#939: Strategic Tips for 2025

Dental A Team Podcast

Figuring out how to drink from the firehouse of the new year can be overwhelming. Tiff and Britt give suggestions on where to start your journey to improving your practice’s growth, or perfecting your scheduling, or addressing high cancellations — or whatever your goal is in 2025.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:00.983)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I have pulled in the one and only Britt. We still need a really strong nickname for you, Britt, but I'm just excited to be here with you today. And I love Britt. People call me Tiff. I love Britt. I feel like it's just like rolls off the tongue. So we'll just, we'll stick with that for now, but we're here in the new year. I'm excited to have these conversations. I've pulled you for a few podcasts today and I just think that you are going to be so stellar.

at the content that we're gonna talk about. And doctors, I hope you're here to freaking learn. Britt, one of her nicknames is No BS Britt. So welcome to that. And I say that today because we're gonna be just talking a lot of business in a lot of the podcasts that we're recording today, but especially this one and some planning for the year. We're in 2025 now. So I wanna make sure you guys are just totally prepped and planned for it. So Britt, how are you on this fine, beautiful morning in Arizona today?

Britt (00:56.718)

mean I'm great. It's a sunny day every day pretty much here. So you got to love it. I love that. I'm like, I mean, there's a few nicknames out there, but I don't like spiffy Tiffy is such a good one that like, I don't know if the rest of us will get one that's like that same level, which is deserved. But yeah, so I've got a few but nothing quite like spiffy Tiffy.

The Dental A Team (01:09.455)

I know.

The Dental A Team (01:17.303)

I know, you had to come in early, you know? The nickname game started earlier than everyone else got here. That must be what it is, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. think things just, my grandma called me Tiffy my whole life growing up. I was Tiffy. And so I think things just rhyme with Tiffy better, you know? It's like a hard end at Britt or Tiff. So it was easy to, it was easy to monopolize on that one. But it is.

Britt (01:19.266)

I know.

Britt (01:24.137)

It just takes some years. Eventually we'll get there.

The Dental A Team (01:45.709)

It is always sunny. I feel like this year I decided, or not this year, I guess last year, I told my son, I said, I think we just need to stop pretending like we live in a state or a space of life that actually has a winter. People who live in the tropics, they just realize, guess what? It's just going to be tropical. Like we're not going to get a winter and that's okay. And I think in Arizona and Phoenix, at least, like that's the life we need to start living. Stop pretending like it's going to be sweater weather. It's not going to happen.

So here we are. Yeah.

Britt (02:15.414)

saying, it's warmer this year. Every year we say like, it should be cooler. Like exactly, like it is what it is and you know what? I'm happy for it. I am perfectly fine not having freezing weather.

The Dental A Team (02:21.603)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (02:27.672)

I agree. I agree. The 70s in December, I will take it. It's fine. We'll just see what the summer looks like. So we'll chat back around on that when the summer comes.

Britt (02:32.161)

Absolutely.

We'll sound a little different then, but it's fine. It's short. It's short.

The Dental A Team (02:38.928)

Yeah, yeah, I love it. this kind of, honestly, all of it kind of goes into itself and the plans and the prepping and looking forward. And we are in the business of constantly looking at where we're going. But you also have to look at where you've been. And so in order to make sure your 2025 is super, super strong, you guys, we kind of wanted to revisit some of the pieces that we chatted about towards the end or towards the last quarter, Q4, of 2024.

some of those strategic planning tips and tricks that we had given you back then. We want to make sure that you guys actually implemented them and then look at, okay, implemented, now how do we use them? So I brought Brett here because Brett, think your business brain is brilliant and I want to make sure we don't miss any of the pieces. So guys, I know we chatted about this. It might be a review.

But I really want you to dig deep sometimes when you re-listen to a podcast or when you listen to something that has similar information, you're like, gosh, I didn't hear that last time or this means more to me today than it did when I listened to it three months ago because I'm in a different space. So I really want you to dive deep. I want you to listen in. One of the biggest pieces I think practices can miss is the opportunity to look at the stats and really, really look at where you've been.

where you're trying to go, but where you are right now. for it, correct me if I'm wrong. I think 99.9 % of the people who come to us, the clients, the potential clients, the future clients, the listeners are here saying, we need systems. And WATM is here and we get to build systems. And we come in and I'm like, gosh, you have so many systems. Like the reason that you feel chaotic is because you don't know where to start.

