The Business of Dentistry Podcast

Laura explains some of the key signs to watch out for as ‘red flags’ that illustrate your practice brand might be in need of a refresh and the potential impact of not updating your brand when it needs it.

What you’ll hear:

• What constitutes your brand
• Ways an out of date brand can damage your business
• Five indicators that its time to refresh your brand.

Who should listen:

• Practice owners who have not changed their branding in a while
• Anyone who has recently bought an existing practice.

Tracy Pound explains the risk of cybercrime to smaller businesses and discusses strategies to minimise the risk to your practice. She also shares advice for you and your team on best practise for keeping your data safe online.

What you’ll hear:

Highlights of the discussion including:

• Examples of dental practices who have suffered cyber attacks
• A number of ways to reduce the risk of a cyber attack on your practice
• Ways to protect your data
• The importance of educating your team on cyber safety

Who should listen:

• Practice owners
• Practice managers responsible for patient data
• Team members who use social media or access patient data

Helen Robertson shares her story of opening a squat practice with her husband at the beginning of the recession in 2009 and building it into the thriving three surgery practice that it is today.

What you’ll hear:

• Details of building the patient base from scratch in a brand-new location
• How Practice Plan supported Helen
• What she learned along the journey
• Advice for anyone considering opening a dental practice.

Who should listen:

• Dentists considering buying a practice
• NHS dentists considering moving to private practice
• Dentists whose practice might be struggling.

Ashley Latter explains the benefits of recording video testimonials with your patients. He talks through how you can use them and shares his advice on how best to approach patients to take part.

What you’ll hear:

• How a video testimonial can help you overcome objections from patients
• How to utilise the law of reciprocation when asking for testimonials
• The best time to approach patients to provide a testimonial

Who should listen:

• Dentists who want to build their patient base
• Practice managers looking to create marketing materials for their practice

Eddie Crouch, Ian Redfearn, Paul Worskett and George Savva discuss the future of NHS dentistry. With the rollout of the reformed NHS England contract now less than a year away, we hosted a panel discussion to find out what they think it will mean for the profession.

What you’ll hear:

Highlights of the discussion including:

• The pros and cons of prototypes A and B
• The lessons learned so far from the reform programme
• The implications of the contract rollout.

Who should listen:

• Dentists with an NHS contract
• Owners and practice managers of NHS practices

With experts claiming that we see up to 5000 adverts per day trying to get our attention and sell us something, word of mouth recommendation and digital recommendation have become more important than ever before. Chris Barrow shares his seven top tips for ensuring your patients recommend you.

What you’ll hear:

• How to identify and understand who your target patients are
• Why you should evaluate the language that you use in all your communications
• The benefits of the whole team listening to the patient’s ‘back-story’.

Who should listen:

• Practice managers and owners wanting to grow patient numbers
• Anyone wanting to improve the patient experience
• The full practice team.

 Zoe Close discusses the benefits to your business and your patients of providing a dental plan in your practice. She also talks about the additional support that a plan provider can offer with regards to legislation and helping you to grow your business.

What you’ll hear:

• How a dental plan can build patient loyalty
• The benefits to patients when they become a plan member
• The ways in which a plan provider can help you grow your practice.

Who should listen:

• Private dentists who don’t offer a dental plan
• NHS dentists considering moving to private
• Practice managers who want a better understanding of dental plans and providers.

Les Jones discusses the possibility that your patients see things differently to you when it comes to the ‘little things’ you’ve learned to live with in practice. He talks about the potential damage this could be doing to your business and how to address it.

What you’ll hear:

• Examples of things you might be overlooking
• The impact an unresolved issue can have on a patient
• Advice on how to look at your practice as a patient would
• The importance of involving the full team in taking responsibility for resolving issues.

Who should listen:

• Practice managers and team leaders
• Everyone involved in the patient journey.

Sarah Buxton shares her advice for ensuring that your staff rota adheres to the law. She explains the importance of clear contracts, how a rota should work in a dental practice and the dangers of the more informal agreements many dental practices have in place.

What you’ll hear:

• The current law in respect of rest periods and breaks
• The consequences of not adhering to the law
• How an employer can protect themselves.

Who should listen:

• Team members responsible for creating and managing team rotas
• Practice Managers
• Anyone with HR responsibility.

It is often said that you should have one eye on your exit from the moment you start up in business. In this podcast, Thomas Coates highlights some areas of best practice to ensure you are in the best position possible when you do come to sell your practice.

What you’ll hear:

• Details of different business structures and the effect they can have on a sale
• Issues that can make the process of selling a practice more difficult
• How to ensure your practice is at its most attractive when it is time to sell.

Who should listen:

• Practice owners considering selling their practice
• New practice owners planning for the future.