Five Expert Growth Strategies for Dental Groups

The dental industry is constantly evolving, reshaping the way practices operate and deliver care. In 2024, it is increasingly crucial for dental organizations to not only recognize but also adapt to these transformative shifts.

One of the most prominent trends in the dental landscape is the rapid integration of new technology. From digital imaging and 3D printing to tele-dentistry solutions, these innovations are revolutionizing diagnosis, treatment planning, and patient care. Practices that embrace and leverage these advancements stand to enhance their efficiency, accuracy, and overall patient experience.

However, amid the wave of technological progress, the dental industry faces significant staffing challenges. High turnover rates and difficulties in recruiting skilled professionals have become pressing issues. This staffing shortage has far-reaching implications, affecting patient care, practice operations, and overall profitability.

Interest rates, too, have disrupted the traditional strategies of dental groups and DSOs. Now more than ever, growth might not come solely from acquisition, but instead from an increased focus on same-store growth. This necessitates a reevaluation of financial strategies and business operations to remain competitive in a changing landscape.

What emerging technologies or trends do you believe will have the greatest impact on enhancing the patient experience in dental practices over the next five years?

We have so many terrific technologies that are enabling comprehensive care within one visit. AI technologies, like OverJet AI, are helping providers diagnose with greater precision and then communicate better with patients about their care. CBCTs with 3D imaging are having an incredible impact on dentistry and facilitating the practice of best in class care. Andm3D printing has given us the ability to provide comprehensive care within a single visit. All of these are facilitating easier, more comprehensive, convenient care for patients which is exactly what they want. We are even starting to measure how utilizing these tools facilitates higher net promoter scores and loyalty.

How can dental practices build and maintain trust and loyalty among their patient base in an increasingly competitive landscape?

No matter how big we become, we can never lose sight of the fact that success is measured one patient at a time through every moment of the customer journey. That’s easier said than done. It requires service models that contemplate excellence and expand access to care throughout the journey from ease of scheduling a visit (online or telephonically) through the visit to bill payment and then on-going, in between visits. And this is never done; we are constantly seeking improvement. If we achieve this for every patient at every visit, not only will we garner loyalty, but we will also build brand ambassadors that will spread positive word of mouth.

In what ways can dental practices leverage patient feedback and data to continuously improve the patient experience?

We have found our patient experience platform, AskNicely, which distributes easy, quick surveys to our patients, incredibly helpful. With it, we are able to address issues immediately and turn lemons into lemonade. It also is a great way for us to uncover any systemic issues and create training to address weaknesses. We feel we are only at the tip of the iceberg in utilization of these tools. We are now integrating with our business intelligence to see how this impacts customer lifetime value, which just creates even more buy-in for the tool and its importance. It is one of the most important technologies we’ve implemented over the last 18 months.

One of the main goals DSO marketing teams should have for 2024, beyond typical marketing tactics, is to get strategic alignment with their operations teams. Connecting with operations on a regular basis helps ensure everyone is driving toward the same result. Too many times marketing and ops work in silos as they might have different end goals. This misalignment can cause a negative impact toward marketing efforts and become a burden on marketing resources.

What are some things to keep in mind to ensure a successful marketing strategy?

Schedule capacity

This would include forecasting any unexpected changes to schedules; staff shortages, doctor days/hours, changes in office hours, etc. to ensure you have appointments available to accompany your marketing efforts.

Patient visit goals

What goals are you looking to hit each month? They could be related to new patients, existing patients, ratio of new to existing, etc. From there, reverse engineer how many doctor days/patient slots you have available and what marketing efforts you will need to apply to fill the schedule.

Understanding broken appointment rate

Making sure ops and marketing have a clear understating of what an office’s “broken appointment” rate is and then having a shared plan to add additional columns to fill for those who will ultimately miss their appointments.

Moving marketing dollars

After taking the above actions, is there an office who is truly “booked out” further than patients are willing to wait? If so, marketing dollars should be shifted until more capacity is found. In healthcare, new patients want to be seen within 24-48 hours. If you continue to spend marketing dollars on patient acquisition for offices who can’t see a new patient within a few days, you are probably wasting money. The further out they are booked, the less likely they are to show

What marketing initiatives help drive patient retention?

