Roadside Live: Increasing Efficiency and Performance by Systematizing Your Practice [VIDEO]
Did you know you can increase efficiency, performance, and ultimately make your life easier by documenting processes and procedures?
As a busy dental practice, you may be thinking you don’t have time in your schedule to sit down and document these things.
And that’s where we come in.
Whitney and Adi Klevit, founder and CEO of Business Success Consulting Group… This text opens a new tab to the Business Success website…, sit down and discuss why you need to systematize your dental practice, including:
- What it means to systematize your practice
- How to get started with documenting your process and procedures
- The benefits from systemizing and documenting
- How to stay committed
Whitney: Hey, everyone, welcome to Roadside Live! We are so excited to be here today with our guest, Adi Klevit.
She is the visionary behind Business Success Consulting Group. So happy to have you with us today, Adi!
Adi: So happy to be here with you. Thank you so much for having me.
Whitney: Well, for anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure to meet Adi yet, she has helped hundreds of practices become more efficient, organized, and ultimately profitable with tailor-made management systems.
We were chatting before we went live here. Who doesn’t want to be more efficient and organized? That’s the dream.
Adi is also the host of the Systems Simplified Podcast… This text opens a new tab to the Systems Simplified Podcast website…, where she features top founders, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders on how to systemize a business.
We are really excited to dive into our topic today, increasing efficiency and performance by systemizing your dental practice.
Adi, we have a lot to cover. I’m going to dive right in with our first question.
What does it mean to systemize a practice?
Adi: What it means to systemize a practice is to create systems, which are ways to do something repetitively so you can get the same results every single time.
We have systems in life. If you look at your life, like when you woke up this morning and made your coffee, that was a system of how to make coffee. I’m sure you’re not making your coffee or your tea or whatever your drink in the morning differently every single day.
Right? I mean, maybe. Some people don’t do it, but the majority of us have a system.
You know, you do something over and over and over, and you get the same results if you do it correctly. Or if you do it according to a system that you developed that works.
That’s really what it means to systematize a business: To have the right processes, procedures, and policies that are being followed by all.
In a dental practice, you should be having a system on how you treat the new patients.
As an example, how you treat new patients would be a system. There will be a system for answering the phone and putting them in your software. There will be a system on the questions being asked, the information you get, and what to do after the phone call is done.
There’s a system on when a new patient comes in, how to do the new patient intake, how to bill, how to verify insurance. All of those are systems that exist.
And if we have them documented, decide upon them ahead of time, and figure out how to make them more efficient, you can increase efficiency in the practice.
It can help in different aspects of the practice, such as training, hiring, onboarding new staff, customers, patient satisfaction, et cetera.
We’re going to dive more into that, but in a nutshell, that’s what a system is.
Whitney: Well, it sounds amazing, but I have to admit it also sounds a little daunting. How do you help a practice get started with this?
Adi: That’s an excellent question because that’s the question that I’m always being asked:
“How do I get started? I’m already so overwhelmed with everything.” Or, “I’m working 60 hours a week/my office managers are working 40, 50 hours a week. How am I going to do that?”
Treating patients is the number one priority.
But you have to realize that to treat more patients or provide a better patient experience; you have to be super organized.
You have to have systems in place. Otherwise, the chaos will just continue, and you won’t be able to expand. So how do you get started?
The question to ask is:
“What area in the practice, if you had well-documented processes and procedures, will get you the biggest return on investment?”
And I would tell them investment doesn’t necessarily have to be money, although we always want to go for the profitability.
Of course, in the end, it will end up being more profitable, but it is also an area that you might have a lot of turnovers, and the goal is to have less turnover.
The return on investment will be actually to make sure that you have employee retention. Return on investment can be in terms of getting more patients and getting better reviews from patients.
Things that you feel like, “Okay, if I’m going to invest the time and really systematizing that area, I would get the biggest return on investment and start with that area.”
