Dental Business RX

Ep. 38: Organizing Your Front Office to Maximize Efficiency

Poor organization in your front office doesn’t just create stress—it also costs you a ton of lost revenue! And it’s extremely common in many dental practices. So in this episode, Sabri Blumberg joins Jeff to discuss front office structure and how to become more efficient.   1:58 – The three most common dental offices get it wrong 8:57 – Creating structure and division of duties 23:46 – Using statistics and tracking performance   Team training video courses - https://ddssuccess.co...

Ep. 37: Update on Dental Staffing Issues & Labor Market Trends

We discussed troubling labor market trends and staffing issues back in episode 2, and figured things would start to normalize over time. Well, it’s nine months later now and it has actually gotten worse! So in this episode, Jeff will try to make sense of it all and discuss solutions to help your practice thrive no matter what’s happening in the labor market.    1:24 – What are the current trends and how have things changed? 7:24 – What can you do to get a leg up? 17:15 – Onboarding a...

Ep. 36: Overlooked Growth Opportunities in Dentistry in the Coming Years

The way the dental industry is trending over the next few years is creating incredible opportunities for smart private practice dentists. Many of our clients have taken advantage of this to see tremendous growth—often adding five, six, or even ten additional locations with great profitability. In this episode, Jeff will cover these industry trends and how you can take advantage.   1:03 – Eye-opening statistics about practice ownership and supply of dentists 9:51 – Easy opportunities fo...

Ep. 35: Four Big Mistakes Dentists Make with Finances

With inflation and rising costs recently, being sharp with your finances is more crucial than ever. So in this week’s episode, Jeff discusses common financial mistakes dentists make that can be very costly in the long run—as well as some tips on how to tighten up your practice’s overhead.   4:07 – A Profit & Loss Statement is NOT a good representation of your overhead or budget 9:12 – Things you should never outsource 11:21 – Underutilizing the things you’re already paying for 16:0...

Ep. 34: Making Your Morning Huddle More Productive

Keeping your team in tight coordination is essential for running an efficient schedule and achieving your production goals. A morning huddle (or “production meeting” as we call it) is the most efficient way to get everyone coordinated at the start of the day, and can be a major boost to production. If this meeting isn’t managed well, though, it can be pointless drawn out affair. So in this episode, Jeff covers the blueprint for an effective morning production meeting.    Morning Producti...

Ep. 33: Four Steps for Reducing Office Drama

We’ve all seen or experienced inter-office drama before. It’s tempting to just ignore it and hope it’ll “work itself out,” but letting it fester can destroy team morale and productivity. So in this episode, Jeff shares his tips for addressing office drama smoothly and quickly so the team can get back to working together productively and caring for patients.    2:26 – 4 steps to resolve and prevent drama between staff 11:47 – What do you do if a patient is creating drama?   Learn mo...

Ep. 32: Five Ways to Improve Customer Service

Dentistry is ultimately a service business, and having great customer service will do more to make your practice stand out than having the most impressive hi-tech equipment or expensive marketing gimmick. So, in this episode, Jeff discusses five ways for your team to improve the quality of service and make your practice a place where patients want to stay and refer their friends and family to.   :12 – Why customer service has become even more important over the last few years 6:47 – Un...

Ep. 31: Designing a Productive, Efficient Schedule that Works for You!

Outside of dentistry, there are very few business where scheduling plays such an enormous role in the business’s profitability, efficiency, growth, and general stress levels. How you run your schedule can truly mean the difference between success and failure. So in this episode, Jeff brings on special guest Chris Menkhaus to cover some key points of the scheduling methodology we teach here at MGE.   :44 – What type of office do you want to be and how does that affect your scheduling prot...

Ep. 30: Creating a Bonus Plan for your Dental Practice

A bonus plan is a great way to motivate your team and reward them for their hard work, but if you structure it the wrong way, it can create problems. So in this episode, Jeff discusses some “do’s and don’ts” and example bonus plan systems to make sure both the owner and the staff win with your bonus plan.   :47 – The “do’s and don’ts” of creating bonus plans 9:02 – Example of a workable bonus plan 14:23 – Ensuring the practice owner and the staff both win 20:08 – Adding special one...

Ep. 29: What to Do When an Employee is Underperforming

Do you have any team members that you know just aren’t cutting it? Anyone you’re thinking you may need to replace at some point? Well, inaction isn’t helping anything, so in this episode, Jeff discusses what you should do about it, including steps to take to resolve the issue and when it’s time to go ahead and replace them.   1:12 – Current labor market trends that are aggravating these issues 7:48 – Can the issue be resolved? 12:10 – The steps to take when an employee isn’t performi...

