Post-Holiday Hangover Prevention Guide

I love hearing how your practices are booming right now.  The last quarter in most dental practices is usually quite fruitful as patients are finally getting in to complete delayed treatment.  They are realizing that benefits will expire and unused MSA money will go to waste, so a natural ‘busyness’ is occurring.  This is both good news, and bad news.  We can settle into a comfort knowing that we’re booked ‘til the end of the year, causing us to put some of those important, yet not urgent systems on the back burner. 

Keep reading for post-holiday hangover prevention ideas...

You’re seeing a lot of action – but what happens when you don’t have that insurance carrot?  While it’s great to see patients taking advantage of their benefits, we still need to be thinking big picture.  Most of you only have a week or two before you take some well-deserved time out of the office. 

Our minds are scattered as we focus on our Christmas to-do lists, but do yourself a favor that you will be grateful for come January - what are YOU doing right now that will feed your practice in February?

• Stick with the Patient Reservation System - Sometimes we get a little over zealous and ‘over cram’ the schedule. We are having success and want to see how high we can go.  As a result, you disregard the Patient Reservation System blocks and over schedule.  Book to goal, then move to the next day.  Your patients are paying you a lot of money and committing their time to you.  Have respect for their time as well.
• Don’t forget the ‘important, but not urgent’ tasks that will feed your next cycle. When you are ‘busy’, it’s easy to get distracted and begin to function in crisis mode a bit, just doing what it takes to keep your head above water.  Our day may be so busy with patients that we don’t have time for that interview, or those photos, or we may have gotten a little greedy and booked that bridge prep during our planning appointment time.  Soooo, now we don’t have space for planning appointments, so we don’t go that route. 
• Be cautious of complacency. When things are going well, it’s typical for us to sit back and relax a bit.  We may even have that feeling of, ‘Ahhhh – I’ve finally arrived!’  We’ll let those systems go, thinking we’ve got it figured out.  Then, BAM!  We’re hit with a bad cycle afterwards.  Stay humble!
• Be consistent with team communication – Things are going well, so we don’t need to have our team meeting, right? WRONG!  You still need to hold each other accountable and stay on top of your systems.  Meeting and huddle time is sacred.  Don’t mess with it or book through it, no matter what!
• Promote your practice – asking for referrals and internal marketing go right out the window when we’re busy. Don’t let this be the case. 
• Look big picture – Base any changes you want to make on your overall success – it’s too easy to get too caught up in the last cycle, week, or even the last day. We judge our success on too short of a period of time too often.  Don’t make knee-jerk decisions without looking big picture.