Something happened during a team meeting at the
Mat center for dental practice success that caused
us to complete
reevaluate
how we work with our team. It was
a really
important thing. It seemed like nothing at the
time, But I think it's kinda turned into
a landmark. As a matter of fact, I
talk about it at my seminar some time
to time, and that's what we're gonna be
talking about. 1 of the many things we'll
be talking about on in today's
episode of the dental practice fixer podcast.
I'm doctor Richard Mat. I'm c founder of
the Matter center for dental practice success and
your host today. On dal fixer.
Thanks so much for being here. Thanks so
much
for listing. As I was just about ready
to hit record on this podcast. I was
doing some multi multitasking. I was trying to
write a an e newsletter from my dental
list of Dennis and team members.
I was having a text chain with some
people in my office. I was having a
text chain with my brothers. I was having
another text with some friends. This is like
the ultimate multitasking, and I realized I wasn't
getting anything done and decide I gotta stop
Gotta stop for a second and just do
1 thing at a time. I think multitasking
can be seen as something so positive.
For instance, maybe you're interviewing somebody for a
position in your off and they say I'm
a great
multitask.
But I gotta say, I'm not always a
fan of multitasking. I think it's better to
do 1 thing really well at a time
time then do 3 or 4 things, mediocre.
Is that even a word mediocre. It doesn't
matter. It's a word now.
Was kind of reflecting way back to when
I was in college. I 1 summer.
I went to College University of Maryland,
during the summer and I was living in
this of an apartment style dorm with 3
other guys. 4 of us. We each had
our own little bedrooms, but they all connected
to this huge living room area, and that's
know, there were sofa is there and chairs
in a Tv, and that's where we always
hung out. We were always there. And, of
course, as you know, I'm a musician, big
music fan. I always wanted to have music
blasting.
On my big wooden
Jb b speakers, they were handed me down
for my brother, Dave. These things were awesome.
I would just crack music up on these
things. But 1 of my roommates was a
big sports fan, and they always wanted to
have sports playing on the Tv said the
typical scenario will be music playing on the
stereo
sports on Tv with the sound out, Then
I'd be sitting there, taking all this in
of trying to study for a chemistry exam,
and I realized I wasn't doing anything well.
I wasn't absorbing the music. I couldn't follow
the sports. And, of course, I wasn't studying
well, and I just realized you know what?
I'm gonna gonna go to the library.
Spend an hour and a half to 2
hours of the library studying for Chemistry, then
I'll be all set for the exam,
and then I can come back to the
room and listen to music watch sports, engaging
conversation. Do 1 thing at a time and
really do it well. And it reminds me,
we had a team member at the Motto
center. So several years ago, she was awesome
at doing her job, but she just was
not a great multitask group. If she was
doing something, you tried to throw something else
with her. At the same time, she would
get a little bit
you know, up upside not with or whatever.
You could tell she was uncomfortable doing that.
But And at first, I didn't like it.
But then I began to realize, you know,
this is a person who is a great
team member, smart, reliable.
Really good at what they do. I'm gonna
let her do what she's doing and finish
it, and I know she'll do a great
job. I want to double or triple check.
Whatever she's doing will be ready to rock
and then on the next task. So I
started valuing
multitasking less.
And doing a really good job and just
doing it once and getting it over with
more. It's a lesson I wish I would
learn completely and stop trying multitask all the
time, but I just thought I to throw
that in there because right before I hit
record, I spent the last 15 minutes trying
to do too many things and not accomplishing
anything. If I would've have just done 1
thing at a time, it probably would have
been better. So I don't think if any
of us for the patient, we want the
dentist doing a crown prep, and then doing
other things at the same time I'm kinda
like my
old
first dentist, doctor Isaac Cop used to do.
He was my mom's Dentist, my grandfather dennis.
He was, like, less of a dying breed.
I mean, this was way back when I
was a kid in the sixties. He be,
preparing an a ama prep. Of course, he
was always a malcolm. Doing get ama and
prep. He drop an instrument on the floor
and pick it up. He'd be on the
phone with a patient at the same time
he's he didn't have any team members, changing
the water in his fish tank and believe
it or not smoking a cigarette. Yes. In
those days, a dentist could smoke a cigarette
while they were treating you.
Crazy times.
He was maybe the original multitask. I gotta
say he was a good dentist.
Some of those older malcolm he did all
I'll better still in place, 56 years later.
Okay. Let's get down to what I wanted
to talk about today before my ramble multi
multitasking, which maybe you got some out of.
And before I talk about that famous motto
center meeting, I just wanna urge you to
check the show notes for this podcast, they're
are 5 great things in there for you
to do 5 things that will help your
practice enhance your life, all those other things.