Britt (04:03.172)

you

The Dental A Team (04:25.893)

Right, Britt? So how do we help them? I really want them to learn how to check trends, know where to start, know what like 2025's focus needs to be, because systems, like you've got a whole dental practice, you've got multiple departments within your dental practice, and to say systems is quite overwhelming. It's like, you know, trying to pull a raindrop out of a rain cloud, it's just not possible, and it causes a lot of chaos and confusion, and I think narrowing that down helps people to be able to see.

What needs to come next? What's that next step? So Britt, you do work with a lot of clients and you've worked with a lot of clients over the last three years that you've been here with us. Thank you so much. A little longer than that now, but almost four. But how do you help them to really see that space, especially going into the new year to say, okay, what do I need to do this year to be super successful?

Britt (05:18.5)

I think Tiff, comes from planning for systems, yes, and also our big picture like ultimately shapes our priorities. So like, that's why I think even in Q4, we harp so much on like, all right, what's happened this year? What do you want to do next year? What are our goals for next year? Because having a path or having something we're shooting for helps us to prioritize some things. For example, let's say,

great, we want to grow 15 % next year, right? We've got the space, we know our schedule's not full, we want to grow our revenue, our collections by 15%, and then it's like, all right, then if.

what's going on that's keeping us from getting there. So then we like walk it back and those are some of the important stats that we need to set goals around and make sure we're tracking. If our schedule's not full, then it's like, all right, do we have enough patients to fill the schedule? Do we not have enough patients? Do we need to get more? Is it a marketing thing? Is it just better scheduling and follow up on our end? And that's gonna start to shape some of the systems. So like with this example.

The Dental A Team (06:10.801)

Go.

Britt (06:16.824)

Let's say our schedule's not full. All right, do we have block scheduling and how are we following up with people who don't have appointments? Those would be two systems that we would start with to get things rolling in the right direction to set us up for success in 2025 if you've got a growth goal like that.

The Dental A Team (06:17.234)

.

The Dental A Team (06:31.046)

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I love that you narrowed it down from big to small. And that's what the trends will show us. And the mark that I think is truly must right is seeing the bigger picture, like you said, but on a small level, which sounds confusing and contradictory. you're like, how do you go like you're saying big, but you're saying small when we're looking at those big pieces, when we're tracking them. And I do love there's like a side tangent. I do love

the companies that come in and they pull your stats for you, right? So you've got an outside source and you log in and you can see all your stuff. You guys know what I'm talking about. There's multiple different companies and different systems out there. I do love those analytics companies and resources, but I really, really love too for you guys to know the actual numbers and to know how to pull them yourself, even if you're using an analytics company. I want you to be able to see both of them because I believe that if you

have your hands in it yourself, you're soaking in the knowledge. So either way, I want you to just verify, clarify, verify all the pieces, but having a space, I know we've got a lot of our clients, if not all of them by now, on our scorecard system. It's a simple, well simple is probably the wrong word to use there, but it's simple for our clients. It was a labor of love for us, but it's an Excel spreadsheet and I love going old school.

Britt (07:48.055)

You

The Dental A Team (07:54.48)

with those kind of simple tools like Excel, because I think if we can get all of that data and metrics onto one screen, right, even in a lot of the analytics, like you've got to, flipped between screens and you don't always see how one trend leads into another trend or one metric can negatively or positively affect a metric that it seems like it wouldn't. So you might have hygiene data on one screen, right, flip to another screen and you've got.

your production collections, and then another screen you got your AR. Well, guess what? There are different systems within each one of those screens, right, that affect all of them. And when we've got them all in one space, you guys, and you're looking at them, your brain is like, wait, this is a puzzle. Let me put this together. And you start seeing how they lead up or lead down into one another. So, Britt, like you're saying, our schedule's not full, right? This is a common, common, common statement.

