Episode 603: Do THIS to Maximize Your Case Acceptance

Kiera and Tiff are halfway through previewing the systems of 2023! Are you all caught up?

Today, they have a question for you: Are you misconstruing what case acceptance means? They share what all the pieces of case acceptance are and why you need to do more than function as an autopilot when presenting treatments to your patients, including:

  • Diagnosing enough to meet case acceptance goals

  • Presenting a treatment plan is an art

  • Looking at trends (your special sauce) of successful case acceptance

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Transcript:

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0:00:05.9 Kiera: Hey everyone, welcome to The Dental A Team Podcast. I'm your host Kiera Dent, and I have this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective. Because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, biller, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of travelling consultants where we have travelled over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental, and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress and create A teams. Welcome to The Dental A Team Podcast.

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0:00:51.4 Kiera: Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and Tiff. We are back today doing this labour of love. We are halfway through the systems. Today is the halfway point guys. This is system six of 12. Today is maximised case acceptance. Tiff, welcome back to the show today. How are you?

0:01:08.4 Tiff: I'm good. Thanks for having me. Thanks for always welcoming me. I love that.

0:01:12.1 Kiera: Of course. Thanks for doing 13 podcasts with me. That's like a very unnormal thing for us to do. And of course I'm like, "Tiff, what are you doing today? You wanna podcast?"

[laughter]

0:01:21.8 Tiff: I sure do. I'm gonna be on it for a week.

0:01:23.1 Kiera: That's how it tends to shake. I know, I looked I was like, "I happened to get a day free that I wasn't planning. I'm pretty sure Tiff's got some time. Tiffy, let's labour of love it up today."

[laughter]

0:01:35.1 Tiff: Build that quilt.

0:01:36.1 Kiera: Build that quilt. If you didn't catch that, go back two episodes, you'll hear it. So today guys, we're gonna dive into the system theme of maximised case acceptance. So this is like the whole enchilada in my opinion. You've gotta have... But to be fair, we'll just do a quick recap for you guys. First one was management mastery and leadership, then doctor optimisation, then billing with ease, five star patient experience, smooth sailing scheduling. Now Tiff and I, this isn't our first day being consultants and training offices. We think in terms of stacking each of these systems, if you pay attention, literally has been stacking.

0:02:14.3 Kiera: If you've got a freaking junk schedule and you're not doing a five star patient experience and your billing's not great and your doctors aren't optimised and you don't have good management and leadership, guess what? You're not gonna probably have your best case acceptance. So they really do stack upon each other. Also the way that we have listed these out, you don't have to go in order. There's no requirement for that, but just helping you see that if you're not getting an awesome five star patient experience and having a really great schedule that allows time for doctors to diagnose, be able to get to those hygiene exams and then be able to present and have great handoffs, our case acceptance might not be awesome. So that was already a few quick tid points... Tidbits, not tid points. I don't even know what tid points are. Do you Tiff, have you ever heard of tid points? 'Cause it's...

0:02:58.8 Tiff: I think we can add it to our Etsy shop.

[laughter]

0:03:03.6 Kiera: The tid points guys is... But that's just like some quick checkpoints on what is this maximised case acceptance. So Tiff, what's on your side for maximised case acceptance to help offices see, are they maximised or are they maybe underutilised?

0:03:19.9 Tiff: Yeah, I think that we look at a couple different things for case acceptance and oftentimes we can misconstrue what case acceptance means, right? We'll focus in on, okay, did we get the... Did the case schedule? Did they accept? Did they pay? Did they schedule? And if not, treatment coordinator, what happened? Well, it's not just the treatment coordinator in my opinion, it's everyone, right? It's all of the pieces. So it goes back again to that five star patient experience. If we're all doing our part by the time the patient gets to the treatment coordinator, she or he just has to review numbers and scheduling really. And sometimes not even scheduling. I have a lot of practices that schedule the treatment in the back office and my front office team, my treatment coordinators are only going over the numbers and ensuring we're successful there. So all the pieces are falling into place. Our case acceptance works really, really well and our case acceptance will be high. Another caveat to that or another piece that we like to watch is we like to make sure that we're diagnosing enough to get to our goals. So oftentimes our schedule will be light and we'll say like, "Look at the trackers", and the treatment coordinators are going, "I'm at 85%, 95% case acceptance. I don't know what you want me to do. There's no one for me to call."

