Here are my top 6 tips for maximising the treatment conversion process. None of them are rocket science but you’ll see all contribute to a higher overall treatment conversion rate for your practice:

TIP 1: Tell the story

The use of patient case studies, stories of patients who have already had the treatment(s), can aid a patient’s consideration process.

Even better, get your happy patients on video, so other patients considering similar treatment can see and hear from them. This form of third party endorsement is very powerful.

TIP 2: Work to your strengths

Many dentists see great results from the use of a Treatment Co-ordinator.

The TC works in tandem with the dentist, handling conversations about treatment queries and costs, allowing the dentist to focus on clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Clear Vision’s work with dentists often involves profiling their personalities and behaviours. What we typically see, is that dentists are naturally high in attention to detail but are weaker in ‘sales’ mode. If this includes you, you should consider recruiting a TC with a natural strength in influence and sales to handle discussions about treatment plans.

The best results come from your whole team working to their strengths.

TIP3: Offer payment options

You are likely to convert more treatment plans when you offer your patients a range of ways to pay for the treatment.

Time spent researching and setting up 0% finance options, standing order agreements and so on is a good investment and will increase your conversion rate overall.

TIP4: Consider the ‘decision making unit’

Chances are, a patient with a large treatment plan will want and/or need to discuss it with their spouses, partners or family members. This is especially the case while there is increased strain on family finances.

So your treatment plan must stand up to scrutiny away from your surgery.

Make sure the patient can take it away and easily go through it with others. Provide supporting information on treatments online and in hard copy for them to refer to.

These things are important in supporting the ‘case’ you have put forward for the patient committing a portion of their income to dental treatment.

TIP5: Follow up systematically

So key and yet so often overlooked, the habitual follow up with patients who have been issued with treatment plans should be part of your working systems.

Practice software such as SOE enables you to produce a report of outstanding treatment plans. Getting the right person (your TC if you have one or a nurse with confidence over the telephone) to regularly review this report and make contact with the patients in question can pay dividends.

A POINT TO NOTE: your outstanding treatment report needs to be as ‘clean’ as possible. So your dentists must make sure that patient data is kept up to date on your computer system.

If you don’t have software with the appropriate reporting functionality, adopt a manual report system.

But whatever you do, put a follow up system in place.

TIP 6: Invest time in the process

Be prepared to give further chair time to discuss potential treatment with a patient when required (particularly when you are proposing a sizeable amount of treatment). You can determine who needs this when you follow up with patients.

Certain patients may need to see you again to get answers to queries which came up after leaving the practice, or as a result of discussing their treatment plan with others.

When you consider the cost of a 15 minute appointment, compared to the conversion of a significant treatment plan, you’ll see this is a good investment.

We expand on these points and also share our best advice on maximising your hygiene patients and recall rate in our Annual Dental Business KPI Report 2011. Call 01249 712074 or email: dee.gerrish@cvag.co.uk  for your complimentary copy.

In part one of my feedback, I share the first four steps it takes to create a great and effective version:

Step 1: Think about its purpose

First of all, consider why you’re creating the form. What do you want it to achieve?

Making sure your patients know about all the treatments you offer makes sense. And it’s something dentists sometimes overlook.  But beware of simply listing questions which are overtly promoting cosmetic treatments. If the patient hasn’t visited you specifically for a cosmetic consultation, this can appear ‘salesy’ and put them off.

The most effective smile questionnaires I have seen in action are designed to initiate the conversations the dentist wants to have with their patient.  Conversations about the patient’s feelings, wishes and problems and how your treatment can provide the solution they may be looking for. They deal with more than just aesthetics.

A great smile questionnaire:

1. Highlights a patient’s current concerns, issues or wishes
2. Gives the dentist the opening to discuss the issue & how a particular treatment or service can resolve it
3. Cuts down the time it takes the dentist to bring together points 1 and 2

 Step 2: Think about your patient

As stated above, the most productive questionnaires focus on a patient’s feelings and wishes and not on the dentist’s treatments.  Make your questionnaire serve your patients and it will work for you too.

