Today’s dentists face increasing competition, rising overhead costs, and declining insurance reimbursements. To overcome these challenges, successful dental practice owners do more than provide great care. They also excel as small business owners.
While you may have wrapped up your dental education, your business education might be just getting started.
It takes time to learn the ins and outs of growing and administering a small business, and nobody masters these skills without a little help. Aside from your staff, you might need someone in your corner who knows the dental industry inside out—a business expert with a track record of helping dental practices grow and sustain success.
That’s where dental consulting services come in.
Dental practice consultants can help you identify areas for improvement, optimize daily operations, and develop a marketing strategy that sets your practice apart from the competition.
Identifying the Need for Dental Consulting Services
From tax prep to staff morale, is there an area in which you could use some assistance or coaching? Consultants may provide guidance and resources to help you tackle any of these common dental practice challenges:
- Inefficient workflows and procedures
- Patient communication strategies
- Marketing and online visibility
- Staff management
- Accounting, bookkeeping, and financial services
- Strategic planning and growth coaching
Consulting services may be generalized, lending assistance wherever it’s needed, or specialized to certain areas, such as financial planning or business administration.
Is working with a dental practice consultant right for you? To help you decide, consider how well your practice is doing in the areas discussed below. If any of these dimensions of your business could use some extra attention, you might benefit from teaming up with a dental consulting service.
Improving the Patient Experience with Dental Consulting Services
Improving the patient experience is a key area of need for many dental practice owners. Many patients are able to choose which practice they patronize. This choice may be heavily influenced by factors like staff communication styles, wait times, and digital benefits such as online scheduling.
A dental consulting team can help you to identify any patient experience areas in which your practice comes up short. By improving the patient experience, you’ll enjoy bottom-line growth while establishing a more pleasant environment for patients and staff.
Enhancing Operational Efficiency with Dental Consulting Services
Operational efficiency refers to running your practice in a manner that saves time and money and maximizes the value of business hours and staff time.
Consulting services help dental practices improve operational efficiency in areas like appointment scheduling, billing and collections, inventory management, hiring, training and development, and regulatory compliance.
Developing a Marketing Strategy with Dental Consulting Services
Marketing helps your practice to reach new patients and reinforce ties with existing patients.
You’re unlikely to get results from one-off marketing efforts or “shotgun” marketing that lacks strategy or focus. Rather, marketing should be planned, sustained, and research-based. Results should be measured and analyzed to gauge the worthiness of your marketing investments.
Working with a dental consulting service, you can perform market research and develop a plan for targeted advertisements and outreach. This may include paid ads, website improvements, search engine optimization, and social media campaigns.
Maximizing Profitability with Dental Consulting Services
Dental advisors that specialize in financial services and strategic planning, like the Duckett Ladd team, can help you approach profitability holistically. You’ll improve operations and rethink financial planning to build a more prosperous and sustainable practice.
Profitability-focused changes and improvements may include:
- Implementing cost-saving measures, including bulk purchasing and vendor negotiation
- Reducing overhead costs
- Improving collections and accounts receivable procedures
- Increasing case acceptance rates
- Developing a more competitive and profitable fee schedule
Along with operational improvements, your consulting team may offer financial planning and accounting services, such as tax prep and filing, bookkeeping, and financial statement preparation.
Work With Duckett Ladd for Strategic Planning, Accounting Services, and More
At Duckett Ladd, our team of advisors and CPAs works exclusively with the dental industry.
You deserve a thriving practice that doesn’t overwhelm your bandwidth or your personal well-being. We’ll help you get there.
Our dental consulting services include:
- Dental practice growth
- Dental practice acquisitions and dispositions
- Accounting business services for dentists
- Monthly Momentum Mastermind groups for dental practice office managers
Let’s work together to overcome your most pressing challenges. Contact Duckett Ladd today to learn more.