If you don't have time or you can't
check the show notes.
Please subscribe to our e newsletter.
Every now and then, I'll send out some
great practice building information, maybe some motivational stuff,
some things to talk about at team meetings.
Also, of course, let you know about some
complimentary webinars should we do and all kinds
of other don'ts on here that can help
your practice.
Just go to mat dot com slash newsletter,
matter dot com slash newsletter and.
If you're watching the video, you can I
just took a sip out of a dental
practice fixer
coffee mug, which can be yours if you
sign up for the newsletter because Every now,
and then, we do a drawing of our
new sign ups and somebody gets this cool
coffee mug? So go to matter dot com
slash newsletter to sign up I'm sure you
love the great information you'll get? And of
course, it's free of charge. How can you
beat that? Okay. Let's talk about something now
that I call the seating
chart
rule. So this was several years ago,
my brother, Dave and I Dave's c founder
and my partner in the matter center.
We were preparing for our annual holiday dinner,
which, you know, typically met, reserving a semi
private room in a big steak steakhouse downtown
and getting a huge table and
everybody just getting together for the holiday and
having fun rem about all kinds of fun
things and shouting the night away. Always a
great event at the Matter Center. So, of
course Dave, and I get there early. Well,
I get there early for everything. So does
Dave. I'm I'm kind of like the airport
dad of of life
and were there early way before anybody else
is supposed to show up. But 1 of
the reasons we got there early was to
place name cards on each seats. So everybody
would know where to sit. And we got
a little gift for each person that year
might have been a bottle of wine, and
we would,
try to figure out what kind of wine
each person and then, you know, they get
a personalized bottle with their place card, showing
them where to sit. But the thing is
that's not really why we were doing the
place cards. We were doing the place cards
because we wanted to have a specific seating
chart to make sure that the dinner was
fun, and the dinner was success. Now that
may sound good, but it actually wasn't because
as we're putting this... This is really why
we did it. We're thinking things like, oh,
truly and karen can't sit next to each
other because they can't stand each other. They'll
just be, you know, fighting all night whatever
And now if we put
Ashley and Sally next to each other They'll
be whispering and making private jokes and pointing
at other people and doing some back, so,
we don't wanna put them next to each
other when we kept it. This person next
to this 1, we can't put burn debt
next to this person because she can't see,
I don't know. All these crazy reasons. And
hell, if I'm sitting next to Linda, I'm
not doing that. And this is how the
conversation goes as we're laying out these place
cards and after a while, we start
saying to ourselves. You know what? This is
crazy.
This is our business. We've got 15 people
who work with us every day. They're part
of our work family. We see them, sometimes
more than we say our own family members
and we're struggling
to figure out where to see people because
some people can't get along, and some people
get to evolve to these inside
I'm back
conversations that are very unhealthy, and there are
people that work with us in our own
office that we don't even wanna sit next
to. This is crazy.
So we finished pretty opposite eating in cards
get face those parameters,
and the dinner went fine. And a few
days later, we're talking saying, you know what?
There's something inherently wrong with this. We should
not be having to tell people where to
sit in order to have a successful holiday
dinner.
And we made a goal. And that goal
was
that 1 year from then. When we met
at the same restaurant the same semi private
room. I love that term. Semi private room.
It was a private room. It was a
semi private room. We had a bunch of
semi with us.
Maybe some of them were driving semi. I
don't know.
But when we met again, a year later,
we were going to need eat a seating
chart because everybody will get along. Well, everybody
will work together well. And there's not 1
person there that that we as the owners
of the company would not
Not, I'm used like a double triple quadruple
negative.
Let me rephrase that. We wanna sit next
to everybody. We enjoy every single person's company
in our in our company,
enough that we would love to sit next
to them at the holiday dinner, and this
was our goal. And then, of course, we
started getting a little more serious. How can
we achieve this goal? There are some people
who just are trouble makers in our office.
You know, there 15 people are talking about?
There's a prem Donna. There's a back s.
There's somebody who says we've always done it
that way, and I'm not changing. That's not
my job. Now I don't wanna be bragging
on our team. We had a great team.
Fantastic team. They did an amazing job, but
some people didn't get long with others, or
they didn't play well of others as they
say. For those reasons and that was just
put a little bit more tension in the
office than we would like. So we decided
well. If anybody needs a little pep talk
about how to solve this problem,
now is the time it was, you know,
the validated or was over. It was the
beginning of the year. New Year's resolutions and
all that Bs. So there... You know, we're
gonna talk to each team member and individually
about First of all, always start about how
great of a job they're doing Because they
were we love our team members. They were
hardworking and smart and did a great job.