0:04:25.7 Tiff: And legitimately they have no one on their list that they haven't followed up with or that they can call to get on the schedule. And I look at it and say, "Well, if you want $60,000 in a month but you're only diagnosing 20,000 to 30,000, how am I supposed to fill $60,000 worth of production in that month?" So if you think about your average case acceptance, how much then do you need to diagnose if your average case acceptance is 50% and you're only diagnosing 30,000? That means you're only selling 15,000 maybe, right? And then your goal is 60. So it all adds up. So looking at that and looking at that case acceptance as a bigger picture than we ever have before is something that we like to train on. We train a lot of our practices to do, if not all of them to do the same thing. And it's something that we'll go into this month is really maximising that case acceptance. Making sure you've got the new patients and you've got the recare patients and they're giving you the exams, giving you the diagnosis you need to diagnose at least three times your goal so that your team can fill that schedule to meet those goals and meet those pieces.

0:05:36.6 Tiff: So we're not just looking at, did they schedule? Did they not schedule? We're looking at how many patients did I provide to my team to schedule and then what was the case acceptance there?

0:05:46.8 Kiera: Exactly. And Tiff, I really love that you talked about this because I think so many times people are like harping on the front office to schedule, schedule, close the cases. Are you doing it? The case acceptance is an entire practice experience. It is not just closing the case. And to your point, absolutely. If we're not diagnosing three times the amount that we need for that, guys, it's not going to happen. So making sure that that's an alignment, but then also making sure that we really are closing cases. Are we tracking those cases and giving feedback to our doctors to let them know, Hey, did you realise that you've only diagnosed fillings this month?

0:06:23.0 Kiera: They might not even realise that they haven't even diagnosed a crown. I feel like... I know I get guilty of this in consulting and Tiff, you might not, maybe it's just coincidental but I don't think it is. I will get into trends in offices. Like it will be ops manuals in every single office for like three, four, five months. And then all of a sudden it becomes patient handoffs and NDTR for like three, four, five months. And I'm like, "How does every practice have it?"

0:06:50.2 Kiera: I don't know. I know every practice has it. I'm not implementing things that they don't need, but I know I'm looking for it and I'm just in a habit and a pattern. And then I'll have the next one of leadership teams and then... And I feel doctors might do the same thing with diagnosing or we're just kind of in a routine where we're just seeing the same thing as patient after patient, FMX after FMX and they kind of blend together. So making sure we're watching those to look for those patterns and those trends. I know I have to shake myself out of and be like, Look, here. Do they really need the ops manual or is there something else that they need to have? Let's make sure that I'm not just on autopilot. Which again, this is human nature. It's not a good or a bad. It's just straight up human nature because our brains will put us into autopilot to save brain power. So it's not out of the question, but is your practice tracking those cases? Are our treatment coordinators and doctors reviewing them weekly to make sure that they're there? Are we following up on unscheduled treatment plans?

0:07:49.9 Kiera: Are we doing a two day, two week, two month follow up? Are we actually looking at patient acceptance versus dollar acceptance? Do we practice the art of silence and objections? Do we look for problem-cause-solution? Are we looking for those personal drivers when we're presenting treatment plans or are we just doing the same thing hoping to get different results? That is an art. That is not a skill in my opinion. I feel like treatment planning, case acceptance is truly an art. It's an art of how doctors present the treatment plan to the patient. It's how we hand off. It's how we then present the treatment plan to the patient with the finances. All of that is an art that I feel really does need to be practiced. Just like guys, I'm still a pathetic pianist, guitarist and artist. I'm terrible at all three of those things 'cause I don't practice them. That's the difference between a skill and an art. I'm really, really great at driving. I feel like that's a skill. Some might disagree and say it's an art. But the answer is like art I feel is more creative. It's different ways. It's manipulative.

0:08:53.0 Kiera: It's collaborative. It's figuring out what works and what doesn't work and making sure that we're getting the results we're looking for. That to me is maximised case acceptance. And I don't actually think this one will ever be five star because I feel like case acceptance is a forever evolving skill that we've got to practice, an art that we've got to practice rather than a skill that we can master. But I don't know, Tiff you might disagree with me on this one.

