Practices are using them for everything from something to do for waiting patients, to patient education, to practice management purposes.

A site called Dr. Pulp has a list of 10 handy iPad apps for dentistry right here.

What I’m more curious about is whether you’re using iPads in your office, whether for your staff, patients, or otherwise. Let me know in the comments, or feel free to shoot me an email, as well.

(Originally posted as iPad Apps For Dentists on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)

First of all, what is a Facebook check-in? Basically, when someone comes to your practice, they have the ability to “check-in” to your Facebook Page. This basically sends a status update to their Facebook friends saying, “Joe Smith is at Main Street Dental”, with a text link to the practice’s Page.

Why would someone do this? Why people want to document the minutiae of their life is one of the eternal questions around the evolution of social media.

For now, just know that people do this, that those links expose your practice to other people in your geographic area, and that this makes setting up a check-in deal something worth exploring.

Quite simply, a check-in deal is an incentive that you can give a patient in exchange for executing a check-in. For example, you might offer a $5 gift card to Starbucks, or a discount on that day’s treatment. Another popular option is to donate x amount of dollars to a charity of your choice for each check-in.

Think of this as part of your advertising budget. Remember, essentially you’re buying highly targeted text links – these links work as low-level word of mouth from your patients who are checking in to their network of friends.

You can learn more about Facebook Check-In Deals here, and of course get in touch with us with any questions.

(Originally posted as Facebook Check-In Deals For Dentists on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)

One of the initial exercises our clients go through is our Practice Analysis. First, you supply a range of information related to your practice’s workflow, revenues, and operations.

With this information we’re able to return an overview of what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and how you can improve your practice in order to increase revenues and productivity. In addition, you’ll receive an in-depth, detailed 12-month business plan projection tailored specifically to your practice.

Normally we charge $700 for this service, but for the first five practices that submit a form before Tuesday, May 15th, we are offering it 100% FREE.

The process is simple:

1) Call (925-754-9393) or email susan@gundelach.com your request and we’ll email you the form.*

2) Print the form, fill it out, and email to 
susan@gundelach.com OR fax it to 925-754-6904.

*If we’ve filled our quota of five before May 15th, we will save your information and let you know next time we open this or similar offers.

(Originally posted as Free Dental Practice Analysis on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)

While this is common knowledge to most dentists, the act of asking for the referral can sometimes be awkward or uncomfortable for the doctor or staff.

For years, we’ve suggested variations on the below as a template for our clients to follow, and most have found great success with it.

This is staff member talking:
Mrs. Jones we need your help, a good dentist always needs new patients because their patients trust them and have all their dental work done. Dr. Martin is an excellent dentist and does the highest quality dentistry.

Therefore his dentistry last a long, long time, usually a lifetime. So when he completes a mouth he needs another one to fix. It is Dr. Martin’s desire to help everyone in this community have healthy teeth and gums.

If you know of any one who would benefit from Dr. Martin’s dentistry please give them our card.

This is the doctor talking:
Mrs. Jones, I have decided to grow our practice with some more new patients. However, I want to be very specific and selective with whom I invite into the practice.

I want to ask my best patients, like you to mention our office if the subject of dentistry comes up with any of your friends. Likes tend to congregate with likes, so your friends will probably be as nice as you and I would love to have more patients like you in my practice.

It goes without saying that one should reword this so that it sounds natural and conversational. If you’re not asking your patients for referrals, give this a try and let us know how it works for you.

Any questions, just get in touch.

(Originally posted as How To Ask For Patient Referrals on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)

The similarities in training the two became apparent to me as I found myself watching Caesar Milan’s show The Dog Whisperer. The more I watched, the more interested I became in the idea of training a dog myself.

This led to the rescue of our dog Bear, pictured here in this post. We got Bear from a rescue shelter about a month before I had major surgery, and I noticed how gentle he was with me as I went through the healing process.

That got me thinking about visiting hospitals with Bear – maybe he could bring the same type of companionship and comfort he brought me to others.

He was a long way from being ready for that, as his “rap sheet” at the rescue shelter described him as destructive, noted that he jumps on people, and also that he was prone to submissive wetting. (All of these have been corrected.)

Although he also had some positive traits such as “outgoing”, this was quite a set of behavioral problems, so we started training Bear at home with Caesar’s DVDs. He took to it well, and we’ve since moved on to getting official certifications. He’s doing great, and passed the CGC Test (Canine Good Citizen’s Test) on March 5, 2012.

the eventual goal is for Bear to become a therapy dog, or “a dog trained to provide affection and comfort to people in hospitals, retirement homes, nursing homes, schools, people with learning difficulties, and stressful situations, such as disaster areas.” As noted on Wikipedia, these dogs come in all sizes and breeds, and we think Bear will make a terrific one.