from dental practices, my schedule's not full, or I have high cancellations. And it's very easy to be like, oh my gosh, I have all of the answers for that. Like, Britt could come up with like 15 different things for both of those problems. Schedule's not full, high cancellations. We can tackle it all, and I could implement, and Britt could implement 30 systems today, but the question is, are those systems the actual problem, or are we kind of like putting a band-aid?

over a bigger issue that's underlying that we may not be seeing underneath, right? So I love, Britt, that you said that like, great, let's talk, let's look at block scheduling. And you said, you didn't say let's do block scheduling. You said, do we have block scheduling in place? Because, you know, practices do that. Practices know how to do it. There's a million freaking podcasts. We're not the only company who does block scheduling, number one. And we have so many podcasts on block scheduling. So a lot of people are doing it. So then we dig into,

Britt (09:41.86)

Thank

The Dental A Team (09:48.735)

how are we doing the block scheduling instead of just saying, this is how you should be doing it. Because I do think that's the mark that a lot of people overlook as well. know, coaches come in and they're like, well, this is how I want you to do it. Well, your way might be working. It might be something else. So really digging into those pieces. So Britt, as you're looking at these scorecards with your clients and we've used analytics companies, we still do, right? We have analytics that we use from companies and we have clients who use different companies.

What is it that you look for the most and like big overarching that these practices and these doctors can really start keying into that show a space that like, want growth this year. That could mean anything. What are some overarching numbers that you like to track with your practices that will help them key into their focus this year?

Britt (10:39.78)

Yeah, and I'll go through some of those numbers and we want both like leading and lagging, right? So for example, if I want to hit 15 % growth and revenue, tracking that revenue is going to be a lagging measure. So we need to work on, all right, what are some leading things to get us to that end goal that are going to be helpful to track and see what's going on? Another reason for tracking is one, if we're implementing a system or adjusting a system,

Feelings are fleeting and numbers are facts, whatever that saying is. But the numbers actually will tell you, one, did you implement something that's actually having the impact you want it to have? And number two, if we shifted something, is it shifting it in the right direction for us? So is it useful or not? And sometimes there's things that we'll implement that are so cumbersome and it doesn't do anything, then it's like, why are we doing it? It should be easy and it should be effective at the end of the day.

The Dental A Team (11:10.741)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (11:18.439)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (11:31.304)

Yeah.

Britt (11:34.756)

And so that's kind of my little plug for also tracking numbers is one, knowing where we're at and two, knowing if the things that we're implementing are having the impact we want them to have. So some important ones, you're gonna have your big picture ones, right? And that's, you'll notice my brain thinks big to little. That's just kind of how I think, where's the end goal we wanna get to? And then what are the things that build up to that top most important thing?

So if it's revenue, right, then of course production and collection. We're only gonna collect as much as we produce and we've got to make sure that we're collecting everything that we actually do the work for and can have the potential to collect.

The Dental A Team (12:02.645)

Yeah.

Britt (12:07.64)

So that's gonna be one. And then it's like, all right, next level beyond that, what leads into those two things? Production is gonna be case acceptance, how we're scheduling, right? Those are gonna lead up to that production. And then on the collection side, it's like, all right, what's our AR? Where are all our buckets at? What's sitting out there? What are we not getting collected from patients? That are gonna be some of the big pieces.

And then you can kind of walk it down from there and great track by provider, track by hygienist. And then what are the other things? What's our SRP that's going to feed to our production? What's our fluoride that's going to be feeding to our production and what are the doctors diagnosing? Right? Cause we're the buckets are right. We're only going to make as much as we ever diagnose. And we only are going to make as much as we actually like get scheduled and complete from what we diagnose.

The Dental A Team (12:30.134)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (12:49.525)

Yeah.

Britt (12:54.756)

and then we've got to collect on the things that we actually complete. So we kind of work our way down that way. So those are some of my favorite ones, Tiff, and looking ahead can be super helpful. What are we scheduled to next week? Just to get team members looking ahead, and if we're not scheduled to go, then it should spur a plan of, okay, then what do we need to do to get next week's schedule to go? Or if there's holes in hygiene, what are we going to do to get those holes filled?

