My Schedule is Weak. What should I do?

Intro: This is The Thriving Dentist Show with Gary Takacs, where we help you develop your ideal dental practice—one that provides personal, professional, and financial satisfaction.

Gary Takacs: Welcome to another episode of The Thriving Dentist Show. I’m Gary Takacs, your podcast co-host. We have a great episode for you today. This is one of those ones you might wanna bookmark and kind of, uh, you know, have it for reference, whether it’s now or in the future.

The title of this podcast episode is My Schedule Is Weak. What Should I Do? Well, I think you’re gonna like this episode—lots of actionable data, actual information you can apply immediately in your practice.

Um, if you happen to be experiencing a little bit of a weak schedule, whether that’s now or in the future, um, I think you’re gonna enjoy this one.

Hey, before I get to that though, I have two, uh, announcements to make. The first announcement, um, is that you may know that we routinely do, uh, virtual events. And the virtual events, um, are—uh—we schedule those on a regular basis.

Gary Takacs: Uh, we usually have a panel of experts. For example, one of the future events that we have, uh, coming up is titled Thriving Through Change, and we have a number of panelists that will be sharing their insight on how to thrive through a changing environment.

Well, if there ever was a time that that is true—uh, today—uh, there’s lots of change out there. And if you wanna know how to, how to thrive through cha—uh—change, uh, then that event would be a good one for you to attend.

Uh, you can access those events. They’re always provided at no tuition for you. They’re typically about an hour long in the evening—uh, no tuition—and we do that as a courtesy to your listenership.

Uh, if you wanna find that schedule, go to thrivingdentist.com/events—uh, thrivingdentist.com/events. The next event is the one that will be in that link when you click on thrivingdentist.com/events. So put these on your calendar, come join us.

The next announcement that I have is we have a top clinical tip. Uh, this time, uh, we have Dr. Raabiha Maan from London, and she is gonna be sharing with you tips called Level Up Your Patient Exam with Three Clinical Tips—Level Up Your Patient Exam with Three Clinical Tips.

Uh, no further ado. Here’s Dr. Raabiha Maan with some great information you can use in your practice.

Dr. Raabiha Maan: Hi, my name’s Dr. Raabiha Maan, and I’m a general dentist and practice owner based in London. I use my social media account over on Instagram to help motivate and inspire younger generations of dentists while making learning dentistry fun.

The clinical tip is—not quite clinical—but more to do with the examination aspect of clinical dentistry. I find a lot of emphasis is usually placed on the technical side of dentistry, improving your manual dexterity and your clinical skills, but never the emotional, communicative side of it.

I do quite a few webinars, and I always emphasize that patients do not know how beautiful that distal margin on that lower right six composite is, or how well tapered your root canal is, but they will remember and know how you made them feel.

And so, I have three tips for you when it comes to your examinations.

Tip number one: Book adequate time for your examinations.

Now, this sounds obvious, but a lot here—a lot in London—the average time for an examination can be as little as 15 minutes. So, book nothing less than 30 minutes, because you cannot carry out a proper clinical exam and get to know your patients in less time than this.

Tip two: Break the examination into three parts—a beginning, middle, and end.

Now, this sounds obvious, but stay with me. The beginning is where you wanna be talking about them and anything other than dentistry. In the first five minutes, I don’t even mention the teeth at all. I like to build rapport. I have a good laugh with them, you know. I give them a genuine compliment if it’s due, and then I move on to the middle part.

The middle part is the practical part—that’s your examination, where you’re gonna be looking at their teeth, taking radiographs, doing your scans, taking photographs.

And the end is the summary. That’s where you’ll be explaining all their issues, giving them the options with the relevant costs, and inviting questions.

Spend the most time in the beginning portion of your exam. Most people do it the opposite way around. They’ve got what I call a bottom-heavy exam, where they’re constantly rambling at the end of the examination. People don’t care about that too much. Start at the beginning, build your rapport, so that when you get to the end, you don’t have to spend so much time convincing them to go for that more expensive lithium disilicate crown, which is actually better for them than that cheaper metal National Health crown—because they trust and like you. They will go with what you say. But you can’t build that trust and like if you’ve skipped over that beginning part where you’re getting to know them.

And finally, tip three: Always give them time to think about their treatment options.

I never, ever treat patients on the first appointment. And this is actually—even, believe you me—very common in London, where they’ll say, "Oh, you’d like to have X treatment," and squeeze it into that very same appointment.

