Looking back to March and April of 2020 it’s fascinating to consider how all of us here at The Campbell Clinic & Campbell Academy (those of us who were continuing to work) repurposed ourselves and changed our roles to try to redesign aspects of the business for moving forwards for after the pandemic was over (whenever that might have been).
One of the things we did was to fast-track projects that were already underway (our new different levels of implant treatment) but the other thing we did was to push other things forwards that we didn’t think we’d get to for a long time or perhaps never which then assisted us in the way we were working after we came back out of the pandemic and the lockdown.
We’d always been a business that used Zoom and particularly in our teaching business so, it was easy to repurpose to that but now we’ve moved onto consultations via Zoom and offering discussions for patients who are remote or people who don’t want to travel as a result of work can see a direction moving forwards there.
This is a much, much more effective thing than taking a telephone call from a patient for any number of reasons.
The other thing that we pushed fast forward was our use of Slack to remove almost 100% email traffic between us in the Clinic.
I was laughing with Andy the other day when we were talking about our presentation that we were sharing to work on for The Academy when he told me that he’d already sent me the link via Slack some weeks ago.
I went back to my Slack messages and there it was, one of the beauties of Slack is the ability to find things that you’re looking for that have been discussed previously and the sharing of documentation.
And so, just sitting at my desk earlier I had sent some dictation to my clinical PA, Pam, for patient communication from yesterday but it was quite urgent and I was just keen to see that she’d got it.
It’s two clicks on Slack to see the response and then I know it’s been done.
It was similar when working with Marie on something else yesterday which I would have otherwise written on a list and left and chatted to Marie the next time she was in (she was working from home which suits her really well) and so that communication is streamline too.
What this means is that we’re much, much more effective than we were before and it means that we can use our time more effectively and therefore generate more income in the same amount of time.
That’s what we’ve found and noticed; is that the same amount of time at the practice is generating more turnover.
Then there is a decision to make because then you have the ability to reduce the amount of time you work to make the same turnover or to retain the amount of time you work to make more turnover.
The final decision is to work more to make more turnover again and of course all of those things are your choice.
What almost everybody in independent dentistry is doing at the moment is working more and turning over more but that is a finite game.
You’ll end up in a situation where you find it’s difficult to make decisions and your exhaustion begins to take over and then the complications arrive and the staff issues arise and then you cannot fit anything in because you’ve used up all your time making more money.
The decision about working less for the same, working more for more, working the same for more (assuming you’ve increased your effectiveness) or working more for even more is absolutely fundamental and within almost everyones gift in independent dentistry at the present time.
Nose off the grindstone and heads up guys, make the right choices for you whatever they are. Make more money if you want but ultimately making more money by working more will decrease your health.
Blog Post Number - 2859
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