0:09:19.8 Kiera: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and you guys. How was your 2022? I want you to look back and tell me was it the year of years or was it a really hard year? Did you crush it or did it crush you? This is the time guys for end-of-year Dental A Team Platinum is welcoming you. Where we will physically fly to your practice. We will come and we will elevate your dreams and make them into a reality. And guys, space is limited and prices are going up. This is not a sales pitch. This is not something where I'm trying to scare you into it. I'm just facing the reality of, inflation is here, flights are expensive and I want to see as many people as we possibly can and serve as many as we can.

0:10:03.8 Kiera: So if you wanna be part of our elite group of people. There are limited spaces 'cause our consultants can only see as many. We are taking on 10 new platinum offices by the end of the year and that's it. That's all we have space for. So if you wanna be one of the elite 10, come join us. Be a part of our top notch elite doctor community. Be a part of our office manager and hygiene and front office communities. Get your operations manual done and live the life that you've only been dreaming of today. Email me, [email protected] and make 2023 truly a year that's unforgettable. We are a complete tax write off and like I said, we are only taking 10 offices. So don't get left behind. Be one of those 10 and I cannot wait to give you the biggest warmest welcome to completely and utterly changing your life for good. Welcome to the Dental A Team. I can't wait for you to join us, [email protected]. Cheers to 2023 and making you your best self yet.

0:11:07.7 Tiff: No, I think it's true. I think that's valid. I think case acceptance is ongoing. They think that it changes. It's ever changing, right? Even the tactics that we use, the verbiage that we use, I think patients are different, people are different and it's more about emotional and that... Relationship and connection really than it is the treatment. And so it's forever ongoing and it's always a skill and an art that we're perfecting. And I think to your point of being on autopilot, we do it with driving all the time. But I think I see my doctors oftentimes get into different mindsets. So maybe their mindset is that, maybe they're seeing some of their friends or family members struggle with the economy or with money. So then their mindset shifts and they start thinking everyone has economy or money troubles and they start diagnosing fillings where it should be a crown or where they used to say, you probably should do a crown on here. Right now they're just saying, let's do a massive filling or they go to a CE course and they're really excited about implants.

0:12:13.5 Tiff: Everybody gets an implant and just tossing them out. So they just get stuck on something or patients who probably could have done really well with a bridge or we've talked to them about a bridge a million times and they're ready to schedule it. We're like, "Well, let's talk about an implant. Now we detour another six months." So it's like getting on those chops. They think we all do it. And I do the same thing where I'll come home from a trip from seeing three or four practices. I'm like, "Kiera, it's so weird that everybody like, it's always the same thing." And then I have to think like, is it, did they need the same thing or were they on the same track kind of the ops manual? Or did I just get into autopilot and do what was best for the trip?

0:12:50.4 Tiff: I think to your point, it's huge and it's ever changing. It's ever growing. And that's why we have to pay so much attention to it. Watch those numbers, watch the trends because we've got to look at numbers because they are black and white. Numbers are what tells the story and we have to be able to look at them and see, okay, what are the uptrends and the downtrends? Because those are what I need to focus on. If we've got a downtrend in diagnosis and we start looking through it, we're like, "Oh, he's not diagnosing as much as he typically does." So then we dive into it and we say, "Wow, we've got a lot of fillings going on." Now we can address that and have a conversation about it. Whereas before it's just kinda like, well, I don't know, the schedule sucks and we're not meeting goal and we're not looking at things. So we look at the numbers and we can maximise case acceptance by looking for trends within the numbers and pinpointing what needs work because it is ever evolving and constantly needing to be worked on.

0:13:47.5 Kiera: The trend I think is the special sauce of case acceptance. I feel the data is there, you just have to actually look at it and see. And I feel like when I became aware of that and started doing that, that's when my case acceptance shot up. That's when I started to see like, wow, they're not closing. But it takes time. It does take you going above and beyond. Most TCs think that their job is to present a treatment plan and fill the schedule and that's it. Most don't take it the next step and say, "Do I follow up with it? Do I have a systematised practice in the fact of how I follow up with my clients or patients? Do I look back and see which ones did I close and which ones did I not close? Do I record my treatment plans and listen back to listen for one or two words where I may have lost the case?" That to me is five star. That type of a practice, I've seen maybe one actually do that. Very few spend the time to do that. But that is what I feel is five star.

