The Team Huddle in Your Dental Office

Is your Dental Office having a hard time keeping your team involved? Consider implementing a Team Huddle that your team wants to attend! AMP has created some of the best team huddles in offices that have increased dental case acceptance, patient referrals and overall practice reputation.

Just like our team meets weekly to huddle, we encourage our offices to do the same. Huddles bring value and focus for your team at the start of each day. Right now you might be asking, What are the components of a productive huddle?

To start, just reading off the schedule and discussing what treatment will be done is NOT a component of what makes huddles productive. If the only thing that is on schedule is procedures don’t read it, everyone can see it. That approach is BORING and INEFFECTIVE!

No one person should lead the entire huddle! Each person should take control of his or her own schedule sharing a “nugget” of information about the patient that may be helpful for everyone else in the huddle to know. It makes everyone look like rock stars when a patient comes in! They feel like they are more than just a number and that they are special!

For example:

If a patient just had a baby and the front desk knows this due to the baby crying in the background, after some conversation the front desk might learn that the baby is teething. The doc can utilize that information to build relationship by offering some suggestions on teething! How much of an impact does that make to your patient?!?! That small simple piece of information has the ability to make your patient feel special!

The huddle should consist of:

Important personal information about the patients - Weddings, Births, Birthdays, Promotions that may have been discussed or occurred since last visit. This builds relationship in a short period of time
Are any family members of the person scheduled due or over due for a prophy or have unscheduled treatment? This will be used to fill holes in your schedule!
Is the person on the schedule due for a prophy (if they are on Doctors Schedule) or does the person have unscheduled treatment (if they are on the Hygiene Schedule) This will be used to fill holes in your schedule!
What patients have balances due that day?
Are all the supplies and lab cases in for the patient’s procedure that day? This will help minimize the A/R in the office!
Who are your VIP’s? Who is on the schedule that has given you many referrals? Thank them with a Gift Card! Who’ve had a big case done in your office? Ask them if they are still happy with the work and if so ask them for a referral! Who has not been there in a while? Welcome them back and tell them you’ve missed them!

The huddle will help with accountability for your entire team! Make it information filled and fun! If you’re having trouble doing this…reach out to your coach to help! We’d be happy to customize a new, more productive pattern in your huddles!