Running Late Will Destroy Your Dental Practice - Part 1 I unfiltered Chats with Dr. Khaled

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The Impact of Running Late on Your Dental Practice

Running late can be detrimental to your dental practice, potentially jeopardizing your entire business. Let me share a personal story to illustrate this point.

My name is Khaled, and I’ve been a dentist for 20 years, with 14 years as a practice owner at Lakeside Dental Spa. I grew my practice from a single chair to a bustling 10-chair operation with a dedicated team of 14.

One of my friends, a highly experienced dentist in Sydney, sought advice from another successful practice owner from Melbourne. After spending a day together, the consultant emphasized a crucial piece of feedback: “You don’t get lunch breaks.” Initially taken aback, my friend learned that running late and relying on lunch breaks to catch up was causing undue stress on his team. The takeaway? You must run on time. There’s no other way around it.

Here’s why running late can ruin your practice:

Unhappy Patients:
Patients generally don’t appreciate waiting, especially if they're paying high fees for your services. While they might tolerate delays at a medical office, dental appointments are different. They often have other commitments—like picking up kids or attending meetings. If you're late, it can lead to dissatisfaction and even negative reviews.

Exhausted Staff:
When you run late, your staff becomes fatigued from scrambling to prepare rooms and manage schedules. They may even miss their breaks, which affects their morale. In one practice I know, a solo dentist's constant lateness led to a staggering turnover of 25 dental assistants in a single year. Staff won’t always voice their concerns, but they feel the strain, and that can lead to a quiet exodus.

Respecting Your Team's Time:
Your team has lives outside of work—family obligations, dinner plans, or evening activities. Running late, especially past closing time, is not fair to them. It’s essential to ensure that you finish on time, respecting their schedules just as much as your patients’.

In my next video, I’ll discuss common excuses I hear from dentists about why they run late. Stay tuned!