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3 suggestions to make sure your team is on the bus
By Benjamin Lancaster, DrBicuspid.com contributing writer (not listed in its entirety)

You've probably thought about your practice goals for the next few years. Maybe it's offering additional services. Or you want to help more patients. You may have taken steps personally to move toward those goals. However, no matter how much effort you put in, improving your practice isn't something done alone. It takes a team that shares your goals. So where do you start? How do you get your team on-board?

1. Schedule time and set compelling goals
In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey starts with the first two principals, "be proactive" and "begin with the end in mind." These are essential for individual leadership. Combined, they offer a road map on how to communicate with your team. The first principle, "be proactive," requires scheduling time with your team to discuss goals. Dr. Richard Castellano, a plastic surgeon in Tampa, FL, and CEO of PracticeProfitabilityMD.com, shared his thoughts on this matter.

"The best way to set clear expectations and group priorities is to schedule regular meetings or training with your team, at least 30 minutes per week," Dr. Castellano said. "Many offices offer little or no training to their staff and often expect the team to figure things out. Email training and hallway conversations will not get the message across. When you commit to scheduling this time, magically, your team will more easily internalize expectations and priorities."

The second principle, "begin with the end in mind," requires you to "develop a clear vision of your desired direction and destination" for your team, according to Covey. You probably have a ranked list of goals for your practice: outstanding patient care, exceptional service, and friendly interactions that put patients at ease, just to name a few possibilities. If you asked every member of your team for those goals, would they produce the same list and same rank order? If not, perhaps it is because your practice's goals haven't been crystallized and repeated. If the goals are not easy to understand and are not a part of your regular conversations, they will be forgotten.

One organization that is routinely applauded for its employees' commitment to the organization's goals is Walt Disney. They created a set of standards (or goals) for all employees more than 65 years ago that are still being used today. They call these goals the "four keys to the kingdom:" safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. The "four keys" work because they are simple to understand and ever-present. It's no different for your team. Clarifying your priorities and repeating them not only helps your team members, but it may help you in making executive decisions and staying on track.

2. Cast a compelling story
Roger Schank, a cognitive scientist and entrepreneur, illustrated the benefits of a compelling story. "Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories." For your practice, without a narrative of what you're aiming for, it's harder for your employees to understand your vision.
A team story includes the below steps:
A. Where we are now
B. Where we want to go
C. How we are getting there

Having open discussions about where you are and where you want to go can clarify the journey and can motivate your employees to participate in the process. Sharing where you are now and where you want to go is relatively easy. Defining how you get there can be more difficult. One way to communicate this part of the story is with a company mantra. A mantra distills your practice's goals even further into a short, pithy statement that guides decision-making and behavior. Many top companies use them, including Google's "Don't Be Evil," and Apple's "Think Different." Neither of them describes what the company does but tries to illustrate how the company acts.

Claudine Anz, office manager at Smile Design Dentistry and former consultant to medical practices across multiple specialties says the phrase she uses in every office is "red-carpet service." "I tell [all the employees] here when someone comes in, from the moment they walk in that door; they receive 'red-carpet service. "
Organizing a practice's ethos around a phrase gives employees a tool to measure their work decisions against. According to Anz, emphasizing this level of service ensures all team members understand creating an exceptional patient experience is paramount.

3. Make them part of your mission
Once you've established your practice's goals and shared your story, it's your team's turn. Invite your team to be part of the process and come up with innovative ways for how they will implement the company's vision. When employees feel their innovations are being implemented, or at least fairly evaluated, they feel more invested in the mission of the practice.
Employers in all sectors, including healthcare, often underestimate the power of their employees feeling they are part of a team, working toward a common goal. This doesn't mean you have to surrender control of your organization, just that you intentionally make yourself open to implementing ideas that fit your priorities, and that comes from your employees. Many company-changing innovations came from the most unlikely sources. For example, Flamin' Hot Cheetos were invented by a janitor who called up the CEO of PepsiCo with an idea for a new flavor of the product. Not only was this a success for the company and the janitor, but also for the CEO who was willing to listen to a new idea that resulted in a multi-million-dollar innovation. Everyone ends up benefiting when the team is part of the mission: the practice, the team, and the patients.
In the end
Making sure your employees are "on the bus" – this process starts with management. Your team is looking toward administrators, office managers, and doctors for leadership and inspiration. No one wants to get on a bus that's sitting in a parking lot. Have a vision for your practice and goals to move toward. Communicate those with your team and give them opportunities for input. Get your team excited and motivated about the priorities you have for your practice to keep moving forward.