But also,
tell them about some areas where they could
use some improvement. And if that happened to
be,
the big gossip they're they backs or they
didn't give a long someone else where they
told too many inside stories and and kind
of left others out of the equation. Yes.
This was a great time to talk about
it. And that this is the time to
talk about this stuff, and
we're gonna give you the chance to improve.
We're here if you need us to talk
about, you know, talk these things through, let's
see if we can really work on things
and really improve. And, you know what?
Everybody took it to heart because when we
framed it that way,
everybody knew that this was the ultimate goal.
We have the ultimate goal of making the
workplace a better place, making the workplace a
place where we'd be looking forward to coming
to every day and didn't mind who we
interacted with because we enjoyed the company of
every single person of the workplace. And you
know what?
Our team members took it seriously,
and they really wanted to make these improvements
and sometimes we had to talk it out
with people. Sometimes we had to get 2
team members in the room together and have
a little referee
court there and have them work out their
issues with 1 another. Whatever it took. We
didn't wanna fire anyone that's not what this
was all about. We just wanted people to
improve and improving in your job
doesn't always mean doing your technical job better.
Of course, it means that sometimes, but it
can also mean
ramping up your people skills and your
communication skills. And just giving people a break
and appreciating
others that worked around us. And 1 of
the big things that I noticed I did
this in my dental office too, was to
make sure that everybody in the office really
understood the jobs of the other people there.
Now we talk about cross training
I think in a dental practice,
you can do some cross training shore, but
it's impossible to completely cross train every team
member. You you know, you can obviously hide,
how, you know, being a h janice takes
licensing and such, but I think it can't
have somebody who's a superstar every position in
the practice.
But you definitely can have every person in
the practice, at least have a basic knowledge
of every position. Enough so that they could
hop in when needed
to do a job in a non licensed
position, of course, but also to appreciate what
that person's job brings to the table I'm
sick of hearing about the front versus the
back, the front doesn't appreciate the back, the
back doesn't appreciate the front, Of course, this
means the business area of the practice. Versus
the clinical section of the practice, but, hey,
front and back. I gotta tell you without
the other,
you wouldn't exist. You wouldn't exist clinical team,
you wouldn't exist without a great admin team
and business team, getting patients in your chairs
and making sure that they pay and their
insurance forms are plea to propagate, etcetera, etcetera,
etcetera. Front desk team. You wouldn't exist. And
we didn't have a great clinical team so
we could show off her beautiful work and
patients would call and we give people incredible
patient experiences in the clinical so they'd come
back and refer. Into all those things. So
we need each other, and we also need
to appreciate 1 another. Okay. So back to
our goal, the next year, will we need
a seating chart. Well,
unfortunately, after a lot of work and talk
and communication, 1 or 2 people just couldn't
see that this was valuable enough to work
on the issues that they were having, and
we did wind up actually having to give
a couple people, a job out opportunity elsewhere.
And again, I am not a fan of
firing people. When we work with you if
if we, you know, view contract a matter
center to consult with your dental practice and
we wanna be in your coach. We never
come in and say this person's gotta go.
You gotta fire this. But if you give
somebody a lot of training, and lot of
help and a lot of latitude
and really try your best to work with
them and they just can't do it
Well, there will come a day when you
will say, what took me so long. I
guarantee it. So that is the ce chart.
The next year, we had our holiday party.
We didn't bring a seating chart. Everybody got
along. There was... I know speaking for my
personal stance there there's not 1 person there
that I didn't wanna sit next to at
the company dinner. That doesn't mean we often
to be on best friends go ski vacations
together. That might be taking it away too
far, but we do need to get along
and enjoy each other's company. So important. That
is the seeding chart rule. Okay. We talked
about multitasking.
We talked about having a great team where
everybody understands each other's positions and gets along
well with each other. That should be enough
for 1 podcast, but no. We've got our
famous dental practice fixer mystery shopper calls to
do, and we've got some good ones for
you today that I think you will learn
from. Before I go over to Command Central
and hit the button on the mystery shopper
calls,
I do wanna remind you that at the
matter center, we do not pay a percentage
for our credit card processing, every time somebody
whips out a credit card, we don't pay
a percentage to process the credit cards like
you're doing in your office. Now, of course
you have to pay the percentage of Visa
Mastercard I'm. That's, you know, That's a given
like popcorn. But we just pay a low
flat monthly fee for our credit card processing
and we have saved I'm not kidding tens
of thousands of dollars, and you should do
the same in your dental practice. Just go
to mat dot com slash
save.