I give them time to think. People will tell you, "Do the hard sell. Get people to commit. Get it done. Send them out with a hard sell." They’re more likely to go home, regret it, cancel appointments, not trust you.

But on the other hand, an examination that was fun, relaxing, informative, with all the options clearly laid out, will get them back in that door going for the treatment that you recommended—because, again, they trust and they like you.

Trust is so important when it comes to dentistry, because face it—we all know that they’d rather spend a night in A&E with a swollen face and a raging toothache than come attend the dentist. Couple that fear of pain with the cost of treatment, and we’re off to a really poor start.

So, spend your time getting to know your patients and treat them with respect, honesty, and care—and you’ll have a loyal patient for a lifetime that will be your biggest advocate.

Naren Arulrajah: Welcome back to the Thriving Dentist Coaching and Action Segment. Hopefully, you enjoyed that awesome tip from our friend from London, who has been a longtime listener of the podcast—Dr. Maan. And, uh, if you have any further questions, either to her or, um, to us about thrivingdentist.com/events , you can always go to the website and contact us.

Thrivingdentist.com/events  is a great resource, so definitely bookmark that.

The topic today is My Schedule Is Weak. What Should I Do? I think it’s a great topic, Gary, and I know this is something we hear from clients from time to time. There are those A+ practices that crush it month after month, year after year. And then, there are those who have, quote-unquote, "Septembers," right? Some months are great, and some months are not so good.

So, I would love to know—if you are one of those practices who’s having a bad month—how do you deal with it, you know, when you have a weak schedule?

Gary Takacs: Yeah. And Naren, you know, this is one of those things that, uh, you know, any practice can experience, uh, um, challenges with the schedule. And it’s particularly timely at the time that we’re recording this. Uh, you’ll be, uh—uh—you’ll be, uh, listening to it, uh, shortly.

But at the time that we’re recording this, um, we have just completed the month of September, and there is a group of dentists that have given a name to September. And Naren, you already kind of knocked the top off it. That name is Sucktember.

Yeah, Sucktember. Um, and it’s become a thing—a thing. I was recently in, um—I’ve been invited to participate in different private Facebook groups, and some are quite large in terms of their membership. And, uh, recently I was asked a question in one of these private Facebook groups about, “Hey, I’m thinking of going out of network. Um, you know, uh, how should I prepare to successfully go out of network?”

And, uh, the moderator in this group, uh, sent me a quick text message, asked me to jump into the private Facebook group and give some advice. I’m always happy to do that. So I jumped in, uh, gave some advice about how to prepare to resign from PPO plans.

But then, it happened to be during a quick lunch break, and I had a couple minutes. So I continued to look on this thread. And the next thread after mine was, “Anybody else experiencing Sucktember?” Sucktember.

Um, and I went through—and it was a long thread with lots of participants—and it went like this, Naren. Um, 70% of the respondents in this particular group said, “Oh my god, Chicken Little, the sky is falling. I don’t know if I’m gonna make it.”

Seventy percent were saying, “Yes, we’re experiencing Sucktember—Sucktember in a big way.”

The other 30% were saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Naren Arulrajah: Interesting.

Gary Takacs: Yeah.

Naren Arulrajah: What do you make of that, Gary?

Gary Takacs: Um, Naren, I do think, you know, successful people know a few things that those who are not very successful do. And, uh, I guess if I were to tease this episode, I’m hoping there’ll be some nuggets on, you know, what the successful people do that hopefully those who are not successful today can learn from and, you know, benefit.

Gary Takacs: Well, my first recommendation would be: quit calling it Sucktember.

Gary Takacs: It can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Naren Arulrajah: I think that’s true. Mindset is everything, right?

Gary Takacs: Mindset is everything.

Gary Takacs: Quit calling it Sucktember, yeah. Uh, but I wanna be practical about it and realize that, yeah, for some—for some dentists—you know, that month can be a challenging month.

But what’s interesting about that, Naren, I could go through all 12 calendar months in order, starting with January, and I could make an excuse why that month should not be a good month in dentistry.

Let me—let me just, real quick:

January—well, January’s not gonna be a good month because everyone’s still recovering from holiday spending, okay?

February—uh, well, February, when people have to start, uh—they haven’t gotten their tax returns yet. Uh, and so February’s not gonna be a good month.

And I could go through and make an excuse why every month would have an excuse—a rational excuse—why it isn’t gonna be a good month.

