The Front Desk KPIs That Protect Your Profit w/ Kiera Dent

You know clinical inside out, but the front desk? It's a black box — and probably where you're losing the most money.

In this episode, Dr. Paul Etchison speaks with Kiera Dent, founder of The Dental A Team, about how you can get your front office under control without becoming an insurance and billing expert. You'll learn the core KPIs you should always be tracking, how to balance competing priorities, and how to spot the red flags that your front office is silently costing you money.

Topics discussed:

• Why the front desk is so chaotic in most practices
• How much you actually need to know about billing and insurance
• Signs that your front office is costing you money
• The 3 KPIs your front desk should hit daily and monthly
• How to build a visible scoreboard and accountability culture
• Why most teams aren’t bought in (and how to change it)

This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com

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Transcript

Why The Front Desk Feels Chaotic

Paul Etchison 0:02

If the front desk in your practice feels like the Wild West, you're not crazy. Most dentists I work with can tell you exactly what is happening clinically. They can walk into the op, you'll know within five seconds if something's wrong. But the front office, it's different, right? It's the billing, it's the phones, it's the insurance, the scheduling, case presentation, collections, and a thousand interruptions all at once. And you're expected as the leader of the practice to lead it. Even though you were never trained on it, and most of it, you really have no idea how to do. And yet the front desk is the gatekeeper of all the money, the schedule, and your patient experience. And if that department is turd city, you're gonna feel it everywhere at the practice. You're gonna feel it with the cancellations, the unfilled schedules, the accounts receivable, and in your own stress level as you lay awake each night asking the Lord how you were so dumb to become a practice owner in the first place. Well, today I am bringing back the wonderful Kira Dent, founder and CEO of the Dental Aid Team, a podcaster, and someone I've had the pleasure of working with at my practice personally, and probably one of my most favorite people in the dental industry. And today, we're talking about how to get the front office under control without you having to become an insurance and billing expert. We are going to dive into what dentists actually need to understand at a high level and what you should be measuring and how to set priorities when the front office has a million competing demands. And how do you change that culture so that the outcomes matter more than just the busy activity? Now you are listening to the Dental Practice Heroes Podcast, where we teach you how to step back from the chair, empower your team, and build a practice that gives you your life back and a ton of time off. I'm your host, Dr. Paul Edgison, the author of two books on dental practice management, a dental coach, and the owner of a large five-doctor practice in the south suburbs of Chicago. Now, if you want a practice that runs with clear systems, runs with accountability, and so that you're not always constantly putting out fires, you have come to the right place. All right, let's dive in. Kira, so glad to have you back on the podcast. It's always a joy having you on here. And today we're going to be talking about, you know, front desk stuff, where I work with a lot of clients. Do you work with a lot of clients? I don't know if you share the same regard. I would love to hear your opinion on this, but I would say most of the clients that I work with, the front desk tends to be their most chaotic and unorganized department. I mean, do you feel that you share the same sentiment?

What Dentists Must Understand At High Level

Kiera Dent 2:33

Yeah, Paul, super excited to be on the podcast with you. Always enjoy a good chat. And I mean, I think proofs in the pudding. Do you remember the number one reason you called me to work with you the first time? Oh, yeah, it was from an office.

Paul Etchison 2:46

I think it was the second time and the third time too.

Kiera Dent 2:48

It really all the times were. And the answer is yes. And this is why I created a dental aid team is because like working in the dental college and seeing so many dental students, like you guys learn how to drop your box on an MO and like, how do I have a perfect crown prep? You don't learn how do I do the billing and how do I do the insurance and how do I schedule patients? Like, you learn how to have patient etiquette and great dentistry. And so that's why I created a dental aid team. Like it's dentists and teams, like, hey, dentist, let's get you to rock your space and then let's work on the team side. Because even myself as a team member, there was no learning. It was like, just do it. And I'm like, well, what do I just do? And so I think the front office just feels so elusive. It feels so scary. And Paul, you're in someone's mouth. You're not like, oh, how do I do an insurance claim? And so I think there's so many nuances. But also for dentists, the front office is the gatekeeper of your money. Like they're the ones who schedule for you, they're the ones who present your cases for you, they're the ones who collect the money for you, they're the ones who bill for you. So so much of your financial freedom and like your paycheck is also directed by a department you don't even understand. So I think that that's why there's so much just like not conflict. It's just almost like unknown and it feels daunting. And so you don't even know what levers to push or pull because you don't even understand how the engine works. It'd be like, hey, Kira, my car is making a sound and I'm like, good, I don't know what to do. Like, that's not even my realm. And I think that that's how a lot of dentists feel about the front office. So yeah, that's why, that's why I exist and why I love to be on the podcast and share because it doesn't need to feel daunting or scary, nor do you need to do it all. I think just being aware and knowing what things to look for, what things you can expect and having a hopefully a trusted voice in the industry where, like, hey, I'm here, no judgment. Like, just ask all the questions and let's help you guys get your team up to part. And also for team members, because they a lot of times don't even know what they should do either.

Paul Etchison 4:34

Yeah, absolutely. They're just thrown into there and said, here, figure it out, do it, just answer the phone and do all this fun stuff. I mean, like, I think what struggles for dentists as practice owners is we just don't understand, like, like you mentioned, we don't understand like how to send a claim, how to look at an insurance breakdown. But whereas every other element of the practice, we have a deeper understanding on it. But is it necessary for a dentist to learn everything about claim submission and all these things that are front desk related? Or can we get by with some more higher-level organizations such as you provide?

