Tag: David Schwab Ph.D.

Taking Problems to Your Boss’s Boss Fraught with Peril

Dealing directly with your boss’s boss can be hazardous to your workplace health, something I know from experience.  I used to work for a very large organization. The CEO was a whip-smart and affable guy. In my first few weeks on the job, I would banter with him on the elevator, but I did not have much direct contact with him. There were many layers of management between me and the CEO.

One day just before closing time, the CEO unexpectedly appeared in my Dilbert cubicle and sat down in front of me. Heads turned. Why was the CEO on this floor? Why was he talking to one of the new hires? Was he going to fire the new guy (me)?

It turned out that he wanted my advice on an issue. We had a five-minute discussion and he seemed pleased with my input. He gave me an assignment that would take me about two hours to complete. I told him I would have it done by the next morning. Always pleasant, the CEO stood up, thanked me, and walked away.

About thirty seconds after that impromptu meeting ended, my boss called me into her office. She was not amused. She gave me a dagger-like stare and demanded to know how I could have had the audacity to “go over her head.” I explained that the CEO had come to me; I had not initiated the meeting.

However, my boss did not believe me, instead implying that there was some conspiracy afoot. She suspected that I had been secretly speaking directly to the CEO for some time in an attempt to subvert her authority. I explained that there was no plot to overthrow her. I was just sitting at my desk when the CEO dropped by. While this explanation did not sound plausible, it happened to be true.

She must have subsequently talked to the CEO because her paranoia later subsided. However, I learned a valuable lesson: appearances count and one must always be keenly aware of the chain of command.

When there is an office manager in a dental practice, employees are often unaware this business etiquette. If they do not like the answer they get from their boss, the office manager, employees quite cavalierly go over that person’s head and ask the doctor the same question, hoping for a different response. The doctor is not an appellate judge who is standing by to overrule someone else’s decision. If the doctor reverses the office manager’s decision, then the office manager no longer has any authority.

To make the system work, employees need to know that going to one’s boss’s boss is not acceptable. The doctor has to back up the office manager almost all the time. When the office manager’s word means nothing, then the doctor has the worst of both worlds: paying an office manager who is not allowed to manage. If the office manager makes mistakes or handles situations inappropriately, the doctor has to coach the office manager to help that person grow, or, in some cases, replace that individual.

The good news is that many dental practices are substantial businesses. With good managers in place who keep the practice running and allow the doctor to take care of patients, the business can survive and thrive.

www.davidschwab.com

.

10 Value Propositions to Increase Case Acceptance

How do you help patients understand the value propositions behind the dental services you provide in order to increase case acceptance? Your 10 value propositions in dentistry should include:

1. You use only the finest dental materials. Crowns, for example, are replacement body parts. You do not use discount parts but only the best materials because they are long-lasting and aesthetically pleasing.
2. You do not claim to be the lowest priced dentist, but your fees are an excellent value for the dollar. It is never cheaper to do it twice.
3. Your practice is patient-centered. That means that every decision, every recommendation is first seen through the prism of whether it is good for the patient.
4. You have the very best equipment that allows you to diagnose and treat patients using state-of-the-art dentistry.
5. You have been in the community for x years, and you plan to be there for many more years. Continuity of care is very important.
6. You are concerned about the patient’s overall heath. If you routinely take the patient’s blood pressure or do oral cancer screenings, explain the critical importance of these services.
7. You have exceptional diagnostic ability. The solution you propose will work in large part because you can accurately diagnose the problem in the first place.
8. You are an artist and a scientist. The treatment you provide in your office is unique. Patients can get similar treatment somewhere else, but they can only get your artistry in your office.
9. Dentistry is a customized service, not a commodity. People can buy mass produced items in a store or online and shop for the best price. However, a crown, for example, is a custom-made restoration for that fits one tooth in the mouth of only one of the 7 billion people on the planet.  Your dentistry is one of a kind!
10. You spend time with patients and get to know them. Patients are individuals, not numbers, and they are never rushed out of your office. You genuinely like your patients and they appreciate your gentle manner. In sum, patients can trust you to keep them comfortable and provide them with excellent dentistry.  Your loyal patients know that they get their money’s worth in your office.