You'll see the company we work with is
called stacks. They're awesome. They work with hundreds
of demo practices, maybe many more thousands millions.
I don't know how many. They work with
a ton of dental practices across the country.
You should be working with them too because
you just pay that low flat monthly fee
for your processing.
Go to mat dot com slash save to
learn more. I know you'll be glad. You
did. And I got a few last week
asking me what was that company I recommended
to get more new patients into your practice
because you were doing incredible
search engine
optimization. And when somebody Google's dennis near me,
Cosmetic dentist, Ortho,
whatever it is they Google, they're gonna find
you. The company is called simple impact media,
and you can learn more about them by
going to matter dot com slash SE0.
That stands for search engine
optimization, and ADW
dot com slash s E, let's go on
to our mystery shopper calls. Okay. Call this
week.
I said I was a patient who needed
for
crowns. Ding ding ding ding ding a huge
bell should automatically go off. What's that bell?
Doctor matter. Just got a new patient because
I'm calling and saying I know I need
4 crowns. What's the catch?
I have a little bit of a gag
reflex. Will you work with me?
Now what's the right thing to say? I
think you know, let's see if any of
these practices did it. Okay. Go 2. Call.
Number 1.
So see what happens. K. My Dental. This
is Dream. How may I help you?
Hey Have a question for you. I I
know from my last dennis, I need, like,
3 or 4 crowns, but kind of been
putting it off because
I can be, like, a bit of a
gag. Do you see patients there who have
that issue and how do how do you
deal with that?
So we have a... We have a nit
that we could get... You could get,
sometimes that
to where you don't get as much.
We also have a sedative that we can...
That doctor can call in.
You just have to bring somebody with you.
If you have an anxiety about about getting
and things like that, we can give you
the that.
But, yeah, we see patients that have that
issue all the time.
Very interesting. What's nit?
It's just nit oxide.
Nit oxide or can I see? Alright.
Great. Well, thank you so much.
You're welcome. Have a great day. Bye. How
you too. Thanks. Bye. Oh, bye bye.
Haven't we learned anything yet? Okay. Well, first
of all, she used a dental terms. She
said Nit, which I don't think most people
know that is. I know laughing gas is
kind of an outdated. But I have no
problem using that term or even describe, but
we have...
Night... And then I said, what's nit, oh,
nit oxide. Like, that really helps things I
don't know what nit. I'm gonna know what
nit oxide means. You know, it's it's laughing
gas. It's just something you breathe and it
helps you relax. Just you know, just say
what it is. But I gotta you at
this office. She said they use non oxide.
They use sedative. They see patients the gag.
Okay. Good. Sounds like this will be a
great office for me. And it sounds like
I'd be a great patient for them. I
know I need 4 crowns and then boom.
No effort. Whatsoever
to get me in.
Come on. Now don't you want a patient
who needs 4 crowns, even if they're are
a little bit of a Gag or. I
mean, at least get them in and see,
look, they're a horrible gag. You can't treat
them, You can refer them, but you'll never
know unless they come in for an exam
or a consult, which will never happen in
that office. Let's see if it'll happen in
the next 1.
Thank you for calling Dental Care. This is
Chelsea. How may I help you?
Hey, Chelsea. You have a question for you.
I was told a short time ago by
another Dentist. I need 3 or 4 crowns,
but I was a little
hesitant to go in I can have, like,
a bit of a gag reflex of the
dentist to, see patients that have that kind
of thing going on?
We do.
Sometimes,
it just kinda depends,
how bad it is because we may refer
out to a specialist for that.
Because they may have to do a s
citation any sort of thing like that.
It really just depends on the doctor, they
would have to kinda see.
Yeah. Okay. Say it's about a 6 or
6.5.
Yeah. They would have to determine that. I
can't really say if they would or not,
because each doctor is different on what they
can handle.
But I know we have referred out to
specialist before.
Just depending on how bad it is.
I see. Okay. Great. Well, thanks then. You're
welcome. Have a great day.
Oh, you have a great 1 too. Bye.
Thank you. Bye. I don't get it. I
I made up the gag scale. She should
even flinch that when I said a 6
or 6.5.
But the heck does that even mean is
they are gag scale. I guess there could
be. I don't know. But it was interesting
said, I this was a multi doctor practice
obviously she said some doctors handle that better
than others,
and then sometimes we have to refer. So
why not schedule me with the doctor who
handles the patients with the gag reflex really
well? This made no sense Why not say,
you know, oh, doctor Jones is great with
that. Cheese so gentle and she just has
such a nice touch and she She doesn't
mind seeing patients with Gag reflex or anxiety.
I think you'll be really happy when you
meet her.
