Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Spring 2020 - 52

Doctors
"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that
you might as well not have lived at all."
-J. K. Rowling

your culture, because without a clear understanding of the values, you will fail. Become a scout and
actively look for employees outside of the dental
field. Do cultural onboarding with new staff; they
need to hear why you exist, what the core values
are, how you plan to succeed, and who performs
what role. During performance reviews, you should
discuss how they align with the practice values
and if they adhered to the team agreement.
Set up the culture, hire the right people, and communicate with your team. In Dr. Dunn's company
culture, meetings are held at the beginning of
the day, the end of the day, and once a month-a
monthly planning meeting. Dr. Dunn uses a communication platform called Slack to communicate
with her team daily. As an alternative example
of team communication, the CEO of Mailchimp
sends an email to each of his employees once a
month to address all concerns.
Think About the Future
Create a Strategic Plan
As an example of strategically planning for the future, the CEO of Panera Bread states that they plan
to change every five years based on what they know
of the market. What do you change? Sit in a boardroom and think about it from the perspective of
the competition. If you were the competition, what
would you do to shut down the competitor's office?
Our newest competitors (the "big purple") beat us
fair and square on cost and convenience. You should
have an honest conversation with yourself to identify your weaknesses. What can you change, and are
these changes consistent with your culture? Define
success for yourself and don't compare yourself to
others or focus so much on your competition that
you end up taking your eye off your own focus.
Don't copy what your competitors do for marketing,
as it creates inauthenticity. Be proactive rather than
reactive. For example, Dr. Dunn's focus over the next
few years is on interaction with millennials, as they
are now employees and the parents of patients.
Don't be afraid to fail; make changes that make you
uncomfortable and take risks.

Focus on Profitability and Not Market Share
You don't need to be the biggest-you need to be
profitable. Determine your model: high fee and
lower volume, low fee and high volume, or high
fee and high volume. What doesn't work is a low
fee and low volume.
Overhead
Watch your expenses. Orthodontists tend to spend
money on things that they find interesting or cool
but that bring little or no value to the patient or
practice. Be careful about what you're cutting
down on; don't be cheap on things that will bring
you returns. Try to make decisions based on data
and not gut instincts. For salaries and wages, you
don't want to be over- or understaffed, and you
need to be fair. Raises are not a given but earned.
Also, realize that a person who enters the practice
with a high starting salary will expect increases
over the years. Order in bulk; to reduce shipping
costs, the lead assistant should order only once a
month. Another option is to join a buying group.
Pricing with each company needs to be negotiated.
Don't get fooled by free supplies and stick to one
bracket system and one Class II corrector. Other
items to consider include monthly service fees for
credit card processing, on-hold messaging, chat
services, appointment reminders, and cable TV, all
which can be negotiated on an annual basis.
Marketing Your Practice
Find your ideal market and realize that you may
not be able to treat everybody, and you may not
appeal to everyone. Decide on where your market
is and who your ideal customer is. This person may
change over the years as times and priorities shift.
The team should also role-play and walk through
the entire new patient examination process regularly to provide feedback on the events (photos,
scan examination), the view of the office from
where they are sitting, and the entire experience.
Select brand ambassadors to promote the office;
make authentic and personal videos for them to
post; give away photo shoots. And remember that
online marketing is here to stay.

PCSO Bulletin Spring 2020

Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Spring 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Spring 2020