Gary Takacs: And yet, there are practices that are absolutely thriving in those months. So I believe mindset is everything.

So, um, I’m gonna get into three very specific actionable strategies, but the bonus strategy is: start with your mindset—and believe that every month can be your best month yet. You know?

Yeah. One of the things we teach in our coaching, Naren—Thriving Dentist Coaching—is that we want our clients to have every year be their new best year in terms of collections, right? Real goals in terms of collections.

And furthermore, we’re open to input from our clients on how much they’d like to grow, because, of course, that’s their decision. But when they ask, “What would be a good growth percentage every year?” we suggest that they grow by at least 10% every year. At least 10% in collections every year.

Whether you’re adding new providers or not—maybe in some cases it’s easier to hit 10% if we’re adding more hygiene days or we’re adding an associate doc—but even in the years we’re not adding another doc, we’re not adding hygiene, we want to grow by at least 10%.

Is that possible?

Naren Arulrajah: I agree, Gary. I think it is possible, because I’ve seen it happen. I mean, we have worked on so many mutual clients together over the last six years, and, um, I’ve seen the—the—the—the ones who are disciplined, the ones who want their practice to be the best it can be—consistently, you know, hitting that target, and some exceeding it.

I have practices, especially in the early years, growing 20%, 25%, because there’s so much growth that’s already there that hasn’t been tapped.

Gary Takacs: There’s lots of opportunity. Yeah. And especially if you frame it as: the reason for growth is we want to help more patients in our practice enjoy the benefits of great oral health, and we want to help patients in our community enjoy the benefits of great oral health. It’s a very noble goal.

Alright, let’s roll our sleeves up and talk about three actionable things you can do if your practice—if the schedule’s weak—what can you do?

Number one: Hygiene reactivation.

Um, you know, think about hygiene—our hygiene system in a dental practice. It’s a closed loop. Naren, if you go to a dental practice today to have your, uh, have your teeth cleaned—go for a hygiene appointment—almost any of our listeners will schedule you for your next hygiene appointment while you’re here today, right?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah.

Gary Takacs: And you’ll make your next hygiene appointment. It’s a closed loop—they’ll make your next hygiene appointment.

Now, however, not everybody can make their next hygiene appointment. Let’s say they’re a shift worker and they don’t have their hours yet. They don’t know what their schedule’s gonna be like in six months. Let’s say they’re an airline pilot and they don’t get their schedule until two months in advance—they don’t know what their schedule’s gonna be six months from now. So, not everyone does.

And it might be a patient that says—let’s say if it’s now, their next hygiene appointment would be in April—and the patient says to you, “Well, you know what, we’re gonna do something we’ve never done—we’re gonna do a spring vacation in April, and we don’t know our dates yet, so I better not make it now.”

And now, if that patient never reaches back out to you to schedule their hygiene appointment, they’re outside of your closed loop.

Does that make sense?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah.

Gary Takacs: They’re out. How do they get back in?

We have to reactivate them. We have to reactivate them.

And hygiene reactivation—the reason I started with hygiene is because… I’ll let you complete the sentence there. If we fill the hygiene schedule, what’s the byproduct of that on the other side?

Naren Arulrajah: You know—yeah, if you fill the hygiene schedule, you know you’re gonna find more treatment opportunities, right? Because…

Gary Takacs: The doctor’s…

Naren Arulrajah: Schedule—yeah, exactly. Because, you know—I mean, I know this from experience—a lot of what I do with the doctor comes from a hygiene visit. You know what I mean? Like the hygienist says, “Oh, you know what, you need to take care of this.”

Gary Takacs: I’m concerned.

Naren Arulrajah: "I’m concerned about this." And a well-trained hygienist—and a hygienist who is not only well-trained but well-incentivized to look for those opportunities—and I know you, you’re a master of compensation plans and lots of other things, Gary—I do think will be an awesome asset. They’re no longer a liability—they’re an asset for you.

Gary Takacs: Yeah, yeah. But we fill hygiene, and then from the exams, we end up filling the doctor’s schedule. So start with hygiene reactivation.

Hygiene reactivation is something that needs to be a regular part of your practice—not just, “I’ll get around to it someday.” Your hygiene schedule coordinator needs to dedicate some time.

Here are some tips on hygiene reactivation:

• Send the majority of your communication by text message. Text message.
• If you’re still calling people—stop, stop, stop, stop calling them. People won’t answer their phone today.
• Send it by text message.

