|
 
Desert Dental Staffing is dedicated to matching team members with the right team. Our informational newsletter is dedicated to helping you keep a great dental team in place.
Fill out this form to receive our complimentary newsletter delivered right to your e-mail.
Personnel Placement by Design is not just a byline, it is the way we live.
October 2008
Desert Dental Staffing’s Temps Are All-Stars!
Does the holiday season sometimes leave you short handed as people take time off to travel and visit family? If so, we can help keep your office running smoothly. We have highly-qualified people ready right now to fill in for your staff while they are away. And just as we do with our candidates for permanent jobs, we pre-interview and Disc profile every temp to make sure they will fit in your office. With our All-Star Temp Team only a phone call away, there is no reason for staff vacations or illness to add to your stress levels. Please give us a call today at 602-840-4703. Also, if you or someone you know is looking for temporary work, we’d love to talk to you about joining our team.
Desert Dental Staffing Helps You Find a Job You Can Love!!
Are you looking for a new job in the dental world? Have you been looking for the practice that is just the right fit for you? We specialize in matching people and practices to help everyone – doctors and staff alike – love where they are working! At Desert Dental Staffing, there is NEVER A FEE for those seeking a position! Why wait for a job you can love? You can have it now, just click below!
Good Stuff to Chew On: Breathing Life into Your Staff Meetings
Reprinted from Doctor of Dentistry, July 2008
Why do you hold staff meetings? Do you call the team together every now and then just to communicate information and issue directives? Or do you see staff meetings as an opportunity to build your team? Over the years, staff meetings have developed a terrible reputation as time wasters. But your meetings can be so much better than that. I like to think of them as an opportunity for a team to become stronger, more motivated, and more deeply committed to a common goal, notably success for the entire practice. You see, when the practice is successful, everyone — doctor, staff and patients —benefits.
With just these few ground rules, those meetings can become a time when your team becomes fully engaged and more deeply committed to making your practice a huge success. The changes in your team and your practice could be truly impressive.
1. Establish an environment of trust. The staff meeting should be a safe place where everyone is on an equal footing. You want the meetings to be a time when you accomplish something as a team that moves the practice forward to greater success. Open, two-way communication is a key. Everyone needs to know they can challenge ideas freely as long as their purpose is to improve on the idea and they do not dominate the meeting, get physical or act rudely toward one another. Mutual respect instead of destructive criticism or judgment is the name of this game. Encouraging everyone to communicate openly builds group synergy and helps each individual feel they are an important part of the process of building a successful practice.
2. Focus on attainable goals. As you start reshaping your staff meetings, structure them around brainstorming new ideas to improve the practice or find ways around potential roadblocks. You can give every member of the team a chance to participate by listing everyone’s ideas on a flip chart or blackboard. Then as a group, prioritize the ideas according to what the team agrees is most needed or important. Try thinking outside the box to embrace ideas from sources such as books (The Starbucks Experience by Joseph A. Michelli is a good one!), articles (Doctor of Dentistry magazine gives insight into what other doctors are doing), or even videos. All of these are great springboards for discussion and can spark ideas for improvement. One word of caution. Avoid the scattershot approach by limiting yourselves to one to three items to work on at a time. Otherwise, you risk losing focus.
- Empower individuals to follow through on their ideas, but keep track of results and hold them accountable. Just talking about ideas for improvement isn’t enough. Someone has to follow through. In fact, everyone needs to follow through from one meeting to the next. I recommend keeping minutes or at least notes of the meetings. They don’t have to be super formal, but you need record what you decided to try and who promised to do what. Otherwise, your staff meetings will quickly become a waste of time where everyone sits around talking about what to do, but no one ever does anything. If that happens, you’re right back to the stereotypical staff meeting. The good news is that if you empower members of your team to be responsible for implementing improvements, you are acknowledging their importance to the overall picture and they will become committed to seeing the practice succeed.
- Keep meetings short. Keep them positive. Limit your staff meetings to an hour or less. Any longer, and you are trying to do too much in one meeting or you are drifting off the meeting’s focus. In either case, you are wasting time that could be better used putting ideas into practice. If you need longer meetings, think about holding periodic action-oriented, team building retreats. Whatever you do, keep your meetings positive. Recriminations, finger-pointing, judgment, or destructive criticism only tear the team down and demolish morale. Negative meetings create something like a dogsled with each dog pulling in a different direction. Each dog is looking out only for himself, the sled goes nowhere and the dogs just fight. Isn’t it much better to foster an atmosphere of mutual support? Your team will be far more productive if you do!
- Make staff meetings a regular, scheduled event. Consistency is very important. Sporadic meetings tend to send the message that staff meetings are low priority. If that happens, most people tend to lose interest. You want your team to look forward to regularly sharing ideas and building on the synergy of the group from meeting to meeting.