The Dental A Team (13:18.999)

Yeah, and what you just said right there to like all of that, I want everyone to take all of that and figure out how you can implement those pieces or what you're not looking at maybe, like what have you not been paying attention to that we can add in, not replace, but add into the metrics that you're looking at this year. But what you just said is if we're not scheduled to go next week, what's our action items now? A lot of practices, you know, get stuck in the lag measures. We know our lead measure, we know

we're supposed to make $250,000 each month, right? So that's our lead measure. Our lead measure is what are we supposed to produce and collect? How many new patients are we supposed to have? And then the first week of every month, we look back and we say, did we do that last month? And sometimes we did, right? Sometimes we didn't. And if we're not tracking it more frequently, like you said, if we're not looking at next week, what's next week's lead measure based on last week's lag measures?

We have to alter them sometimes. If last week or the week before we were down, that impacts us moving forward. So then we get to the last week, sometimes I hear office managers really rallying. They're like, okay, guys, we've got three days left and we need $30,000 in addition to what we already have on the schedule. And people are like, you want us to add 10 grand a day? What are you talking about? Like, yep, we need six Invisalign cases.

Britt (14:38.798)

to get, we can do it guys, right? Like come on.

The Dental A Team (14:43.096)

We got this, right? But what if 15 days ago, you were like, hey, we need $2,000 every day, right? Instead of three days, 30,000. Like, how do we make sure, you know, that we're looking at those things far enough ahead, but also looking at the backside? And I think you caved into it there on the weekly basis. So making sure doctors that, and this is how the scorecard works. We have it working off of.

monthly but also a weekly. The weekly will feed into the monthly for that purpose because we want to be able to see the trends within the weeks. We want to be able to predict what we need successfully so that hitting goals is easy. When I put practices on these kinds of metrics, these weekly metrics, I train a lot, does too, we train a lot of office managers on scorecards like this because it's the easiest way to learn how the numbers work and how the

small changes, like you said, Britt, affect those numbers so drastically. Sometimes you're like, gosh, ding it, our collections stinks and we've got cancellations all over the place. And so an office manager might be like, okay, guys, implement a $75 fee for every cancellations, black and white, they cancel, get $75 fee. And then all of a sudden it's like, that didn't help either one of them. We've got patients in an uproar and next month we realized we attritioned out 10 patients.

because of fees. So we might be too dramatic or too drastic in a systems implementation if we're not watching the rest of what's happening as well. So if you start to see the trends within the week, you might notice, you might even start paying attention, like, what was this week, right? We had high cancellations, but guess what? Maybe it's spring break and maybe parents forgot. So then maybe the metric we need to look at is how far out to the frequencies of our confirmations are.

Are we giving them enough notice and enough reminder notice four times like this when it's spring break rather than like, nope, cut it. People suck, $75, cross the board, we're doing it. And it's like, we weren't looking closely enough to the smaller trends within or the things that are sometimes hidden, like a break that we don't think about. So watching it on a weekly basis, I think sincerely helps with the AR. Britt, that's a huge piece that I think doctors

Britt (16:55.331)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (17:03.81)

I know they don't get trained on, like they don't know, we barely know, right? I'm like, we were trained by other people and other people and now we have all of the knowledge, but most front office people have been trained by other people. And now it's like, yes, Dental A Team, please teach me my AR, because now we know, right? What are the big pieces that doctors should be watching on a weekly basis when it comes to the AR? What do you train your doctors to look for?

Britt (17:28.964)

Yeah. And with AR, you want to look at the buckets, right? And buckets mean what's current zero to 30 days, then what's 31 to 60, and you look at it in 30 day chunks. So you can see.

how things are trending again with numbers, right? That's another piece of tracking it regularly is to see trends and what's trending, what direction are we heading? AR is a big one, right? We want most of that money that's due to us within the next 30 days, because it should mostly be insurance. We should have collected from patients their estimated portion at least.

The Dental A Team (17:52.056)

Yeah.

