Post-Covid changes this a little, but there is still a lot that can make them feel comfortable even if they're in their cars for a bit.)
- Comfort and Relaxation are key.
- No more fluorescents, Warm, Soft Lighting.
- Calm background music without radio commercials.
- Keep TV with sound off. Slideshows of travel pictures and modern dental educational videos.
- Always have updated higher-end magazines (Travel & Leisure, Town & Country, etc).
"What's the difference between a dentist and a sadist? The sadist has newer magazines." - Seinfeld
- Let them take the magazine if they want!
- Don't have warning signs with terrifying pictures of ugly teeth (If it's not required by law, don't put it up).
- Don't have a bunch of marketing brochures out. If they are useful for a specific client, give it to them by hand.
To reiterate, Covid, or not, every single part of your practice your client touches, you need to focus on and devote each aspect to building a relationship with your clients.
Chapter 3: Creating a Winning Team
By 9:15 am most dental offices have already destined themselves to an unfulfilling, unprofitable day.
Dream Day at Office:
30 minutes prior to dentist arriving - care staff come in, turn on lights, computers, music, equipment, etc.
Dentist arrives and huddles everyone together over the expectations of the day, who's coming, what treatments, and prepping for them.
Come together like a sports team.
Dentist is warm and polite and looking forward to the day
Lead By Example
Smile and Have manners
Be early
Mindset, Posture and Words - Send a "Ready To Go" message
Leave stress from outside the office behind because that's what you expect from your team.
!!! Micromanagement is a Big Mistake!!!
"Having your hands in everything is a surefire way to burnout."
"Give your staff the opportunity to become a truly excellent team."
Employees need to feel Valued, Trusted and Respected and looking over their shoulders does the opposite.
You have to put procedures and systems in place so your staff can be successful.
Start with longer procedures at the start of the day:
Gets you off to a good financial start
Keeps dentist and a few others occupied, so others can get a running start on their responsibilities.
Keeps office calm - a lot of 15 min appointments wears office down and makes everyone feel rushed and behind.
Your Job as a Dentist:
Perform Dentistry
Oversee your business
Let your Winning Team do the rest
Traits of a Winning Team:
Constant Communication
Trust and Respect each other
Know there is always someone who can pick up the ball
Empowering your team, allowing them to take the reigns and communicate means when someone is out sick - the teams gets their job done rather than that job standing still until they get back.
You are responsible for identifying who excels at every practice duty and then making them responsible for having their own pinch-hitter if they're out.
"The goal is to empower these wonderful people to empower other wonderful people."
Don't confuse empowering people with not having authority. You have to have authority - don't doubt yourself.
Signs you've lost authority:
You tolerate people who are late.
People who are ungroomed.
People who come in and make breakfast at office instead of start their day.
Dentist has handed over authority so much they have created "bad-apple" control freaks. If you decide to do something different than what the control freak wants, you could have a large challenge of authority vocalized.
Full Team Training creates and facilities the Ultimate Patients Experience.
It makes everyone on your team comfortable with making changes.
It helps you spot strengths in your people.
It makes everyone less likely to resist change and enjoy the process.
It Empowers team to live up to their potential.
It makes them feel valued as people.
In short, creating a winning team and the Ultimate Patient Experience means you need to have authority, professionally train your staff into all-stars and do not tolerate bad employees.
Chapter 4: Creating the Ultimate Connection
The Ultimate Connection: "a series of personal interactions that build an unshakeable relationship between your new client and your office."
The All Important First Call
Do you actually even know how many people call with a new-patient inquiry and how many convert to an appointment? - This is a must!
When you don't convert an inquiry to a patient, you are losing free money. If you can go from converting 1 out of 5 to 2 out of five, you have doubled your practice. It's a no brainer.
Every time the public calls any dental office it isn't just for fun; they actually have a specific dental problem. When they call you, "they've already decided they want you to solve it."
"They're looking for confirmation that you recognize their problem, sympathize with them, and want to help them. They're looking for a friend, and your role is to always - always! - be that friend."
Today is different from 30 years ago. Instead of going through a phonebook, people get online, vet you, look at your reviews - they already know they want to work with you, so do not make the first phone call a turn-off. Make it a new patient.