These 10 value propositions are very powerful. While some patients want only the lowest price, no matter what, there are many good patients who are searching not for the lowest possible price, but the best possible value. That is what you deliver.

http://www.davidschwab.com

What’s Luck Got to Do with It: Creating Your Own Success

Are successful people just the beneficiaries of good luck or do they seize good fortune in the form of opportunities and also overcome adversity? President Barack Obama commented on this issue in a commencement speech at Howard University on May 7, 2016. “That’s a pet peeve of mine: People who have been successful and don’t realize they’ve been lucky. That God may have blessed them; it wasn’t nothing you did.” (The entire speech transcript can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/Obama-speech-Howard).

It is certainly true that some people are more blessed than others at birth. If your family is enormously wealthy, then you may feel that you were born on third base. If your family is desperately poor, you may feel that you are not even in the ballpark. However, the arc of life of the fortunate and the unfortunate is not predetermined.

Pick up any issue of People magazine to read about people whose God-given talents propelled them to fame and fortune—until they squandered it all due to poor choices they made in life.

The problem with ascribing success to luck alone is that it invites a corollary: failure is a result of bad luck and the unlucky among us are victims, not masters, of life. This “victim mentality” can be insidiously self-fulfilling if one wallows in self-pity.

However,there are many inspiring stories of people who overcame adversity to become highly successful. For example, there was a man who:

  • Failed in business at age 21.
  • Was defeated in a legislative race at age 22.
  • Failed again in business at age 24.
  • Overcome the death of his sweetheart at age 26.
  • Had a nervous breakdown at age 27.
  • Lost a congressional race at age 34.
  • Lost a congressional race at age 36.
  • Lost a senatorial race at age 45.
  • Failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47.
  • Lost a senatorial race at age 47.
  • Was elected President of the United States at age 52.

His name was Abraham Lincoln. Many historians consider him the greatest U.S. President.

To be blessed with good fortune is one thing; to take advantage of good fortune and to persevere in the face of setbacks is quite another. Success is achieved not by talents bestowed but by using those talents wisely and well.

Killer Interview Questions to Help You Hire the Right Person

Killer interview questions help you hire great team members  Start using these questions now.

I also suggest that you ask applicants to write a cover letter explaining their special talents or abilities. Applicants who do not include a cover letter should not be considered because they failed to do their very first assignment. You can learn so much from cover letters—including the applicant’s level of sophistication, their command of English, and the strengths they choose to emphasize.

Here are the questions:

BACKGROUND

Why are you applying for this position?

WORK HISTORY

What special aspects of your work experience have prepared you for this job?
Describe one or two of your most important accomplishments.
How much supervision have you typically received in your previous job?
Why are you leaving your present job? (or, Why did you leave your last job?)

JOB PERFORMANCE

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses as workers. What are your strengths?
What would you say are areas needing improvement?
When you have been told, or discovered for yourself, a problem in your job performance, what have you typically done? Can you give me an example?
Do you prefer working alone or in groups?
What kind of people do you find it most difficult to work with? Why?
What are some things you would like to avoid in a job? Why?
In your previous/current job, what kind of pressures did you encounter?
What would you say is the most important thing you are looking for in a job?
What were some of the things about your last job that you found most difficult to do?
What are some of the problems you encounter in doing your job? Which one frustrates you the most? What do you usually do about it?
What are some things you particularly liked about your last job?

EDUCATION

What special aspects of your education or training have prepared you for this job?
What courses in school have been of most help in doing your job?

CAREER- GOALS

What is your long-term employment or career objective?
Who or what in your life would you say influenced you most with your career objectives?

What would you most like to accomplish if you had this job?
What might make you leave this job?

