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4 “Clusters of Emotions” That Can Impact Your Dental Practice (Part 3)

8/25/2018

Includes a Bonus: 3 tips on how to demonstrate more compelling value in your dental practice

August 25, 2018
By: Trude Henderson

In today’s blog, the last in a three-part series, we will deal with the “Attention Cluster” of emotions as enumerated and described by Colin Shaw, and how your dental practice should address them. Interested, Energetic, Stimulated, Exploratory and Indulgent are the chief emotions found in this group, and are the ones most likely to generate only short-term spending if not properly handled (which includes that first call). Properly dealt with, however, these feelings can have a tremendous effect on a dental practice’s cash flow and overall success.

In the course of its 3-year pilot study, ToothFairy has gathered and reviewed tens of thousands of data points relating to this cluster of emotions at orthodontic practices in the Western US. Overall, the study revealed that 43% of new patients are eager to start treatment on day-one and 72% within 7 days. This validates our research, so we recommend that you put strategies in place to ensure that your practice attempts to convert patients within this critical 7-day window.

This result from ToothFairy’s pilot study helped leaders in one practice pinpoint a problem and develop a strategy that improved their conversion ratio by 27% within only 6 months. Although 70% of the patients in this office indicated via our consumer profiling platform that they were ready to start treatment within 7 days, less than 40% of them actually did so. Upon closer examination, via data reviews and interviews with patients and Treatment Coordinators (TCs), it was discovered that the key reason why these patients disengaged or delayed the start of treatment was that TCs and doctors didn’t communicate compelling value and/or identify emotional triggers and buying motivations during the exam/consultation. Then, after patients left the practice without starting treatment, a secondary problem occurred - staff failed to follow up.

Below are three tips that can help you utilize the “Attention Cluster” to demonstrate more compelling value, resulting in an increased number of dental patient conversions.

Tell a brief story. Based on our experience, there is no better way to stir the “Attention Cluster” of emotions than with an energetic story. TCs and doctors who have experienced orthodontic treatment themselves tell a better personal story, thus gaining the patient’s trust sooner--the person giving the presentation seems more like a "trusted advisor" than a dental employee. For example, a TC who is wearing clear aligners or a retainer can not only take it out and show it off along with his/her beautiful smile; they also open up the opportunity for questions or even better, objections. The sooner you know what a patient’s objections are, the sooner you can effectively address them and convert the patient!
Utilize a 5-minute sales presentation that doesn’t feel "salesy." During the presentation, the Treatment Coordinator (TC) should do more listening than talking. See this as an opportunity to discover barriers and remove them, ultimately boosting the patient’s confidence that they will receive high-value and high-quality care from your practice. Opt for a professionally designed interesting presentation that includes clear and colorful pictures for the visual learners who comprise 65% of your patients. Utilizing a presentation also helps ensure a more value-packed and consistent message across multiple TCs and offices. Be sure to include your practice value statements, i.e., “our practice is open on Saturdays, our doctors have more than 100 years of experience combined, we speak Spanish and Vietnamese too, etc. Doug Staneart, President of the Leader’s Institute and expert on presentation delivery, has said that his mentor once gave the following advice: “Rule number one is never to speak on a topic that you yourself are not enthusiastic about, and rule number two is that if you ever violate rule number one-- fake it ‘til you make it.” We at ToothFairy wholeheartedly agree.
Make a list of common objections, emotional triggers and rebuttals. Finally, practice and perfect your message through role-playing. Ask well thought-out, focused questions to help you identify patients’ buying motivations and connect with them on an emotional level. Exploratory question/answer scenarios can be very effective because if you already know what the patient will ask, you will be more likely to be ready with a prompt reply. For example, if a mom is trying to decide between braces and clear aligner treatment for her teen, you might say, “How busy are you?” Knowing full-well that most people nowadays are very busy, you can respond with, “The nice thing about clear aligner treatment is that Jessica will miss less school. Appointments are every 12 weeks, versus every 6 to 8 weeks with braces. What that means for you is less time on the road and more time for other priorities.” “Additionally, you won’t have any painful pokey wires, and you won’t have to do any special food preparation.” We at ToothFairy also recommend preparing a list specific to the front desk, designed to help increase the number of patients making initial appointments.

As patients have more options open to them than ever before, it’s important for everyone in a dental practice to understand and appreciate the value the practice has to offer, and to act quickly and with confidence to convert patients. This is best accomplished through inspirational leadership, management of the practice’s systems and ample patient follow up. If patients don’t grasp what you have to offer right away, they might choose a competitor whom they believe provides better value. That competitor may be right next door or on in another state, but there are people prepared to travel to get better value.

