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I am working on a programme to help young dental professionals hit the ground running in their first job and how to stand out from the crowd in order to get that job.
This will be a series of templates you can download and use for job applications and to help you organise your day to make it stress free as well as helping you work well with your DA.
If you are interested, get on the waitlist here.
As a dentist, you will be familiar with comments from patients relating to cost of treatment and how it might contribute to you buying boats or new bikes. The double edged sword of sharing details of a recent holiday, even though you spend all day hearing about cruises and holidays your patients have taken. The thought of sharing insights into your business is not necessarily appealing.
The idea of operational transparency is tricky for a dentist to navigate but research seems to indicate that it could be advantageous to your practice.
“Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully understand and appreciate the work going on behind the scenes, causing them to place a lower value on the product or service being offered.”
So how might we do this on a simple level in our practice?
How might we do it as an individual, if we are a team member, rather than the business owner?
Sharing your business plan might not be might be the best way to start.
This article gives some examples of how some businesses use operational translucency.
For example your Subway sandwich being made in front of you
Live tracking your Uber
Tracking your pizza being made and delivered by Dominos
The authors suggest three elements you can highlight;
People
Process
Post
Once you think about it, there are any number of ways you could apply it to a dental practice.
How can you highlight the work of your people? It could be as simple as explaining what your DA is doing during a procedure how it helps you and how skilled they are.
Process. Demonstrating to a patient what goes on between appointments, the clean up and set up, all the instruments and how they are laid out. Maybe a tour of the instrument processing area, not only showing the work and the people but also the machines that you use and have purchased (that contribute to the cost). Highlight the work of the back room team that they might not know are working that day.
I was lucky enough to have a CEREC machine in my practice, so I would take time to show the scan to the patient and the software designing the crown. I would frequently take patients to view their crown being milled , passing the sterilising room on the way and highlighting that. Paying the hardworking team member a compliment as well.
This all serves to give the patient an idea of how many people are involved in their appointment that day.
Post. Do you send a follow up letter or ring the patient after their appointment?
These are just a few ideas to get you started.
Be creative and involve your team. You can do this even if you’re not a business owner, it all helps demonstrate value.
Have a great week
Rosie
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