Hi everyone. I hope that you are having a fabulous day. Welcome to another episode about Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. Today, we're talking about how to train our teams to collect payments well. So, this is a topic that a lot of people struggle with. A lot of people will struggle because they're not even quite sure how to have collections come in. And so, I wanted to share a few things with you that hopefully will be super helpful for you as you are navigating your practice ownership and becoming a better business owner.

So, one thing that we look at in terms of our collections is really making sure that we have a solid system for knowing if our collections are getting out of control. And unfortunately, what happens way too often is that people have a revelation one day, maybe you listen to this podcast and you go and you look at your collections and you're like, "Oh my gosh. Our AR is crazy and we need to work on it. Now, we need to hire a company to help us fix it." And it never had to be that way.

And so, typically, when you see AR or you see collections, what has happened is that you did not have a system for seeing where things were not paid on time and you're waiting too long to now have a patient know that they have a balance and now you're embarrassed to call them. Or perhaps you actually misquoted from the very beginning. Or perhaps you did not have good follow-up, right? With claims. And so, there you are chasing them. And so, the first thing that I do recommend is actually to utilize, say system, to be able to track your AR week to week, right?

One of the things that has been really effective in my practice and for many of you who are in our platinum program is actually having your scorecard. And so, one of the numbers that we're actually looking at weekly is our AR. And so, the question is, if we have a situation where our account's receivable is out of control, what are easy ways that we can get it in? How do we get our team to collect payments? What do they say? What's the process? And so, one thing that I wanted to share with you today is actually a process called amnesty.

Now, how does that work? Well, say for example, you have realized now that your account's receivable is $50,000 or it's $20,000 or a hundred or 10 or whatever amount. And many of the accounts are over 60 days, right? So many times what will happen is that a practice will turn those accounts over to a collection agency or they will say, "You know what? I don't like seeing this number. And so, I'll just erase it. I'll just write off these accounts and I'll just start fresh. And we won't have this problem again."

Which means that you're writing off maybe $50,000 and that could have perhaps paid for your kids to go to college for one year, right? And so, this is definitely not something that you want to do, right? So, there is a better way. So, with an amnesty program, how it works is that you are actually contacting those patients that have that overdue balance and you're letting them know that their account has actually come up for audit, right? And so, what that means is that you're giving them a courtesy call that their account has come up for audit but you're calling actually to help them out and to clear it up.

And so, what you want to do is instead of actually charging the full fee, right? Perhaps they have a balance of a thousand dollars. Instead, what you will do is to help them out, you will actually go ahead and lower the amount that they have to pay. That will help them and it will prevent them from having to go to collections, right? So, what that means is that you are reducing your fee and you will not have to now deal yourself with a collection agency. And typically, as accounts go to collections, many times they never become collectible or we're not getting very much. And so, this gives you that opportunity to get that cash flow back in.

So, how are we actually getting in touch with our patients, right? So, sometimes I'll hear, "Well, patients are not responding. They see our calls and they're not picking up." And so, a few things that you can look at is certainly using other methods to be able to get in touch with your patients. Obviously, phone is great because you can have that direct communication. And while you're on the phone, you're going to want to go ahead and get their credit card and let them know, "Once we clear this up today, we can go ahead and take off and you will save $225. For example, once you settle this today, we do take American Express and Visa and Mastercard, which of those three cards would you like to use today?"

All right? So, again, I've said today probably about four or five times. And so, that's some of the verbiage that you'll look at. But if you're not getting them on the phone, a few things that you can do is you can certainly look at sending out text message or email letting them know that there is an urgent message from their dentist and or from doctor and put in the name and that you need to speak to them today. "So, please contact us today. There's something urgent that we need to discuss," right?

And so, you're putting that word in there, urgent. We want to talk to you today and hopefully with that, you will get them to actually contact you right away. So, you definitely want to do that. And sending out one email mail and saying, "Well, they didn't get back to us," is not enough. As we know, people are typically not opening all of their emails. So, you'll want to make sure that you're following up with that. But ideally, what you're wanting to do is definitely get the person on the phone.

