Praise Staff Publically

If you want to develop a loyal, respectful  and competent staff, make sure that you take time to praise their accomplishments publically. Just as important, make sure that when you need to speak to a staff member about correcting behaviors or mistakes – that you do this discretely and privately.

As dentists and CEOs of our businesses, we are all very busy. We often just expect our staff to do things right. We don’t stop to think about praising them for correctly “doing their job”. We only notice our staffs when they make mistakes or act out of step with our practice philosophy.

Try to catch your staff doing things right and publicly praising them for doing their job as you expect. Your staff will feel very positive about being praised in front of patients and other staff members. It might feel foreign to praise people for simply doing things as expected but it will start to feel good to do. Your staff will love you for noticing them and for telling others that they are good at what they do.

On the other hand, try with all your might not to criticize your staff in front of patients and other staff members. Keep your cool when things go wrong and make note to talk to the staff member privately later about the mistake or issue that needs to be corrected. Never talk down to your staff, never make your staff feel incompetent – rather reinforce that you like them as a person and just want to work on one area of their performance to help bring it up to the expected level.

After advising a staff member on how to correct an area of problem, look for reason to praise them in their performance in the next few days. Especially look to see if they are working to improve the area you spoke to them about. Make sure you mention you notice the improvement and appreciate the effort.

Staff members are people with feelings. We all want to feel we are doing a good job and appreciated. We all want to avoid being publically embarrassed. As dentist/CEO it is up to you to set the tone for your practice. Look for things your staff are doing right and let them know you notice and appreciate their competence and professionalism.

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

ACT Like You

I know a lot of dentists who try to act like dentists. What I mean by that is that they believe that they need to modify their personality in the office to be more ‘doctor’ like. Instead of being themselves, they try to act in a manner that they think that people expect a dentist to act like.

I advise you to act like yourself! If you have a big personality and enjoy sharing jokes – be yourself. If you are quite and enjoy listening to music while you work – listen to music and be yourself. Over time you will attract patients who like YOU how you are.

It is no fun to try to have a personality that is not really yours. Joy comes from doing a profession you love and being yourself each day.

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

Don't Pre-Judge

The most important thing I learned was to not pre-judge patients and to present the very best care option to every patient. I know a lot of dental offices that pre-judge what they think a patient will be able to afford or desire and then present treatment options to fit that perception. I know that I would be angry if I had a bad knee and I went to an orthopedic surgeon and he pre-judged what treatment option I might pick and only presented that option. I would want to hear the option with the most opportunity to make me well.

I often say, “if you were my mother, this is what I would be doing” – and then I proceed to present the very best option to the patient (the one that I would do for my mom). It is okay for patients to ask about less costly or less invasive treatment options – I am happy to give my patients all their options. The most important thing is that they have been told by me what the best treatment option is and why it offers them the best long-term outcome.

I understand that dentistry can be expensive but that is no excuse for us not offering the very best treatment plan to each of our patients. Present the dental plan that you would want presented to you – then let our patients decide if they want to move forward with the ideal treatment plan or to ask for alternative plans. Don’t pre-judge your patients. Let them decide for themselves.

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

Volunteering in the Local Schools

I am a huge believer in having all the members of the dental team volunteer to teach dental education at the local elementary schools and pre-schools. In my office we actively book times for myself or staff members to go to every local school and pre-school each year. We do not wait for a call from the school – rather we call the schools and set up the visits.

At the visits, we give away tooth brushes, tooth pastes, coloring books and a sheet for each child to bring home to their parents on hygiene basics for elementary school children. We also give them a one-page sheet to give to their parents on what to do in case of a dental emergency. This last piece has practical information for the parents as well as our office phone number – we tell the parents that they are free to call and ask questions to our office – even if they are patients at another office.

Over the years our office has done a lot of good work in educating the children in our community and we have also built a much bigger business. We are regularly getting new patients who say they learned about our practice from an education visit to the schools. Some parents say that they called us after having the emergency dental sheet on their refrigerator for years.

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

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