Ep. 28: Improving Employee Initiative & Responsibility

You may wish that your team members would care more about the practice, have more initiative, and take on more responsibility—but what can you actually do to improve these things? In this episode, Jeff Blumberg gives nine things you can do to improve employee initiative and responsibility in your dental practice.   1:38 – Communicating with your team members 3:19 – Proper division of labor is essential 6:07 – Using statistics to rate employee performance 10:28 – Should you share “t...

Ep. 27: One Thing You Can Do Right Now to Increase Case Acceptance

How you design your schedule is one of the biggest factors in determining your success or failure with case acceptance. By simply making a few adjustments to the way you schedule, you could see your case acceptance rate skyrocket—and that’s exactly what Jeff covers in this week’s episode!   The MGE Communication & Sales Seminars - https://www.mgeonline.com/mge-communication-and-sales-seminars

Ep. 26: Is It Time to Raise Your Fees?

Reviewing your fee schedule each year has always been a good idea, but this year it’s mandatory. With the rising costs of doing business and soaring inflation, you need to raise your fees in order to stay profitable. So, in this episode, Jeff covers the various factors to consider and how to go about raising your fees.   1:59 – When you would typically raise your fees, and why things have changed now 4:08 – How should you go about raising your fees 11:25 – How do you account for PPOs...

Ep. 25: Getting & Staying Profitable in the 2020s

With the rising costs of doing business, it’s going to be more important than ever to keep a sharp eye on profitability in the coming years. So in this week’s episode, Sabri Blumberg joins Jeff to discuss recent trends in the economic landscape of dentistry and ways to improve profitability going forward.   2:00 – Shifting the focus from total collections to the profit margin 12:35 – Assessing your practice’s overhead 22:58 – Taking a fresh look at your fee schedule and insurance par...

Ep. 24: Multiple Practices – The Do’s and Don’ts

Adding a second (or third or fourth or fifth) practice can be a fantastic opportunity to expand…or it can be a complete nightmare. So, don’t end up doubling your stress and overhead with no profit to show for it. Follow these tips from Jeff on how to do it the right way.   1:57 – Are you really ready to add another practice? 6:10 – Time and distance matters with your new location 12:27 – Associate or partner? 15:07 – Scratch practice or existing office? 20:33 – Why now is a great...

Ep. 23: The Top 5 Ways to Market Your Dental Practice

Dentistry is a competitive business and marketing is a must, but where do you start? What types of marketing are actually getting results nowadays? In this episode, MGE’s Marketing Director Adam Mortimer joins Jeff to discuss the top five ways to market your dental practice.   1:31 – Why you don’t want to rely on just one source of new patients 5:56 – How a good word-of-mouth referral campaign drastically reduces your cost-per-new-patient 8:07 – Why online reviews and testimonials ar...

Ep. 22: When Should You Actually Deactivate a Patient?

So a patient of yours hasn’t been in for a few years and isn’t answering your front desk’s calls—what should you do? Should you “deactivate” or “purge” their chart? And for that matter, what should you do about the thousands of inactive charts you may have sitting in your practice? Most dentists approach this wrong and it costs them a ton of potential production. So in this episode, Jeff discusses the right way to do it!   1:17 – How do you define an “active” patient? 6:55 – The four r...

Ep. 21: Weekly Management Meetings

When you get busy with patients, it’s hard to make time for keeping up with the “business side” of dentistry. So in this episode, Jeff covers how to quickly and effectively handle the important management matters each week and ensure your practice stays on track toward achieving your goals.   1:06 – Why it’s important to hold a weekly meeting with your OM 5:44 – The practice statistics you should review each week 12:13 – Other important points to cover when you meet   Learn more ...

Ep. 20: No New Patients? Why Your Marketing Isn't Working

What do you do if your new patient numbers fall off or if you’re paying for marketing that isn’t getting results? That’s what Jeff discusses in this week’s episode. Why you’re marketing isn’t working and how to fix it!   2:22 – Dealing with cancellations 6:56 – Scheduling new patients 15:30 – Determining what’s wrong with your marketing 24:45 – Keeping your marketing fresh   The MGE New Patient Workshop - https://www.newpatients.net Download the call log - https://www.mgeonli...

Ep. 19: What an Office Manager Does and Why You Need One.