Tips from the Levin Group

Never argue or disagree with a patient. It is a game you can’t win. If the patient is making statements or requests that are simply wrong or undoable, you need to find a way to let them know they are incorrect without being disagreeable. Stay cool in hot situations when a parent or patient is argumentative. First, make a conscious effort to lean back to diffuse any negative energy. Second, commiserate with them by saying “Mr. Smith. I’m delighted that you shared this with me. We want to try to satisfy you if we can. Let me offer you another option.” Third, there is occasionally a parent or patient who is so over-the-top that you cannot win. Let them say what they have to say, apologize for their unhappiness, and, if possible, try to find a solution. By not disagreeing with the patient and giving them other alternatives, you can often open their mind to a better way of doing things. If you can’t resolve the matter, just remember there are some patients who may not be the right fit for your practice.
Always thank patients for referrals. Doctors should call patients who refer and thank them personally. It sends a powerful message of appreciation and lets them know you would like them to do it again. Practices that do this one simple thing have a higher number of patient referrals.
Be on time. You want your patients to be prompt for their appointments. But do you run on time? If you run late, parents and patients may gradually begin to come late because they know they will have to wait for a shorter period of time. If you do this, you may be unconsciously teaching parents and patients to be late.

Keep an eye on parents and patients. When you’re presenting treatment, be sure to make good eye contact. When you look at people directly, it shows a high level of concentration, focus, and belief in what you say. When you look away, it can create a level of suspicion. If you’re uncomfortable keeping consistent eye contact, simply select a spot on their forehead just above the eyes to stare at during your discussion.

Make patient visits more personal. If you want to bond more with your patients, always mention something personal that you’ve learned about them in the past. It’s as simple as checking the patient record to note what information you learned about them at their last visit and asking a follow-up question. It could be about a family member, vacation, or hobby. Showing interest in patients helps build relationships and loyalty.
Make sure your treatment rooms look good. Each staff member should sit in each chair every 3 to 6 months and just look around. What do you see? How do you feel? Is there anything that needs to be changed, painted, or improved? Sometimes, changing a simple piece of artwork can give a treatment room a fresh appearance.
Referral Marketing Strategy Tip: Get your name out there. You should have a rule that patients never leave your practice empty-handed. Always give them a free item printed with your name and logo—this isn’t a new concept, but it’s still powerful. Different trinkets such as toothbrushes, water bottles, or lip balm are useful reminders of your practice.

Measure your average production per new patient. This is one of Levin Group’s 25 critical statistics that should be tracked on a monthly basis. If production per new patient is up, it indicates that the practice is doing a better job of identifying treatment, offering services, and presenting cases. If it’s going down, you must find out why and take corrective action.

Make sure your patients stay scheduled. One of the major contributing factors to the loss of patients on an annual basis is patients not having their next appointment. They often fall away from the practice or become attracted to other practices because they no longer have a commitment to their original dental office. The goal is to have 98% of your patients with scheduled appointments. If you maintain a rate between 96 – 98%, the annual attrition rate of patients will drop by as much as 7%.

"Communicate Your Efforts to the Patient" is an excellent piece of advice that often goes overlooked.
When you let the patient know what's going on after each step in the process, they're much more likely to appreciate that you're fighting for them, and much less likely to be surprised by a bill at the end of the process if all efforts to collect from the insurance company are ultimately unsuccessful. This is especially important because of the amount of time that may lapse from the time of treatment to the point where all appeals are exhausted.