Training Employees Properly to Guarantee New Patient Growth

Figure 1 | I grew up in Salt Lake City, and one of my favorite things to do is rock climb. Climbing is a great metaphor for life and business. It’s constantly pushing you to your limits. To be a successful mountaineer and business owner, it takes training, a good team, some calculated risks, and of course, proper tools.

Seven years ago, Dr. John Kwant and I found that as co-owners of Apex Dental in Riverton, Utah, we were not on a mountain, but a treadmill. We were exhausted, unhappy, and unsure of what to do next. Our inclination was just to increase the speed—to work harder and faster—but we felt like we would never achieve our goals.

While I had heard of the Scheduling Institute, it was a mystery call regarding our practice needs that piqued my interest. Accompanying a CD recording of our call was information about a New Patient Generation and Expansion Program, promising a guaranteed 10% to 40% new patient increase within 90 days. Frankly, it sounded too good to be true, but out of curiosity, I listened to what they had to say.

When we listened to the CD, it became clear that our team member wasn’t properly equipped to answer the patient’s questions. We were embarrassed, but recognized there was room for growth, so we called the Scheduling Institute.

They sent a certified trainer out to our office to teach the staff basic telephone training and ways to schedule new patients. Just a couple of months after our first training, we not only hit the 25% new patient increase—we quadrupled it. Before this training, we were seeing an average of 20 new patients per month; within a year we averaged 98 patients per month. With the right staff in place, we immediately saw a higher return in our marketing efforts.

Since that first training, we’ve grown tremendously with the Scheduling Institute. Through their program we now hire with intention and high performance expectations, and train everyone on the phones.

Today, our practice has eight locations, 98 employees, and recently celebrated our best month ever with almost 600 new patients. We are on track to meet our $10 million revenue goal this year because we used what we learned and applied the same principles that the Scheduling Institute follows to manage their 330 on-site trainings per month, a 20,000-square-foot dental training facility, and 200 full-time employees, Applying the same principles that they use in such a large capacity works just as well in smaller models.

When I think about how far we’ve come with the help of the Scheduling Institute, I’m amazed. This program has given us the proper tools and expertise to push ourselves to the next level, and I think that’s the only kind of life worth living.

To get a free mystery call for your office, go to www.5starchallenge.com

For more information, contact:
Scheduling Institute
855-315-6886