Can you come in tomorrow 02:30PM?
If that's not good for you. We've got
Wednesday at 01:30PM,
which works. But I mean, come on now.
Get the patient in no attempt This cannot
continue. I swear can't. Let's see what calling
family Dentistry. To get you to the best
team member, please select from the following menu.
If you are
becoming a new patient, please press 1. If
you are an existing patient, please press 2.
For all other questions for our office team,
please press 3.
May be recorded for quality and training
Thank you for calling Family and Cosmetic dentistry.
This is Jl. How can I help you?
Hey, Jill. I have a question for you.
I know that I need 4 crowns or
at least I was told that previously.
But I'm just a little concerned because sometimes
I can I can gag a little bit
if the appointment really long or whatever? So
I didn't go back to that, dentist. But
do you see patients who have that issue
at all?
That have, like, a gag issue?
Yeah. I'm, you know, or or can't do
like, you a lot point
expect that? You do you got lots of
people?
Yeah. We... All the time.
No. Yeah. We do see that quite often.
U. A lot of patients actually have that
issue. I think we're, we're pretty good about
doing brakes if necessary and trying not to,
you know, shut things down your throat. You
know?
Oh, that... That's actually really nice to hear.
Because I I have some people aren't quite
as gentle so I do appreciate that.
Yeah. Cool. Okay. Well, great. Great. Thank you
so much for letting me know that. I
really appreciate it.
Yeah. Of course. If you need anything else,
just let us know.
I, definitely will. You're really nice and, and
I... I'll thank you so much. Thanks. Bye.
Oh, wonderful. Thank you. Bye. Cool. Bye. Wonderful.
If you need anything else, just let us
know yes, I do need somebody else. I
need an appointment so I can come into
your great office and get my 4 crown
done. She was so nice she was kind
of light lighthearted and fun and said, oh,
yes, we see people like that all the
time. We try to be gentle. We give
you a break when a ran a million
things down your mouth. This is exact me
what I wanted to hear
as a patient who has a gag reflex
yet,
she comforted me on the phone. She said
the right things.
No attempt. To make the appointment, what the
heck is going on here?
Let's keep going.
Yeah. Okay. How can I help you?
Hey have a question for you. I know
I need 4 crowns. That's I was told
by my last dentist.
Okay. I didn't go back though You excite
like a little bit of a Gag reflex?
And I I didn't think they were treating
me very gently. Do you see patients there
that have those issues?
Yes.
We do.
I know we can do, like, a a
gas or whatever lacking gas or whatever it's
called, but that does cost to extra, it's
not usually covered by insurance.
How much extra?
I do not know that off the top
of my head, because it's not used too
often honestly.
I, really What if you use that and
I'd laughed too much? Would that cause a,
me a similar problem?
So the crowns
I'm me put you on a brief hold.
Okay? Yeah sure.
What was going on? This person was kinda
clueless. I mean,
let let's not downplay this left. I guess,
I called I said, if a gag reflex,
You said, use laughing. I yes. But then,
like, talk me out oh, it's really expensive.
It was not covered by insurance. We hardly
ever use it.
Now I feel like an idiot, then I
asked... I kinda kidding around. I said what
happens if I left too much and she
starts, like, telling me the fees for the
crowds. I think that's what she was doing.
And then put me on a hold. And
I gotta tell you, you were not gonna
hear her come back because I was I'm
looking at the time of here. I was
on hold for 3 minutes, and then I
just hung up. I'm not gonna make you
listen to silence for 3 minutes. I'll just
say she was not good, then she put
me on and I I could still be
on hold in this office. I who knows
what's going on there.
It's never good to put patients on hold,
but if we have to come on. Play
little music or something and come back right
away, lost
opportunity.
Boom by, see you later. Actually, I will
never see you again. Okay. That is gonna
do it. For today's episode. Just a couple
quick reminders. If you wanna email me about
anything, my email address is rich,
RICH
at mat MAD0W
dot com. If you have any questions about
anything. Wanna see what it's like to work
with us as your personal dental coach. Bring
me to speak to your, meeting or study
club, anything. Which that's ask a questioner or
say hi. Rich at matter dot com. Matter
dot com slash saved see how to save
money in your credit card processing,
month after month, matter dot com slash s
seo o, you can learn how patients will
find you when they Google for new dentist
And 1 more quick thing. If you're enjoying
the demo practice fixer, please help other dentists
all across the world enjoyed it as well.
By giving us a good rating or whatever
podcast service you're watching or listening on, a
review will be even better. I'm Doctor. Richard
Mad. Thanks so much for spending this time
with me today, and I will see you
soon.