So consider each of your treatments. And then identify:

• what ‘pain’ they help your patients move away from, or
• what ‘gain’ they help them move towards

This ‘pain or gain’ thought process is helpful when constructing your questions.  For instance, a patient can’t ‘desire’ an implant and crown, but they can be worried about a gap showing when they smile. The ‘gain’ they want to move towards is filling the gap and smiling with confidence, so this is the best approach for the question (if a question asking a patient if they would like an implant seems an unlikely scenario to you, I can assure you that I have seen such a question asked of
patients more than once!).

Step 3: Consider the design of your questionnaire

What to call it? Most questionnaires are simply called ‘smile questionnaire’ or ‘your smile’ but its title is worth further consideration.  I suggest ‘your dental wishes’ or ‘getting to know you’ (for new patients) is more appropriate for a  questionnaire designed to get to the heart of the patient’s wishes and needs.

Include a concise introduction, which clearly states the purpose of the questionnaire.

Include clear and easy to complete questions – if your patient is unable to answer the first few questions or the questionnaire is too long, then they’re very likely to give up.

Include questions about how you can resolve pain or offer gain using non cosmetic treatments as well as cosmetic. Mix up the questions between those with a cosmetic solution and those with non-cosmetic.

Keep your answer options simple. Don’t include complex rating scales – remember the questionnaire is designed to do one thing and one thing only – start a productive conversation about how the patient is feeling.

Complete the form with a heartfelt thank you which shows the patient how vital the information they have provided is to you.

Step 4: Work out your questionnaire system

It is no use simply designing a questionnaire, you need to put a good system in place to use it!

Consider when and how you pass it to your patients to fill in. Are your questions sensitive? Would your patients prefer to complete the form where they are not overlooked rather than in the middle of your waiting room?

One practice I visited recently provides a new patient discussion with their personable Practice Manager who collects all their medical information and fills in their smile questionnaire during the private conversation – what a great first impression! And one which gets to the heart of the patient’s current issues clearly and early in the relationship, away from the surgery and busy reception.

Include a discussion about the purpose of the questionnaire in a team meeting and how you would like it to be used. Ensure your team members feel comfortable presenting it to patients and explaining its value. Team training is essential to ensure everyone is confident in using the questionnaire and will use it.

Encourage your new patients to fill it in and review it with them every year. You can encourage your existing patients to complete it too, when you explain the value to them as well. Write an existing patient version if you need to.

Be prepared to change the way you incorporate the filling in of the form into your daily systems. If you find a better way to include it in your patient appointments, make the change!

Be prepared also to change and improve the questionnaire itself as you gain feedback on it from your patients – you can always make improvements.

Above all, be committed to using your questionnaire and you’ll get the best out of it.

In my next blog, I’ll cover measuring the work your questionnaire highlights your patients require and converting this into a treatment plan you can present.

Meanwhile for a free, no obligation evaluation of the design of your smile questionnaire call me on 01249 712074 or email me at: dee.gerrish@cvag.co.uk

Highly important because this directly relates to the profit you make. It is a significant factor in truly running your practice as a business.

When reviewing your practice structure, I recommend you treat the different areas of your practice as three distinct and separate businesses:

1. the work you do as practice owner & principal
2. the work conducted by your hygienists and therapists, and
3. the work conducted by your associates and specialists

Look at the work you do as a clinician

Chances are, as you don’t pay others to provide the service, your profit when you carry out certain treatments yourself can be as high as 80-90%.

A crown charged at £750, say, with costs to you of £150, will make you £600 profit. That’s an 80% profit margin.

Similarly an implant and crown charged at £2,500, with costs to you of perhaps £500, also generates 80% profit. The difference is it makes you £2,000 as this treatment is of higher value.

So you can see the key to more profit is to adopt a principle of allocating treatment which increases the amount of high value work you do.

Look at the work done by your hygienist/therapist

Firstly, calculate your profit margin. You can insert your own figures but let’s use the typical UK hygiene numbers as an example:

Hygiene time in the UK is typically charged between £90 and £130 per hour.

The cost to a dental practice is £25 to £35 per hour. So based on these averages a gross profit of 66% is made on each hygiene hour:

Average                               £105

Cost                                         £35

Profit                                       £70

You make a reduced level of profit on the treatment your hygienist/therapist carries out. So to do the best for your business, you need to allocate them the appropriate work.