0:14:50.0 Kiera: So guys, look at it. Are you doing the items we've talked about? Are we diagnosing at least three times our goal? Are we looking at all of our treatment plans to see what our patterns are? Are we following up on that two, two, two? Are we practicing this? Are we role-playing this out? And if not, guess what? You're like a two or maybe a three star. Don't give yourself high ratings. Be honest with yourself. I would say for Dental A Team our case acceptance, if I looked at maximised case acceptance, this is truthfully the area that our company is by far the weakest. I'd give us like a 1.5 star if I'm completely honest. Because Shelby and I are the butcher, the baker, the patty cake maker as of current today. It is an exciting moment. So I feel like for referrals, clients who are coming in from referred clients, freaking awesome. If you're a client who comes in and you're ready to go, I'm really great on that. But clients who are not closing, I don't go back and look at it. I don't look to see why they're not doing it because I'm "too busy".

0:15:52.7 Kiera: So that is, I think our weakest spot in our company right now. I know it is, it's somebody I need to hire. I've tried to hire this position like three times. It's a very unique one. Guys, I don't have a roadmap of what this is supposed to look like, but you do. I have to make this stuff up all day long. So if I was looking at this honestly, Dental A Team, maximised case acceptance would be a 1.5 star. And this is a very big area that I think I would be highlighting if I was doing this with you for our company to see where could I improve for next year? Where do I need help right now? And just doing this podcast, I'm like, "Okay, red alert. Maximised case acceptance for Dental A Team is where we definitely need to improve." Yes, I would love to have a better onboarding experience, but guess what? Our experience is pretty dang great for our clients. Onboarding surely could be worked on, but why am I going to go spend time on my onboarding process? That's pretty great. I've yet to have a client complain to me. I just know what I want it to look like.

0:16:45.5 Kiera: They don't, but they think it's great. I get great reviews for our consultants, but yet our maximised case acceptance sitting at a one. Probably should have invest my time and effort there as opposed to going after onboarding, which I know is a really good experience. Overall, I'm just being harder on myself there. Tiff, any thoughts on that before we wrap up today?

0:17:05.7 Tiff: No, I think you're right. I would give us the same. And I think it's... I love that you said we don't have our own roadmap. You don't have a roadmap, but the practices we do, you guys, she's being truthful and honest. We're giving you the roadmap and trying to figure it out for ourselves in our own world, but giving you the pieces that we know actually work. And if you take this information and you just go implement it. Just start looking at just maybe your diagnosis or just your case acceptance and just start diving into what those black and white numbers look like so that you can start seeing the trends. I think it's going to make a massive difference in your everyday goal setting and actually achieving them.

0:17:44.5 Kiera: And if I was in office listening to this, 'cause don't worry I've got something like this. They're the seven forces of business mastery, which I actually review every single week. If I was you, yes, we have these on 12 systems for 12 months. You better freaking believe I'd have all 12 of these running every week. So it'd be week one is leadership. Week two is doctor optimisation. Week three is billing. 'Cause I would want to be checking these systems more regularly than just once a year. So we've given you guys the roadmap, but I will say the hardest part is execution and implementation. So if that's you, don't wait guys, reach out. You do not have to have the same year that you had this year, even if it was a great year next year. So be sure to reach out, email us, [email protected]. Guys, we do not have an unlimited number of seats. That is not a reality. We do have a limit of the number of clients that we can take. And we only wanna take on clients who are truly ready to execute right now. So if that's you and you're like, "Yep, that's me", email me, [email protected].

0:18:41.6 Kiera: Let's get you rocking and rolling. Let's get these 12 systems on track for you and guys give yourself a number. How's your maximised case acceptance? Be honest. I just gave myself a 1.5 and I'm KD who can do... But if I was in an office, oh, my case acceptance would be probably at a 4.5 to a five. I'm dynamite in our own company. Shoot. I don't know. I'm making this up. So give yourself a number and then make sure to join us next week for dynamite dental assistance. Tiff and I will be rocking you guys through that system theme. Tiff, as always, thanks for joining me and for all of you listening. Thanks for joining and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

0:19:21.6 Kiera: And that wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

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