Answer the call immediately.
"Thank you for calling Dream Dental. This is Jenny. How may I help you?"
Most likely they will ask about pricing because it's their only point of reference - they do not know where else to go.
Jenny steers the conversation to a new direction - "When were you last in to see us?" - if by chance it is an existing patient, they won't feel as meaningless as "Are you a patient of Dr. _______?" Also, if they say they are not a patient then you can make it even more personal.
"Which one of our valued patients can we thank for recommending our dental office to you, Mrs. Adams." - this says you value your patients, love referrals and reward existing clients.
Generic question: "How long has it been, do you think, since you last went to the dentist." - Don't dwell on this, move on.
"Can you give me your e-mail address? I'd like to send you out a special report, titled Fifteen Reasons Why Smart People Put Off Going to the Dentist and How Those Decisions Are Affecting Our Health and Driving Us Prematurely into Our Graves."
"While I'm writing your e-mail address down, can I also have your mobile phone number, just in case we are cut off? You know, my sister was cut off yesterday standing on the top of a hill. Can you believe that?" - Chatty yet professional: Strengthens connection, shows she cares, and being a friend. All the while, she's deflected the cost question!
By the time Jenny is finished talking about her issues and needs, they're good friends now and the possible patient is sold and becomes a new patient.
How to Blow a Conversion Call
"Have you been here before?"
"I don't know that."
"You need to come in for an exam before we can answer that question."
It depends."
These should never be said.
Put the proper telephone answering protocols in place, train and you will see your new-patient inquiries conversions double.
Appointment Cancellations: Offer options besides cancelling. People put off the dentist because it's the easiest thing in their minds to do. If someone's trying to cancel say,"That's all right, John. I can get you in sooner." Suddenly John makes he appointment.
The Ultimate Patient Arrival and Greeting
You've already converted your waiting room into a lounge, so it needs to be clean and welcoming.
There should be a natural flow guiding the patient to the area to be greeted.
Your staff knows who's coming in because they all have the schedule, so they can greet them by name rather than "Who are you?"
Greeting: "Welcome to Dream Dental. you must be Mrs. Adams. I'm Jenny. I spoke with you on the phone." If possible - phone greeter and appointment greeter should be the same for each client. If not, "I'm Kate. I know Jenny made your appointment because she told me so much about you. I've been looking forward to meeting you."
"Please make yourself comfortable. I'll go and let Dr. Moffet know that you're here."
Don't say: "Take a seat." - "We'll be with you in a few." - "Won't be too long."
Make sure paperwork is done online - Everyone hates that clipboard. Mrs. Adams is no different. Also, it can take time and delay your schedule. Losing that 10-15 minutes per patient can hurt you massively.
If she arrives early, recognize it positively. Most offices act like they are stupid and they have screwed their whole schedule up by getting there early. Instead say, "Thanks so much for coming in early. Let me tell Dr. Moffet, because you never know, we my be able to see you ahead of time."
The Ultimate Handover
Jenny will tell Mary that Mrs. Adams has arrived, describe her and tell her where's she's sitting, so when Mary comes to get her, she doesn't scream a name at the doorway. She walks up to her and says, "Hello Mrs. Adams. I'm Mary, and I'm going to be assisting Dr. Moffet today. How is your day going so far?" - A specific question evokes a specific response. Vague ("How's it going?") begets vague.
Mrs. Adams response and Mary's memory are important. If she actually does say something of substance Mary can mention it next time Mrs. Adams is there.
Mary says, "Won't you please come with me?" Don't chit-chat down the hall while taking the patient back. You're not face-to-face. It's hard to have any meaningful conversation.
Mary gives her clear specific instructions on where to go.
In the treatment room, Mary says, "You can pop your bag right here if you'd like and make yourself comfortable" and motions towards the chair.
The Dentist's Entrance
- Greet the patient warmly, introduce yourself, and briefly go over the task ahead in a friendly way.
"In The Ultimate Patient Experience, the dentist does three things: he greets the patient, he treats the patient, and then he bids the patient farewell. Other than that, every other duty needed should be performed by your team members."
- You are in control of the chair, so talk to your patient with the chair up prior to start. When you put the chair back it's time to start.