Hopefully, you're also getting a work number for your patients. And so, if they wind up in this situation, another option is to contact them with their alternate number. So, hopefully, this serves you and helps you. I have seen a lot of practices who have really gotten into a lot of trouble with their collections and they weren't quite sure how to get over it. And again, the last thing that you want to do is just say, "You know what? I'll just write it off and I'll just start fresh." That's different. Definitely not where you want to go. Okay? So, hopefully this serves you.

And again, in terms of training your team to collect payment, what you want to also let them know is that number one, they can do it. Number two, not every patient is going to have the ability to say yes right away. And so, you will get some people saying, "Man, I'd love to do that but I don't have the ability." In which case you can look at, "Okay. Well, let's look at giving them a second option," right? And that could be something like, "Your balance is a thousand dollars. Are you able to go ahead and do $50 a month?" And then from there you can set up for them to go ahead and have that financed over time with a third party.

So, definitely want to make sure that you have multiple options for them. But again, the key point, which is where we started is that you want to have a system. You don't want to get yourself into a position where you have to even be thinking about amnesty or thinking about collections. Once you have a good process where you are actually very aware of the fee that you will receive on the day of payment or a day of service, then you should not have this AR accumulating.

Again, making sure that you have good communication. Once you are accepting insurance, what is the amount that you expect to come from the insurance and how much would the patient actually pay, right? Having good processes. Again, looking at it weekly allows you to catch things as they're slipping through the cracks before it comes too late. Thanks again for listening to another episode of our Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I can't wait to connect with you inside of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group. And to get access to that group, all you have to do is go to dentalbossmovement.com.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes.

Hi, guys, and welcome to another episode of The Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am so excited about today's episode. Today, we're actually talking about, how do you pay your dental team? And actually this came up because a member of my mastermind actually sent me a message today. And she said, "I'm not sure what to do. I would love your advice." And what she said is that a team member had actually come up to her and had asked for a raise. So this is a very common thing that happens in our practice. We'll have team members say, "You know what? I really need to earn a little bit more. Can you help me?" So it puts us in this dilemma because a lot of times we're thinking, "Well, I'm not sure if I can afford to pay my team member anymore," or, "I'm not sure if they really have the skillset," or, "How can I pay them more?" And all these things go through your mind.

So I wanted to come on and really help you to navigate this because there are some really creative ways that you can actually empower your team to actually do more for the practice and ultimately give an ROI for the practice. And I'll tell you a quick story. Recently, we have had one of the ladies in my office and she had come in to help to follow up on insurance claims and to be a secondary person to answer the phones. And recently we decided to actually move her into the role of scheduling coordinator. Now what's really interesting is that because she was at a pay grade of where she started, I actually wanted her to be able to earn more. I thought that if she was now scheduling coordinator, she would have a different skill set. And now she would be able to actually earn more money for the business.

So, although she didn't have any experience in scheduling, I actually said, "You know what? I want to let you know that I feel that you can do this. And I have seen you interact with patients. so we're going to give you training. Of course, we're going to teach you these scheduling frameworks and the case acceptance framework. But as always, we are going to set some goals of how many patients you're going to get rescheduled." And we said that we would actually start with perio scaling and root planing. So we created a filtered list and she went through and what's really interesting is that at the end of the month, and I told her this, I said, "You know what? I want to pay you more, but I want to make sure that we can earn more for the company with the value that you're going to add.

So if you can show that you can add more value and more revenue, it's not going to be a problem to actually increase your salary." So we put in the training and we gave her the support and wouldn't you know it, she actually scheduled the number that we had given her. In fact, she actually exceeded that by about 25 or 30%. So I just want to say that to say this, once we are empowering our team, we let them know that they can do it. And we actually give them higher goals that will bring in more revenue. What happens is that now, if they are the right fit team members, who really want to excel, who want to get to the next level, who wants to keep evolving and elevating in their knowledge, they will actually be up for the challenge.

So it's our responsibility to look at training them. So going back to the doctor that said, "My team wants to have more. I'm not sure what to do." One thing that you can look at really is how can we be very clear with our team of our expectations for the different levels of pay that we offer in our practice. And this is actually looking at something called a pay grade system. So essentially how this works is that you can create different levels. So say, for example, you have a dental assistant and the dental assistant comes in and they have the skill set to do very minimal dental assisting skills. So they can assist in fillings. They can set up your trays. They can sterilize the instruments. Then that person would come in with the level one pay grade because they would have those specific things and skill sets that they can do.

