The Five P’s: Have You Reviewed Your Key Success Factors Recently?

Aug 08, 2013

KeyAccording to IBISWorld, a leading provider of industry-based research, the top key success factors for dentists are:

I. Pricing – Ensuring pricing policy is appropriate. Dentists must price services in accordance with clients’ ability to pay, industry norms, and time requirements per service. Your fee structure is a major driver of practice value. Have a methodical and systematic way to raise fees, regularly/annually. See our recent blog, “In Or Out of Network, That is the Question” for further details on pricing and prices accepted for services

II. Patient relationships -The development of good patient relations is essential to create a loyal customer base and referrals. Word-of-mouth is a very effective form of marketing. Positive experiences, excellent doctor-patient communication, and professional and outwardly helpful staff lead to impressive repeat and new patient levels.

III. Practice location – Easy access. Location has proven to be extremely important in generating new patient referrals and encouraging patients to return. When looking for the best location keep in mind these factors:

  • population statistics / demographics
  • traffic patterns
  • visibility & accessibility of the building and your sign
  • convenient parking
  • competition (the location is not overpopulated with dentists)

IV. Processes – Well developed internal processes result in productivity and profitability. To know how well-oiled your practice runs, evaluate the following list of systems within your practice:

  • Scheduling
  • Overhead expense control
  • Accounts Receivable – See our blog post  “Smarter Account Receivable Management”
  • Charting
  • Staff (a well-trained and established team)
  • Recall in the hygiene department
  • New patient levels
  • Marketing (image, brand, reputation, internal & external marketing plans, website)

V. Product offerings – Ability to quickly adopt new technology: Technological advances improve productivity, allowing dentists to complete more procedures in a given day and maintain higher profit with less time and labor cost. The introduction of new technology assists the practice to increase the range of services provided and improve productivity, lowering your costs.

Categories: Healthcare & Dentistry