What lower-value treatments are you currently doing which your hygienist/therapist is permitted to take up? Are you utilising all their capabilities?

Look at the work done by your associates and specialists

It can be a gut-wrenching moment when you look at just how much money goes out the door to your specialists.

As an example, let’s assume you refer out one implant per month at a cost of £2,500 to the patient. Over 12 months this is £30,000 worth of work. That’s a whopping £300,000 over ten years.

The process of carrying out this work in-house makes sense for your business. Here are your options:

1. Carry out this work yourself (passing down lower-cost treatments to your hygienist/therapist will release time for you) and make the level of profit as detailed above
2. Bring in an associate who can carry out this work if you do not have the training to do so – a profit of zero will rise to 40-50%, that’s as much as £15,000 before costs over the course of one year. £150,000 over ten years

Of course you need to retain a flexible approach. Situations change and the demand for dental services alters with them.

For instance, many dentists are currently seeing a downturn in the level of cosmetic treatment taken up by patients. So you have to be prepared for alterations to the work mix in each of your three business areas.

But stick to this base working structure, matching your revenue to your profit whenever you can and it WILL improve your bottom line financial results.

Matthew will be revealing other ways you can maximise your results at MediCruit’s ‘Practice Matters’ seminar on 16^th & 17^th March in Coventry. This event is for dentists looking to sell their practice or buy new ones and is CPD verifiable.

Now it’s my turn to share another statistic of interest to you…

We’ve calculated the average hygiene concentration rate across the many dental practices who entrust their monthly results to us. In 2011, this figure was 43.12%.

Your hygiene concentration rate is the percentage of your total patients who could see the hygienist and are currently being seen. Wondering why you should care about this figure in your practice? Consider this example:

Number of active private patients = 1,0oo

90% of whom should see the hygienist = 900

Number of active patients seeing hygienist = 450

Potential patients to see hygienist = 450

Assuming:

2 visits on average at 30 minutes per year = £110 income / £75 profit per hour

Potential untapped profit is 450 patients x £75 = £33,750 per year

That’s a lot of untapped profit. And it’s typical of the scenario we continue to see in dental practices.

When you give your hygiene function the attention it deserves, you benefit your patients in a way which also benefits your dental business. Now, I know that some dentists will disagree with the need to refer their patients to a hygienist. I continue to help those who do agree that seeing the hygiene is an appropriate and vital service for patients and want to increase the number who do.

The key is to treat hygiene as a separate business in its own right. One which requires the right system and the appropriate amount of focus to achieve its potential. For example:

• highlight the patients who don’t see the hygienist on your day lists
• make your fellow dentists / associates aware of the need to refer these patients to the hygienist
• encourage the use of visual aids to enable patients to see how a hygienist can help them improve their oral health
• share training and monthly hygiene results between the dentists to

Straightforward? Yes. Effective? You bet.

And yet at the present time it pays to take it a step further…

You see had we shared the average practice hygiene concentration rate with you a year ago, it would have exceeded 55%. Our practice statistics show that it has been harder to persuade families with finances under pressure to spend on hygiene of late. It’s understandable if you find some resistance at this time from your existing patients who have gone without hygiene support for a number of years or are used to you carrying out a hygiene service for them as part of their exams.

But the statistics also show that it is still possible to keep the number of patients taking up hygiene increasing. There are a number of practices bucking the general hygiene trend.

Many practices use intra oral cameras, photo images or a mirror to SHOW patients why they should see the hygienist, instead of TELLING them. A patient may not be able to appreciate a clinical explanation but they can recognise live bacteria or plaque when it is shown to them.

Some also combine this with the use of a scoring system which patients can understand. Dentists and hygienists take measurements, pocket depth and so on, but these are rarely shared or understood by the patient. As a race, we are used to ‘keeping the score’. It’s a concept your patients will understand. So when you keep the score of them, explain what their ‘scores’ are in way they understand and what you would like their scores to be, it contributes to your ability to illustrate the value of keeping to regular hygiene appointments.

Right now, however, we see the very best hygiene concentration rates across the UK being achieved by dental teams who are adding a further dimension to their patient experience - they are creating a ‘game’ which their patients appreciate.

Some are producing a set of balls, each with a different level of firmness and giving the ball to the patient which most closely illustrates their perio situation. They are demonstrating pockets depths through the use of a pocket on their tunic. They are getting creative.

