Spark Plug Employees

Every once in a while I interview a person for a dental job and that person has a BIG personality. They are happy, smile, make jokes and generally are vibrating at a higher rate than the typical person. I almost always hire this kind of person on the spot.

I love to have employees that are simply fired up and give off positive energy – that smile and laugh and make the entire office more fun – more fun for the staff and more fun for the patients. I can teach an RDA to become better at some of the technical aspects of their job but rarely can I teach a highly skilled person to have a bigger personality.

I look back upon my many decade career and can point to the years where I had spark plug employees as some of the most fun and highly productive segments of my career. I know some offices that try to shy away from hiring employees with big personalities and tend to hire more vanilla/quite types. I say – GO BIG! Hire people that have personalities and like to chat with the patients. Yes – the person has to be mature and know the bounds of professional conversation – just set ground rules

I have been blessed with having a good number of spark plug employees over the years. I want to surround myself with employees that are fired up, alive and happy. I want that energy permeating my practice.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Are You Negative?

I have been asked to observe many offices and make recommendations on ways that the office could be more productive and to increase the flow of new patients into the office. I would assume that the dentist inviting me into their practice would be on their best behavior when I was observing. Maybe they were?
What I have observed all too often are dentists who are very negative. They are unhappy and seem to be on edge. As the leader of the practice, the dentist sets the tone for the entire office, if the dentist is negative and down – the staff will follow. No one wants to go to a dental office that is down and no one wants to recommend that office as well.

Sometimes the number one recommendation I make for dentist in the coaching session is simply to smile, laugh and chat with people more. Just have a good time – enjoy the staff – enjoy the patients – enjoy the work! Be an attractive force within the office. Catch people doing things right and compliment people more. Compliment your staff in front of patients and compliment your patients as well.

I have seen dentist office increase sales by over 30% in a few months by doing nothing more than actively focusing on being happy, giving compliments and taking a sincere interest in their staff and patients. Sometimes we have just been doing dentistry for so long that we just forget to enjoy each day and the people we spend our day with. Just actively working on being a positive person and giving off happy energy will improve your practice.

You patients rarely know the quality of your work but they do know the experience of being in your practice. Patients will return to your office and refer you to others when they feel that they are in a positive office and the dentist takes an active interest in them as a person. Sometimes simply being nice pays off.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com