Shaw’s takeaway: these critical 20 emotions, divided into the 4 clusters, have an important influence on your customer experience, in ways that are not always at first apparent. Once, however, you understand the type of emotional engagement you have established with your customers and how it drives or destroys value for your organization, you can design an emotional experience, not leave it to chance.

We at ToothFairy want to leave you with the following to chew on: The reality is that practices will lose some patients no matter what, but why not try to convert and retain as many as you can by taking proactive measures that help promote patient loyalty? Staff and doctors need to understand the simple fact that what they say and do directly impacts patient loyalty and their production goals. Finally, they should remember that when it comes to dental treatment, much of which consists of elective procedures, today’s patient has a host of options, and if unhappy with the treatment he/she is receiving, can blithely get up and go somewhere else.

--Read Part (1) Advocacy and Recommendation Clusters
--Read Part (2) Destroying Cluster
--Read our other articles on topics such as Operational Excellence and High-Reliability Concepts:
Ten Steps You Can Take Right Away to Improve the Reliability of Your Dental Practice
High-Reliability Concepts: Insights of Value to any organization.

Trude Henderson is the co-founder of ToothFairy, a startup elective dental and medical practice improvement software company which delivers an unparalleled customer experience that inspires delight, loyalty and positive emotional connections to improve the lives of patients and the practices they visit. In 2016, she was the first to introduce High-Reliability Organizational Concepts to the dental industry. For questions, contact her directly at Trude@GetToothFairy.com. Follow Trude on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trudehenderson/ (no email required).
Go to ToothFairy's website: www.ToothFairySoftware.com

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6 Things That Will Make Your Dental Practice Manager Shout, “I Can’t Live Without You!”

8/23/2018

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Published on August 23, 2018
By: Trude Henderson

Today we are going to change things up a bit and focus on things from the perspective of the dental practice employee, rather than that of the practice manager. Travis Bradberry, (an article by whom we discussed in 2 complementary blogs on July 19th-21st), maintains in “7 Ways to Blow Your Bosses Mind” (Forbes, September 29, 2015) that for an ambitious employee, it is not enough to merely follow orders: “Your boss’s expectations are the price of entry.” Rather, “the trick to advancing your career and getting paid more is to add value by making certain your contributions are worth more than you’re paid. You want to go above and beyond so that you’re seen as someone highly valuable—someone the organization can’t live without.”
Below you will find Bradberry’s suggestions, accompanied by some recommendations of our own:

Don’t confine yourself to acquiring the skills required for your job; immerse yourself in studying the company, industry, competition, news, and challenges. Bradberry says that if you really want to impress your boss, show her that you that you have acquired a thorough knowledge of your organization and that you are prepared to use this knowledge in real-time. The writer adds: “On top of knowing how to do your job, it shows that you know why you’re doing it and why it matters.”

Our advice to dental employees is to avoid becoming so comfortable, or susceptible to distractions in your life, that you forget to allocate time for continuous improvement. The most valuable employees don’t wait for their employer to schedule a webinar or a class; they do it on their own and on their own time. Dr. Anne Cunningham, researcher and professor of psychology at the UC Berkeley points out that avid readers not only acquire more knowledge, they also become keener at spotting trends and patterns. In today’s hyper-competitive dental world, recognizing and solving problems could be the one specialized skill set, in addition to being an outstanding, customer-oriented team player, that lands you the MVP award.

Our High Reliability Organizational (HRO) tip: engage in continuous learning and then apply what you’ve learned to improve your dental work environment. Specifically, we mean that you should be mindful (in-the-moment), take action by speaking up as soon as you recognize a problem or a trend, and then help the team prevent it from ever happening again. Helping cure the problem, rather than being part of the problem, will help you score points with your boss!
Anticipate the question, don’t just be ready with the answer. Of course, your employer will appreciate your ability to answer any questions she may have, but she will be even more appreciative of your ability to foresee her needs and provide the answers. Says Bradberry: “You’ll save her time and energy, and she’ll appreciate that just as much as your enthusiasm.”

It is our experience that sustained attention, plus the ability to re-focus when distractions arise, are some of the most valuable HRO characteristics an employee can possess. Your attention span, (defined by peakperformancecenter.com, as “your ability to keep your mind focused on something through careful observing and listening”), is challenged every second of the day in a busy dental practice. That said, many researchers agree that you can improve your focus by getting plenty of rest, taking short breaks, exercising or meditating, and eating a healthy diet.