Now, as the dental assistant starts to develop their skillset and they invest in themselves in additional training, then now what happens is that they're able to add more value. So some of these things would

be things like delivering night guards or doing in-office bleaching. So this allows the practice to actually make more revenue because those tasks can actually be delegated to the team who can actually earn revenue for the practice while the doctors actually in the other room, treating another patient. So looking at being able to check supplies and inventory, placing orders. They're now getting more into an admin level of being an assistant. So that would be a different pay grade. So as we start looking at level three, we can start asking ourselves, "Can the dental assistant do things like do ortho adjustments?" Or, "Do adjustments to dentures and relines, making custom trays."

These are things that are definitely a different skill set, being able to place sealants. And once you do, then what happens is that they can bring in more revenue. I actually have a dental assistant in my practice and she orders all of the supplies. She's amazing at making all of the temporaries. She also can work at the front. She can make phone calls. She can make appointments. She can discuss treatment plans. So what happens is that because of her skillset, she's able to actually bring a higher ROI to the practice because she can actually do certain procedures. She even actually does all of the conversations about Invisalign. She does all of the scans. She does all of the pre-photos.

This is a different level of a dental assistant. So as you start looking at your current team, if they're wanting to earn more, what you want to do is actually look at creating a pay grade. And this will allow you to actually specify what would be a level one, a level two, and level three, and the pay that you would typically give for that level. So now they know their earning potential and they know that if they want to make, for example, $3 or $5 more an hour, what it will actually take. So hopefully that serves you. You can create a pay grade standards, not just for dental assistants, but you could also do it for your front desk. You could do it for hygiene and the same thing with that. Like there's a different hygienist that comes in, that is doing pro-fees and some scaling and root planing versus a dental hygienist who's coming in and now knows how to utilize lasers. Or can go ahead and have the patients get started with perio protect.

That's a different skillset and that can come in at a different pay. All right. So hopefully it serves you. I see so many dentists that unfortunately are actually losing team members, or they're saying things like, "Well, we can't afford to pay you." And what I always say is, "How can we? How can we support you? How can we help you?" Because when we do what happens is that our team works even harder for us because they want to continue to serve. They want to be able to let us know that they appreciate us helping them to grow. So hopefully this was helpful for you. And as you have team members come to you as they will in the future and ask for raises, I want you to actually have this document where you can go ahead and show them, "We would love to be able to pay you more. Let's go ahead and get the training put in place. And once we do, we can look at elevating your pay."

All right. So hopefully that serves you. I really appreciate you taking the time to invest in your knowledge, to be able to grow your practice, and to invest in listening to this podcast, to show you how.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Delivering WOW Podcast, with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.

Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I am so excited to be here with you today. So today we're here to talk about how to discuss a treatment plan with your patients. And this is one of the questions that I get asked so often from dentists and dentists inside of our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group. And so I wanted to take some time to actually go through how I do treatment plans in our practice and how we have helped others all over the world, really, to be able to understand how to deliver treatment plans and have success.

Now, one thing that I talk a lot about is how can we learn how to do things for our practice? How can we grow our practice using frameworks? And the reason why frameworks work and why they work every single time is that frameworks are a lot like gravity and gravity is a principle. And so if we drop a pen, the pen will always go to the ground because gravity is actually a principle. And so I love when I am coaching our clients or when I'm teaching and sharing that I talk about frameworks. And so when we start looking at how do you discuss a treatment plan with your patients? I think what we need to actually do is back up to how can we get patients excited and asking us to start treatment without us even having to think about how we're going to present the treatment plan. So stay with me here.

