Trading Through This Crazy Time

COVID19 pandemic fear and is already affecting our appointment books.

So what can you do to keep trading?

- Rework your appointment book to plan for productive days despite cancellations.

- Contact your patients via email or text and communicate with them that you are a safe place to come. Highlight that dental health impacts on overall health.

- Look at your fee for time so that you are working at a consistent hourly rate

- Assess staff needs. For full or part time staff no matter what happens you will need to pay their salaries even if they have to self isolate or not. So look at what they can productively use their time with if you experience dead time. This could be a great opportunity to provide some training in all areas of the practice.

- How can you add value to each patients' visit?

- Dissect your current patient experience & how you and the team can improve on this.

- Present treatment planning that fits with these scary times. This is absolutely not the time to discuss longer term concerns or expensive treatment options. In doing this you demonstrate a great disrespect for your patients. Keep treatment simple, cost effective & necessary now.

- Take control of practice costs. Assess any areas where materials wastage can be improved.

There are a thousand 'small' things that you can do to ensure your practice continues to trade profitably.

Sit with your team and work through a plan of action together.

You will find your team wants and needs to succeed as much as you do, so listen and act with them.

Erica King - director refocused dental