• Information: Your visitors are looking for information. Period. Be sure that the information on your site answers their questions while still being organized and simple.  Proper use of information on your website will assure that your visitors will not get distracted and bounce. Take the time to make the information easy to find, understand, and apply. Another important fact to remember about the information on your site is to “Keep it above the fold”. The more scrolling visitors have to do on your website, the less likely they will be to stick around.
• Stay focused: Visitors are almost always driven to your page by links from advertisements, blogs, and other outside sources.  Make sure that the landing page of those links coincides with the information provided in the advertisement or blog where the link was found. You don’t want a visitor looking for information about a dentist’s payment plans to be sent to a page providing directions to the dental office. The result would be a quick bounce and the loss of a possible new patient. 
• Build Trust: Keep in mind that most visitors to your website are there for the first time and know little about your business.  A visitor who is not familiar with your company will be hesitant to leave you their contact information. Build credibility and let them know that your business is established and trustworthy. A great way to do this is to show reviews from customers, list partnerships, or show awards that your business has won.

 Don’t underestimate the influence that a great website can have on the success of your dental practice.

• 78% of Internet users conduct product research online.
• 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog.
• 67% of B2B companies and 41% of B2C companies have acquired a customer through Facebook.
• Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic.
• Facebook’s share of the display market grew from 7% to 12.2%.

 So, for the month of February I want to talk about the importance of your Dental practice’s online presence. We’ll talk about websites improvements, online advertising, blogging and other social media tools that you can use to help grow your practice. Consumer behavior is changing and if you want to get the best results from your marketing campaign, these posts over the next month will really help you to get on the right track.  

• Be the example: You have to start with yourself. If your employees see you losing motivation than they will more than likely follow suit.  Take time each day to quickly evaluate yourself and make sure you are doing your part to accomplish your business’ goals. There will be days when it is hard to remain positive and optimistic but doing so will go a long ways in helping your employees to keep course and do their part as well.  Be the example.
• Creative Reminders: Anyone can simply type up a goal, print it out, and pin it up in the office where everyone can see it, but is that really effective? Finding fun ways to remind your employees of the goal and their part in accomplishing it will help maintain their motivation. Don’t allow the goal to get old; keep it fresh with creativity.
• Baby Steps: We are all familiar with the famous line from “What About Bob” where Bob uses "baby steps" to accomplish his goal. Although the concept might seem comical in the movie it actually contains a lot of truth. Looking at a goal as one large task is like trying to drink through a firehouse. It is simply too much at one time, but if you break it into small baby steps it appears much more achievable.  Breaking goals into baby steps for your employees will keep them motivated because they will be able to see progress. Otherwise they will never feel like their work is amounting to anything and that their goal is no closer to completion than it was the day before.
• Reporting & Rewarding:  In a previous post we talked about how the work rate increases when work is reported, this concept is critical for keeping employees motivated to accomplish goals. Develop a system of reporting so that you can review your employee’s progress over time.  Remember to be creative.  Making the reporting progress fun will really benefit your employees. If your employees are accomplishing their “baby-step” tasks be sure to reward them so that they continue to work hard. Not recognizing your employee’s efforts  will put you on the fast track to unmotivated and unhappy employees. 

Don’t let the initial excitement of setting goals die in your office. Help your employees to stay motivated all the way across the finish line. Be sure to reward them for their work so that the next time a goal is set they will once again find the motivation to finish the race. 

Accomplishing goals is not easy, but it is worth it. It takes hard work and dedication to follow through to the end and accomplish your goals. So here are a few ideas of things that you can do to be sure that you accomplish your goals and that you and your business grow from them.

• Passion: You can’t expect to find the motivation to accomplish a goal that you really don’t care about. Make sure that you set goals for yourself that are driven by a passion. If your circumstances require that you set a goal for something that you are not especially passionate about, find a way to discover passion within that goal. Find a reason to love it. If you can find passion behind every goal you will find it much easier to motivate yourself to accomplish it.
• Write it Down: It has been said that a goal that is not written down is simply just a wish. Be sure to write down your goals so that you can easily remember what it is that you are working towards. If it is not recorded you will not accomplish it.
• Review: Once you have written your goals down, review them often. Put them in a place where you will see them everyday so that you can be reminded of what you are working towards. Take time each week or month to analyze your progress and find areas where you can improve. Accomplishing goals is a process, not an event.
• Support: If you have goals set within a group, make sure that you all support each other. Remind each other of what you are working towards, and congratulate others for their work to accomplish the goal. Working together and supporting one another will go a long way to help you accomplish your goals.
• Reward Yourself: Be sure to reward yourself when a goal is accomplished; you deserve it.  A healthy reward for accomplishing a goal is a great idea because it will provide another source of motivation. 

