Hygiene Residual Course

A Focused Team Fully Aligned Around your Dental Wellness Program
All Staff Work On Precise Goals
Goals
All Staff Work on Precise Goals
With an established Mission Statement for the office it becomes extremely clear and focused—for all staff are now aligned to two specific objectives in the office:
Completions: This means completions of treatment after diagnosis by the doctor. Once a diagnosis has been performed, the objective for all staff, the office manager, finance coordinator, receptionist, the dental hygienist and the chair-side assistant is to do their part as a team to accomplish the goal of a completed treatment for every patient.
Retention: Retention is the primary focus of the entire office as a returning patient becomes a well patient. The retention program consists of a hygiene education center where the hygiene staff establish a relationship with each patient. They then communicate (and reiterate) the goal of their practice: eliminating the need for future dental care by regular hygiene visits.
The product of retention is stellar and is devoted to the patient. A Dental Wellness Program results in:
• Elimination of gum disease • No future extractions • No Implants • No root canals
Most importantly, the office has eliminated or dramatically reduced costly dental services! In conclusion, the office has achieved the product of a patient who is well for a lifetime.
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AStrategy
EFull Responsibility Assigned
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• Knows and provides patient funding information for patient (care credit, lending club, etc.)
cards that express the doctor’s community Hygiene Education Pgm.
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Finance Coordinator
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co-pays.
RDA
Assistants Doctor
Reception: Call Conversion
Hygiene Retention
• Informs Assist/Dr patient is ready
•
Wellness Pgm
• Gives mission statement to patient
• Fills out new patient form & enters
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• Responsible for patient referrals using Viva referral • Educates patient on dental needs, services and
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RDA Assistantseducation.
OWNER
• Uses diagrams, images and x-rays to educate patient to accept treatment.
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• Patients always appointed before leafving
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• Educates patient on dental needs, services and procedures to increase their understanding and
ays appointed before leafving • Greets new patients
• Appoints all patients 6 months in advance for next • Coordinates with Dr & Assist/Hygienist on hygiene visit or earlier if perio patient.
needed treatment for patient
• Knows and provides patient funding cards that express the doctor’s community Hygiene
completions of all patient dental work and to educate the patient to eliminate their future dental work..
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• Responsible for adding additional hygiene days
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• Responsible for all collections & gives nate future dental work for all patients. accomplishment of patient care to educate each
• Patients always appointed before leafving • Appoints all patients 6 months in advance for next educate the patient to eliminate their future dental
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• Coordinates with Dr & Assist/Hygienist on hygiene visit or earlier if perio patient. work..
cards that express the doctor’s community Hygiene Education Pgm.
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• Uses diagrams, images and x-rays to
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Assign Responsibility or
Remain Frustrated
The primary reason there is no retention occurring in the dental profession is due to the fact that there is no one individual in the practice that is held fully responsible for the retention of the patients. The position is simply missing within the industry.
You will find an office manager, a finance coordinator, a scheduler or receptionist or both and you will also find a dental hygienist and a dentist with a chair-side assistant. But try to find the person in your office or any dental office who is utterly in charge and responsible for the retention of the patient.
This position is called the Retention Coordinator.
The Viva System & The Retention Coordinator
The most vital element of the Viva System is mentoring and educating the Retention Coordinator and Office Manager of the practice.
What is a Retention Coordinator?
A Retention Coordinator is the department head over the hygiene department who is trained and assigned as the single person in the practice held fully responsible for the retention of all patients. It may be your lead hygienist or someone who is assigned as the single person responsible to increase the number of hygiene recall visits per quarter and annually.
The functions and duties of the Retention Coordinator were researched and developed to bring about a revolutionary business model in the dental industry—it is called:
“The Scalable Practice Model”
Definition of scalable: the characteristic of a system or model that describes the capability to perform an expanding workload while increasing its services with a minimum increase in overhead. The scal- able practice model is explained in the section called "The SAFE Strategy."
53


AStrategy EFxecute Database Mailings
Birthday Mailings to Patients each month
Quarterly Mailings to Patients in Database: Loyalty Retention Law
All Staff Work On Precise Goals Goals
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Creating a Continuous Loyalty
Execution of your database mailings is a vital component of your overall retention and residual strategy. Loyalty is created based on a constant contact to your database on a routine basis. Viva developed the retention loyalty mailer to make it fully automated due to its critical component of keeping consumers loyal through a highly aesthetic and warm communication.
Branded Quarterly Database Mailer Mailed in Clear Envelope
• Happy Birthday
• Happy Holiday
• Happy New Year • Spring Occasion
• Summer Occasion
This is a sample branded database mailer. Every office is branded for their own iconic look and message.
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Market Research Article
Building Retention and Residual Practice through Database Mailers
Unfortunately, most business owners focus on finding and paying for new customers and easily forget about the ones they already have in their database. Focusing solely on acquiring new customers can be a costly mistake. Why?
According to marketing metrics, selling to existing customers is about 50% easier than selling to brand new prospects. Therefore, reaching out to customers who have purchased from you in the past and encouraging them to buy from you again is a more cost effective way to grow. And, Database mailers are the perfect way to reach them.
What is a Database Mailer?
Simply put, a database mailer is a mail piece that is sent to your existing customer base, including current and past customers. It builds loyalty. The arrival of the mailer "reminds" your patient to make their next appointment. A database mailer has a softer selling approach than mail pieces that target prospects and relies more on familiarity and customer appreciation.
Why Send Database Mailers?
There is an estimated 60%-65% of incomplete treatment plans sitting in the charts. Your patient files represent a "gold mine". Database mailers also prompt your patients to refer family members or friends by becoming a conversation piece.
What Should Database Mailers Include?
Let your customers know that you appreciate their business by inspiring their day. Inspirational quotes create conversation with the immediate people around them. When your patients talk about you, they are becoming a referral source for your practice. You could also offer them a special discount that is only available to current/past customers. It provides your customers with an incentive to complete
or purchase additional services or not miss their recall appointments. The offers can be costing your practice $4-$15 however saving you hundreds of dollars. Offers should be given to every patient without having attention on whether they were scheduled or not-you are building loyalty.
Most importantly, your database can provide an ocean of referrals if you effectively leverage your