Now, there may be rare exceptions. If you have a practice that has seniors or super seniors, you may have super seniors that want phone calls—and you can call them. But for the majority, we want to send a quick text message.

In the text message—if the method you use to send text messages has a field large enough—you can include a benefit statement. A benefit statement.

So it’s not just: “You’re overdue.”

The way I would say that politely is:

“We’ve missed you, Naren. We’ve missed you. I’m reaching out to schedule your next hygiene appointment.”

If I can include a benefit statement:

“We know that if we see you on a regular basis in hygiene, we keep you as healthy as possible, and we reduce your future dental expenses.”

Now, here’s the trick that might make all the difference for you:

You can finish that message by saying:

“Call me like you always have, and I’ll find a good appointment for you.” OR “Click this link.”

And now we can include a real-time scheduling link, where they can schedule their own hygiene appointment with real-time online scheduling.

Think about that—they don’t have to call you back, you don’t have to call them back. We don’t have to play a vicious game of phone tag. The patient can just click the link.

By the way, just Google providers that do real-time scheduling links for dental offices. I like LocalMed.

LocalMed is what many of our clients use—we have no affiliation, no connection—but use something like LocalMed.

It works just like OpenTable for restaurants. People don’t have to call a restaurant anymore to make reservations—they can just click the OpenTable link and pick the time they want.

I’m not quite ready to do this yet for new patients or for restorative patients, but for hygiene, it’s real easy. It’s an hour appointment. Pick the time you like—and they can just go into the schedule and appoint it.

Gary Takacs: Our clients that are using real-time scheduling links average more than 50% of the patients they send the message to actually schedule using the real-time scheduling link instead of calling you. And that’s an administrative savings.

So there’s the tips on hygiene reactivation.

Tip number two: Just like we want to fill the hygiene schedule, we also want to fill the doctor’s schedule—follow up on unscheduled treatment.

Follow up on unscheduled treatment.

Doctors, as you’re listening to this—if you have not run an unscheduled treatment plan report from your practice, I want to encourage you to run that report.

Sadly, what you’re going to find is that in many offices, it’s a report that goes for many, many, many, many pages.

I did this recently for one of our clients, Naren, and the unscheduled treatment added up to $2.4 million.

It’s a solo dentist practice—$2.4 million.

Those are patients in your practice that have the need—$2.4 million worth of treatment—and it’s just sitting there.

Why do you think it’s sitting there?

Well, it’s sitting there because it’s asymptomatic. They don’t feel it. So we’ve got to follow up with them.

Again—follow up with them by text message.

The kind of language that I would use—let’s say it’s fillings:

“George, I understand doctor’s recommended fillings on the upper left. I’m concerned about that. I just wanted to reach out to see if I could answer any questions or see if we could get that scheduled for you.”

Now, if it was this time of the year, I might also use another motivator, to say:

“You know, if you have insurance benefits, you might want to get that done before the end of the year to take advantage of those unused insurance benefits. Remember—when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, whatever benefits you haven’t used do not roll over—they expire.”

So you might want to use that.

And so, that can be a motivator to get these people scheduling.

So—follow up on the unscheduled treatment plan. Soft, gentle:

“Wanted to see if you had any questions.”

“Wanted to see if you were ready to schedule.”

“If you are, just give me a call—I can find a good appointment time for you.”

Number three—so tip number one, hygiene reactivation.

Tip number two, follow up on unscheduled treatment plans.

Number three: Get world-class at adding same-day dentistry.

Naren Arulrajah: Gary, what’s same-day dentistry mean?

Naren Arulrajah: Same-day dentistry means, Gary, um, you know, when you start the day—let’s say you have a morning huddle and you have, um, you know, 80% of your goal already, you know, filled in and booked, right? Now, you might have a few no-shows—hopefully you don’t, because you have a great reminder system—but you still have a 20% gap, right? Because we said in the morning, at the beginning of the day, you only had 80% filled.

So same-day dentistry is looking at the people who are supposed to come in that day and looking at possible opportunities, right?

So, for example, if the hygienist is going to see, you know, four patients, and you already know these two patients have these needs—like perhaps somebody needs a couple of fillings and somebody needs, uh, you know, maybe a…

Gary Takacs: It could be a crown. Maybe they—they need to replace a crown.