It is actually a good thing if your practice mandates a “no personal cell phone policy” because the more that you are distracted by your phone, the less likely you are to anticipate the needs of the dentist, not to mention your patients!

HRO tip: Be deeply concerned about complacency, routine and lack of engagement because they are antipathetic to the spirit of high performing individuals and organizations. You’ll likely never hear of a sports team with such attitudes that played in the championship game. Remember: “When you lose focus, you lose value!”— to everyone!
Be accountable: take responsibility for mistakes. When you’ve made an error, the best thing to do is to shoulder the blame, suggest a remedy and list the steps required to implement it.

Says Bradberry: “Everyone makes mistakes. You’ll stand out by showing your boss that you’re accountable, creative, and proactive when you inevitably make them.”

Virtually every author, professor, and life-coach in the fields of leadership, success, and operational excellence have affirmed that if you want to be successful, don’t justify your mistakes, but rather own them and learn from them. Our pilot study revealed that employees who took responsibility for their mistakes were more likely to accept change and view challenges as opportunities.

Furthermore, these employees were not only happier overall, they demonstrated resilience and were some of the best cheerleaders for the team.

If you, on the other hand, struggle with owning your mistakes or with handling change, the good news is that you can re-train your brain. Start by surrounding yourself with positive people who embrace change and are good at owning their mistakes. Then, when you inevitably make a mistake, admit it to yourself and then privately rehearse your admission of error over-and-over until you have the courage to say it aloud.
Seize the initiative. The writer says, “Anybody (well, almost anybody) can do what they’re told. To blow your boss’s mind, you have to be proactive. If you see a problem, fix it. If you see something that needs doing, do it.”

We would add the following HRO tip: Even if you’re not a supervisor, study objective information such as practice management software reports, or results from feedback surveys or social media reviews, and see what you can learn. Then show your team members and boss whether you’re “winning or losing” at any given moment and provide suggestions (not complaints) to help fill in the gaps, if needed. Seek to uncover “blind-spots” that your boss may not be aware of, or have time to look for, and use the information to inspire heightened awareness, a desire for transparency, and a readiness for purposeful action, in your peers. To take a few examples: your willingness to help a team member get on board with change, or take action to improve the customer experience, can definitely help you get on your boss’s “A” list! Be sure to keep the information fresh in their minds by providing frequent updates at daily huddles, and remember: you don’t need a title to be a leader!
Build relationships throughout the organization. Bradberry points out that from time-to-time, your department might require help from another, so why not establish relationships with people in other departments? The results: “You can make your boss’ day by saying, ‘Why don’t I take care of that for you? I know someone who can get that done for us right away.’”

From our experience, we’ve learned that, whether we’re talking about anticipating the needs of customers, or doctors and team members as discussed above, they are all better served through collaboration and great communication. Very simply put, “Collaboration and great communication make you and the dental practice look smarter.” For example, when you don’t know the answer, and you acknowledge it and then swiftly offer to consult with someone who does, you send the message that you’re honest, friendly and an enthusiastic member of the team. When you keep your promises, you proclaim, in effect, “Look no further, I’m reliable!”
Keep your cool during challenging times. Your ability to keep calm during an emergency can suggest that you have leadership potential, something your boss might remember when promotions are to be awarded.

Most people don’t attend a training class on "how to remain calm" but employees of "high-reliability" occupations, where the highest focus, safety, and consistency are critical, certainly do. For example, nuclear workers and airline pilots practice emergency procedures, including completing checklists, over and over, until they feel confident that they will know exactly what to do in an emergency. This doesn’t come naturally for everyone, but the good news is that practicing can help most people perfect this skill set. Hopefully, emergencies are infrequent in your dental practice, but challenges, such as dealing with difficult or demanding patients, likely are and if not handled properly, can be detrimental to your customer experience. If you want to impress your boss, create a checklist or a just a simple list of situations with appropriate responses crafted to help other employees learn how to navigate challenging situations, then offer to organize appropriate role play exercises for use during a lunch-n-learn.

In short, the dental employee wanting to get ahead should be prepared to go above-and-beyond the bullet points in his/her job description and exhibit some of the traits of a leader, regardless of title.

