Should You Add Capacity?

Should You Add Capacity? See if you can find the answer in this update from me about my practice.

I hope you've been doing well! July has been an especially WACKY (but GREAT) month for me. A long vacation with the family at beautiful Figure 8 Island, NC...a 2-day meeting with my "Marketing Millionaires Mastermind" group...and a rare speaking engagement at Dr Tom Orent's annual GEMS Super-Conference jammed my already busy schedule.

On top of that, Rachel (my 2-day hygienist) just gave birth to her first baby, little Anna Grace, on July 7! So we've added a wonderful new hygienist, Jennifer, to our team, who will actually continue as a 2-day hygienist even when Rachel returns. Added to Mary Catherine (4 days/wk), this will increase our hygiene capacity by 33%! And it's a good thing, because...

...We now have a new DENTIST, Dr. Ryan, working with us one day per week. A recent graduate of dental school, he (ironically) LOVES endo. That's a match made in heaven for me, 'cause I'm quite frankly not a fan of "cleaning out the pipes"! He's already getting rave reviews from our patients. This addition will add 25% of "doctor time" to our schedule...until I feel he's ready to run the show while I back down to 3 days per week.

With him doing endo regularly and my less productive procedures as well, my eventual 3 days will become just as productive as my current 4-day schedule. Then Dr. Ryan may add a day!

Why am I making all these changes at once? Because we're overdue for them. New patient appointments are 4-6 weeks out... longer treatment appointments are just as far out. Although many practices brag about such backlogs, they are NOT good. Instead, they give patients a great reason to cancel, or find another dentist who is more accommodating...even if they SEEM to love you.

So I'm adding capacity. Perhaps even more than I may need right now? Why? Because I want to GROW the practice 30% this year. Besides, I've got to have somewhere to put all the new patients that April is going to drive into the practice. Did I forget to tell you about her? She's my NEW "marketing implementer", and she starts TODAY!

You see, even if you already have an ultra-successful practice, you can grow it further still. And one great way to do that is to ADD CAPACITY...even BEFORE you think you need it.

Most doctors think you need to have a jammed schedule before you add hygiene days, for example. It's actually the opposite. Adding hygiene days CREATES a jammed schedule! But there is a big "IF". And that is, IF the practice marketing and business systems are in place and humming along.

Look at any well-run retail store or restaurant and you'll notice that they all have more "points of sale" than they need the majority of the time. More cash registers, more tables, etc. But at PEAK hours, they're full. It's a good lesson for us, when we get "stuck" on our current level of capacity. The "extra" chair time doesn't have to be full ALL of the time at the beginning...but eventually it will be!

Opening up your schedule is like opening up the floodgates. So examine your current situation, and look for opportunities to add capacity. Then POUNCE on them...and watch your practice grow!

All my best,
Chris