Systems are for corporate types of businesses. Your dental practice is entirely unique and would not lend itself to systems. Sure, you want things to improve. You believe in high-quality care. But for you and your practice, no systems is no problem. Here are seven reasons why: 1. Your patients don’t mind having a different […]
Systems are for corporate types of businesses. Your dental practice is entirely unique and would not lend itself to systems. Sure, you want things to improve. You believe in high-quality care. But for you and your practice, no systems is no problem. Here are seven reasons why:
1. Your patients don’t mind having a different experience every time they come to your office.
When it comes to their care, your patients prefer inconsistency. They want to abandon expectations and just roll the dice when they show up at your practice. For your patients, trust is simply no biggie. They like the novelty of each team member coming up with a different way to go about their checkup. When it comes to drill time- they are just giddy over being surprised. Your patients are just waiting for you to install a giant neon wheel at the front desk. They’d love to spin to see which random type of visit they will endure!
2. Your team members will never get sick, take a vacation, quit or take a maternity leave.
Jenny, your hygienist in room 4, just spiked a 103.8* fever. She has sweat dripping from her brow, but the patient bibs do a pretty excellent job of catching most of it. Jenny says she wants to work through lunch if anyone can find another patient to squeeze into her schedule. And it runs in the family. Her triplet preschoolers have also been model citizens since day one. They were pretty generous, allowing their mom to get back to her afternoon prophies after the 9 am C Section wrapped up. Oddly enough, those three kids never get sick at all. Ever. You’re the kind of dentist who is just lucky like that- you’ve got a whole bunch of Jenny’s on your staff.
3. You’ll probably never hire or train a new employee again.
According to the Bureau of Labor, employees stay at a job an average of 4.4 years. Not at your practice! Edna, your receptionist, is in her 37th year of a 62-year contract with you. Old Steady Edna, you like to say. You’re confidently counting on her defying all of the lifespan statistics. On the off chance that she doesn’t live and work to the age of 117, you’re not worried. With so many technological advances happening, genetically cloning an Edna 2.0 is just around the corner. And if that doesn’t pan out, you can always hire a super eager, self-motivated millennial to pick up where trusty Edna left off… No training in face to face conversations required.
4. You have plenty of time to deal with the same old frustrations and challenges over and over again.
Who wants to focus on productively serving people?! It’s way more fun to watch grown adults play the blame game over your disorganized dental supply problem (again). Or to gossip about how Jenny is such a slacker (ever since her fever broke.) It keeps things exciting when you don’t know exactly how each procedure will go! Those pesky patients are a distraction when you have so much other stuff to deal with. You definitely don’t want to waste time establishing a standard baseline from which you would continue to adapt and evolve over time.
5. You want to make sure your practice doesn’t grow.
Systems would mean getting consistent care delivery outcomes. Consistently deployed strategies would mean reliably moving patients to health while intentionally partnering with them to achieve their goals. And these patients would develop so much confidence in your team that they would tell all their friends and send them your way. That would mean growth AND staying awesome. Who wants that?!