For the original article, please go to: https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2015/09/29/7-ways-to-blow-your-bosss-mind/#47c818927135

Trude Henderson is the co-founder of ToothFairy, a startup elective dental and medical practice improvement software company which delivers an unparalleled customer experience that inspires delight, loyalty and positive emotional connections to improve the lives of patients and the practices they visit. In 2016, she was the first to introduce High-Reliability Organizational Concepts to the dental industry. For questions, contact her directly at Trude@GetToothFairy.com. Follow Trude on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trudehenderson/ (no email required).
Go to ToothFairy's website: www.ToothFairySoftware.com.

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Four "Clusters of Emotions" that Can Impact Your Dental Practice (Part 2)

8/20/2018

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August 20, 2018
By: Trude Henderson

Here we continue our discussion of Colin Shaw’s account of the four emotion clusters that can make or break an organization. In this blog we will talk about the Destroying Cluster – Irritated, Hurried, Neglected, Unhappy, Unsatisfied, Stressed, Disappointed and Frustrated – the emotions that you want to circumvent, as they can, as Shaw points out, “cost you money, lost opportunities, and higher costs fixing the problems that result.” The good customer experiences really do benefit your dental practice and poor ones leave thousands of dollars on the table, damaging your brand. We at ToothFairy would like to help you identify these emotions as they arise, as well as to offer you some tips that can help you, the dental practice leader, mitigate them.

At ToothFairy, we believe that dental practices can effectively identify and address emotions in the destroying cluster by utilizing a reputable, real-time, e-survey platform designed to measure the customer experience ‘locally’ at each office, all year long. Be sure to examine the results locally rather than across the organization, and then take immediate action to remedy problems associated with the destroying cluster emotions. Marketing expert John H. Fleming, the author of Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Experience, has said, “This is critical because customers experience variation, not averages. The variability within a company easily dwarfs the differences between competitors” (from “Why Consistency is the Key to Profitable Customer Service,” Gallup, August 10, 2006). This scenario is diametrically opposed to what you want to attain.

Our 3-year pilot study revealed that dental practices impacted by destructive emotions tended to attract a greater number of low-value patients, the ones shopping around thinking of price rather than value, and the first ones to demand a full refund when the slightest thing goes awry. At no surprise, Shaw notes (see image above) that these emotions are associated with “short-term spending.” We’d like to point out that short-term spending is the kind that’s often characterized by risk and uncertainty and ultimately results in the shuttering of many dental practices.

We recommend implementing the following strategies for your dental practice: first, identify the “destroying emotions.” Then empower and coach your staff to resolve as many of them as possible, and as quickly as possible, via increased communication with patients. Identify stress triggers and do everything in your power to reduce stress to a healthy manageable level. Next, discuss customer experience gaps in daily huddles and seek input from staff on how to improve. In addition to a daily discussion about your customer experience, we at ToothFairy recommend the implementation of a fully automated e-survey platform. From our experience, most patients won’t confront you with their concerns but many, particularly millennial patients, are happy to provide your practice with information through such a platform. The alternative to not providing patients with a private venue where they can feel comfortable voicing their concerns, is them taking their grievances to social media, for the world to hear!

To conclude: quickly resolving patients’ concerns can help overcome or lessen the impact of the threat the destroying cluster of emotions pose to your dental practice.

Please wait for Part 3 of this series to learn more about this topic.

Read our other articles on topics such as Operational Excellence and High-Reliability Concepts:
Read Part 1 of this article
High-Reliability Concepts: Insights of Value to any organization.
Ten Steps You Can Take Right Now to Improve the Reliability of Your Dental Practice
Trude Henderson is the co-founder of ToothFairy, a startup elective dental and medical practice improvement software company which delivers an unparalleled customer experience that inspires delight, loyalty and positive emotional connections to improve the lives of patients and the practices they visit. In 2016, she was the first to introduce High-Reliability Organizational Concepts to the dental industry. For questions, contact her directly at Trude@GetToothFairy.com. Follow Trude on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trudehenderson/ (no email required).

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4 “Clusters of Emotions” That Can Impact Your Dental Practice (Part 3)

6 Things That Will Make Your Dental Practice Manager Shout, “I Can’t Live Without You!”

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4 “Clusters of Emotions” That Can Impact Your Dental Practice (Part 3)

6 Things That Will Make Your Dental Practice Manager Shout, “I Can’t Live Without You!”

Four "Clusters of Emotions"​ that Can Impact Your Dental Practice (Part 2)

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Four "Clusters of Emotions" that Can Impact Your Dental Practice (Part 2)