5 Ways a Dental Consultant Can Help Grow Your Practice

As your dental practices grow, dentists and office managers require insight and information to make the most effective decisions.  With so many responsibilities including patient care, operational management, marketing, and bookkeeping, it isn’t unusual for dentists and office managers to feel overwhelmed as they struggle just to keep up with the daily operation of their dental practices.

Practices can also find themselves struggling as they do their best to maintain a competitive edge with marketing, billing, social media, and online presence. Running a dental office necessitates keeping up with evolving patient requirements, changing technology, teamissues, new regulations, and competition.

This is where a dental consultant becomes beneficial. A dental consultant can be a big difference maker with dental offices, especially in the highly competitive climate of the dentistry profession. A dental consultant will utilize best practices to enhance the effectiveness of the entire dental team while allowing dentists to focus on dentistry.

The dental consultant can evaluate your dental practice as a whole, as well as focus on a specific area according to your dental practice needs. Their industry experience translates into them being well positioned to assist with virtually any issue that is stressing your business.

A dental practice consultant is particularly useful when you are in the process of overcoming growth plateaus, taking on new associates,, optimizing marketing efforts, or, in general, seeking to improve the operations and success of your practice.

Do You Need a Dental Consultant?

Here are some questions you can ponder while considering whether a dental consultant could bring value and a competitive edge to your dental practice:

• Do you feel confident on the business side of running your practice?

• Is there anything specific you want to learn about running your practice?

• Are you unsure how to accomplish the goals you’ve set forth for your practice?

• Do you wish your practice was more efficient?

• Has the growth or revenue of your practice plateaued? Worse, is it falling?

• Is your practice preparing to go through growth, change, or transition?

• Do you want to get more patients through your door?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then your dental practice could potentially see big, tangible gains with the services of a dental consultant.

One of the most important assets of a dental consultant is bringing objectivity to your practice. Remaining impartial when making important decisions about your practice is crucial, and yet, not easy. An outside observer who is experienced in the dental industry can take a balanced assessment of your practice and accurately determine the areas needing improvement.

5 Ways a Dental Consultant Will Help Grow Your Practice

1)      Offering a Helpful External Perspective

Sometimes it is helpful to gain an objective perspective on how your dental practice is operating. There are so many facets in running a dentist office and your staff could have difficulty effectively troubleshooting in areas needing enhancement. A dental consultant provides the outside professional perspective when it comes to the direction of your practice.

When you look to a dental consultant to examine the day-to-day operation of your practice, you are better positioned to identify weaknesses in your system compromising the delivery of your patient care. This strategy can take place with fledging dentist offices as well as dentist offices in existence for many years.

A dental practice consultant offers a dentist perspective regarding the practice’s operational and business aspects. This viewpoint allows them to set realistic goals pertaining to your practice’s needs.  A skilled dental consultant will propose a workable vision for your dentist office and from it establish tangible, realistic goals with benchmarks to measure success over time.

2)      Reinforcing a Positive Culture in Your Dentist Office

The culture existing at any office, including a dentist office, will either pave the way for a successful operation or create obstacles to success.  When there is cohesion and buy-in from the whole team, it is much easier for your dentist office to thrive.

A dental consultant is able to enhance a positive culture to ensure the workforce is in step with business goals and united with the objective of helping to grow the practice. Together with the guidance of a dental consultant you will build an office culture that enhances your practice’s success.

3)      Improving Front Office Efficiency

Having a front office operating smoothly is necessary for a dental practice to be successful. If the front office team is stretched thin, which can have a negative impact on how they interact with patients.

When the front office runs efficiently, however, there is a much greater likelihood your staff will be happy and productive resulting in practice growth. A dental consultant can come in and assess front office operations and identify areas of improvement enabling the dentist office to run smoother and more effectively.

A dental consultant could propose various measures designed to streamline tasks, automate certain areas, and create efficient lines of communication leading to greater patient satisfaction, referrals, and etc. The consultant may also recommend new types of technology be implemented, more delegation of tasks, etc.

These changes are meant to improve front office workflow, and enable employees to do their jobs in a more productive, efficient manner. A stronger bottom line for the dental practice is a probable result.

4)      Successfully Marketing Your Dental Practice

Implementing the right marketing techniques can play a pivotal role in enabling your dental practice to grow, fueled by a steady stream of new patients and returning patients. An experienced dental consultant will know how to develop marketing strategies designed to boost the stature of a dental practice and expose the dentist office to potential new clients.

Your dental consultant will help your dentist office grow revenue by helping you connect with more patients, as well as enhance the loyalty of current patients, by maximizing the dental practice’s patient experience.

5)      Ensuring a Strong Financial Position

Your dental consultant is charged with making sure the dental practice’s finances are in good working order. The dental consultant is also trained to put practices in place to bring about maximum stability and profitability to the dental practice. A dental consultant will work with you to create goals, key performance indicators, systems team members can use to create consistent revenue without the dentist’s constant oversight. Small changes with the help of a dental consultant can create big changes in both the bottom line and quality of life for the entire office.

Hiring a dental consultant is an investment in the future and in the success of your dental practice.