- Make them fun. This is one of the most important points I can make. And it is one of the easiest to do. All you have to do is remember that life does not always have to be so serious. Look for ways to publicly reward team members who go the extra mile. Has a patient complimented one of your staff? At the staff meeting, give them a pair of movie passes in an envelope with a big gold star pasted on the front. If the meeting is at the end of the day on a Friday, bring in pizza or ice cream for everyone to enjoy. Do something different at each meeting, but keep it a secret, so people will get into the spirit of the game by trying to guess what you’ll do next. Everyone loves a surprise and if they can look forward to something fun, your team will not want to miss the meeting. The idea is to make your staff meetings an event to anticipate, not a chore to avoid.
Try these ideas for a month or two and just see if your staff meetings turn around. I think you will see productivity soar, decision-making will be more effective, the number of problems needing your attention will decrease and your practice will run far more smoothly and profitably. Best of all, your patients will probably notice something different but they might not be able to put their finger on what it is. They’ll just know they like what they see!
Quote of the Month
“In a good meeting there is a momentum that comes from the spontaneous exchange of fresh ideas and produces extraordinary results. That momentum depends on the freedom permitted the participants.”
~ Harold S. Geneen
September 2008
Good Stuff to Chew On: Consistency … Creating a Positive Experience
Reprinted from Doctor of Dentistry, June 2008
It is a fact of life that people tell others about experiences — both positive and negative — that stand out in their minds. If the positives outweigh the negatives (and I am sure there are very few of those in your practice), they will tell their friends about how much they loved that experience. As their dentist, you want them to remember all the good things about you and how well they are treated when they see you.
What have your patients learned to expect from you? What can they count on? For many patients, a visit to the dentist is very stressful, but knowing they can expect a predictable level of high-quality care from you and your staff eases that stress significantly and promotes customer loyalty. One of the best things you can do to assure the success of your practice is to create a reliable and positive experience for your patients whenever they are in your office. You want to capture their hearts. It will build trust and a sense of comfort. And they will be more willing to refer friends to the practice knowing they will receive a great consistent experience. Ultimately it will help make you far more successful!
The question is how can you create a consistent message that will end up delighting your patients? It’s a little bit about the product you provide, a little bit about you and your staff, and a lot about attitude. You want your products and treatment to always be the very best and gentlest they can be. You, as the dentist, want to be cheerful and upbeat. And your staff needs to be welcoming and pleasant with an attitude that says they like what they do. And most important of all, place a high priority on creating a memorable service, one where patients are treated in ways that delight them. Here are some ideas that are, when you come down to it, pretty simple:
· Psychologists will tell you most people appreciate hearing their own name from others. Remember to greet all your patients by name and use their name when you talk to them during treatment.
· Talk about something you discussed the last time they were in — a vacation, a promotion, a special party or anniversary, etc.
· Remember those patients who are sensitive, then make sure you use warm water to rinse.
· If they have a neck problem offer to bring out that special pillow for them.
· Remember a favorite magazine and offer it to them while they wait.
· Ask about their dog Fido or their pet cat Fluffy or even whether their tropical fish have had any babies lately! And always remember to ask about their children!
· Consistency in staff is important as well. Many patients feel less anxious and more comfortable if they recognize faces in the practice. When you add new staff, be sure to introduce them as patients come in for treatment.
· Finally, if something goes wrong, apologize right away, but go the extra mile to make it right. If you’re running late, give each inconvenienced patient a pair of movie tickets to compensate them for their time. If you made a mistake on their bill, give them a $25.00 credit without being asked. The key is to develop a trusting relationship.
How do you remember what’s happening in your patient’s lives? Consider keeping a page of notes in their chart. Then, on the day of their appointment, discuss that special something for each patient in your morning meeting. It should only take an extra minute, but the dividends will be immense. Your patients will have that great, consistent experience every time. Soon, they will think of you as the gold standard of dental care and how a dentist should be. They will learn to settle for no less than the best. And for them the best will be you!
Quote of the Month
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” ~ William A. Foster
Desert Dental Staffing’s Temps Are All-Stars!
When you are looking for temporary help, your best choice is someone who can blend seamlessly into your existing staff, someone with the right experience and the ability to connect with your patients. Those are the people on our All-Star Temp Team. Just as we do with our candidates for permanent jobs, we pre-interview and Disc profile every temp to make sure they will fit in your office.
We have highly-qualified temps available right now, so if you are in need of temporary help, please give us a call at 602-840-4703. Also, if you or someone you know is looking for temporary work, we’d love to talk to you.
Desert Dental Staffing Helps You Find Staff Your Patients Will Love!
Are you looking for more of those very special people you can count on to go the extra mile with your patients? You can be sure you will find them with us. Unlike virtually every other staffing agency, we take the extra time to pre-interview candidates and then administer a Disc® profile to make sure the person we are sending you will be an excellent fit with the culture of your office. We look forward to helping you find the people who can make your practice even more successful!
Click below to view some of our back newsletters!
Click below to view some of our back newsletters!
|
