Overall, when it comes to excelling at customer service, we need to build more and better relationships with our patients. Remember that our patients have a choice, they can either choose to continue to come to you, or move on at any moment. They can get their teeth cleaned and get turned off so fast or be highly impressed to the point they want to bring everyone they know to you. That’s the difference between average and exceptional customer service.  In this episode Sandy tells us 10 strategies we need to be thinking about weekly, if not daily, to make sure we are providing exceptional customer service. There's 1.6 million people changing dentists…every month! Make sure you are one of the dentists that patients love and feel acknowledged and valued at. That is something you will notice fast about the first two strategies, how acknowledging your patient is crucial. Listen to this episode and make sure you write down the 10 strategies somewhere visible, where your team can see it so they can use it as a checklist or reminder to apply these strategies daily.

If you’ve followed a recipe before, then you’ve followed a system. In this episode Sandy gives you the recipes to make sure you have a successful practice BEFORE you open your doors to the public. There are about 42 systems every single practice needs to have in place and Sandy discusses and dives deeper into each of them. Now just having these systems is not enough, Sandy discusses how being consistent with them is crucial for success. Consistent action gives you predictability. These are the systems that her 2 million dollar solo practice’s implement and practice consistently. She discusses the systems we tend to leave out and the systems we make major mistakes on as well.

When does a day need to be saved? When you’re not meeting your daily goals (which you should set daily goals). You can determine if you’re reaching your goal or not by mid-day. If you notice around the middle of the day, that you are behind or REAL far behind with your daily goals, then this episode will help you to apply strategies to reach those goals! Sandy lets us know how there are so many missed opportunities because we are not looking or listening. Therefore she gives us 5 specific opportunities we need to look for (which you WILL find during the day) that will push you and your team through the finish line! From this point on, there shouldn’t be a reason for your team to not reach their daily goals.

In this episode we take on questions that you (our listeners) have for us!  We answer these specific questions: "Is anyone doing (or done in the past) patient surveys? We would love to see what we are doing right that our patients enjoy and what recommendations they have or concerns, if any. Any suggestions or sample questions would be greatly appreciated!"   "I have a couple questions about 'The 4 Departments Every Front Office Needs.' When you say 1-18 people one person can run the front and then 19 you would have 2 people and then 32 you would have 3, does this include the office manager or would that be in addition to the OM? We have 4 days a week with 1 doctor and 2 full time hygienists and we have 1 day with 2 doctors and 2 full time hygienists. I have another question. I know you talk about checklists to hold people accountable. Do you recommend every person on the team have their own checklist?" "What is the best way to prevent hygiene no shows?"

Is your A/R out of order?! Have you ever overcharged a patient for treatment, perhaps their insurance company covered for more than what was initially stated, so now your patient has credit? What do you do with that credit? Some practices let that credit accumulate. Some may even feel like they can keep it. You can’t and Sandy let’s us know why. This is a hidden topic that not many practice owners talk about, but exists and can really set you back if you are not careful. Therefore it must be addressed! This is especially helpful if you are looking to buy or acquire a practice. Make sure you check the A/R reports and see if there are any patient credits. In this episode Sandy gives us a system on how to minimize patient refunds. She also lets us know how to slowly start chipping away at it (if we have accumulated a large sum of patient credit). We discuss the script you must tell the patient, how to handle these situations, and who to let know in the practice and who should NOT be aware in your team.

Confirming patients for their appointment is one of the most important things your front office can do. It’s not an afterthought and it’s definitely not something you just call and wing. You need a recipe for this. Systems are a recipe. When it comes to patient confirmations, it’s all about having good control.You need to decide how protocols should be approached and then analyze and see that your protocol/ system is producing the best results. So this leads to the ultimate question: is your confirmation process producing the best results? In this episode Sandy breaks down this process and creates a system for us that has 7 main points, so this is going to be an episode where you really want to take notes! She also lets us know some bonus points and verbage we need to have when writing confirmations, texting confirmations, and calling for confirmations.

The hardest part of practice ownership is the relationships, the people in our practice. In this episode Sandy helps us to understand and know how we can master these relationships. There’s a few basic steps that most practice owners and people in general tend to overlook. One of the first steps is to hire the right people, acknowledge our employees when they do something good, recognize when things are not going well, and then learn to quickly handle the situation by confronting the person. This is just part of one step! This means that systems and protocols must be in place, in order to  handle and create better relationships with people in your practice. We dive into more of this in this episode and reveal more steps with detail and instructions on how to implement them.

Sometimes new practice owners want to outsource insurance verification, billing, phones, and more… but is it really necessary? In this episode Sandy Pardue lets us know the exact math and patients you must have in order to officially outsource or become more efficient in your practice. First, every single practice owner needs to know their overhead and understand that your “team” overhead is your largest percentage. Most practices get in trouble when they overpay their people/ team. This could happen due to outsourcing inappropriately.  We discuss the only absolute times you MUST outsource, what would be ridiculous to outsource, and what needs to always stay in-house and how to make it all happen.

What if you are extremely fed up with an employee and you’re thinking “that’s it! I’m going to fire this person”. How should you do it? When is the best time and day to do this? Who should be there? What should you say? In this episode Sandy breaks down the important steps you need to take before, during, and after firing an individual in your team who just isn’t performing the way you need them to. Something you MUST understand is that the individual you are intending to fire should NEVER be shocked or surprised that they are being let go. Sandy dives deeper on this and explains how “write-ups” prime you to fire someone which becomes easier to do in the long run. We discuss specific examples and talk about tools you can utilize to help you with all of this.

If you’re not feeling the effects of inflation now, you will be in a couple of months! Save this episode because it will teach you how to “inflation proof” your practice! Sandy Pardue lets us know about 10 specific steps we need to take in order to get lean and mean and control our practice through anything. The first step is: KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. You need to be hungry for your overhead percentage numbers at the beginning of the month, don’t just leave them to your accountant/ bookkeeper. Knowing your numbers are statistics in your practice, and statistics are meant for you to know where to make adjustments. Listen in to hear the next steps and how to immediately implement them into your practice.