existing patients to refer their family and friends. Be sure to personalize your database mailers with the information you know about them to create familiarity and interest.
Which Customers Should You Target?
Database mailers are always sent to your entire list as a prompter to encourage your loyal patients to make their next appointment. Do not violate the “Practice Revenue Law” covered earlier in this course.
How Often Should You Send a Database Mailer?
It is important to set the right frequency of mailings. Sending a database mail piece once every two months is a good rule of thumb. A minimum of 4 planned mailings plus a warm birthday mailing (done monthly to patients in your database) will achieve a sound retention campaign to build the residual income component of your business.
Rules for Database Mailers
Repetition: Conversation Piece:
Offers:
Minimum of 5 campaigns/year. Mailed every quarter plus Birthday mailer mailed monthly.
So that your patient would talk about you with their Immediate family and friends (this is achieved by Sending Inspirational quotes).
To incentivize patients not to break their appointments and complete pending treatments, the offer also should be transferable to capture referrals of a family member or close friend.
If you want to lose your patients in your database, simply stop mailing to them.
Most practitioners have never mailed to their database for the entire time they have been in practice. While some "recall" cards or the occasional newsletter may have been sent, the lack of communication and constant contact with your patients is a primary reason why nearly 90% of every patient that walks in the door is lost out the back door!
Put a system in place and keep it in. You're spending pennies on the dollar to build a residual based practice!
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Profitable Hygiene:
Inside and Outside the Realm
Article by Deborah Dopson-Hartley, RDH, Source: www.rdhmag.com
"There are two goals hygiene is held accountable for - daily production and re-care. The scheduled daily goal for production and the next hygiene visit should no longer be the only considerations in a hygiene day.
"Today’s progressive hygiene departments should have daily sales presentations and sales acceptance goals. What are these, and how do we track them?
"Here’s an example. My daily hygiene production goal is $1,500 per day according to my office, but my personal goal is $1,800. I exceed that on most days because I am paid on a 33.3 percentage basis.
"My sales presentation goal (aesthetics, implants, quadrant, or comprehensive dentistry presented from my hygiene chair) is $6,500 per day, and my sales acceptance goal (financial accepted, secured, and scheduled) is $5,000 per day.
"Because there is no definitive way to account for accuracy of these numbers, I made up a way to both establish and track them. These goals are obtained by simply adding my hygiene daily production goals to my doctor’s daily production goals ($1,500 + $5,000 = $6,500).
"Sales acceptance goals from the hygiene chair are more difficult to track because patients must consider and organize their priorities, which are their financial and time restraints.
"But sales presentations are not difficult to monitor if we chart audit prior to an appointment, ask patients leading questions and really listen to their answers, and then document what is discussed.
"To track your sales presentation and the treatment plan that you discussed with your patient, simply write a brief description next to the patient’s name on the day sheet. For example, you discussed restoring the LR (lower right), which consists of No. 31 MOD (on-lay, $1,100), No. 30 MOD (porcelain crown, $1,100) No. 29 MO (inlay, $1,100), and No. 28 DO (two-surface direct, $250), for an estimated total of $3,500.
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"You can make it less confusing for the patient by calling everything a restoration. You then say,


“We will be restoring the lower right side on the next visit. Your old restorations have outlived their usefulness.
"I know we’ve been preparing you for this for a while now, and it’s time. Nothing lasts forever, but you did get a very long life out of your old dentistry. With the proper care, you should get the same life expectancy from your new dentistry.
"Now, if we could have a moment of your time, we’d like to help you with the fee for your treatment and the payment options we have available. Let’s see what’s most convenient for you.” Then you escort the patient into the private consultation room where the financial coordinator is waiting to complete the process.
"Something else of great importance is the daily retention rate for both the doctor and hygienist. Did the patient schedule his or her next visit? I consider any patient not scheduled for an appointment inactive, so tracking these numbers is critical to the health of the business.
"Your goal should be to have all patients walk out with at least their two next appointments scheduled, either doctor and hygiene or two hygiene visits."
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