(Originally posted as Our Dog in Training on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)

After all, these are people who are already paying you for your services, and it’s always possible that in the course of treatment some elective procedures might have been overlooked.

We have a worksheet with four simple questions you should be asking yourself after each appointment. Most of our clients are surprised at how simple these questions actually are, and then later, by how much of a change it makes in their selling techniques.

You can download the worksheet here. Feel free to get in touch and we can discuss how you might implement this into your practice.

(Originally posted as 4 Ways To Earn More From Each Patient on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)

If you’re not familiar with it, see the picture included with this post, or click over to our Facebook Page.

There are four big benefits to the new format and the functionality it brings. In no particular order:

1) You now have the ability to “pin” a chosen story to the top of your page. Previously all stories were pushed down as new material was posted. This is a great way to highlight an offer, special, or piece of news.

2) Private messaging is now possible via your Business Page, just like with a Personal Profile, although this is only true if someone has liked your Page first.

3) The new Facebook ad platform has been made to work with the Timeline format, and will give you the ability to ensure your followers will see your updates. Before, this was much more limited, and depended on when your followers logged in, and if they happened to see your update. (This is unclear, I know. If you need more insight into this, please get in touch or leave a comment.)

4) Your practice’s entire history can now be made available. You can backdate updates and events into your Timeline. This gives the potential new patient a full look at how long you have been operating, as well as other possible insights.

It will be interesting to see how practice’s choose to use the new features. As with all things social media, Facebook Timeline is a case of giving it a try and seeing what you can do with it. Best of luck, and let us know if we can help in any way.

(Originally posted as Facebook Timeline For Dentists on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)

When the schedule goes astray – whether due to cancellations, no-shows, emergencies, untrained staff, or other factors – you’re left with the opposite results…and massive amounts of frustration.

Many doctors think that upgrading their software is the key to eliminating these potential negative factors. It can certainly help, but like most technology, there’s more to its success than just pushing the right buttons.

These are human components, and can’t be solved by any machine. (Well, not yet.)

Ideally, your schedule should help you achieve the following every single day:

• Balance the workload
• Provide quality time with patients
• Increase productivity and meet goals
• Improve quality of patient care
• Consistently have satisfied patients

We have an in-depth program we run with our clients to get them to this point. You can a copy of our program here to get a look at it. Get in touch with us for more information and advisement on how to implement what you find inside.

(Originally posted as Dental Appointment Scheduling Software on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)

At a glance, this may seem like a simple task. After all, you’re really just putting into words the reasons you’re going into business, right? Even so, many dentists struggle with this, even those who have been practicing for years.

We have a set of exercises we go through with our clients to help them through the process. Read these four tips and at the end of the post, you can download a more full report.

1) Close your eyes and ask yourself; if I could have my practice any way, how would I want it, what would you design?

2) Write a list of all the positive things that are meaningful in your practice and why. Get into the substance of your practice.

3) After your vision is written, you must test it. Does this vision inspire you? Is it something that excites you?

4) Present your vision to your staff and get their feedback.

Do not undervalue the importance of your practice’s mission statement, including going through our recommended full process of developing it. You’ll be surprised how it will force you to consider your methods and systems, in addition to your goals.

Download our full report on crafting your Mission Statement here, and get in touch with us with your questions.

(Originally posted as A Dentist’s Mission Statement – Four Tips For Writing Yours on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)

If you’ve never tested your own SEO, you might do so right now. Try searching for different terms (commonly called keywords) that people might use when searching for a dentist in your area. For example, “Chicago dentists” if you’re located in Chicago. Do you show up high in the rankings?

You may want to look into putting some effort into your SEO if you don’t.

A recent article over at Search Engine Land highlighted the latest trends and habits of internet searchers looking for information on local businesses.

47% said they relied mostly on the Internet for local information
36% rely on search engines
31% rely mostly on newspapers
22% rely on word of mouth from friends and family
8% rely on local TV
5% rely on local radio

These numbers will only trend in favor of the internet more and more, especially as mobile smartphones like the iPhone become more commonplace than they already are.

If you’re not sure where you stand on your practice website’s SEO, get in touch and let’s discuss.

(Originally posted as Why SEO Is Vital For Dentists on Gundelach & Associates - Business for the Professional Dentist)