Don’t think about the practice or the whole business, the entirety of the whole thing. Start with one area and decided you’re going to tackle that. Then you can take step by step by step actions on how to do that.
That is where to start.
Whitney: That sounds very doable.
You touched on a good point. Obviously, everyone in the practice is busy. Patient care is number one.
I would imagine that when you come in to help, you might hear from time to time, “We’re just too busy to document our procedures.”
What do you say when someone brings that up?
Adi: You always have to start with the why.
Why are you documenting? That’s what I always ask my clients before we start working together. I want to know why do they want to document? If they can’t give me a good answer, I don’t even work with them because they’re not ready to embrace this.
They’re not ready to embark on this journey because it takes dedication.
It takes a decision from the leadership, from the ownership, from their own.
From the leadership team, dedication, and deciding that that’s what they’re going to do, that they’re actually going to create those systems. If they’re not convinced themselves, then there is no point in doing it.
That’s where you really have to figure out what is your why?
Is the “why” because it’s hard for you to hire good people? Do you have a lot of turnovers, and you just don’t want to experience that anymore? Is it because you want to retain your employees?
Maybe the “why” is because you decided to expand and open more practices, and you want a practice where it’s like a franchise model.
It’s not that you’re going to be a franchise, but similar in terms of the concept of having those processes in place.
What is the why behind it? What motivates you?
You want to get to the top of the mountain where the flag is. Identify what that top for you is and why you’re doing it.
If you have that defined, all the actions fall into place, and you’re motivated to continue because otherwise, it’s just not going to happen.
Whitney: Yeah, I think that’s such an important point, and defining your why is something that we talk about all the time and encourage our practices to do.
But I think anything that is a good investment of our time and energy requires that we take that important step.
I love that you mentioned that.
What are some of the benefits that you’ve seen with these? I mentioned in the intro, you’ve helped hundreds of practices in this area. What are some of the benefits that you’ve seen from documenting processes and helping to systematize it?
Adi: I’ve seen so many benefits.
It starts with what the business wants to accomplish.
According to that, we want to make sure that they’re getting the results they want.
For instance:
With a practice I was working with, they had difficulty onboarding new employees because it took a long time. It was one-on-one training, and they were dreading every time that they had to hire somebody new.
By having those processes documented, we were able to create a training system.
When a new employee comes on, they’re able to review the processes. They’re able to follow the training schedule, and they can then be trained properly in 1/10th of a time than before.
Not only that, but they also experience stability. They experienced a sense of “Wow, I arrived here in a place of work that takes care of me, that knows what they’re doing.”
We talked about how important it is to be organized and how everyone wants to be more organized and efficient.
When you walk into an environment or into a business that is organized and efficient, you feel like, “Wow, they know what they’re doing.”
When you go into a place that is chaotic, disorganized, or there’s a lot of confusion that they try not to show behind closed doors, you can feel it.
You can sense it, especially as an employee.
And as an example, we created those processes and procedures for a client, and then we presented them to the entire staff.
One of the newer staff members said:
“Well, you know, I do enjoy going through it and learning about those processes and because it gave me the sense that this practice is here to stay. It’s not going anywhere. We are going to have a future.”
That was a great success, especially coming from staff.
Other benefits include the owner being able to extract themselves from the business and work on the company. With the client I’m thinking of, they were able to open another three practices, which was amazing.
You have to realize in terms of, as a dentist; you have two hats you’re wearing. It’s the owner hat and the dentist hat.
As a dentist, you are there in the operatory working on a patient. But as the owner, you have so many things that can happen, and you might find yourself working 70 hours a week.
You still do not have time to work on the business, but if you have those systems in place, every person in the practice knows what they’re supposed to be doing.
As the owner, you can work on the practice.
The same thing with the office manager. The office manager is so instrumental in making sure that the practice is operating correctly. They need to have time to manage, and by having the correct procedures under them, they can actually manage.
For example, I was doing a project with a client where we identified, “How are we going to systematize the assisting area?”