Naren Arulrajah: A crown, exactly. Just being able to mentally prepare for that and think it through. So you kind of…

Gary Takacs: Rehearse. So the schedule—and say,

“Hey, let’s look. Uh, you know, George is coming in at 10:00 AM. Yeah, he’ll be done at 11:00. Is it possible that, if George could stay, could we add treatment into our schedule?”

Right?

And so the actionable thing is that your hygienists show up to the morning huddle with a list of their patients that have unscheduled treatment, and we bring that up in the morning huddle to see if, in fact, we might be able to add them to the schedule today.

And there’s lots of opportunities there. And again, this time of the year—or any time of the year—we can use this incentive:

“George, we can save you a trip. We could actually do that today for you.”

Naren Arulrajah: What’s everyone’s most precious commodity?

Gary Takacs: Time.

Naren Arulrajah: Everyone’s most precious commodity is time, right? Especially today. If they can get something done that’s gonna get worse, and that they may not be able to get to for three months—today—and save an extra trip, why not?

Gary Takacs: Yeah, yeah.

“Hey George, we can save you a trip. We can do it for you today.”

Another—again, this time of year—if you have benefits:

“George, we might want to consider that because you might as well use those benefits before they go back to the fat cats at the insurance company, right?”

So, very effective, especially at this time of the year.

Now, come the new year, we can use the opposite effect:

“You have a new year’s worth of benefits—let’s use those.”

Here’s a statistic that will be absolutely staggering to you:

We know that most patients with dental insurance don’t use their annual award—don’t use their benefits. However, we’ve learned recently the actual data on that is:

Only 2.8% of patients who have dental insurance use their full annual award.

2.8%!

Let’s get on a campaign—at least with Thriving Dentist Show listeners—to change that. Help them use those benefits, and let’s get really behind that.

Another way we could add same-day treatment is working in emergencies.

I know among dentists, emergency patients tend to have a love-hate relationship. Some offices love ’em, some hate ’em.

I think it’s kind of a love-hate thing.

And I would encourage you to go over to the love side on this.

Figure out how you can help them.

If you’re an office that can do extractions, If you’re an office that can do root canals, If you’re an office that can get people out of pain…

You have an opportunity to help a patient get out of pain, and also maybe get the ultimate benefit of converting that patient into a lifetime patient.

So you have a conversation with them:

“You know, George, I’m sorry you’re experiencing pain today. I’m happy we could work you in. We’re going to get you out of pain.”

Gary Takacs: But before you leave today, I’d love to talk to you. You’re coming in through the back door today. I’d love to talk to you about coming in through the front door, where we’ll gather some records, we’ll look at what’s going on in your mouth—with the eye towards, how can we prevent this thing from ever happening again, or something like this from happening again.

When they’re sitting in your chair in pain, how responsive are they to that? Very responsive.

So develop—become world-class at adding same-day dentistry.

And that may help fill that weak schedule.

So there’s three actionable strategies:

Number one: Hygiene reactivation.

Do it regularly and do it all the time.

Oh—how far back would we go?

Because we’re doing this primarily in an automated sequence through your email—whatever your email API is—you can go back four or five years.

Number two: Follow up on unscheduled treatment plans.

You’ve got a gold mine in your practice.

They already know and like you—we’ve gotta move this treatment along.

Number three: Get world-class at adding same-day dentistry.

Now, let’s go to the Q&A segment, where we’ve got some questions that are gonna allow us to do a deeper dive into this concept of “My schedule’s weak—what do I do about it?”

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Welcome back to the Thriving Dentist Q&A Segment. Gary, I enjoyed this conversation. You know, many practices deal with weak schedules, and you gave us some really key insights and strategies that would help anyone who cares about changing that.

Gary Takacs: Question, Your Honor! Let me give you—let me give you an example of that.

In dentistry, because of hygiene patterns, things tend to repeat themselves every six months, right?

Okay, so let’s say you routinely take a spring break vacation—you’re gonna take a week off in April, right?

What does it look like in, uh, October, six months later?

What does your hygiene schedule look like in October when you took a week off in April?

Naren Arulrajah: It looks like Swiss cheese! Because, you know, people who should have booked their hygiene schedule that week probably haven’t—because you were off.

Gary Takacs: And what if you took—now you’ve never done this before—but what if you took two weeks off?

Naren Arulrajah: Oh, I’ve never done a two-week vacation!

Gary Takacs: It gets really bad. Then you look at October and say, “I can’t figure out why October is like it is.”

