I am a dentist. I felt strongly that half my staff was against me (4 of 7 employees). So I fired them. I inherited them when I bought my business a few years ago. I am very ethical but I do care about gross revenue (as any owner should). They never fully embraced caring about revenue production or understanding that bonus pay is tied to profitability. Nonetheless, I feel it is a failing on my part as a leader that they as a group were not on my team. What can I do as a small business owner to display better leadership and engender better office morale. I should mention that I pay above market wages, have better benefits than market competitors, work with my employees to satisfy the number of hours they need and I run a schedule that is very predictable 8-5 with a lunch and we do not deviate. Further, we take great care of our patients and the staff never has to worry about patient satisfaction or quality of care. Thank you for your input.

  • jebediah999@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    There are three things a hygienist can do in an office to drive revenues up:

    A upsell products B rotate patients through quicker to bill more in a day C cut down on material costs

    getting people to do things differently is a question of leadership. you can’t simply give people new demands and expect them to hop - they have to have some buy-in. this takes time and leadership, which is not taught at dental school.

    This is about taking the time to set a tone where people are praised and rewarded for doing these things. What is likely happening here is you bought a business and all the profits are going to pay the previous dentist. At the current level it’s unsustainable.

    leadership requires you to think through consequences of actions, making choices for positive reasons, not negative ones, and taking responsibility for those decisions with grace and maturity.

    you walked into a situation thinking you would come in guns blazing and change the culture of the office, make everyone love you and get more out of them. but guess what it doesn’t work that way. paying people well at a professional office is expected and you will get no rewards or pays on the back for it. if someone is used to 10-12 cleanings a day and you suddenly come in and demand 15 they will hate you for it no matter what you pay.

    you made the cardinal son of not knowing that profitability is 100% your concern and 0% percent their concern. you are probably still driving up in a nicer car and living in a bigger house, so don’t be a wanker about things.

    So how do you affect change? firing everyone is one route that has benefits. younger, hungrier staff require less pay and are not entrenched - but you will have high turnover and lower customer satisfaction.

    you need to focus on your business, NOT the people you are paying. how do you get more people in the door - expanded hours with staggered shifts? are you advertising for new clients? do you have a relationship with an oral surgeon and a orthodontist and a periodontist?

    you should take the time to get to know this business and the people in it. you should see what the old guy was doing to generate clients and see if there is anything new you can do. you should basically learn everything you can about running a dentists office before trying wring money out of the walls.