Having a lead assistant with a very clear job description and procedures, the lead assistant would be running all their systems.
The office manager is stepping up and not having to be involved in a day-to-day operation as much, but concentrating on more strategic actions.
That’s another example of the benefits of having the systems.
Whitney: I love that. So many of the benefits you mentioned are real pain points that different practices are experiencing right now.
Adi: The pain point is when you ask me where to start.
Look at an area of your practice that you feel would give you the biggest return on investment if you had well-documented processes and procedures.
Another way to look at it is, “What are your pain points?”
Be honest right now as you’re listening to us. Think about, “What are the pain points in the business right now that you would like to improve?”
Each and every one of them can be improved by having correct processes in place.
Let’s say you don’t have enough new patients.
Then you need marketing.
In marketing, you need a system.
You can’t just try one thing and then another; you have to systematize it. You have to implement it.
They go to experts like you to figure out, “What is the right marketing?”
Any problem can be solved by implementing the right system.
Whitney: That’s such a good point. I love one of the things that you mentioned earlier, too, that when there is any kind of chaos or confusion, not only do employees feel it, but the patients feel it too.
Patients can feel that underlying tension, and it can affect the overall patient experience. That was a really important point that you mentioned.
Let’s say that a dentist or a dental office manager brings you in, and you’re able to help. How do you then ensure that the entire team is on board and following these new systems and products?
Adi: That’s a really good question.
I had around three conversations last week just on that subject.
That is the key. If we document – and it doesn’t mean that we need to come in and document, you know? I hope that our listeners get inspired and start documenting.
Let’s say you decide to take it on, and you’re going to invest the time in documenting your processes, procedures, and policies.
You’re going to put so much time into it. You want to make sure that all follow it.
It’s going back to the “WHY.”
You have to understand your why. Why are you doing it? You want to see the results, and you’re motivated to get the results. You’re intentional about getting those results.
That is half the battle.
Let’s say you’ll hire a personal trainer.
The same question is:
“Well, how would I know that I’m going to continue doing this? Am I going to continue to be fit after you leave? How I’m going to make it into a way of life?”
It has to come with a decision. It has to come with an intention. It has to come with a resolution. It has to come with the commitment of the top leadership to implement it.
That’s number one. If that doesn’t exist, if there is a thought like “Well, this is not important, or we’re going to do it and then not use it.”
It’s not worth doing it.
First of all, let’s get a commitment that we’re going to make changes, and then you make it part of the day-to-day management of the practice.
Let’s say a patient rescheduled or last-minute canceled, so it’s created a hole in the schedule and affected production.
It affected the fact that now the dentists and assistant is sitting doing nothing, and nobody was there. You did not call another patient from the waiting list.
There was something that was not optimal that was happening.
The question is always, was it a people error? Is it a people problem or a process problem?
Let’s take the assumption that you are hiring correctly, that you have the right people. You have the right people at the right places, and you know how to hire – it’s not a people problem.
Let’s say if it’s a process problem where you identified it as a process problem. Of course, it can be both a people and a process problem too.
You have to ask yourself, “Do I have a process? Or do I want to have a process to handle such situation?”
If they say, “No, I don’t have a process.” We’ll correct it. We’ll figure out what it is and document it.
If you said, “Yes, I do have a process.” Then we’ll pull out the process and discuss it. We’ll go over it because that is always your reference point.
If you make it into a habit to use your written processes and procedures in training, in onboarding, when correcting staff, on regular review, then you make it part of your culture.
You always have to ask yourself, “Well, what is within the process? Do we have a process, or if we don’t, let’s create one. Or let’s review. Maybe we need to change it because it wasn’t followed. Why?”
You always refer back to it, but you need to make it as simple. Make it become part of your routine.
With the processes, it just has to be part of your life.
Start with a decision, commitment, resolution, and then follow through with the process I just outlined.
Whitney: Ultimately, it does end up making everyone’s lives easier along the way.
