Every year dentists will come up to me at lectures and tell me “I have no idea how profitable I am, but I am guessing it is not good.” It’s like they are afraid to look, they dislike that feeling of knowing the state of their financial situation. Collecting and tracking data and information is not meant to make dentists feel bad but to help them understand where the opportunities exist in their practice.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dental Intel’s Curtis Marshall about the main KPIs for dentists to watch and track in the year 2022. 

A benchmark gives us data from dentists across the nation focusing on specific key performance indicators. This data determines what the bottom 10%, average, and top 10% numbers and percentages are. “The benchmarks are there to really help you to understand what's possible.” -Curtis Marshall

There are so many numbers to track! First, Dental Intel dialed it down to the profitability formula. 

Visits    X    Production per visit   X    Collections percentage   -   Overhead = Profits

Curtis stated, “You can move either one of those levers, visits, production per visit, collection percentage or overhead to increase profits, yes. But if I'm really trying to increase my practice, it comes down to two things and two things only. The two things are simple. I need to know what to do with my patients that are coming into the office today, and I need to know what to do with the patients who are not in my office today. That's it.”

Here, we will focus on what to do with patients that are coming into the office today. So what questions should we ask? Curtis revealed four specific conversations that we need to be prepared to cover with patients:

• Do they have a future hygiene appointment scheduled? 

• Are ALL of their family members rescheduled for a visit?

• Do they have any unscheduled treatment and is it scheduled?

• What amount of money does the patient owe?

At ACT Dental, we love focusing on leading indicators, the numbers that indicate what WILL happen, not so much the lagging indicators, what has happened in the past. If we want to improve, looking at what we can do, and not just what we have done is extremely important! Focusing on these four areas will get you there! I shared with Curtis, “These are four great areas that you could diagnose any practice with and just say, Look, we're going to make some incremental progress on this. And you'll see the impact on our lagging indicators is huge.”

“Your patients who are coming in today improve their hygiene re- appointment rates, follow up on their unscheduled family members, talk about the unscheduled treatment that you've already presented to them. Get these things done and you're going to have a better well-run practice, step by step. There are the areas that you need to be focusing on. And if you're not watching them, then you will not improve. And you will be in the bottom 10% of every benchmark.” Curtis stated.

How are you going to prepare your team to be talking about these four important topics in the office? Because the more you do up front, the less you do later.

Curtis continues, “When we focus on those four points when our patients are IN the office, then when you make a phone call with the patients out of the office, they will already be aware. There should be an individual who is going to focus on the patients who are in the office, and one to focus on patients out of the office. It makes it so much easier! When you do this and ask these four questions, you are not going to have as many unscheduled patients. And you're not going to need to reach out to the patients who are not in your office, because you're already taking care of everything while they're in the office.” 

Ready for a fresh start and need guidance in the new year? Schedule a chat with our ACT Dental team. We can guide you through this process to a better practice and a better life!

About the Author: Kirk Behrendt is the Founder of ACT Dental, a customized coaching company for dentists. He has invested his entire professional life studying the top dental practices in the world and the leadership that guides them.

As the founder of ACT, his vision is driven by the commitment to provide highly personalized care to the dental profession. By creating a talented team of experts, Kirk and his team continue to positively impact the practice of dentistry one practice at a time. His personal mission is to use up every ounce of his potential. He lectures all over the world to help individuals take control of their own lives. Kirk has been recognized as one of Dentistry Today as one of the Top Leaders in Dental. Dr. Peter Dawson called him “THE best motivator I have ever heard.”

Kirk has competed internationally in 4 Ironman Triathlons and 9 Half-Iron Triathlons. His feeling is that there is no greater parallel to optimal business performance than optimal athletic performance. He loves cycling, basketball, stand-up comedy, and most of all, spending time with his wife, Sarah, and children Kinzie, Lily, Zoe & Bo.