Tracy Webb asks Emma Nash, Practice Manager at Martock Dental, to share her thoughts on the importance of support from outside the practice…
Having a supportive, strong team can help your practice to thrive, as everyone works together and is focused on the same goal. Plus, it generally makes for a happier atmosphere, and a nicer environment for staff and also for your patients who can pick up on team tension.
That teamwork doesn’t just exist within the practice walls though, it is important to work with partners and suppliers you can trust to have the same commitment to your success. To find out more about how this works in practice, and the benefits it can bring, I asked Practice Manager Emma Nash to share her story.
Emma: ‘Running a dental practice is a group effort, and part of that group is all those third-parties you work with – everyone plays a part in building an efficient, strong practice. For us, one of the most important relationships we have is with our Business Development Consultant (BDC) Tracy Webb, at DPAS.
Having a plan is integral to the way we manage our practice, as it brings financial stability and patient loyalty, but one of the biggest benefits we get from it is the support from our BDC. It is extremely helpful that Tracy has experience working as a practice manager herself, so she has first-hand knowledge of what we’re going though.
It’s great to have someone who I can really relate to and call any time for advice from, especially if I’m facing a particular challenge. Recently we were looking at ways to grow our patient numbers, and Tracy was my first port of call alongside the practice team.
She’s very proactive at coming into the practice and training the team, both for new starters and ongoing, in ways to attract new patients and promoting the plan. I also find it very useful to have someone else setting us targets for the number of patients on plan, and keeping us updated on the figures which helps the whole team to stay motivated and on track for continual growth.
And it’s not just the plan that Tracy helps us with, it’s other elements of the business too. For example, social media is really important to us in terms of brand awareness and attracting new patients. Tracy will often check our profiles and if we haven’t been active, she’ll remind us and keep us enthusiastic about regularly posting to keep our presence high. We also share a lot of the posts from the DPAS Facebook that are aimed at patients, particularly around top tips for oral health, which is a really easy way to share useful content and keep our page updated.
When you are busy managing the practice, it’s a great support and relief to know that there is another person spending time monitoring these types of things and ensuring we’re on the right path.
Recently Tracy set up a quarterly breakfast meeting for local practice managers, as she knows herself, that being a practice manager can be an isolated role in the practice as you’re generally the only one doing it. This has been great as it builds connections among the practices and we were able to see how each other tackles issues – unsurprisingly we had a big discussion about GDPR!
Having someone like Tracy on hand is invaluable in the smooth running of the practice and driving it forward, and on a personal level she is a great support to me in my role. It really is like having an extra member of the team.’