In the dental industry at large, the term “Office Manager” can have a lot of meanings, ranging from a vague “front office person” to a true executive or Chief Operating Officer. So in this episode, Jeff Blumberg discusses the proper role of an Office Manager in a well-organized office and why every practice, no matter how large or small, needs a competent OM.     :55 – Why you absolutely need an Office Manager 4:23 – 10 qualities you should look for in an Office Manager candidate 7:0...

Ep. 18: Should You Share the Numbers with Your Team?

Should your staff be aware of your practice’s numbers in terms of collections, production, etc? Or should you keep them in the dark? In this episode, Jeff Blumberg discusses which numbers you should share with your team and which you shouldn’t, as well as how to keep your team motivated and focused on what really matters: patient care.   :36 – What are the benefits of sharing the “numbers” with your whole team? 8:14 – Keeping the focus on patient care and not being money-motivated 15...

Ep. 17: Finding a Hygienist in Today’s Market

It’s been difficult to find good staff lately, and the hygienist position is probably the toughest to fill. This has left a lot of dentists “hygienist-less” recently. Why is this? And what can you do about it? That’s what Jeff discusses in this week’s episode.   :49 – Why the owner doctor doing their own hygiene is a bad solution 2:46 – The stats: why it’s so difficult to find a hygienist currently 8:25 – How should you go about finding a hygienist right now? 17:39 – When could it ...

Ep. 16: 6 Metrics for Practice Success, Pt 2

Special guest Jeff Santone is back to wrap up the six key metrics for assessing the health of your dental practice. In this episode, they focus on your measuring performance at acquiring and retaining patients.   0:44 – What is “call conversion rate” and how do you measure it? 16:52 – How many patients are you losing? Measuring your attrition rate   Download the New Patient Call Log - https://www.mgeonline.com/np-call-log Learn more about MGE - https://www.mgeonline.com

Ep. 15: 6 Metrics for Practice Success, Pt 1

Special guest Jeff Santone comes on this week to discuss six important metrics for assessing the health of your dental practice and discovering areas where you can improve. In part one, we focus on case acceptance and how much potential production you may be leaving on the table.   0:11 – The 6 metrics you should focus on 2:55 – The best way to measure your case acceptance 6:10 – Value of treatment presented vs treatment produced 9:21 – Where the usual method of measuring case acce...

Ep. 14: How Much Should a General Dentist Produce Per Day?

Curious how you measure up in terms of daily production? Want to know if you have room for improvement? This week we bring on special guest Chris Menkhaus, Senior Consultant at MGE, to discuss how much a general dentist should produce daily and ways to maximize your personal production.   1:27 – How much should a GP produce with bread-and-butter dentistry? 3:30 – What if you’re doing high-dollar specialty procedures like full-mouth restorations? 5:00 – Reasons why you may be underpro...

Ep. 13: Is Your Payroll Too High?

Do you feel like your payroll is too high? Well, let’s get into the numbers and actually calculate it. It is typically the largest expense category in your overhead—especially in this era of high inflation and rising personnel costs—so keeping it under control is vital for profitability. In addition to the numbers, Jeff will also cover the reasons WHY your payroll has gotten too high and how to fix it.   0:45 – What SHOULD your payroll be, as a percentage of your total revenues? 6:25 –...

Ep. 12: SEO - Things to Know Before Hiring a Dental Marketing Company

Search engine optimization may not be the most exciting topic to discuss, but it’s crucially important for any dental practice looking to add more new patients. So we bring on special guest and expert marketer, Dan Brown, to discuss things you can do yourself to improve SEO immediately, as well as what to look out for when hiring an external SEO company.   1:18 – The problem with paid ads nowadays and why SEO is more important than ever 5:13 – Using online reviews to your advantage 1...

Ep. 11: Patient Retention & Reactivation, Why Dentists Lose 50% of Their Practice

We all tend to focus on new patients, new patients, new patients, but how many existing patients are you losing out the back door? It’s probably more than you realize. So in this episode, we get into patient retention, recall, and how to calculate the potential of your hygiene department.   0:13 – The cost of new patient acquisition vs patient retention 7:27 – The Hygiene Formula: Assessing the health of your hygiene department 12:55 – How you can use this to add 6 figures to your pr...

Ep. 10: How Should You Be Paying Your Associate?

Bringing on an associate can be a great thing for practice growth. But it can also become a disaster if you haven’t structured it properly. So, in this episode, Jeff Blumberg dives into the most common associate models and some guidelines for structuring the compensation plans for each.   1:51 – Three common models for utilizing an associate 3:31 – The Traditional Associate Model 5:20 – The Production Doctor Model 15:41 – The Autonomous Operation Model 24:17 – Structuring the com...