Obviously this list doesn’t include everything that you can to do to help yourself accomplish your goals, but maybe these ideas will spark your imagination and help you find the techniques that will work for you and your dental practice.  We would love to hear about your experiences and what your practice does to help accomplish your goals. Share your stories and ideas in the comments area below. 

Goals reflect the desires of our hearts and our vision of what we can accomplish. If we do not set goals in life we will never be able to fulfill our full potential. The same can be said for our business. Setting goals will drive your business to reach its full potential. As we learn to set and accomplish goals we begin to accomplish much more with our time than we would otherwise. So besides the rewards we uncover as we fulfill our goals what other benefits come to us along the way as we work towards them?

• Clear Vision: Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. As you set and work to accomplish your goals you will see that the tasks you complete each day have more purpose. Your work becomes more efficient because you are focused on a clear vision and it is reflected in your productivity.
• Unity: As your goals create a clear vision for yourself and your employees, a sense of unity begins to grow between yourself and those you work with. People better understands each other needs because they understand the end to which all of their efforts are directed.  Having goals for those within an office provides a sense of unity for employees and motivates them to all work harder together.
• Joyfulness: There is definitely a sense of accomplishment that comes from uniting with others to fulfill a common goal. This sense of accomplishment creates an excellent work environment where people are happy and motivated.
• Confidence:  As you and those you work with continue to accomplish your goals, confidence within your business will grow. Confidence is contagious in a work environment and can be a fantastic asset to your business.

As the new year begins and you begin to establish goals for your dental practice, look for the benefits that your practice will experience as you work towards and accomplish your goals. The power to grow your practcie is in setting and accomplishing your goals. 

Every dental practice will have different goals for the year, but I believe that growth is a common goal. Finding more patients, doing more work, and making more money is a common desire for most dental offices. So here are a few ideas of how you can use Weave Communication’s services to help make your practice grow this year.

1. Patient Retention: Every year dentists spend thousands of dollars on marketing campaigns to bring in new patients, but how many of these patients come in for more than one visit? Research show that the average practice retains less than 41% of their new patients. That means that the ROI of their marketing budget is less than half of would it could be. A great place to grow your practice is improving your patient retention. That’s why Weave Communications offers dental recall services to contact your overdue patients and schedule them for appointments. Dental practices using Weave are making an additional $6k-$10k per month from their overdue patient-base.
2. Office Efficiency: Weave’s new Weave Connect software is a great solution to the inefficiency that often arise in dental practices. Improved communication between employees and with patients as well, better reporting tools, objectively prioritized tasks lists, and much more can help your office save time, money, and work more efficiently than ever. As your office begins to run more efficiently more opportunities for growth will come.
3. Patient Relationships/Loyalty: Having great relationships with your patients is a key to the growth of your practice. Good relationships lead to patient loyalty and good referrals to your office. Weave Connect has tools that allow you to develop your relationships with your patients. Imagine an automated task list that has birthday reminders for your employees to wish patient’s a happy birthday or congratulate a couple on a wedding anniversary. They can also add notes on the patients profile so that when the patient calls in your employees can ask about a recent family vacation or congratulate a mother on her son’s recent game winning home run or a little league soccer championship her daughter just won.  Small tools like these can go a long way in helping you build meaningful relationships with your patients and help grow your practice.

So try something a little different this year and see how Weave Communications can help your practice grow and accomplish your New Year’s resolutions.

It has been a work in the making for the past year and half and it is finally becoming a reality. Weave Connect has recently been installed into the first office for beta testing this last week. It is amazing to see all of the communication tools in the dental office coming together into one, syncing live with the office’s practice management software and phone so that all of the practice’s information can be found, updated, and used more efficiently than ever before.  The testing is going well and we are excited to finish the software and make it available to all dental practices.

