Episode #393: How to Find and Keep Great People, with Dr. Erin Elliott

  It’s a challenge trying to find, train, and keep great people. Is all that even possible? And where do you start? To provide some answers, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Erin Elliott to share how she discovered out-of-the-box solutions for those challenges in her office. A great practice needs great people. And to find them, you first need to attract the right ones! And if what you're doing isn't working, you can always do something different. For more tips on finding great people for your great practice, listen to Episode 393 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

• Think outside the box to attract the right people.
• Choose personality over experience. The dental part will come.
• Firing “bad patients” is one way to reduce team turnover. 
• Eliminating phone calls may keep your team happier.
• Outsource the daunting and overwhelming tasks.
• If you're unhappy or feeling stuck, do something different.

Quotes:

• “The big thing that T-Bone taught me is that there's absolutely no way we should be doing the dentistry that we did in dental school only.” (8:17—8:25)
• “I didn't think we would struggle with [finding and keeping the right people] where I live. But this whole employee thing, I still don't understand it. At the core of it, we still have the same team. We have a large team: six hygienists, five that work all at the same time, three doctors, I work with three assistants. It’s kind of a scheduling — it’s a lot of fun. Let's just say that. So, at the core of it, our assistants and hygienists have all stayed the same. But for some reason, front desk has been so difficult for us. And we have tons of people moving to our area. We are so booked with new patients, good quality patients, and I can't understand why there's not a workforce. But most of the people moving to our area are retired. So, we just don't have a workforce, even with all these people.” (12:13—13:06)
• “We’re working two front desk people short right now. And just the thought of trying to find someone and train them, two new people, and then not having any dental experience, because we’re trying to think outside the box, it’s overwhelming, the thought of it. And when we did have someone no-show for an interview, it was like the sails were deflated. It’s like, ‘What do we do now?’” (13:22—13:49)
• “I was answering phones, and I was like, ‘Man, I could've answered more than half of those by text.’ So, here’s when I was thinking outside the box. If the thought of training is overwhelming, let's outsource that. There's got to be like, ‘Here’s the basics of Eaglesoft. Here’s the basics of [dentistry]. You're going to sit down in our basement and watch some onboarding videos for two days before you even come upstairs,’ something to take the training out of the hands of the people that are there. Because telling someone to click there, and then click there, I don't have patience for it.” (14:15—14:53)
• “The second [issue] was the phone calls. I'm not testing this till next week, so bear with me. But I found a service where if it rings three times and goes unanswered, it sends an automatic text from a phone number that I chose. And it just says, ‘Hey, sorry we missed your call. How can we help you?’ And we can text with our patient to answer questions and eliminate phone calls. When we’re working this short, the phone calls are the problem. It’s like they catch up on voicemails, and then call those patients back, and then they're full of voicemails again. So, that's where I'm at. I'm trying to think outside the box, just eliminate phone calls, eliminate busywork, and let them focus on the patients that are there.” (14:55—15:47)
• “I think at the front, it’s a constant barrage of phone calls, problems, people not being nice. I don't know if they see a place to move up there. So, I want to try to create kind of a specialty feeling amongst the front so that they have their ownership.” (17:55—18:17)
• “We do a dismissal letter. And I like the way it’s worded. But when I say “bad patient,” it’s not just the ones that — it’s so weird how they might treat the front desk bad, and then when I go talk to them, I'm like, ‘I'm going to stand up for my team!’ then, they're super nice. It’s so annoying. But what I mean by “bad patient” is more the ones that don't respect our time. No-shows, cancel last minute, never confirm. I mean, we give so many confirmation texts, emails. There's no reason for a no-show. And so, if someone can't respect our time, then we just say, ‘Hey, it looks like our lines of communication are crossed. It might be best to find an office that better suits your needs and your schedule.’” (20:35—21:20)
• “Our time is valuable, and our patients’ time is valuable. And so, if you're just going to call when you have an emergency and muck up our schedule for the people that did schedule and take care of their teeth, my fuse is getting shorter for that, my tolerance level.” (22:10—22:25)
• “At this point, I would rather take the personality than experience. And so, we’re allowing more nondental [employees]. We’re seeking that. Actually, I changed the wording of the ad to “administrative manager”. Even though we have an office manager, it would be an administrative manager. Using that word, “manager,” it’s not a bait-and-switch because they would be manager of the front desk team. But finding a different demographic [than] young girls that are like, ‘Oh, dentistry sounds fun!’ I feel like those are the kinds of applicants we’re getting. And so, I want someone that has more presence, and thinking of it as a career, not just a job or a starting-out position. So, trying to come up with ways to attract different kinds of people, because what we’ve been doing has not worked.” (23:57—24:55)
• “I really don't have a lot of patience. What I learned is that I need someone that doesn't need to be micromanaged, that can be self-taught, is okay with being thrown in the deep end figuring it out. We don't do a lot of handholding, and I kind of need you to get it after like, I'll give you three times, not 20. I realized that's where my weak spot is. So, I'm going to look for people that I — you can't train someone how to multitask. You can't train someone how to problem-solve. You either have it or don't.” (25:36—26:13)
• “At this point, it was daunting to teach dentistry. And so, if I can outsource that, then I'm willing to look outside of just experience. I think, now, we can hire the personality and just know that the dental part will come. But it was overwhelming, the thought of training. And so, if I can take that out of the hands, then we’re good.” (26:14—26:36)
• “I'm also using a personnel service. You have to pay a little bit more, but I don't care. Because my office manager made a good point. She goes, ‘You invest in assistants and technology. It’s almost like front desk is kind of last thought. We’re not investing there.’ And it hit me. Like, yeah, there's some truth to that. I felt that'll just work itself out, but there's so much always on the phone that I feel like we never get caught up on anything else. So, I'm thinking outside the box for who to hire, experience or no experience, hire for personality, outsource the training, eliminate phone calls.” (26:37—27:24)
• “I'm doing way more ortho and implants now that I'm not trying to do cosmetics and full-mouth rehabs. I'm doing more dentistry because I have that kind of specialty. And we’re keeping a ton inside the practice because I don't have to be the expert at everything. It’s quite overwhelming to have to be the master of none. And so, I really have been focusing my CE and bringing my skillset to that next level by doing less of the dentistry that was distracting me before.” (31:28—32:16)
• “Dentists kind of dabble here, dabble there. If you really want to implement, you have to invest the time to set aside for training, talking to patients. If I go learn a new skillset, I have a patient already scheduled before I even get back from that course so that I do it right away.” (33:42—34:02)
• “If you are dreading going to work, if you're unhappy, or you just can't seem to get out of this cycle of, for example, for me it’s front desk, then do something different. Do something different. Find the things that do bring you joy. Tailor that and let go. Pass over the reins. You don't have to be perfect at everything. It’s okay to let go of some things or admit that you can't be perfect at everything.” (38:03—38:36)
• “Make it happen. Don't just sit and complain. Do something about it.” (39:08—39:13)