Adi: That’s right. It’s more cohesive. It’s a cohesive group.
On my podcast, “System Simplified Podcast,” I interviewed top founders, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders about how implementing systems help their lives.
What I hear from CEOs and founders is that at the moment that they decided to implement procedures and not vary from them, but, in a good way, go and enforce it, and make sure that those procedures are being followed – it really changed their business.
They were able to grow and expand.
But they can’t waiver away from actually using those procedures.
That is a crucial component. That is the key that was repeated over and over without them hearing each other’s answers.
Whitney: Such a good point.
For any of our audience who are sitting here thinking, “Please come help me.” How can they get in touch with you? And then we also have a special offer available for anyone interested.
Tell us a bit about what that offer is and how they can get in touch.
Adi: For sure.
The first offer is a free E-book that I recommend everyone go on the link that will be attached here and download it.
It’s called “How to Increase Profitability Through Systematization.” It’s a collection of my advice on how to get started on a process documentation project.
It gives you a very clear checklist and step-by-step things you need to do that you can take to your team and start doing yourself.
It also has advice on what does successful project documentation look like and how you can get started.
Download that e-book. And at the end of the e-book, there is also all my contact information. There is a way to click on it to schedule an appointment or my phone number and email.
If you want to email me directly, it’s adi@bizsuccesscg.com. You can also text me at 503-662-2911.
One thing that goes with the special offer that I didn’t touch on is how to document. That’s a big thing in terms of what are the best methods of documentation.
Some businesses will use Google Docs or word files in different folders, et cetera.
What I found is that using a process documentation software is the best way of doing it. There are many platforms out there, and I love using SweetProcess. I love using well.io.
There are different software out there that do the trick, and they allow you to document your processes. A process documentation software controls the versions.
Every person has their own login so you can see who logged in, where it shows you if people read the processes or not, et cetera.
I would like to offer our listeners today one of my favorite software, Sweet Process.
Together with Sweet Process, we’re going to give you a 28-day free trial of the software so you can see it for yourself. I’m going to add to this software my favorite templates for documenting for a dental practice.
That way, you’re not starting from scratch, and you have a template already there.
This is something that I don’t usually do, so I encourage you to take advantage of it. You can start seeing how you can document your own processes and procedures for your practice.
Whitney: That sounds a lot more efficient than the dusty old manual that’s sitting somewhere on a shelf and hasn’t been opened up in a while.
Adi: That is very true. It’s an electronic manual, but it’s an electronic manual that is easy to use. You don’t have to spend hours on formatting things.
.
It’s a collaborative tool. And until you see it, it’s tough to understand that, but it’s a great tool. So that’s why I really encourage you to sign up so you can see for yourself.
Whitney: Thank you, Adi, for sharing that with our audience today. I believe that the link to get those freebies is in the show notes or the comments.
This popular e-book, “How to Increase Profitability Through Systematization,” and this 28-day free trial with those templates already loaded for a dental practice.
Two amazing offers. So please take advantage of that. And Adi, I just want to say thank you so much for joining us today.
It has been an absolute pleasure, and we really appreciate your joining us.
Adi: Well, thank you so much for interviewing me. It was great being on the show.
Whitney: All right, everybody, we hope you have a beautiful, wonderful weekend wherever you are today.
Meet the guest
Adi is the leader and visionary of Business Success Consulting Group… This text opens a new tab to the Business Success website…. Her twenty-five years of knowledge and experience as a trained Industrial Engineer, management consultant, and business executive give her a unique understanding of the challenges businesses face. Adi utilizes her practical know-how and wisdom to successfully help organizations and companies of any size dramatically improve their efficiency and performance. By leveraging her ability to understand business processes as well as people and drawing on her high-caliber skills in vital areas of personnel management, finance, and operations, Adi can help virtually any business owner achieve their goals and bring order to their lives. Adi is also the host of the Systems Simplified Podcast where she features top founders, entrepreneurs and thought leaders on how to systematize a business.
