You Just Discovered Embezzlement, Now What?
First, let’s start with the relationships moving forward. Clearly, blindly trusting people has not worked in the past. What I believe a behavioral psychologist would suggest is to “trust and verify.” If you don’t trust at all, you will likely lose the rest of your team and have shallow relationships for the rest of your life. What I have witnessed psychologists suggest is to watch “belief behaviors.” In other words, implement systems and expectations that increase transparency. Does this save you from future problems? No. But it does help to prevent them. Here is a parenting example — you tell your child to be home by midnight. Do you simply go to bed, and not verify or do you stay up regularly in the beginning and periodically over time to create accountability? I would suggest yes. So what expectations can you set and verify within your practice?
Next, how can you recover from the economic losses? The best place to quickly recover and grow your income, savings, and retirement is to focus on Case Acceptance. At AccelerateMyPractice , we teach “consumer psychology.” How do what you call “patients” (which we call “consumers”) make purchase decisions? We believe that you are competing for discretionary spending against Apple and Best Buy. The question is, do you understand the psychology of your patients as well as those consumer product companies do? Sadly, in many cases, the answer is no. The great news is that this isn’t difficult stuff to understand and learn, so don’t let it overwhelm you!
Here is the very short version and a link to some resources to help. Read the following blog on Case Acceptance. People make decisions for two reasons:
- Avoid Pain- we all know the patient that shows up in pain with an abscess and how easily they accept treatment.
- Gain Pleasure- we all also know the patient who comes in looking for a cosmetic makeover, generally also an easy case to get accepted.
That leaves all the stuff in the middle, which is the majority of your patients and cases. How do you get these accepted? Well, the two principles above still apply. We just need to figure out how to elegantly utilize the above principles to discuss treatment with our patients. If we explain that the severity of the case today, and that neglecting it will only get worse and cost more, we are utilizing the avoid pain concept. In addition, if we point them toward the benefit of the solution now, better health, better cosmetics, we are applying the gain pleasure concept.
When you combine both methods together, you can build great momentum toward a patient accepting treatment. Here is why this can be so impactful — on average, I see practices having 45-55% Case Acceptance. If you have a practice that produces about $80K per month, in a typical practice you have nearly the same amount walking out the door monthly. This number usually shocks doctors. By this point in your life, if you have recently uncovered embezzlement, you have already been shocked and surprised. The good news is that with some minor modifications to how you communicate, you might be able to dramatically increase your profitability and get back out of the hole you might be in. Re-funding your savings and retirement can happen quickly.
If you have questions or would like to discuss how to increase your Case Acceptance, give AccelerateMyPractice a call for a free consultation at 877.721.8793.
Do you have questions about embezzlement? Give Prosperident a call at 888-398-2327 or send an email to requests@prosperident.com
Darren bio’s: Darren Kaberna is the founder and CEO of AccelerateMyPractice. He has been working in the dental industry since 1997 in well over a thousand dental offices. Darren holds a BS in Biology and Chemistry and an MBA in Marketing and Finance. AccelerateMyPractice is a dental coaching company that helps both the doctors and team members achieve their dreams by teaching practical methods of behavior change that are applicable to both business and personal growth.
