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Combating The Holiday Doldrums

Combating The Holiday Doldrums
by Roger P. Levin, DDS

Six activities to help you finish strong this year

Welcome to the distraction zone. As the year winds down, it gets harder and harder to focus. The weeks are flying by like scenery outside a train window, but there’s still so much to do. It’s challenging enough to keep your practice on track during the rest of the year, but now with the holidays fast approaching, things just got that much harder. So many of your practice goals are within reach, yet you can feel it all starting to slip away.

OK, let’s take a deep breath. There’s no need to panic. You’ve been here before and so have most, if not all, of your team members. Sure, there’s a lot of extracurricular stuff going on—shopping, parties, family get-togethers, social obligations, etc—but so what? Every season has its own particular challenges, so why should this time of year be any different? If you’re prepared, it doesn’t have to be.

Here’s a list of six key activities that will help your practice crank up performance at the end of the year and get a running start on 2018:

1. Crunch the Numbers

You should be doing this throughout the year, but it’s important to dig deep into the data in order to determine how close you are to reaching your goals for production, overhead, case acceptance, new patients, etc. If you’re on pace to achieve your goals, that’s great news. Continue what you’ve been doing. If you’re off target, it’s time to implement some countermeasures. For example, if you’re struggling to meet your overhead goal, review your upcoming expenditures. Are they all necessary? Can anything be postponed until next year? Are there opportunities for lower-priced alternatives?

As the CEO of your practice, you need to have accurate information on how your office is performing to make the best decisions going forward. This is especially critical as the year comes to a close. You want to put your practice in the best position possible to have a great 2018. Crunching the numbers now will help you do that.

2. Motivate the Troops

You and your team are coming into the homestretch, but this final leg from Thanksgiving to New Years Eve is a tricky one. You can’t escape the holiday madness (the deals, the crowds, the piped-in music, the over-the-top commercials, etc.), which seems to intensify every year.

This is your time to act as practice cheerleader. Acknowledge the challenges. Reinforce what is at stake. Emphasize that your patients are counting on you and your team. Share information about current goal performance. Review the priorities for the rest of the year. And most of all, be positive, appreciative, and inspirational. When you set the example, your team will follow suit.

Read full article on Inside Dentistry.