So as we start looking at frameworks, I want to go ahead and share one with you. There are many frameworks that we can implement, but this one is one of a few different frameworks that we have created with delivering well for increasing your case acceptance, for getting more patients to go ahead and get started with their treatment plans. And so this case acceptance framework will help you to be able to, again, close more high-value cases, it will help you to have your team become more confident when they're speaking to patients, it will give them the confidence because patients are going to start saying yes, and they're going to get excited and they're going to want to have conversations even more. So really, really excited about this. So how it goes is actually, let me just go ahead and give you a quick example and then I'll break down some of the strategy. All right.

So as we start looking at procedures that we want to discuss with patients, and this could be Invisalign, it could be veneers, it could be all-porcelain crowns, it could be Perio Protect, it could be Velscope, it could be sealants. What's always going to be most important is that we truly believe that the service that we're offering, the service that we're suggesting, recommending is something that we truly believe in. Because if we don't believe in it, if the hygienist or the dental assistants of the front office doesn't believe in it, then it's not going to be easy for us to talk about something. And in fact, we shouldn't. And so that piece is really very, very important. And so when we start talking about, for example, VELscope, if you don't believe that VELscope can help to reduce the risk of oral cancer getting worse, then you shouldn't discuss it. So I'm going to give an example, an example of sealants.

So recently I actually was on a phone call with a doctor and she was saying that she's just not sure how they can grow their practice even more, like everybody's working really, really hard and they're tired, they're overwhelmed at the end of the day. And she said, "Honestly Anissa, I don't think we can produce anymore." And I said, "Okay, well, let me ask you a question." And she was actually a pediatric dentist. And I said, "Do you truly believe in sealants?" And she said, "I absolutely believe in sealants." And I said, "Are you sure?" She said, "Yes." And I said, "Okay, great. Well, are you always recommending sealants when you know that they can benefit a patient?" And she said, "Well, to be honest with you, not all the time." And I said, "Okay, well, when would you not?"

And she says, "Well, sometimes what happens is that maybe a kid has come in, maybe they've had sealants, maybe even done somewhere else. The sealant has come out and so now we are a little bit shy

and don't always have the conversation because we know that parents are more than likely not going to want to pay for it because the sealant has already ... They've already paid for it." And so I said, "Okay, thank you so much for sharing that." And that's really important because a lot of times we're not having conversations because we are afraid of being objection blocked. And honestly, the reason why we're afraid of being objection blocked is that we've not yet learned the skillset that I'm actually going to share with you now. All right.

So say, for example, in my practice, we have a general practice. We see kids, we see adults inside of our practice, and I am a true believer of sealants. In fact, when I was in dental school, Dr. Filler, who had the clinic for dental students to have their teeth cleaned, he was the first person that really talked to me about sealants. And it was in my freshman year of dental school. And he said, "There's something we can paint on your tooth that would prevent cavities. Would you like to learn more?" And I said, "Yes." And so he told me about a seal and he's like, "We have time today. You want to go ahead and get them done?" So I got them done. And what was really interesting is over the years, every time I would have a cleaning, I would always say, "How are my sealants? Are my sealants okay?" So clearly it was important to me.

What I really thought about later on, as I started looking at strategies to grow my practice, how do I better communicate with my patients? How do I train my team? What I discovered is we were not talking about sealants to adults. And the real reason was just like, the story that I shared earlier is that we were afraid that because insurance might not have covered it, that patients would say, no, I don't want to do it. In fact, we, more than likely had had discussions with patients and patients were saying, is insurance going to cover it? Is insurance going to cover it? No, it's okay. And after hearing that so long, we just stop talking about it.

So let me go ahead and share something that you can utilize to actually become more confident, so your team can become more confident and so that you can help patients get their results and get the treatment that can serve them and really help them. So here's an example with sealants. Ms. Joe, there's something that we can do to paint on your tooth. And it would prevent a cavity by up to 80%. Do you want to learn more? So the patient says, yes. And we say, great. It's called a sealant. How it works is that we paint something on the top of the tooth. And once we do, bacteria and food and sugar can't go through it. And because of that, you're 80% less likely to get a cavity.

Now here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it, but why our patients choose to do it anyway is that they know that number one, it doesn't cost a lot of money. In fact, it's just a fraction of the cost of if you had to have a filling. It doesn't take a lot of time. In fact, we can go ahead and get these started today for you and it typically takes 5 minutes, no more than 10, depending on how many we're doing. And it gives you that peace of mind that you don't have to worry. Now we do have time today to go ahead and get started with doing your sealants. We can do more than likely, maybe four or even six of them today. Would you like to go ahead and get started with getting those done today?

