#890: Hacks for Increasing Profitability

Dental A Team Podcast

Rereleasing one of DAT’s most popular episodes!

Did you know that team members can be more profitable with accurate deep work time than just producing from the chair? In this episode, Kiera talks about intentional block scheduling for all positions in the office. She poses questions everyone needs to ask themselves, suggests amounts of time for deep work each week, gives ideas for priorities to pursue, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:05.774)

Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you.

Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A -teams. Welcome to the Dental A -Team Podcast.

The Dental A Team (00:51.0)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and ooh, am I excited for the podcast today? So I podcast and I love podcasting and I tend to just podcast and think of ideas. So I typically have one day during the week that I'll podcast and then throughout the month I will be writing up topics. And so I've actually been working on a couple of different topics. They come to me, I'll text my husband, I'll be in the shower and I'm like, Jason.

You've got to write this down, send this to me so I don't forget. So today's topic is coming from one where I've had a lot of questions and this has been something that I've been doing for so long. I have explained it. I'll do it on the podcast today. I'll explain it for you again, but we talk often about block scheduling for dentists. So if you don't have block scheduling in your schedule, definitely go and listen to some podcasts on block scheduling for your practice. Block scheduling can also be considered like productive.

scheduling to where we're making an optimal schedule with your ideal life, ideal procedures, and we're able to grow it exponentially. With that, I like to always share a little example where I have a practice that with block scheduling, so optimal, we're looking to see how long does it take per procedure. We're looking to see what their goals are for the practice, how long it takes, maximizing assistant time and doctor time. We were able to take them from 2 .2 to 4 .2 million in one year. I will also put in there, we did add three operatories. However,

without adding those three operatories, it was 2 .2 to 3 .2 million. So just so you know, by being more strategic with our time, I was able to add over a million dollars worth of revenue, no extra days, no extra time, just smarter scheduling. So I started thinking about this and I'm like, you know, there's so much fanfare and so many ideas out there for doctor scheduling within schedules, but what about admin block scheduling?

And it kind of alluded to this week I was working with my team. I've been working with my husband. So it's probably where it's hot on my list, but we often don't block schedule. And when I say block scheduling or CEO time or admin time or whatever you want to call it, deep work time, I don't feel we've ever been really taught how to do it. then it's also, we are taught, but it feels too hard. So then we don't do it. So today, this week I was actually working with Shelby and Britt and

The Dental A Team (03:07.169)

Virtual companies are very different, especially when we've come from dentistry. Dentistry is easy, right? Our schedules are there for us. They tell us what to do as clinicians. So as a dental assistant, or it's a hygienist, our days were scheduled for us. The front office schedules for us. We do our day, off we go. But when you're the front office, and I remember my switch from clinical to front office, your days are different. Also, when I went from in office to home, where I worked from home, again, very different. My husband, he works in a pharmacy.

is overseeing, gosh, I think he's got 35 pharmacists he oversees in multiple different clinics. And I just feel like we often run the rat race versus doing what's actually important in a practice. So I've been figuring this out. I've been mapping this a lot and I've been curious, why does this feel hard? And I thought, you you hear that example of the rock sand water, which honestly I feel has an overused analogy, but I feel like what we do is we often build our life with so many rocks or so much sand.

that we forget that there's other space for that water. And so then like all the little things feel so hard and so exhausting and like we just can't catch up and that we're not gonna be able to get there. And so what we do is we don't get it done. And then it feels like this mountain of tasks, this monumental moment to just get our emails done. So I started thinking, how can I front office team members and doctors block not just a productive schedule that's going to be profitable,

but let's do a productive schedule and a profitable schedule for your time that's not clinical. Because I actually believe that you can be more profitable with accurate deep work time than you can be just producing in the chair. So I wanted to walk through how to do this. So first question is, I want you to know yourself. So that's the first question you have to answer is, are you a more productive person in the morning or are you more productive in the afternoon?

I just need you to answer that because that's going to radically impact how we build your schedule for you. So for Kiera, I am a very much a morning person. I am about junk by three o 'clock. Like don't ask me to do big projects. That's why I don't do any coaching calls after three o 'clock. Don't worry. All my clients that I do coach, they're early. I start my calls at six AM and people think I'm absolutely crazy for doing it. But like today I was up at three AM building content and projects because I am such a morning person.

The Dental A Team (05:30.094)

3 a is not normal. I have been on a tight deadline and I'm flying out of town and I've got a lot of things. So 3 a is a little extreme, but I just know that I'm going to be so much more productive in the morning. So Britt on our team is definitely an afternoon person. And my husband's like, Kiera, how could she schedule her like heavy concentration time in the afternoon? And I said, Britt loves like go hang out, go for a walk, hang out with her dog, come back around three, four, five in the afternoon and then just get it done.