Ep. 9: Dental Marketing Trends for 2022

Marketing trends are always changing, so we’re going to help you stay up-to-date. Hear from special guest and dental marketing expert, Dan Brown, on the latest trends and what you should be focusing on in the new year to bring practice growth.   2:37 – Focusing on what works 3:45 – Prices are going WAY up for Google and Facebook ads 6:43 – Ways to get the most out of your online ads 13:23 – Internal marketing 16:50 – Improving your online presence and using video marketing 25:5...

Ep. 8: Inflation is Soaring! What to Do About it In Your Dental Practice

Inflation is the highest it’s been in a long time, and this is starting to have very real effects on the cost of doing business for dental practices. So in this episode, we look at the numbers and discuss what you can do to ensure you stay profitable and secure the future of your practice financially.   1:01 – The current inflation numbers 3:20 – How this impacts your practice’s overhead 8:58 – Ways to raise your revenue without raising your costs 10:57 – What about insurance fee s...

Ep. 7: Dental Insurance Plans—Is it Really Possible to Not Participate?

It sure sounds nice to have a completely fee-for-service practice: you could receive your full fee for every procedure, make more profit, have a less hectic schedule… But is it really possible to drop insurance plans? Won’t you lose your patients and your production? Well, you may be surprised by how the numbers shake out.   1:38 – Why more and more dentists are starting to ask, “Do I really need this plan?” recently. 3:58 – The true cost of participating in PPOs and HMOs 6:44 – How ...

Ep. 6: Three Ways to Get More New Patient Referrals

Don’t just wait by the phone or blindly hand out referral cards and hope you’ll get some patients coming in. There are three proactive things you can do to be in control of the number of word-of-mouth referrals you see.   1:59 – Patient acquisition costs: how much are you spending per new patient? 5:11 – Gaining control over the number of word-of-mouth referrals you receive 9:55 – The stats: How many referrals should you be seeing? 16:33 – Who should ask patients for referrals? 2...

Ep. 5: The Dental Treatment Coordinator - What Should They Do?

A “Treatment Coordinator” is a common position in dental practices nowadays, but what is the job description? What should they be doing every day? And how can they help the practice increase collections and improve patient care?   Topics: How/when did Treatment Coordinators become a “thing” – 1:10 The job description – 4:52 The word “sales” in dentistry – 7:04 The “hand off” from the doctor to Treatment Coordinator – 10:10 Should the Treatment Coordinator be in the room when th...

Ep. 4: The Economic Future of the Dental Industry

With the dust (hopefully) settling soon from the pandemic, we take a look at the future of private practice from an economic perspective. There are some key trends that every dentist should be aware of. We’ll look at the supply of dentists and population (1:43), economic effects from the pandemic (7:39), and some interesting opportunities for savvy private practice dentists (14:20). Free consultation: www.mgeonline.com Studies mentioned in this episode: ADA Health Policy Institute ...

Ep. 3: A New Take on the Dental Receptionist Position

Why are dental office receptionists so undervalued and under-trained? And why don’t most dentists realize this oversight is costing them majorly in terms of potential patients and income? In this episode, we discuss the role of the receptionist, bringing on special guest Jeff Santone to share some staggering statistics and horror stories from placing mystery calls to dental offices (2:36), and then Sabri Blumberg joins us to provide simple guidelines for training your receptionist to be more...

Ep. 2: What’s Going on with the Labor & Staffing Market?

We don’t need to tell you that the job market is strange right now. In fact, it’s unprecedented. And unless you’re very lucky, you’ve probably experienced it in your dental office whether it’s in terms of staff leaving, never coming back after the pandemic lockdowns, inflation and rising wages, or having difficulty hiring. So in this episode, we wrap our minds around these odd market dynamics with some eye opening statistics and what this means for your dental practice (0:59), look at what y...

Ep. 1: Four Simple Ways to Improve Case Acceptance

Is treatment acceptance in your office as good as you think it is? No matter how great you are, there’s always room for improvement—for more ideal treatment plans, more completions, more patients with fully restored form, function and aesthetic, and less dependency on insurance coverage. So in this episode, we’ll give you some immediately usable tools for case acceptance, including both the case presentation and the organizational side of case acceptance. Specifically, we’ll cover the bigges...

Trailer: Dental Business RX