While as marketers we often focus on patient acquisition, it’s also important to drive patient retention. Typically, the marketing cost per new patient is higher than your cost for existing patients, so it benefits the practice overall if there is a focus given to current patients. First and foremost, cultivating a patient-centric approach is key.

As in the question above, a partnership between ops and marketing is essential to drive patient retention. From an operations perspective, providing exceptional customer service, personalized care plans and attentive communication can foster a positive patient experience.

Think about what your office’s six month recall pre-book plan is and how you are getting those patients – who are in your office today – on the schedule in six months. Making sure this is a priority will help your schedule build organically.

Other tactics that can support those efforts include implementing a comprehensive recall system, including automated appointment reminders, offering discounts or membership plans for those who are uninsured, and utilizing technology to streamline administrative processes, such as online appointment scheduling.

Social media is another marketing tool to regularly engage with your existing patients. Asking patients, when in the office, to follow you on social channels, then providing regular content including educational posts, videos and updates about your practice can help keep your office and services at the forefront of the patient’s mind.

Lastly, it’s imperative to actively seek and value patient feedback. For larger groups, this means utilizing technology that asks for reviews from existing patients and tracks responses and Net Promoter Score (NPS), then promptly addressing concerns when they arise. This demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement and cultivates a trusting relationship between a practice and patients.

Is there one marketing trend you wish you could say goodbye to?

Say goodbye to marketing trends that don’t have data and analytics to demonstrate ROI. This doesn’t mean you cancel any tool that doesn’t have a direct appointment conversion associated with it; you still need some “top of funnel” tactics which are more brand awareness focused to drive to bottom of the funnel where patients convert. But what this means is, in the ever-evolving landscape of marketing, making decisions based merely on a suggestion, intuition, or assumption can lead you down an ineffective marketing path. By leveraging analytics, marketers gain a nuanced understanding of our patients’ preferences, behaviors, and the effectiveness of campaigns. Stop doing campaigns and tactics that might “look flashy” but have no associated ROI.

We know staffing has been a challenge for many organizations, how do you use marketing to retain and attract staff?

In this day and age, dental marketing teams aren’t just trying to drive new patients, but they are also acting as support to our recruiters. Crafting an appealing employer brand is essential when prospective employees are researching your company. Leveraging digital platforms, social networks, and your website allows you to highlight your commitment to a positive and inclusive work environment as well as showcase your mission, core values, and culture to ensure the people applying for jobs at your company will be a good fit. Leveraging marketing tactics to promote your dental practice as not just a healthcare provider, but also an employer of choice, will aim to attract and retain talented staff.

If you had one sentence for anything else to focus on in 2024 what would it be?

Applying MarTech (marketing technology) tools that will still maintain a heavy focus on HIPAA compliance and PHI.

With a strategic focus on same-store growth, how can dental groups put an added focus on expanding access to care and retaining existing patients?

Case acceptance rates have consistently been a challenge in the dental industry, often stemming from patients' concerns about the cost of treatment. In response to this problem, membership plans have emerged as a compelling solution, providing affordable and transparently priced care, particularly for the 76 million+ uninsured Americans nationwide. A dental membership plan aims to reduce episodic dentistry and provide improved oral health outcomes, while also unifying your organization and standardizing discounts

There are so many different ways to attack same-store growth goals, so it often depends on where you’ve identified gaps and opportunities within your own organization. If you have a higher than average patient churn rate, have seen decreasing case acceptance rates, or have a higher than average cash-paying patient base, a dental membership plan can be a great solution for your offices.

A well-designed membership plan can be a great tool to build patient trust and increase treatment acceptance rates. In a recent survey, we found that 88% of members say they’re more likely to stay with their current dentist after joining a membership plan. Combine an increase in loyalty and an increase in treatment acceptance and you’ll be a few steps closer to your same-store growth goals.

Not to mention, a lot of specialty procedures aren’t covered by traditional insurance. Implementing a membership plan that includes specialty services gives you more opportunity to increase services rendered, further expand access to care, and standardize any one-off discounts that may be currently given out by practices.

What challenges do you typically see with partners who administer their own in-house plan?

We’ve seen some in-house plans that have been administered extremely well, but more often than not dental groups will face some common challenges of in-house plan administration, and ultimately it comes down to the time and resources needed to truly roll out an effective, long-lived membership plan.

