Charlotte Lloyd reports back from the Practice Plan Brilliant Basics Workshop Tour 2019/2020.
Kicking off its Brilliant Basics workshop tour last month, Practice Plan welcomed delegates to The Village Hotel Leeds South to learn simple, inexpensive tips on how to make the biggest and quickest impact in practice.
In what Practice Plan has named its most practical tour ever, experts Richard Collard and Les Jones presented an entertaining, educational and enlightening day for the whole practice team.
The duo began by explaining that the day would allow attendees to put what they have learned into action tomorrow.
The aim of the Brilliant Basics workshop tour is to provide delegates with information on how to attract more patients, build a patient plan, and how to connect with patients.
Meaningful measurement
Richard and Les provided delegates with a number of simple techniques and practical resources to help drive patient enquires. To illustrate their point they included a practical task. Delegates were given two different practice scenarios and asked to analyse the new enquiry systems in place. Furthermore the speakers suggested using a bright yellow enquiry form and entering details into an online system to analyse the process.
After deciding on how to improve the enquiries in each practice scenario, the speakers stressed the importance of getting the team on board.
‘Communication is key,’ Richard said. ‘Therefore capture and measure the right things, and diarise a monthly sales process meeting.’
Richard said when conversion standards are met, rewards should be in place. Furthermore, when the right systems are in place, you know what you want and get what you need.
Practice marketing
The second part of the morning saw a focus on practice marketing. In particular this included a guide to creating marketing goals that the whole team buys into. Les and Richard asked the delegates to think about their favourite brand and consider what makes them their favourite.
Les said: ‘Your brand is the whole thing. It’s products and services, people and behaviour, physical environment, and image and communication.
‘Therefore, why should we choose you? What is the essence of your practice and your brand? What in particular separates you from the competition?’
The session on marketing finished with a number of top tips, such as:
- Set clear marketing goals
- Take control of your website
- Tune into your perfect patients
- Speak the receiver’s language
- Be consistent.
Communication
After lunch, Les and Richard tackled the topic of communication. In particular they emphasised the importance of having a fully working contact box on the practice website. And making sure all of the information is correct. They also looked at response rates and how to reply to an email from a potential new patient.
Les and Richard told the delegates to ask questions, listen and give choices to the patient. ‘Know who you are talking to,’ Richard said. ‘Set out with the end in mind and sell appointments, not treatments.’
Before the end of the day, the delegates received advice and a number of special offers on different systems to help grow a dental practice. These included an interactive series of videos, with the aim of giving patients the information they need in a format they understand.
Practice manager Zoe Sharp said afterward: ‘There is always something to learn and take away with you from the Practice Plan Workshop Tour. The speakers are always on top of their game, sharing years of valuable experience that helps us to take our practice to the next level!’
The Brilliant Basics workshop tour will take place across the UK and Ireland over the course of the next four months, ending in Belfast in February.
