Client interview, August 2015 - Interview with Dr Robert Zhang and Amy - Principal Dentist and Practice Manager at Alderley Dental

How were you introduced to Prime Practice?

DR ZHANG: I previously worked for another practice and observed the changes once Prime Practice were engaged to help them. When I bought my own practice, I tried to implement all the changes I could remember from my previous practice, but eventually realised we would be better off if we engaged Prime Practice too. We started working with Prime 2.5 years ago in March 2013.

How has your practice changed in the years?

DR ZHANG: A lot has changed, but there has been a massive shift in our communication. We are much better at keeping and building relationships with our patients. We truly listen to them and show an interest in them as people, not just patients. As a dentist, I have learnt how to express the treatment options to patients better and the whole team is able to support the patients in their decisions. The team have had training so they can also understand the importance of treatment and can support me in what I am proposing.

We also have much better systems in place with booking patients in and booking in recall, which keeps our business going.

Another change that has happened is that we have consolidated two practices into the one. We are seeing big increases in busy-ness and are exceeding our goals. We had to deal with a number of unhappy customers with the closing down of one practice, but with the help of our coach, Prime Practice and support of the team, we have managed to keep most of our patients and integrated our key team members in the new practice.

AMY: I started out as Dr Zhang’s assistant. From what I could see, we weren’t engaging with the patients much, but just fixing the presenting problems. I can see such positive outcomes from working with Prime Practice since we started. The dentists are much more confident to present treatment to the patients without judging them. They are no longer selling the treatment to the patients rather treating patients as if it were their mouth. If patients can’t afford the treatment, we know how to support them.

Amy, I understand you are now the practice manager and undertaking practice management training with Prime Practice

AMY: Yes, I am doing the Practice Manager Program. I am learning loads about myself and how to deal with people who have different personalities. I am learning how to lead the team and am finding my feet in the new management role.

How would you describe the impact of your Prime Practice coach on your development/evolution as a successful practice manager?

AMY: It’s great to have the support of my coach who is very experienced and always helping me point my energies in the right direction. If I am ever feeling unsure about anything or have questions, I know I can always run things through with my coach first. My being in this new role definitely frees up Dr Zhang’s time so he can focus on other things.

The team and I also get a lot from watching the Prime online videos and from attending workshops. Our coach helps me guide the team in implementing all the systems we learn at workshops and through the videos.

 How would you say being a ‘Prime’ practice sets you apart from other dental practices?

AMY: Other than the communication skills and confidence that the dentists now have, as a team, we are communicating much better. There are a number of things that have really helped us:

- We are really enjoying our morning huddles as this is where we learn what is expected of us throughout the day. As a team we delegate tasks on a daily basis at the huddle and we all know what is achievable as we discuss it in the huddle. This could be things like ‘dentist needs to run on time as has another patient after hours’, or ‘medical history needs to be updated’ etc. We also collect information from patients and pass this around and use this to build our relationships with the patients and help them to feel known. We really listen to our patients and allow them to share stories with us. Just yesterday a patient said this was why she kept coming to us. She said it felt like we ‘got’ her and as a result, she was sending her husband too! Getting this system implemented throughout the practice has taken time, but we see the benefits of this on a daily basis.

- From the initial phone call with a patient, we are able to build trust and nurture the relationship. Developing our telephone skills has definitely been beneficial for us. 

- Having set systems for most tasks eg: recall has dramatically improved the day-to-day running of our practice. 

Being a "Prime" Practice has really benefited our practice and we are always learning and trying to improve things. I can definitely see such an improvement since I first started working at this practice 3 years ago in all aspects. I have been in the dental industry for about 11 years and this is the second ‘Prime’ practice I have worked in. I can honestly say that Prime is the best thing that could have happened to our practice. We have all grown and continue to grow further.