If I ask her for a 7 a meeting, she'll be there, but I know her optimal speed and optimal time is definitely afternoon. Shelby's a morning person. So once you know your optimal time, also figure out your team members' optimal time, because we can build schedules based on our optimal time where we're going to be the most efficient with our time. And I feel like with admin time, deep work time, let's ourselves up for success. So the next thing is...

figure out who you are. Most people are sprinters, meaning we can usually concentrate for about an hour on a task. Other people like Britt, who are more like billers, people who are really into the numbers, into the spreadsheets, they can concentrate for like a two to three hour block. Like she needs a solid amount of time to be able to research, to dig into it, because when she gets into a project, she's in it. For me, if I have a shorter stint, an hour, hour and a half is much more productive for me. So number one, know thyself. Are you a morning or an afternoon? Like where are you most productive?

also I know a lot of creatives, people who are very creative. Sometimes they'll work at one, two, three o 'clock in the morning. Like that's where they are at their optimal machine. And I feel like our bodies and who we are, our machines. so let's like, all of us run on different food. My husband, he's a carb guy. If I feed him carbs, he can run for hours. Me, I'm a protein girl and I've definitely got to have protein in the morning, especially for hiking. Like we have two very separate breakfasts, very different styles and different energy that fuels our bodies.

Same thing with how we operate and how we work. So I want you to figure out your optimal time. Where are you going to be the most efficient to be working on the most important pieces of the business? Next up is let's find out who our team is around us. Where are they at? And then third is how much time is actual optimal for you? And this can be a trial and error. I used to think like, I'm going to block three hours. You guys, by like hour one, I'm thinking about what am going to make for dinner? What am I going to do? I think I need to stretch. I need to get up.

The Dental A Team (07:52.556)

So I realized I can't do these big chunks of time. I have to break it up and almost like consolidate my time to force me to work more efficiently. So just figure out who you are. My recommendation for the general population is break it into smaller chunks because typically if we've got four hours or two hours too long of a chunk, it actually will make us unproductive. So on that, then from there, okay, we know we're a morning person. We know we work in an hour and half stints. Next up is to go look at our schedules.

I would never in my wildest dreams recommend Mondays to be a day that you work on your business. I just don't. think that so many patients call in it's hectic. It's chaotic. People are coming in like Mondays just feel like this, madness energy in the world. I don't enjoy that. You might feel like no Monday's my motivation day. And that's the day that I get everything mapped out. Know thyself and be free is my best recommendation. I prep Sunday evenings to make sure my week is all prepared so I can come into Monday mayhem.

and be ready to go. My deep work times are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have two in my week. Brittany and Shelby, they both have two or three. They are for an office. So like think of an office manager and a scheduler or a treatment coordinator. They each have their time. I also look at the tasks that are necessary. Britt needs more time than I do. Britt has heavier projects. She has research projects. She's got a lot more time. So Britt needs like...

four to six hours per week where I need about an hour and a half each time. So about two to three hours per week. That's my optimal time. Again, this is going to come ebb and flow and the more consistently we take our time, the more doable it will be for you. So with team members for doctors and clinical team and front office, whomever needs to work on bigger projects, most of the time this is your front office, like your office manager, your scheduler, your treatment coordinator. I feel like doctors and OMS need at least two to three hours per week of deep work uninterrupted time.

Then our schedulers and our treatment coordinators, I usually recommend about an hour a week of uninterrupted time. Billers might need two to three, depending upon what they're working on, because that's more of like deep work, harder getting through projects, and then leads in your practice. I usually recommend about an hour per week. So that just kind of helps you break down the timelines, how much time we're needing to do for each position within the practice. But then we got to go build it into the schedule. So for me, I actually like my team to work at the same time. So me and Shelby, we work at almost the same time.

The Dental A Team (10:14.71)

She's my right hand. I have to ask her a lot of different questions. So for her, she's very smart. Office managers, I would do the same thing. You're kind of like Shelby with me. Block your time the same time as your doctor, because doctors working hard, they're not gonna be interrupting. They're not gonna be asking for things. That means office managers, you can probably get a lot more done during that time. So you've just got to start to build a schedule. So what I do is I actually build this onto offices schedules for them. In my schedule, I have it. It's a deep work block. And then every week,

So whatever your choice is, like, okay, so we know we're, we're mornings. know we need two hours a week. We're looking at doctor schedule, Kiera schedule, all the people schedules in our practice and we're building out a like admin deep work. We're going to get all the big projects done schedule. So from there, what we're going to do next is we build the schedule. Okay. So it's all in there. So for me, mine are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Britt has hers on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Whatever, choose your poison. I don't care when you do it, but we're going to build it.

and front office team members, you've got to also make sure you coordinate schedules to make sure that we're not overlapping each other. We don't want both office manager treatment coordinator to be gone at the same time. We want you guys to stagger your schedule so you can cover for each other as well. That way the front office is always taken care of. Doctors, I recommend you do this offsite. Doing it in your practice is probably not going to be beneficial. I like to go to a coffee shop, to the library, somewhere offsite. And office managers, it might be wise for you to consider this as well, talking with your doctor.

Where can you go that you're the most productive for me? If I'm going to take this much time away from the practice or my business, it's truly working on the deepest, like most productive projects of the week that are going to move my practice forward the most. So this is like building protocols, writing handbooks, writing policies, reviewing my systems, all those different things are going to help you exponentially with this. So what we do is then I believe that if we're going to block this time, we then need to.

hold ourselves to a standard where we can actually, 100 % actually go through and make sure we maximize this time. So for you guys, I really want you to think about this, like what do you actually need to get done during this time that's going to be the most productive for you? So for me, I believe I've got to plan and prepare if I'm going to block this time off on my schedule. And I believe that if you're gonna take this time out of your schedule, you should block and plan.