- This is the time to build goal-oriented rapport. You want her to know you care about her, but you are also doing everything focused and in a timely manner.
- Don't chat with the dental assistant while you are with a patient. It's unprofessional and it makes the patient seem as thought they don't matter.
"The customer you've attracted expects, deserves, and must receive one hundred percent of your attention! Always!"
The Clear Next Step
"With the Clear Next Step, everything you do in your dental office is designed to leave your valued patients with total clarity about what the next step is to be."
- The top priority is always your patient.
Before you return your patient back to your dental assistant make sure you tell them these five following things:
Tell them exactly what treatment they received today.
The them exactly what they may experience or feel over the next few days.
Explain the exact treatment they will be having at their next visit to the dental office.
Let them know the time frame or urgency of the remaining treatment required.
Tell them exactly what will happen if their next treatment is not carried out.
World Class Front Office Follow-Up
- After you've passed the baton to your dental assistant she will make sure your patient is comfortable, clean and presentable. From there she is gently escorted to a private area, not a counter with people passing by. Your dental assistant has explained the same five things you just explained to your receptionist. The receptionist listens carefully and then repeats it to your patient after the dental assistant has left. This repetition is vital. It's how your patient is aware that the baton is being passed. And also that you and your team know what you are doing and care about them.
From there, your receptionist can easily arrange the next appointment.
This chapter seems like common sense, but the last time I went to the dentist, it was anything like this experience. Not that my dentist was bad, but it is much harder to execute this seamlessl, Clear Next Step process than it seems. This is where Chapter 3: Creating A Winning Team is very important. Without the right team, The Ultimate Patient Experience is near impossible.
Chapter 5: Trapped by Time and How to Break Free
- The Time Trap of Missed Vacations - "If you were the patient, who would you want to have treating your teeth: a dentist who takes a vacation or a dentist who needs a vacation?"
- I don't know how much more I need to say. That quote says it all. You need to allocate your staff and verse them in the proper way to talk to patients and delay their treatment. If the pain is too bad, make sure there is another dentists close by that you have discussed this with prior and send them to that dentist. Trust me, you won't lose a patient. They will appreciate you more.
- The Time Trap of False Pressure - You don't need to look busy. You need to be a swan gliding on the top of the water, but underneath, you are busy paddling. On top, it's all grace and charm. Don't rush a patient that needs multiple appointments to be done. If the lab typically takes two weeks, set them up for three weeks later on their second appointment. This will alleviate the undo stress you put on yourself by trying to rush multiple appointment patients. Now, take an impression and a crown as an example. If you are going to make them wait three weeks, you better make sure your work is rock solid on the temporary crown. If they come off early, that's bad. And doing rock solid work isn't added pressure. It's a must.
- The Time Trap of Fees That Are Too Low - You need to schedule regular fee increases. While you go on charging the same fee, inflation eats up your profit and you have to work more and more to pay the bills. Dr. Moffet struggled with this. It seems obvious that once you raise your fees, everyone will be upset, but it's not accurate at all. After he attended a mastermind group he was told to increase his fees. He ended up increasing them 10% within months and absolutely no one complained. After that, he started to increase them annually and to this day, not one complaint. Hygiene treatment costs don't typically increase much to your practice, so it won't damage your bottom line if you keep those fees steady.
- If you are focused on World Class Customer Service and you are giving your patients The Ultimate Patinet Experience, the clients you are attracting aren't going to ditch you over an annual increase.
- The Time Trap of Stacking Your Book - Stacking appointments is essentially booking the first appointment for the minute your office opens and stacking each other appointment on top of it with no time in between. If everyone shows up on time and there are no hiccups, that might work, but when has that ever happened?
- There's three main issues with stacking. One, with Covid, you have to allocate time in between appointments in exam rooms just to have them cleaned properly. Two, your stress and your office's stress levels will be off the charts and it will reflect to your patients. That is not World Class Customer Service. Three, without downtime, the small but critical things don't get done by the staff.
- Stacking creates disorder. Dr. Moffet created the Ultimate Appoitment Book template and says to work their books backward. This gives your day flow, financial security, balance and coordination.