Well—it’s a pattern that repeats itself.

So by doing the things we talked about in those three strategies, you can change all that.

You can break that pattern. Break that pattern.

Alright, Naren, I know I interrupted. I know you have some questions.

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. Yeah, I do have some questions. Let me jump into them.

The very first question I have for you, Gary, is:

"I have discovered that my hygiene reactivation only happens when we need to fill hygiene. How can I make this a regular system in my practice?"

Gary Takacs: Oh man, I give bonus points for that question, Naren, because I would politely suggest that applies to a majority of our listeners.

They only do it when they need to. And I understand that.

But what happens is, if we haven’t done it for a while, it’s like—if you’re going to the gym regularly and doing resistance work—you know, using weights—and then you don’t go…

What happens?

Things atrophy.

Let’s say you’re working on your legs. Well, those leg muscles start to atrophy from not working them out.

Well, same thing here.

If we get out of the habit of doing hygiene reactivation, pretty soon no one can remember how we do it. So it needs to be something that has dedicated time—done on a regular basis.

Now, the other thing I want to emphasize is that there is a disconnect among the public.

And this might be a human disconnect—not even specific to your patient base.

But people think they’ve been in your practice more recently than they actually have.

They think, “Oh, I was just there.”

And then we discover—it was three years ago. They’re way past due.

I think that’s a human characteristic.

One of our coaching clients, Naren, as I was sharing this with him—his eyes got really big—we were on a Zoom call so I could see his eyes. And he said:

“Oh my gosh, Gary, I gotta tell you a story. That’s so true. You know, I’m really good about my annual physical. Part of it’s because my father had some heart disease, and we lost my dad at a younger age because of heart disease, and I want to stay on top of my health.”

He said:

“I go for an annual physical, but I’d gotten kind of lazy about it and realized it was time to get back into my primary care physician. So I called the office—I know the office manager, her name’s Beth—and I said,

‘Beth, this is Dr. So-and-So. I’m embarrassed. It’s been a little while since my last annual physical. I think it’s been three years, but I’d like to make that appointment now.’”

And she said:

“Doctor, it’s been eight years.”

And she gave him the date.

And he said:

“Oh my gosh. It has been eight years, hasn’t it?”

But he thought, for all intents and purposes, that it had only been three years.

Could that be true with your patients?

Now, I’m not even going to ask you, Naren, when your next hygiene appointment is, because I think you might fall into the disciplined group—but is that possible for anyone on the planet? That we think we were there recently, but in fact—we weren’t?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah. I mean, I’m very disciplined with my hygiene appointments. I keep them very religiously. I’m one of those people who’s calendar-operated. So if it’s in my calendar, I’m going to be there.

But I think I’m an exception to the rule.

Gary Takacs: What happens—what happens if they’re looking six months later, and that month you’ve got a trip planned? And you’re not ready to schedule it?

Then—you’re out of the loop.

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah. That’s why we need to reactivate.

Gary Takacs: Yeah. Usually, like—you’re very disciplined. So I think you would personally call the office or send them a text saying, “Hey, I won’t be here. Can we reschedule it?”

You’d take it on yourself.

But—you’re right. I think you know ten people who don’t do what you do. So I agree with you. You need to have a methodology to make sure these people don’t fall off the planet.

Gary Takacs: And I would suggest that, at the very least, your hygiene scheduling coordinator—you designate it.

It could be an hour a week, it could be two hours a week of time where they put their head down and work on that.

So it doesn’t become this monster project that you don’t even know where to begin.

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, because it’s easier to catch it right away.

Like, if my appointment is happening this week, I’m more likely to reschedule it this week.

If you follow up with me three months from now—might be I’ve already forgotten about the whole thing.

Gary Takacs: Out of sight, out of mind.

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly. Yeah.

Gary Takacs: Yeah. But it should be on a regular weekly basis.

It needs to be dedicated time, away from the hub of the front desk. So we’re constantly working on hygiene reactivation.

They’re your best patients. They love you. They trust you.

Let’s get ’em back in. Let’s get ’em back in.

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. Let me ask you this next question. In the context of filling these, uh, openings—right? Uh, getting rid of this weak schedule—what marketing advice do you have for me as a practice owner?

Gary Takacs: Well, Naren, I’m gonna flip that to you, uh, as our Thriving Dentist resident marketing expert, uh, as the founder and CEO of EKWA.