Britt (18:00.612)

And so it should be insurance. then from there, right, zero to six days. OK, maybe some claims take us a little bit longer to get paid. So like there's going to be a little chunk in there. And then 60 to 90, we shouldn't have as much. And by 90 plus, we really shouldn't have hardly anything, five percent or less really sitting in there. And so with doctors one knowing how much is in each bucket and then you can kind of see what insurance company was it was it United that had an issue this year and you saw everybody's buckets go from zero to 30.

The Dental A Team (18:03.578)

you

The Dental A Team (18:17.242)

Thank you.

Britt (18:30.566)

Oh, now there's a big chunk in 30 to 60 and there's a big chunk in 60 to 90 until that got resolved and the money's coming in so you can kind of watch where that bolus happens and if there's a bolus moving along into getting older there's something happening that we need to address that's causing that to happen.

The Dental A Team (18:32.468)

So,

The Dental A Team (18:49.498)

Totally agree. And you're right though, you have that big insurance thing that happened this year as multiple companies. And then I think that was the one that got super hit. But also I've had clients that have tracked it weekly, monthly, all those pieces and started realizing that they had payment plans that were lapsing that they didn't realize before. So I do not advocate, know that my team does not advocate in office payment plans, you guys, I hate them for this reason. They get lost. You're not a bank. you're a provider, a service provider.

Britt (19:09.624)

No. Don't do it.

The Dental A Team (19:18.661)

provide the services and get paid for what you do. If you need options for payment plans, please call us. Just let us know. Hello at the NLATN.com. Exactly.

Britt (19:24.952)

Pre-payment is your option. Pre-payment is the option. can force the payment and get it done once it can be paid for.

The Dental A Team (19:31.382)

Exactly. I always say, me help you build a savings account and we will save it here for you. And then we can get your treatment when you're done. But I had a lot of patients that, or a lot of practices that realized all of a sudden, like it wasn't necessarily just the insurance companies. We started really looking at it on a super fine scale because of what happened with the insurance. But then they're like, wait a second Tiff.

A lot of this is patient and I'm like, because you've not been looking at it, right? We've not tracked it like this on this kind of a scale. So these are the pieces you guys that really start to jump out. These are the things that I think you guys are waking up in the middle of the night, like, my gosh, what if this is a thing, right? And you're like, give me a system. Like, we have the systems. This is the system. Like track the trends, track what's happening, track where you're going, track where you've been so you can see where you need to go. So you know where you're going.

You know where you've been. Now do we need to add anything to where you're going in order to hit goals? Make sure your money is accounted for. Call us when you need systems, KPIs, key performance indicators, scorecards that track trends, and having people in your back pocket that are there to help you. Whether it's us, a consulting company, a coach, a friend, whomever it is, also having your team members on your side. So who's filling in this information and has your back there?

Britt (20:24.141)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (20:48.508)

Those are my biggest to-do's for your 2025. You guys don't over-complicate it. It's really easy to over-complicate it. It's really easy to try to tackle too much at one time. I want you guys to pull your data, pull your numbers, where are you trying to go, and which metric needs to be dialed first. So first quarter, which metric do we need to dial up in order to push you towards those goals? Britt mentioned earlier in the podcast, it might be billing.

It might be marketing. might be that you need more new patients. It might be scheduling. Like where is it that you're low in all of the different areas within your trends? So you can twist that dial, ramp it up, and then watch the other ones and see how those trends do so you can pick your next one. Britt, brilliant brain, brilliant Britt. I was going to call you today. Brilliant brain Britt. Thank you so much for all of the input and all of the work that you've put in. You helped me a ton with that scorecard.

Britt (21:33.7)

you

The Dental A Team (21:42.976)

for our clients, so thank you so much. cannot wait to have everyone on that ding-ding scorecard. It's going to be incredible. And you guys, if you're a client of ours, you're not on the scorecard yet, reach out to your consultant. Make sure that you've got all the data, you've got all the meetings and all the pieces together for that. If you're not yet a client, we can't wait to meet you. And if you're Forever Podcast listener, then freaking rock out, text us, email us.

Ask us what you need and if you need help with these things. always here for all of you guys, no matter what your status is. Thank you so much. Reach out [e-mail] Drop us a five star review. We can't wait to hear from you guys and hear how amazing your 2025 is going.