The Dental A Team (12:39.34)

So for doctors, I'll just give you a quick list. This is with a client we were just working with who has time and wanted to use that time productively. And so we broke it down because I believe that a CEO, have three duties and that's profitability, culture and vision. And office managers, I would say that yours is similar in addition to team. And so maybe you break it up and I do like admin tasks, but this isn't like checking your email, responding back to people. It would be reviewing the credit cards. It would be...

doing our business expenses, it'd be looking at the orders, it'd be doing deposits for checks. It would be reviewing our KPIs of every single part, of our practice to make sure that they're actually optimized. Then we go over the culture and we look at like performance reviews, hiring and HR, checking payroll to see who's getting close to overtime, doing end of month bonuses. looking also at the culture and like where are we lacking or where are we doing really well that could be changed? And then we spend some time with planning and vision.

So what are systems and departments reviewing all of those? Let's go through all of them and look to see where are we strong, where are we not strong? Let's look at the long -term plan. What are our monthly meetings? What do those need to be? Department meetings, writing things, writing the protocols, writing the processes. And then you can also put in learning. So reading a business book, doing continuing education, but really it's the things that will move your business forward the most. If office managers, you need to go research and do demos on multiple different softwares to figure out the best cloud -based software. Well, that's the time that you do it is during this.

So I block these in there, solid blocks in the schedule and they're never to be touched or interrupted. I also plan and I put it in there. So I actually have a true plan before I go into my week. So the way I process, the way I built in block scheduling for admin time is this is my process and some people you can do it on, Friday. I don't like to do on Friday cause I still have ideas that come to me Saturday and Sunday. So I like to have it fresh Sunday. know exactly what my week looks like and I can also plan with my husband.

What time am I getting off? What time do I need to do these things? So I literally plan my whole week out. I add all the items that need to get done. I know where my deep work blocks are for that week. I prioritize what my week needs to be. And then I go and put in my deep work. What actually has to happen to get those priorities done? So I really do priorities and deep work. Also, if I'm procrastinating something that often will get put in a deep work block to make sure that I actually get that done in the timeframe it needs to be done.

The Dental A Team (14:59.95)

So I feel like I've taught you guys how to block schedules so much for doctors and how to be productive. But if you will use these one, two, three hours per week, truly focusing on your business, we say it all the time, working on your business versus working out of the business. But I always thought how, and you know what the Dental A Team, I'm really big on teaching you the how, making it simple, making it easy. And once you build the structure, then guess what? It's set and it's a cadence and you don't have to remember it. Deep work blocks are there.

You know you prep on Fridays to have it prepared for the next week. You know you have a plan in your deep work blocks of what you're working on. You know where you're going to go. You know what you're going to work on and you know the timeframe you're going to do it. Now it's set up, it's on autopilot. You just have to show up and be consistent. And I feel like if we can carry it to that point to get you that close, you've got a pretty solid block schedule. Just like in our clinical block schedules are about 75, 85 % awesome. We've got the variants, we've got the varying shades.

Same thing with your, your block schedule of your personal life. It's crazy. My husband felt like he couldn't get a lot done. He felt like he had too many things going. He felt like he was always overwhelmed. He felt like he was always behind on projects. Can anybody relate? We sit there, we have the mounting tasks, all the little sticky notes sitting everywhere, trying to remind us of the tasks and never feeling like we can get them done personally and professionally. I've had my husband do this with me for the last two weeks and I am shocked. He's getting home earlier. He's less stressed.

He has more bandwidth and he feels like he's actually making progress through his pile of items that he needed to get done personally and professionally. It's crazy how a small amount of planning for me and my husband, takes us about 30 minutes a week to plan out our weeks and to be really, really truly intentional with our weeks. So 30 minutes of plan, which you can put that on Fridays. Like this is my planning for next week. It will save you hours of time of being reactive.

But yet I feel like no one ever teaches us how to do this. So hopefully today I've given you guys tips and ideas. If you need accountability, I have lots of doctors within that we go through this. I have a doctor right now who I check in with them weekly to find out how is their weekly plan going? How are they doing? You need help setting this up like I did. If like my husband did like this doctor did reach out. [e-mail] life and owning a practice does not have to be hard. Being a front office team member does not have to feel chaotic and psychotic all the time.

The Dental A Team (17:18.872)

We can help you doctors and we can help you team members to make your life easy, to make your practice flourish easily with just better planning and better systems. So if we can help you with that, reach out, [e-mail]. You'll get a free strategy call. So really there's no risk to you. I would love to invite you into our Dental A Team family. And really I just think about it. One small change can make you get home on time, give you your life back, help your team be less stressed.

helped you have time to get those big projects done. And just imagine with that kind of discipline, what other projects and activities and side hustles and different things and more time with family, more vacations you could go on if you just plan. And with that, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

The Dental A Team (18:08.622)

wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.