Steps for The Ultimate Appointment Book:
Determine your financial goal for the years. Figure in practice maintenance and improvement, salaries, and the return on investment you want. Then figure the number of days your office will be open (365 minus weekends, holidays, etc).
Divide your big number (financial goal) by the number of working days.
Now that you know how much you need to do during the day start with a strong foundation; high-production appointments like crown and implants that contribute the most to your daily production goal. Spread these appointments across your schedule and throughout the week. If you think of it this way, you can schedule three crowns a day and you've probably accounted for two-thirds of your daily goal.
Stack the lighter appointments, fillings and ortho, around the bigger producing appointments.
Point of note: You can't always guarantee a perfect layout of your schedule, but if you and your staff understand the purpose and goal of the Ultimate Appointment Book, you can always work towards balance.
Know These Numbers - These are crucial to your success.
- collections and production, daily, weekly, and monthly.
- new patients inquiries.
- where each prospective customer found out about your practice.
- conversion numbers: how many new patient inquiries become patients and the source of marketing they came from.
- appointments being rescheduled.
- appointments being cancelled and not rescheduled.
- new patients who cancel or fail to show up.
Chapter 6: Smart Money (or Beware of Shiny Objects)
- This chapter starts with technology. A lot of dentist tend to want the latest technology, but it turns out to cost them in time and money. Always be very aware when there is some bright new shiny tech out there, if it is actually worth the money, or if it is just a pretty piece of tech.
- There are some other places it may be worth spending a little money on to give you World Class Customer Service.
Staff Size - If you ever have a time where your phone goes unanswered, you need more staff. If you pay someone $20-25 per hour to answer phones in The Ultimate Patient Experience way then surely you will book enough extra appointments to more than cover her cost.
Website - If you have defined the type of client you want and you have designed every aspect of your office through the customer's eyes, then you need a website to reflect that. More than likely, you are not qualified to do this. Yes there are quick website templates, but it is worth hiring a proper web designing company to make your site exactly what you want it to be. There are actually site designers that specialize in dentistry.
More than one treatment room - If you only have one treatment room, you have to do whatever it takes to get another room. With Covid and tear down between each client, you will lose valuable time between each patient. Get two rooms.
There is one place where World Class Customer Service can save you a lot of money: Marketing. - With World Class Customer Service, patients remain loyal longer, and referrals sky rocket. It's a no brainer. Also, you do not have to offer discounts. Discounts eat away at your bottom line. World Class Customer Service and The Ultimate Patient Experience make discounts unnecessary.
Chapter 7: The Perfect Practice: Practice Makes Perfect
- Here are some ways to get better and closer to World Class Customer Service:
Mystery Shopping and Role Play - These are great tools. Mystery shopping is simply having someone come in and "spy" on your company and give you a sort of report card. It can be tough to get someone to do this if it is involving a root canal, but a general cleaning appointment can be a great way to get some undercover insight on your practice. Also, Role Playing is huge. You need two people to talk and one to observe. You can switch it up, but having people go through different aspects of your practice in a role playing scenario can't be done enough. It is enlightening for everyone involved.
Treatment Interruptions: Practicing Time Outs - If you are in the middle of a procedure, from a Customer Service Eyes standpoint, you should never step away from the patient to take a call. If there is an emergency, your front office person should put it on a post-it note and show it to you. Then you can tell your patient you are going to give them a break and will be right back, rather than saying, "I have to take this call, sorry." Again, best policy is do not interrupt, but practice using the post-it note.
Full Team Practice: Weekly Meetings - Do not just make this a weekly rundown of appointments. This needs to be fun and engaging. Also, make sure it is right after lunch. Other times during the day tend to be harder to keep everyone focused. This is a time to celebrate successes, give other team members a chance to discuss their roles, review World Class Customer Service, etc. After this, then you can get to the agenda of the week.
How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams (Without Killing Yourself!) is a great book for any dentist, or professional looking to get a better grasp on customer service within their office. The main thing to take from this is to look at every aspect of your office through Customer Service Eyes. You'll find that, once you have defined your client and then geared your entire office toward pleasing them, you will have a much smoother, much more profitable practice. I have only scratched the surface of what is in this book. If you would like to learn more, purchase the book here.
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