SELF-ASSESSMENT

What kind of things do you feel most confident in doing?
Describe a difficult obstacle you have had to overcome? How did you
handle it?
How would you describe yourself as a person?
What do you think are the most important characteristics and abilities a person must
possess to become successful in this position? How do you rate yourself in these areas?
Do you consider yourself a self-starter? If so, explain why ( and give examples).
What things give you the greatest satisfaction at work?
What things frustrate you the most? How do you usually cope with them?
What qualities are you looking for in a boss/supervisor?
What have been the sources of stress in your work history?
How so you deal with work related stress?
What was the last major problem at work that you were confronted with? What action did you take on it?
What have you done to further your professional development?

MOTIVATION

What motivates you to do your best work?
Can you give me examples of experiences on the job that you felt were satisfying?

Describe how you determine what constitutes top priorities in the performance of your job.

WORK STANDARDS

What are your standards of success in your job?
In your position, how would you define doing a good job?

LEADERSHIP

Do others view you as a leader? Why or why not?
What approach do you take in getting others to accept your ideas?
What specifically do you do to set an example for your co-workers?

 

While these questions will certainly help you elicit insights from applications, please remember to consult with your attorney to be sure that all your human resources policies, including hiring, are in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

David Schwab, Ph.D.
www.davidschwab.com

The Easy Way to Create a Dental Patient Education Ebook

The prospect of writing any kind of book can be daunting, but there is an easy way to get all that knowledge out of your head and into a dental patient education ebook. First, let’s define the purpose of the ebook. The content should be interesting and useful to the reader, but your goal in producing the book should not be to become a best selling author. Your objective should be to produce quality content that you can give away to patients and potential patients to promote your practice.

Value of an Ebook

An ebook has value because it positions you as the expert and enlightens and informs readers who are interested in the dental health topics you discuss. If you are the dentist who wrote the book, then you are the expert. Because you are not trying to make money from selling the book but are using the book for dental patient education, the ebook format makes perfect sense.

It is not worth searching for a publisher or producing a paper book yourself and paying for paper, printing, binding and much more. With an ebook, you can share your knowledge without incurring incremental costs for each book distributed.

The Easy Way to Create an Ebook

I interview doctors and use the transcripts to create social media content, including blogs and posts for Facebook and other platforms. The purpose is to foster patient education and improve search engine optimization. Once the interview process is complete and a year’s worth of weekly blogs are created for you, that same content can be re purposed into an ebook.

Charles Krauthamer’s best selling book Things That Matter is a compilation of his past newspaper columns. In a similar matter, your blogs and social media content, which I create from interviews conducted with you by phone, can be edited and organized into an ebook.

You should offer your ebook to patients who visit your website and enter their e-mail address in a contact box. In this way, you capture valuable new leads and give potential patients a wealth of information. The e-book should also be shared with existing patients, of course.

Click the following for more information: social media content creation.

You speak volumes in your office to educate patients. By capturing your thoughts and organizing them into a dental patient education ebook, you can attract more patients and further explain the benefits of quality dentistry.

www.davidschwab.com

Dental Implants: Explaining Long Term Value

In this video produced by Glidewell, David Schwab, Ph.D. discusses “sticker shock” that patients often experience when they review the cost of dental implants.  There is also a new twist on a favorite analogy that can be used to explain why dental implants are a great investment and value for the dollar over time.  Glidewell’s permission to use this video is gratefully acknowledged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgOmXkzr-qM

Podcast 4: Internet Marketing Requires Team Training

Internet marketing generates patients who are a different breed of cat. Because they are not referred by family or friends, they are starting from a different place and need more time and education to convert them to good patients. Many patients who make an inquiry from the Internet will not come in or accept treatment. It’s a numbers game and you should look at the big picture and not get discouraged. Find out why even when patients say no, it’s not a waste of time because you are getting closer to the patient who will say yes. The key is team training and setting appropriate expectations.

The Personal Report
by David Schwab, Ph.D.
TPR episode 004 – Internet Marketing Requires Team Training

www.davidschwab.com

Dentists Need Scripts for Three Reasons

Dentists need scripts for three reasons: to make the practice more efficient, increase case acceptance, and provide consistent dental patient education. The word “scripts” is used as a short-hand method to suggest what are also called “talking points.” It is not a question of reading word-for-word prepared scripts when patients ask questions, but having key phrases available that each team member can weave into their own speech patterns.

