Levin Group recommends that the first agenda item in every morning meeting be to review how well the team did in meeting yesterday’s production goal and to talk about today’s production goal.
Why is this so important?
The daily production goal is simply a mathematical calculation of how much production you want to create each day. In an ideal world, you would hit it every day and thereby achieve the annual production goal. In the real world, we know that it is not possible to hit the daily production goal every day, but it is possible to create a schedule that is oriented toward achieving that goal. Without knowing the daily production goal, you cannot create the schedule to achieve it. You and your team would be “operating in the dark.”
The first reason daily production goals are so powerful is simply to know if you are on track or not. Did you hit it or exceed it yesterday? Have you missed it the last five days in a row? Do you have enough production scheduled for today? These are important considerations because production is the single most crucial factor in determining the overall performance of a dental practice.
The second reason knowing the daily production goals is powerful is that you can course-correct in real-time (meaning today). You find out in the morning meeting that your schedule that day is $500 short of the daily production goal. This brings up several strategic options to find a way to increase today’s production by $500. Bring in an emergency, identify same-day treatment, sell oral home care products, catch up patients who are behind on x-rays and fluoride, and a host of other strategies. If you do not know at the beginning of the day that you are scheduled to be below the goal for the day, you will lose the opportunity for the entire team to be focused on identifying the production that will allow the office to hit the daily production goal.
The third reason to have a daily production goal is to bring the team together. The front desk staff now understands the goal of the schedule is not only to manage time but as importantly, to manage and create production. Hygienists know they can contribute to finding additional treatment to achieve today, tomorrow, or next week’s daily production goal.
Even assistants can play a role by encouraging patients to have that other procedure that was identified during the appointment done today to fill in the daily production goal gap.
Practices with the right level of production will always be fine, but what is the right level? Without setting goals, it is almost impossible to know where the practice stands now. Many practices simply wait until the end of the year to see how they do.
It is a much better idea to see how you do day-to-day
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Roger P. Levin, DDS, is the CEO and founder of Levin Group, a leading practice management consulting firm that has worked with over 30,000 clients to increase production. A recognized expert on dental practice management and marketing, he has written more than 60 books and over 4,000 articles. He regularly presents seminars in the U.S. and around the world.
To contact Dr. Levin or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit www.levingroup.com or email rlevin@levingroup.com.