Many in-house plans don’t have a dedicated solution for managing member enrollments, accepting payments, and setting up auto-renewals of the membership plan. On top of the software needed to manage and track members, marketing materials, member support, and plan compliance are all big-ticket and time consuming items that the right plan administrator will take on.

For example, with larger organizations especially, dealing with member support inquiries can be demanding. Our member support team spent 244 days worth of time on the phone helping members last year, taking a significant burden off of our partner practices. The right partner will take care of the tactical aspects of the membership plan so your team can continue to focus on other priorities and initiatives.

How can a DSO measure dental membership plan success?

Dental groups can measure the success of a membership plan through several key metrics. One crucial indicator is retention rates, which can be enhanced through the auto-renewal feature of a membership plan. Higher retention rates demonstrate that patients are remaining loyal to the practice and finding value in the membership plan. Moreover, practices can assess the success of membership plans by tracking the frequency of patient visits for preventative care rather than just emergencies, which helps move the needle away from episodic dentistry. An increase in regular visits and treatment acceptance signifies better access to care and improved oral health outcomes - which is the goal we are all here to achieve together.

By fostering a culture that embraces change and continuous improvement, organizations like NADG ensure that their teams are ready to adapt to evolving technologies and shifting consumer demands. Through over-communication via various channels, cascading information, and building trust, they keep all employees informed, engaged, and equipped to handle resistance to change, ultimately turning it into support for proposed changes.

Implementing process operational change across a DSO is always challenging. How do you effectively manage change?

At NADG, we welcome change. The needs of our communities and patients are ever-evolving, and we want to ensure we are meeting our patients where they are. Having team members who welcome change and continuous improvement as a core component of how they operate starts with our culture. Our purpose is to improve the health of our communities by providing easy access to excellent oral health care.

Technologies are constantly evolving and improving. Consumer demand shifts. If we are to achieve our purpose, we have to constantly change. Our company values of having a growth mindset and leaning into accountability facilitate this. If we recruit, hire, and develop our teams with these in mind, they will have a predisposition to welcome change and execute those change initiatives. Subsequently, how we action change is through a rigorous system of problem identification, plan development, and urgent execution, holding ourselves and each other accountable and over-communicating every step of the way.

How do you ensure all employees are informed and engaged in the process?

I believe in over-communication through multiple communication channels throughout the process. Depending on the initiative, we will use email, town halls, videos, one-on-one communications, role-based communications, and virtual and in-person meetings. Some of the most impactful channels tend to be daily huddles through office managers, direct discussions with dental leaders, operations leaders, and hygiene coaches, and simply using common sense every step of the way – like just picking up the phone when needed. How we cascade information is also important - starting with leadership - so that all are using the same words to communicate the same information. Our goal is always to keep it simple and clear.

How do you handle resistance to change, both from employees and stakeholders, and convert it into support?

Trust is essential. Again, explaining the why and the urgency, as well as how it impacts not only the organization, but our teammates and our patients. One of the most effective tools we've found for handling resistance (and is actually one of our core values) is ensuring we are listening to understand one another and are clear on that person's needs and objectives so we can discern the root of the concerns and address them head on. We also know we have leaders throughout the organization that are well respected and trusted. Ensuring that they’re on board and are ambassadors for the change makes a difference.

New technologies are revolutionizing countless industries, and dental is no different. From patient care to practice operations, emerging innovations, including call center software, integrations, clinical and front-office AI, and cloud-based Practice Management Systems, are reshaping the industry. These advancements hold the potential to enhance efficiency, elevate patient care quality, and streamline administrative tasks. As we explore this transformative tech-driven era, you'll gain insights into how these innovations are redefining the future of dentistry.

What technological advancements in dental organizations do you foresee in 2024?

Since I work in dental software implementations, I have the opportunity to see what DSOs are actually doing, not just talking about. I observe that as groups refocus on same-store growth, they’re looking for ways to drive revenue and increase efficiency. Based on my experiences, here are the technologies that I think will be most popular in 2024:

Call center software

By recording patient calls, call center software provides data analysis and recommendations to drive an increased volume of scheduled appointments for new and existing patients. Vendors are using AI to speed call analysis and reduce cost and DSOs are discovering massive opportunities to drive revenue.

For example, a 20+ location DSO recently implemented a call center software and was pleased to discover 2000 new patient calls coming in for the prior month. However, they were not pleased to find only a 50% scheduling success rate. Now that this group knows their numbers, they are focusing efforts to improve across the organization. It’s easy to see the impact on practice operations can be measured by increased new patient production, and the impact on patient care will reflect as improved access to care.