Make the Practice More Efficient. A common scenario is that patients are told they need a certain procedure, such as dental implants. The benefits of dental implants are numerous, which is all the more reason to have a script that concisely conveys the most important information. For example, “dental implants are the most advanced tooth replacement system ever devised. They look and function just like natural teeth. They never decay or require root canals, and they can last for decades or even a lifetime with proper care.” One can always expand on this explanation, but notice how much information is conveyed in a short message.

Increase Case Acceptance. When patients cannot decide whether to go forward with recommended treatment, you can use a very compelling script: “The proposed treatment will never be more conservative, more cost effective, or less invasive than it is today.” Let’s unpack that sentence. Everyone wants conservative rather than radical dentistry. “Cost effective” is a very good term for conveying value. Finally, if patients delay treatment, they may need more extensive treatment in the future. The concept that the treatment will never be “less invasive than it is today” nicely captures that point.

Consistent Patient Education. For procedures that you commonly provide in your office, you need to have an agreed upon list of benefits. This list, or script, creates consistent patient education. If a patient asks why a crown is needed, it is likely that everyone in the office can provide correct answers, although the answers will no doubt vary depending on the person who is responding. The great advantage of having a script is for everyone literally to be on the same page and give patients consistent answers that the doctor has deemed in advance to be the best way to answer the question.

The wording used to answer commonly asked questions should not be left to chance.  Dentists need scripts to remove variables and provide a consistent and efficient way to provide dental patient education and increase case acceptance.

www.davidschwab.com

Podcast: Cell Phone Use in the Dental Office

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:45 — 5.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

The issue of cell phone use in the dental office causes a conflict between two competing interests: the need for a total focus on the patient and the fact that we live in an electronic age where employees depend on cell phones to stay in touch with family.

This podcast puts forth a common sense solution to the problem and challenges practices to develop a clear policy that keeps employees’ cell phones out of the sight of patients but still allows opportunities for team members to discretely check cell phones during the workday as long as this privilege is not abused.

The issue of patients using cell phones in the office will be addressed in a subsequent podcast.

Price Shoppers Need Dental Patient Education

One of the greatest threats to dentistry is that it is often perceived by price shoppers as a standardized commodity. This off-the-shelf mentality undermines the dentist’s message and the value of dental services and creates a dental patient education challenge.

The mentality is as follows. Your child needs braces? No problem. Just shop for the orthodontist with the lowest fee, because—in the minds of many—the treatment is all the same and the orthodontist is programmed to work the same way again and again. Start with crooked teeth, put on braces, straighten the teeth, remove braces. Repeat with the next patient. Most people do not appreciate the diagnosis, treatment planning, and clinical skill necessary to get an excellent result in orthodontics, especially with complex cases.

Price shoppers are of course not limited to orthodontic treatment but are pervasive throughout the dental marketplace, whether the treatment involves impacted wisdom teeth, dental implants, or even a single crown. When told that a crown is necessary, a patient’s first question is often related to the cost of the crown, not the type of crown or the expertise of the doctor who provides it. If you told your patients that you have boxes of crowns in your supply room organized by sizes, like shoes, many would believe you and wait for you to grab one off the shelf to test the fit.

The need for dental patient education to combat this perception grows every day. When the patient says, “I can get it cheaper somewhere else,” the message should be:

Dental treatment combines my artistic judgment with all my training and experience in the science of dentistry. You can get something similar somewhere else, but the crown that I provide is unique because no two crowns are exactly alike. I am committed to high quality dentistry that is customized for you.

One well placed volley will not necessarily slow the onslaught of price shoppers who come to your practice, but the “dentistry-is-an-art-and-science” message is both high minded and resoundingly true. You are a Picasso in a studio creating masterpieces, not a Sam Walton opening chain stores filled with mass produced merchandise. There is no sale on crowns in aisle four of your practice.

Like so many other artists, you may not be fully appreciated in your own time, but you are teaching patients, often individually, and exposing them to unique dental artwork.

David Schwab Ph.D.

www.davidschwab.com