Snippets:

• 0:00 Introduction.
• 3:08 Dr. Elliott’s background.
• 4:09 How Dr. Elliott started educating on sleep dentistry.
• 6:32 You're not fixing teeth, you're changing lives.
• 7:23 Where Dr. Elliott is in her career.
• 8:57 Pay attention to things that bring you joy.
• 11:52 Why finding and keeping the right people is important.
• 17:15 Dr. Elliott’s hypothesis for why front desk is a struggle.
• 20:06 Firing bad patients.
• 23:04 Think outside the box to attract the right people.
• 24:56 Lessons learned in choosing personality over experience.
• 30:59 Doing more by doing less.
• 34:31 The champion concept.
• 36:18 Having the patient partnered.
• 37:45 Last thoughts on finding and keeping the right people.
• 39:13 Dr. Elliott’s contact information and courses at 3D Dentists.

Reach Out to Dr. Elliott:

Dr. Elliott’s website: www.erinelliottdds.com

Dr. Elliott’s email: [email protected] 

@erinelliottdds

3D Dentists website: https://3d-dentists.com/

Dr. Erin Elliott Bio:

Dr. Elliott grew up in Southern California but went away to a small NAIA school in Western New York, where she played collegiate soccer and graduated summa cum laude. She graduated Creighton Dental School in the top five of her class. After school, she settled in North Idaho and began her dentistry career. She has a passion for Dental Sleep Medicine, Short-Term Orthodontics, and integrating CAD/CAM and cone-beam imaging into a general dentistry practice. She regularly lectures on these topics.

She is an active member of her local American Dental Association, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, and was the president and a diplomate of the American Sleep and Breathing Academy. 

She teaches two-day sleep apnea courses with 3D Dentists and Dr. Tarun Agarwal. She also privately coaches practices about sleep!

She spends her free time with her stay-at-home husband, Tom, and her two sons. She loves to spend time with friends, golfing, traveling, playing soccer, reading, and serving her community. 

Dr. Elliott is dedicated to sharing the tools she has developed and honed over the years in the industry, and she knows these tools will help your practice succeed.