All right. So as we start looking at that framework, my question to you is, do you feel like I was trying to sell you anything? All right. I would love to know, like do you feel, like go ahead and think right now in your head and answer that question. And so I know the answer is no. I said, there's something that can help you. Would you like to know more? They said, yes. I told them what it was, really simple terms. I was not bringing out photos, I was not showing them before and after pictures, I was not breaking down exactly how I do a sealant. I just said it's simple. It's something we paint on the tooth and sugar, food and bacteria can't go through it. So now they're putting that picture in their own mind and then I put out the objection. Now here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it. But why our patients choose to do it anyway.

Now, as we start breaking down the strategy here, what's really powerful is that we are starting with

asking that question. There's something that can help you. Do you want to know more? And this could be, there's something that can help you to reduce the bleeding, that can decrease the chances of you needing gum surgery. And that can prevent your teeth from looking long. And this could be a patient that has perio. Do you want to learn more? They're going to say yes. If the patient has a dark line at the gum, because they've had a PFM crown, there's something that we can do to beautify your smile and remove that dark line. Would you like to learn more?

And so patients say yes, they give you permission. It's almost like when we go to the mall and someone is handing out samples of teriyaki chicken and they're saying, would you like to have a sample? You say yes. Next thing you know, you're looking at the menu and you're enjoying the sample and you're buying Chick-fil-A for lunch, or you're buying Chinese food. It's the same exact thing. And so we get their permission, we go in simple terms. Great. How it works is, really simple, really, really simple terms. So Perio Protect could be great. It's called Perio Protect. How it works is we give you a tray that's very similar to a mouth guard or bleaching tray. There's special gel in there that's made specifically for patients who have bleeding gums and who have gum disease and who are at risk for surgery. And you wear the trays. And once you do it decreases, those risks. Now here's the thing. Insurances not always cover it, but why our patients choose to do it anyway.

So you want to go ahead and make it simple. You want to go ahead and put out the objection. So if the objection that they're going to typically tell you is insurance doesn't cover it, then you will say, here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it. So you put out the objection so that now you can speak to that. Why our patients choose to do it anyway. That is so powerful because people want to understand how they can get things done. And when you let them know that other patients are still doing it anyway, now they realize that they can too. What's really important as well is to go ahead and put through the benefits. I love giving a time benefit. So here's the thing. It doesn't take a lot of time. So even with Perio Protect, it doesn't take a lot of time. In fact, instead of having to come in for many visits where we have to numb you. Now, those visits in office for deep cleaning will decrease because you'll be able to have this tray and you'll be able to do it at home.

Or you can go ahead and get your sealants on it. It just takes five minutes. So you want to put out a time benefit, you want to put out a money benefit. So Perio Protect will save them money because now they will not have to do as many deep cleans in the office. The sealants will save them money because they won't have to do the fillings. And you also want to providepeace of mind. And you will have peace of mind because, and let them know why they'll have peace of mind. All right. The last piece of it is putting out a call to action. And that call to action would be, we do have time today to go ahead and get started with whatever their first steps are. All right.

So that could be taking your scan for your Perio Protect trays. It can be taking your photos, your before photos or your pre-impressions for your diagnostic wax up for your veneers. We do have time today too, I could be doing the procedure and let them know that you have time. And then go ahead and put out the question. Would you like to go ahead and get started today?

All right. So hopefully this serves you, and this helps you. Again, this case acceptance framework is something that I created. I was really frustrated hearing a lot of people talk about case acceptance. And so a few years ago, I really went on this journey of really trying to understand the psychology of why people make decisions, the psychology of why patients make decisions on what's really holding practices back. And I invested hours and hours and hours, and a ton of money, really working one on one with people who are teaching advanced psychology and really started to dive into creating this framework and many other frameworks that will help you grow and get you your results and give you that confidence to be able to help your patients, to be able to get the treatment that they truly deserve. So hopefully this helps you.