Integration

DSOs have been asking for integration, and I’m starting to see the major PMS systems are now allowing it with outside tech vendors through their APIs. This comes with added costs, but it maintains security and speed and allows the DSO to select the products that best fit their budget and needs. In 2024, I think we will have real world examples of integration (I’m waiting on one vendor right now to provide a customer name to prove their integration exists) and this will lead to further innovation and improved efficiencies for our dental teams. The impact on our practice operations will be time saved by our teams when we can choose products based on their functionality rather than their ownership. From a patient care perspective, consumers are used to high tech in many areas of our lives, but we put up with paper forms, lack of visibility, and terrible patient experiences generally throughout healthcare. I’m hopeful that integration will allow more best in class products to come to dentistry - and the resulting experience will be so positive that DSOs will want these tech solutions for their patients.

Clinical and front office AI

Clinical AI for caries detection and bone loss is already being talked about as likely the standard of care in the future, and the white papers I’ve read are impressive on the revenue this drives thanks to improved diagnosis. Yet, there is even more excitement about how front office AI can have an even larger impact in dentistry by driving efficiency in administrative tasks. Since the staffing challenge isn’t going away, I see this as one of the most influential tech advancements headed our way. Considering impact on operations, for clinical AI to succeed it takes a change in workflow inside the operatory, and for front office AI I think we will see clearer recommendations on what task to tackle next as the AI has analyzed the highest priority work. This likely will make it easier for new hires to be effective - and improve patient care in the process.

Standardization to cloud-based PMS

Not only is the economy driving a strategy change from acquisitions to same store growth but dental PE firms are now far more experienced. They expect DSOs to have trusted KPIs and protocols in place to implement their model to achieve financial targets. DSOs are quickly moving to select one or two cloud-based PMS systems and converting all locations. This is a far cry from the days of aggregation when doctors were told ‘we won’t change a thing’. Now, DSOs realize that if they want to actually drive improved measurable results, they must reduce variation. Realistically, this has a massive impact on practice operations as changing a practice management system disrupts every part of the organization. And yet, once completed the impact on practice operations includes:

• Consistent, trustworthy, immediately accessible KPIs
• Mountains of time savings at the management and office levels
• Increased velocity of implementing initiatives that make a difference
• PE and lender willingness to partner.

For patient care, this standardization allows for consistent quality, for example with billing as there is one SOP that can be trained and implemented across all locations, not varying based on the PMS.

Can you offer advice on how dental practices can effectively adopt and leverage new technologies, balancing the benefits with the costs and learning curves?

Assessment

Start with an assessment of current state workflows and KPIs. What’s going well? What problems are you observing? What pain points do you see? What KPIs are not meeting industry benchmarks? Start with identifying the opportunity and that drives the tech solution selection. Who can do this for you?

Success metrics

Understand the tech solution features/functionality and how it could drive measurable outcomes. This could mean looking at new tech or optimizing existing tech. Most DSOs are not fully utilizing the top value features in their PMS that they are already paying for today. Document how you will know this tech solution is a success. Who will define these metrics for the technology?

Project management

It’s easy to get excited about new technology, but takes significant investment to achieve successful adoption. Consider your existing team and the training involved and what resources you have to implement effectively. Who will lead the project?

Change management

As Paul talked about in more depth previously in this ebook, successful adoption of new tech means that each individual must change their workflow. To gain buy-in from the team, leadership needs to communicate why this change is happening and how it will benefit each role. Who will create and deliver this messaging to the team?

Software set-up and guidance

DSOs are unique, so off-the-shelf set up instructions need to be customized to fit your specific model. Consider the outcomes you’re trying to achieve and match the user rights to protect the integrity of the data. Who will guide the decision-making for software set up?

SOP creation

Once decisions are made and workflows established, document SOPs to facilitate the rollout across multiple locations and support future new hires. These will also help newly acquired practices transition to the technology. Who will take the responsibility to create these SOPs for your group?

The expertise shared here is meant to guide you, offering practical ways to navigate both challenges and opportunities as they arise.

Looking for more? Explore how Clerri helps practices and DSOs design, launch, and grow membership plans that improve patient access and create reliable, recurring revenue.