By Nancy Kagan, Summit Dental Partners
Hiring a dental consultant is an investment of both time and money. With the number of dental practice consultants available to hire, it can be a daunting task to find the one that is right for your practice. What should you be thinking about when making this critical decision so that you get the desired return on your investment?
The relationship with a good consultant should be a close one as he or she is going to want to get to know you, your history, your practice history, details about your daily operations and your dreams and goals for the future. It can be challenging to identify areas of weakness and to articulate your future goals. A good consultant will know how to guide you so that together you can make a roadmap for the future. Like any good coach, your consultant should be encouraging you while still able to identify areas that need improvement.
A good consultant appreciates the value of your history and will only want to enhance what you have already worked so hard to develop. Every practice has a culture that pre dates the hiring of a consultant so respecting that culture is key to creating the foundation of the relationship. Telling a dentist that the waiting room art is “ugly” will only cause issues when it is discovered that the art was painted by the owner’s grandmother!
A good consultant will appreciate the contributions of the team. While you never want to hold on to an underperforming employee, the training that takes place will be short lived if the consultant does not respect the staff. It is impossible to run a dental office without staff so making sure that you work with a consultant that can evoke trust in your team and inspire them to want to make necessary changes will ensure long term results.
A good consultant will have your back. While employees on your payroll may tell you what you want to hear your consultant should always tell you what you need to hear. Once you have engaged with a consultant they will know your business even better than you do so having a non-biased “partner” will ensure that you always know the things you need to know.
So in short, hiring a consultant is like any close relationship. You need to make sure you feel comfortable, that this is someone you can see yourself confiding in and that it’s someone that you think has the skill set to help you accomplish your goals. It doesn’t hurt to have a reference from a colleague but it truth each practice and each owner is so different that what works for one may not work for another. Be mindful of committing yourself to a consultant before you are sure you’ve made the right choice. Remember, practice management information is rarely proprietary…it’s the implementation of the information that produces the results and a good consultant will help you do just that!