How would you answer that? Let’s say a practice is experiencing a weak schedule—what would you do marketing-wise that might be more of a quicker fix than something that has to percolate over a long time?

Naren Arulrajah: I have two strategies, Gary, but the primary strategy is: Go after emergency patients.

And the reason I say that is—if you help someone when they’re at their highest need, or their moment of most urgency, trust me—for most people, dental pain is a big deal.

I remember going to a cottage at a friend’s house a few weeks ago, and one of our friends was supposed to arrive—but ended up driving two hours back to the city to see his dentist because his tooth was hurting. He put everything aside. His dentist was priority #1.

He didn’t want to take a risk going somewhere else—he drove four hours round trip. Why? Because of trust and the urgency of pain.

My point being—at that moment, people are really vulnerable, and they become your best friend if you take care of them.

So how do you attract those patients?

• First, you need to dominate Google—especially search engine optimization (SEO).
• Your marketing company should be able to quickly rank you for dozens of keywords related to emergencies, like:
• “toothache near me”
• “emergency dentist [city]”
• “dental office open late”
• “I need to see a dentist now”
• “root canal emergency”

These are the things people actually type when they’re in pain.

Google Analytics gives us incredible data—we use that in our monthly reports to help clients know which keywords are worth ranking for.

Once you’re ranking, and the phone rings, here’s the next part:

Get them in right away.

If you make them wait—even a few hours—they’ll be on to the next office.

Gary Takacs: Yep. They’re already doing their next search.

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly. Nobody wants to sit in pain. So your team must be trained to schedule them immediately.

And Gary has great techniques for this. If you want to learn how to always have emergency slots available, I recommend booking a coaching strategy meeting. Gary can show you how to structure your schedule to make that happen.

Gary Takacs: Yeah, we can identify a morning emergency slot and an afternoon emergency slot, so we already know—when we get that call—where we can place them. 

Lots of things we can do to create a culture around rolling out the red carpet for those patients.

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely, Gary. So that’s Strategy 1: Emergency Patients.

Strategy 2: Go after big cases—your “rock” procedures.

A low-hanging fruit is orthodontic aligners, like Invisalign. Gary taught me long ago—there are “rock” appointments and then everything else.

“Rock” appointments are those that give you the highest ROI on your time.

Aligners are one of those. They’re highly profitable, predictable, and efficient.

Of course, your “rocks” may vary—you might be into implants, smile makeovers, or sleep dentistry.

Whatever it is, pick one or two procedures you’re passionate about and go all in.

• Identify 20–30 keywords related to that procedure.
• Have your marketing company rank you quickly for them.
• Build excellent landing pages with:
  • Clear videos
  • Real case studies
  • Simple, persuasive explanations
  • Calls to action

Now—here’s a reality check:

If you’re not already ranking for 100+ keywords, you’re not in the top 5%.

And without that, you can’t execute the marketing plan I just laid out.

So what do you do?

Book a marketing strategy meeting.

We’ll run a comprehensive digital review:

• Your SEO status
• Your competitors
• Your strengths and gaps
• What’s working (or not working)
• What you need to change

Whether you’re already doing well or struggling, we’ll give you a detailed plan to grow.

You can book that at: ekwa.com/msm

That’s e-k-w-a dot com slash m-s-m (Marketing Strategy Meeting).

Gary Takacs: Naren, let me turbocharge something you said.

I look at SEO as a long game—a really important one—but it takes time. Organic ranking doesn’t happen overnight.

If you need immediate results, I recommend investing in Google Ads (Google AdWords or Pay-Per-Click).

It’s just pay-to-play—you pay Google, and your ad shows up right now.

Long term, SEO is a better investment—it gives you a better ROI, better lead quality, and compound results.

But if your schedule is weak right now, Google Ads can bridge the gap while you build your SEO foundation.

So I’d encourage you to spend on PPC today, while you work toward organic dominance.

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. Let me go to question number three:

You talked about the importance of adding same-day dentistry.

How can I help my team embrace the same-day dentistry concept?

Gary Takacs: I find that offices very neatly divide on this topic—adding same-day dentistry.

There are those that can and those that can’t.

Those that say, “Yeah, we can do it—let’s go, let’s figure this out.”

And those that say, “No way, we can’t.”

Where’s your office, doctor?

Is it on the can side—or the can’t side?

Now, there are some personality traits that factor in here.

People who are highly technical and highly structured—which defines a lot of dentists—tend to function in a very rigid format.

