Following on from the tradition of the last few years and in its 30th birthday year, Practice Plan will be sponsoring the Dental Business Theatre at Dentistry Show Birmingham on 16 and 17 May.
Based around the theme of ‘growth’, this year’s sessions will once again see some of the biggest names in dentistry, including dental business coach, Chris Barrow, HR and employment law specialist, Sarah Buxton, and recent Practice Plan Workshop Tour presenter, Lucie Simic, sharing their advice, knowledge and experience. From helping teams develop a thriving culture, through advice on growing your team by recruiting and retaining great staff, exploring the future developments that may benefit dentistry to cultivating an understanding of current HR and employment law, they’ll all be covered in the theatre.
Helping businesses flourish
Aiming to help practice owners harvest the benefits of his advice on how to see their profits flourish will be dental business coach, The Confident Dentist, Barry Oulton. In the session ‘Financial Greenhouse: grow your profits and maximise your money’, Barry, along with his fellow panelists, Wesleyan dental specialist financial adviser Magdelena Harding and UNW’s Mike Blenkharn, will share the knowledge he has gained as a practice owner and business coach.
What sort of seeds of information will Barry be sowing at the Dental Business Theatre?
‘I think this session could be very valuable for practice owners,’ Barry says. ‘Especially during the current financial climate.’
‘As we know, costs of delivering dentistry are rising rapidly because we want to pay our team well so they can be part of a loyal team. We want to use the best materials. We want to have a beautiful practice and all of this costs money. So, what do you do? You look at different ways of improving or maximising your productivity. And the funny thing is that the way to do that is to simply improve the patient journey and communication with the patient.’
Communication
‘For me, it’s all about the communication,’ Barry continues. ‘It’s about the patient journey and loving your patient, not your dentistry. Your dentistry must be good, but it’s not the most important thing. The delivery of it is. So, it’s about having solutions to the hurdles and the concerns that patients have.
‘When I have conversations with patients, it’s all about value. It’s not about price. And research has shown that by elevating your customer experience, 86% of people would pay more for a better experience regardless of the product. The product could be the same, but 86% of people would pay more if their experience of the delivery of the product was better.
‘Which means that if we focus on the patient journey and we focus on finding out what’s really important to patients and we ask the right questions, then invariably patients start to want to have different sorts of dentistry.
Problem solving
‘As dentists we were trained to be firefighters, to find and solve problems. But a problem by definition has a symptom. Whereas most of the things that people really want are not symptomatic. They are asymptomatic. They are a desire, a want, a dream, a kind of a wish. And when we identify what that is and help them to realise that their dream is achievable, people say: “Great, let’s do it.” Especially if they can spread the cost interest free with patient finance.
‘For example, £3,500 for orthodontics is a lot of money. Yet, if your patient can spread that out over 18 months, then it’s affordable. Which is where payment plans come in. So, it’s about having options. But really what it boils down to is just having really good conversations with your patients and finding out about people. That is the most important thing.’
Not to be missed
As well as great advice, theatre attendees will have the chance to hear Practice Plan Director, Nigel Jones, in conversation with BDA chair, Eddie Crouch. In ‘Wither or grow? What’s the future of NHS dentistry?’ they share their views on the possible fate of NHS dentistry.
Is the change of government likely to make a difference to the lives of NHS dental contract holders? Does Labour have an answer to the problems of patient access? Will the longed-for contract reform happen soon enough to stem the flow of dentists handing back theirs? Against this background, how do we tackle the rising issue of oral health inequality?
With all this abundance of advice and more on offer, once again, the Dental Business Theatre promises to be a must-see at Dentistry Show Birmingham!
This year, Practice Plan celebrates 30 years of welcoming practices into the family, helping them to grow profitable businesses through the introduction of practice-branded membership plans. If you’re looking to switch provider or are considering a full or partial move away from the NHS, why not start the conversation with Practice Plan and join us for a refreshing drink and a chat on Stand G50.
Otherwise give us a call on 01691 685165, or for more information visit the Practice Plan website.
This article is sponsored by Practice Plan.