What are you doing to get creative and increase the number of patients seeing your hygienist?

As 2012 begins, we begin by looking back at our work with dentists during 2011.

A review of the dental business measurements Clear Vision analysed for dentists across the UK throughout the year has been very interesting.

You’ll appreciate that one of the most powerful measurements you can monitor for your dental business is your patient recall rate. After all, without returning patients, your practice would fail pretty quickly. So recalls really is your ‘engine room’ system. Your approach to it, your attention to detail and your execution are all key.

Looking at the many recall figures we monitor on behalf of UK dentists reveals that the average exam recall rate during 2011 was 50.77%. Clearly the current climate can have an effect on patients’ recall habits. But the dental practices we see maintaining the strongest recall results are still dedicating the appropriate amount of time and attention to their recalls.

Here’s our top 6 tips for improving your recall system and maximising your recall rate in 2012:

TIP 1: Educate your patients to book in advance. 

Simple but effective: when you working systems guide your patients back to your reception to book their next appointment – more of them do.

TIP 2: Invest time in it to see a great return

The practices we see get the best results from this fundamental business system use a range of approaches. But they all have one thing in common – they set aside time and resources to run their recall system well

TIP 3: Test and measure what works for YOUR patient base.

Looking for the one key ingredient which generates successful recalls across all dental practices is like searching for the Holy Grail. Our experience shows that every patient base is different. And the practices getting the best recall results have worked out what approach maximises the number of their patients returning in particular.

TIP 4: Be prepared to test different communication mediums

You have more methods of communication with your patients than ever.

Test the newer methods as well as the more traditional ones to see what works for your patient base.

TIP 5: Request and record each patient’s preferred method of contact

Simple and yet effective again – if you want your patients to recall successfully, ask them HOW they would like to be recalled. Then recall them using the method they have specified – time worth investing.

TIP 6: Make your communications effective

What you say and how you say it in your recall communications is like any other form of marketing – it can have the desired effect or it can simply disappear amongst the deluge of messages we are subjected to as human beings each day. When you use the right wording to motivate your patients, you get them to take notice and take the action you want them to take…booking again!

We expand on these points and also share our best advice on maximising your hygiene patients and treatment conversion rate in our Annual Dental Business KPI Report 2011. Call 01249 712074 or email me at: dee.gerrish@cvag.co.uk for your complimentary copy.

Wishing you every success in 2012.

When was the last time you considered the impression your practice gives to the outside world?

It’s an important point for you, particularly now while families are feeling the pinch and more wary about where money is spent. A great first impression really gives your practice a better chance to secure a new patient.

It’s understandable to get caught up in what is happening internally in your practice. You don’t have time to take a step outside of your business and look in.

Once the domain of the retail sector alone, ‘Mystery Shopping’ is now used by dentists. There are dental practices already gaining on their competitors as they learn how they can improve the initial patient experience. Simply by setting up a Mystery Caller to call their practice and pose as a potential patient.

Here are just a few factors dentists are gauging:

• The quality of their telephone welcome – how the telephone is answered and how the caller is made to feel initially
• What information is provided in respect of regular dental examinations and hygiene appointments
• How well their receptionist team promotes the value and benefits of these appointments and the skills of the clinicians who undertake them
• How well their receptionist team promotes your dental treatments How well their receptionist team deals with questions about the cost of your treatment

Armed with this information, dentists are able to discuss the results with their reception team (constructively, naturally!) and work on the ‘scripts’ and processes the receptionists use to ensure potential patients visit the practice.

Time for a mystery shopper to call your practice?

Providers

A GDS or PDS Practice may be owned by a single-hander or by a partnership. It may also be a company limited by shares (or DBC). Where a shareholder is a qualified (and listed) dentist they are afforded type 1 dental Practitioner/Provider status under the NHS Pension Scheme (‘NHSPS’) Regulations. As you would suspect, if the shareholder is not a qualified dentist they do not have access to the NHSPS.

A shareholder must ‘pension’ all the GDS/PDS income that they take (i.e. draw down) from the business in the form of salary and dividends. Any GDS/PDS income that is not taken but left in the business cannot be pensioned now or in future years.