They think in terms of time blocks:

• “This takes 40 minutes.”
• “That takes 20 minutes.”

And without realizing it, they can accidentally fall into a mindset of “We can’t do that.”

So here’s a simple tip if you want your team to embrace same-day dentistry:

You model it.

Tell your team: “If you see an opportunity to add treatment, bring it to my attention.”

Talk about it during your morning huddle.

If you’re the one who says:

“Hey Doc, what about the 10:00 AM patient? They’ll be done by 11. Can we do something at 11?” “What about the 2:00 PM? Could we fit something in at 3?”

And if your answer is “No, no, no”—what are you modeling to your team?

You’re modeling that we don’t do same-day dentistry. That it’s not possible.

But if you look at the schedule, get creative, and say:

“Yeah, I think we can make that work. Let’s do it.”

Now you’re modeling a can-do mindset. And if you start saying yes, your team is going to be much more likely to get in line behind you and make it happen.

I have a client who started doing this—and it was a real shift he made in his thinking.

I was doing a Zoom meeting with the entire team, and the lead dental assistant said:

“Hey Doctor, I just have a playful question to ask… We’ve been doing really well at adding same-day dentistry. We’ve been rocking it. We’ve started days way under goal and ended above goal, and it’s been great. But I’ve noticed—you say yes to same-day dentistry every time. So… are you ever going to say no?”

It was a playful question.

He laughed and said:

“I reserve the right to say no… But I don’t think I am. It’s all about helping patients.”

And that brings me to the second mindset shift:

Make it patient-centric.

He said:

“Because I want to help more of our patients enjoy the benefits of great oral health. And I want to help more people in our community. So whenever possible… I’m going to say yes.”

And she smiled and said:

“I thought so.” 

But it was a great exchange—and a perfect example of how to lead your team by example and build a culture around serving patients today when the opportunity arises.

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. Let me go to the next question. This is my last question for you:

What is a sound system to follow up with patients on unscheduled treatment plans?

Gary Takacs: Well, I think we should follow up with them within a month of their initial visit—and this is for asymptomatic treatment.

If it’s urgent, of course, we should follow up right away.

But let’s say it’s treatment that’s been recommended, but it’s not causing any symptoms—then I would follow up within a month.

And again, I would do this primarily by text message, because people don’t answer their phones today.

So follow up by text, and simply say something like:

“George, I understand the doctor recommended [treatment]. I’m concerned about that. I just wanted to follow up with you and see if you had any questions—or see if you’d like to get that scheduled.”

I would follow up within a month, and then I would have some additional touch points throughout the year, so that it doesn’t just slip off into Neverland.

Now—I don’t want to pester people.

You don’t want to be a nuisance.

But you do want to follow up, and you can use gentle language like:

“I just wanted to make sure this didn’t slip through the cracks.” “I’d love to help answer any questions you might have—or see if we can find a good time to schedule it.”

And depending on the time of year, you can add a relevant motivator:

• End of year: “You might want to get this done before the end of the year to take advantage of any remaining insurance benefits.”
• Beginning of the year: “You might want to get this scheduled early in the year while you have a full year’s worth of benefits available.”

Always keep it soft, keep it gentle, but make sure it’s consistent.

So again, follow up:

• Within 1 month of the original recommendation
• Then 2 to 3 more touch points per year, just to ensure it doesn’t fall off the radar.

That way, you’re staying top of mind without being pushy, and helping patients move forward with treatment that’s in their best interest.

Gary Takacs: And if the fallback—can always be—to schedule them for their next hygiene appointment if they aren’t already scheduled, the fallback could be:

“Well, let’s get you scheduled for hygiene, just so we can keep things holding in your mouth—so things don’t deteriorate.”

So that can always be the fallback on any contact that we have with a patient.

Well, Naren, this has been a fun episode. It was submitted by one of our listeners:

“My schedule is weak—what should I do?”

Hopefully we’ve provided you with some actionable things you can do:

• Hygiene reactivation
• Follow-up on unscheduled treatment plans
• Adding same-day dentistry

And that can help transform a schedule that is weak into a solid, productive schedule where you’re consistently hitting your daily goal.

Well, on that note, Naren, I want to thank all of our listeners for the courtesy of listening to The Thriving Dentist Show.

We appreciate you. Stay tuned—we look forward to future Thriving Dentist Show episodes, where we’ll continue providing information to help you develop a thriving practice.

Thanks so much.