One feature that Weave Connect offers is Caller ID that is synced with your practice management software so that as patients call in, all of their information is automatically popped up onto the computer screen. You no longer need to search all over your computer and filing cabinets to find the information you need, it will all be right in front of you.

Another amazing feature is two-way texting.  There are many texting services out there that provide ways to text your patients, but Weave Connect takes it a step further.  Weave Connect allows you to send texts, receive responses, and actually carry out a conversation with your patients. There is so much you can do with the texting features of Weave Connect and we would love to show them to you in a our demo.

A few other features that Weave Connect offers are the following: unlimited minutes, instantaneous syncing to your practice management software, call recording and tracking, and much more. The best way to understand it is to see it, so we are offering free demos to show you this amazing technology and to answer any questions you might have. We would love to connect with you and let you see our Weave Connect Software. Just call us at (888) 579-5668 to schedule a time for a demo or visit us at http://www.getweave.com/contactus/, leave us your contact info and will contact you as soon as possible. Don’t miss your opportunity to see this revolutionary software!

• Inventory Size: The size of your inventory, whether you try to keep it big or small, depends on what works best for you and your practice.  With the internet and online shipping services it is easier than ever to keep a small inventory and free up some of your cash that would otherwise be tied up in supplies. Some online supply services even offer “just-in-time” ordering and delivery, were ordering by 12pm one day means delivery by 10am the next day.  Keeping a smaller inventory is more effective, efficient, and better protects your cash flow then does a large inventory.
• Be Organized: An organized system of supplies will keep you from ordering too much or too little of the supplies you need. It will also help you to not forget items that you need. A great idea that I recently read about is to keep your supplies organized into small bins where everything is visible. That way, when a certain item starts to run out, it will not go unnoticed and you will be able to order more before it is needed. This is a simple way to keep your supply cupboard full. Keep a spreadsheet that has a list of all the items and the number of each item to order when it comes time to place a refill items in your inventory.
• Good Supply Rep: For some dentists, the best way to manage their inventory is to have a good supply rep. Reps help keep your supplies full and keep you updated on cool new products that are being released. Having a good sales rep is a great way to help your staff manage the practice’s inventory better.
• Manage, but don’t Micromanage: It can be difficult for many dentists to turn the reins over to a staff member completely when it comes to ordering and managing inventory. As the dentists, your time is best spent with the patients and not micromanaging your inventory. Set up an easy to use system and trust your staff members to do their job. Train them well and check in with them often, but don’t micromanage all of their actions.

Obviously this is a very small and simple list of suggestions to better manage your inventory. There are lots of other ideas and suggestions out there.  What are some other ideas and suggestions you might give to a dentist who is looking to better manage his inventory?

• Listen, Listen, and Then Listen Some More: Every patient is different. They all have unique stories, fears and preferences. You need to listen to your patients more than ever. It is by listening to your patients that you will discover the clues you need to fulfill the needs of each patient.  By listening to your patient you are showing them that you truly are concerned about their experience in your office. One Dentist said that he likes to be the one who goes and fetches a new patient rather than getting the hygienist to do it. He said that he learns an awful lot about each patient on their short walk down the hall way and they get a chance to meet him as well.
• Choices and Understanding: People like to know what is going on, and it is no different when they come into your dental practice. They want to understand what is going on in their mouth and why you are performing the procedures you are. Be sure to do your best to explain to your patient, in an understandable way, what you are doing to their teeth.  Don’t think they need to know everything, but instead, tell them enough to help them understand the basics of what is going on in their mouth and how you are going to fix it.  Also, trying to give them some choices will improve their experience in your office.  Simple things like choosing the flavor of toothpaste to be used during a cleaning or offering the patients the choice of what room they want can go a long way to providing them a better experience at your practice.
• Ambiance:  A significant part of the patients experience at your office is the overall environment you create. From the office decor to the customer service you and your staff offer, creating a welcoming and relaxing environment is very important to providing a great experience for your patients. Play music throughout your office, offer a wide variety of magazines in your waiting room, and have a fun “kid’s corner” where parents can let their kids play while they receive treatment. There are many ways to create an enjoyable ambiance and doing so will make your patient’s visit to your office better.