Choosing the Right Dental Consultant

Choosing the right dental practice management consultant for your practice can seem like a daunting task. Where do you start? What questions do you ask? How do you know you can trust the Dental Consultant to really understand your practice, your issues, your staff, and not just breeze in and out with promising the moon and the stars. For a dental practice struggling with business issues or just looking to maximize profits and efficiency, a dental consultant service may have the solutions. Services of most dental consultant services include dental practice management, leadership coaching around employee issues, financial solutions and business plans, and continuing education assistance and seminars. While dental school trains future dentists to be excellent doctors, it does not give much training in the way of management skills. This becomes a problem for many dentists who are able to open their own practice. Paperwork, finding and retaining quality staff, managing overhead, maintaining schedule efficiency, and keeping up on continuing education requirements all come with the territory of owning and running a practice. To be sure, dentists are competent individuals, but these managerial skills are not necessarily in the skill set of all doctors. For the many dentists who find themselves frustrated with these issues, and spending too much time on them rather than actually practicing dentistry, there are dental consultant services.

Finding Credible & Reliable Consultant

In order to find a dental consultant service that works for you, look at their priorities. Most dental consultant services will be able to assist you with a wide array of issues that pertain to your practice. However, there are a vast number of areas of expertise that different dental consultant services will specialize in. You may find some, for example, that place their focus on improving your profitability. While virtually no one would have an issue with this kind of assistance, it may not be the area in which you are seeking their assistance. Some other dental consultant services will specialize in training you to be an effective office manager. This would entail handling human resources issues and minimizing profit-draining employee turnover. Prioritize your needs, and find a Dental Consultant service that seems to match up with those needs. Finding a credible, reliable dental consultant service is an obvious necessity in this process. Look for a dental consultant service that is well established. While that is not to say that new companies are uniformly bad, even a newer dental consultant service should have key staff members or owners that have been involved in the business for years. Secondly, utilize your network of other professionals in the industry. Be careful or relying too heavily on client testimonials on company websites or in their literature. The statements made by these clients are probably entirely true, but any business will list only the best case scenarios on their own website. Lastly, contact multiple dental consultant services to see how much information you can get before purchasing their services. Some may allow a consultation of sorts to outline what they can do for you and how their services can impact your business. Even just an over the phone question and answer session can give you an impression of their demeanor, professionalism, and how they run their business.

Avoid these Bad Dental Consultants and Get Straight to the Good Ones

There are dozens, probably hundreds, of ways consultants can fail you – apart from interfering with your religious beliefs. Here are some red flags. They don’t actually listen to you. They try to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to your practice. They ignore the unique aspects of your local market. They don’t know enough about the logistics of running a dental practice. They avoid your calls or dodge their obligations. They make guarantees they can’t keep. They are abrasive, demeaning or offensive. By doing your due diligence and checking references. You won’t believe the valuable information you can uncover with a quick internet search or a call to the right colleague. Have a trial period with them. Anyone who demands you hand over a massive amount of money right away might be trying to take your money and run. Give the program a chance to work. Only snake oil charlatans will promise you’ll see overnight results. However, the being said… Don’t be afraid to start over. If you’ve picked the wrong Dental Consultant, throwing more money into the relationship won’t make it work better.

Do I Need a Dental Consultant?

Ask yourself the following questions. If you are concerned about your answers, and would like to improve your practice or seek advice. Has your practice reached a plateau? Does your team take ownership? Is your hygiene department growing? Are you meeting your practice goals? Do you still love dentistry? Are you retaining patients? How is your case acceptance? Are you attracting new patients? Are you confident in your systems? Are you considering adding an associate or selling your practice? Are you concerned about overhead? Are you concerned about embezzlement? We listen with sincere interest, empathy and skill to what you have to say. We take your individual needs and concerns seriously. We do not offer one-size-fits-all solutions. We are experienced Dental Consultants with a proven track record of success, and proven solutions to the problems and issues you face every day. Ultimately, your success is our success. It’s that simple.

Choosing the Right Dental Consultant