If a Provider opts out of the NHSPS or is ineligible to join, their colleagues cannot ‘pension’ their GDS/PDS income.

Performers

If a Performer (i.e. Associate) works for a GDS/PDS Contractor as an individual, they are also afforded type 1 dental Practitioner NHSPS status. However if a Performer creates a limited company and works at the Practice through that limited company they (or anyone else who works for the Performer’s limited company) cannot pension their GDS/PDS income with effect from 7th November 2011. This is because this sub-contractor limited company is not recognised under the statutory NHSPS Regulations.

So a Performer must work as an individual (not through a unique limited company) to be able to pension their GDS/PDS income with effect from the 7th of November 2011.

For more information on whether the tax benefits of incorporation outweigh the advantages of your NHSPS eligibility please click here to request a call back….

NHS Pension Scheme Changes

As a result of Lord Hutton’s report into public sector pensions, the Government has made it clear they will introduce changes to the NHS pension scheme in 2015. The good news is that they have also made a commitment that all pension benefits earned up to that point will be protected.

The main reason for this is that people are living longer and pensions are costing more.This cost has fallen on the tax payer. In the meantime, therefore, there is also a proposal to increase member contributions from April 2012 for anyone earning over £15,000 year.

For those earning over £21,000 a year, the increase could be an additional 2.4% in 2012/2013, rising to an extra 6% in 2014/2015. This is in addition to the 6.5% or more that members are currently paying.

Want to know more? A specialist dental IFA such as Essential Money can help you.

A very important question for you…

Does your accountant work proactively for you and your practice?

What’s clear as I speak to dentists across the UK is that this is an issue for many.

Here’s the thing…

It’s common for accountants to promote their services as being ‘proactive’. You see it often. It’s likely yours did too. But is this the reality in every case?
What I am told, and told often, is that accountants leave dentists in the dark financially. Provide little or no help to predict their financial future. Or work with them to improve it. Look up the meaning of ‘proactive’ and you see:

 ‘taking the initiative’
‘tending to initiate change’
‘acting in anticipation of future needs or changes’
 Is an accountant who leaves you waiting for your accounts ‘taking the initiative’?
 Is advising you of your tax bill four weeks before the payment is due an example of someone acting in anticipation of your future needs?

So how should ‘taking the initiative’ translate for your practice?

Imagine the financial year end of your business is 31st March. I propose that a proactive accountant – in the true sense of the word – will start to prepare your accounts no later than the end of May.  That’s a maximum of eight weeks after your year end. And deliver them no more than 20 days later.

Seem excessively fast?
Not when you consider the positive ramifications for you:

More knowledge
You know what profits you have made over the year and where they have come from.

 Less uncertainty
You can put together a meaningful financial forecast for the following year based on this profit history (doing this six months into the next year is too late!). Your financial forecast will help you plan for any potential bumps in the financial road. It will also make sure the funds are set aside for you to extract to give you and your family the life you want throughout the year.

More clarity
You can keep your accounting software up to date with your actual profit figures against your forecast each month – so you always know the financial ‘score’ for your practice.
And then you can make informed decisions and take great actions for your practice based on your ‘scorecard’.

 Less stress
A whopper of a benefit to many dentists, you’ll know in advance what size tax bill you are facing! So you’ll have chance to do some tax planning to mitigate the bill. And you can set aside the necessary cash to pay it. If you’ve been landed late with an unexpectedly large tax bill in the past, you know how tough it is to come up with the payment!

Your trusted business adviser
On top of these significant benefits, a proactive accountant will become your business adviser. They will help to generate more profit in your practice by calculating the profit margins you currently make. On your treatments and products, via each of your clinicians. And then apply sound commercial knowledge to show you how you can improve these figures.

Plus they will communicate regularly with you to make sure you get more happiness. They’ll call to see how they can help at that point in time to get you more of what you want. To achieve your personal goals. They’ll provide a shoulder to lean on. They’ll get in touch simply to see how you are doing.

Proactive – to be or not to be…

How would you feel with less uncertainty and less stress in your life?
How would more clarity, more profit and more happiness suit you?
You pay your accountant whether they are proactive or not.
Make sure you invest in one who brings you all the benefits that genuine proactivity provides. They do exist.

Rob Walsh