Audits, AR Benchmarks, And Red Flags

Kiera Dent 5:05

I think at least having a slight awareness, like go up to the front office and just sit there and be like, hey, walk me through how you submit a claim. I think you even knowing some of the jargon, the language of what's going on up there, like, can I see an EOB? And I think it's kind of like go back, Paul. Being a business owner, I equate front office to like a PL and CPA and bookkeeping. We have all learned how to run a business without being a CPA or a bookkeeper, but it's because we're in the language of the PL. And I think, how can you get into the language of the front office? You know yourself, but I think abdication and just like delegation, like hands off, is probably a dangerous space to be, I think, for any business owner. Like I don't want to be in sales, but if I don't understand the sales process, that's not going to work. Marketing, like, okay, great, but I need to at least understand the nuances of it. And I think that's the same for front office. So I would say, as a simple blip, why not just go up and listen to how your front office schedules? Why not go up and just see how they submit claims or verify insurance? And then, yes, I would talk to and listen to podcasts by like the dental A team or other trusted individuals in the field. We have online courses that we've created for all of these, not so dentists learn it, but just like, what's kind of my, I don't know, I think like front office for dummies, like go back to those books that they had. Like, what's my quick overview to where I'm not gonna get screwed over, I'm not gonna get embezzled from. I'm gonna know like what to expect of my team. And I'm even happy to share, like, even simple job descriptions of what those roles can and should be doing. I think even that knowledge alone helps doctors just feel more confident and competent of like, oh, my office manager should be acting like a COO, my biller should be acting like a CFO or an accountant. Like they should at least know this and be able to bring things in. And my over 90 should be no more than 5% of my collections. Like knowing just those little pieces, I think that's just gonna give people more confidence. But again, equate it to how you work with your CPA and your bookkeeper. You didn't know that, but you were immersed in the language of it. And I think the more you can just look, know, learn without doing. And I'm talking like this is like a week or a month. Like it's not like years and years. Like you could just quickly get affiliated with it. But I think audits and spot audits once a quarter would really be beneficial. And if you're a hands-on person like myself, literally have your front office have you like submit one claim and submit and put in one payment onto the software, do one insurance verification, do one scheduling. Like it might feel weird, but just like you have your front office come back and watch a crown so they can explain it in a treatment plan, just doing it one time also gives you a lot of familiarity that I think you can catch a lot of things just because you almost know what does A plus B equal C? How does that equation actually work?

Paul Etchison 7:50

Yeah. And I love that CPA analogy because that makes a lot of sense. Like we don't get deep into the bookkeeping and deep into the profit and loss, but we do know enough that we can use it. And I see with like the front office is that a lot of dental practice owners, they just don't see the value in, they just don't see like why to provide the training up there. And it's such a large part of the practice. Like, I mean, if you could like pick just a few, what are some downstream things that happen that us as owners see that is more visual to us that's evidence of lack of training up front?

Outcomes Over Activity Culture

Kiera Dent 8:21

Yeah, Paul, I don't disagree. And I think it's something crazy because it's like hygiene's so important. And so we like focus a lot on hygiene and make sure it's there. But your front office is the I call it like the bookends of the practice. They're the initial information for the practice and the first impression. And then they're also the last impression. And I can't tell you how many doctors I'm like, Paul, you're amazing, but your front office is actually destroying your business and you don't even know it. So things that you might not catch or see are sometimes like your front office with billing. Like, look at your reviews because if your billing is having problems, it will pop up in reviews and they'll say, like, they charged me wrong or they didn't quote me right. Like, that's gonna do some red flag alerts for you just to be able to quickly see. Usually the billing issues downstream are gonna show up in the reviews in patients leaving the practice that you might not even know about. Other things that I think you can catch are like if you have any type of recording of phone calls or have a family member that you trust just be a random new patient with air quotes on it and give feedback of how they were treated on the phone. I think that's a really good way to find out because if your friend office puts them on hold or they don't have like genuine care and customer service-centric, patients are going to leave that you don't even get the opportunity and you're spending all this money on marketing, but then our front office is like, could you please hold? And it's like, great, super happy to um be put on hold, or I can't get you scheduled in, or even like I think sometimes dentists, if you kind of like myself, when I go into a practice, I'm like a creepy little hangout behind the scenes. Like, doctors, if you have a little bit of downtime, just go like hang on the wall and listen to how your front office team is answering the phones, how they're presenting treatment plans. You probably like areas that I see a lot of opportunities that are missed are how are we converting our phone calls and getting patients on the schedule? How are we scheduling? Like, are my patients saying I cringe when I go in? I cringe when I hear phone calls, I cringe when I hear how they're scheduling, I cringe when we're presenting treatment. If a patient's like, oh, I'll just wait, they're like, okay. And I'm like, okay, no, like we should go past this two times. There's ways to do it. Or if a patient calls about a balance and they're like, oh, it's okay, we'll just write it off. And I'm like, we're writing that off. You can look at audit trails to see what is being written off on your accounts in billing. You also can look at your AR. You could quickly just run the AR report. You don't even have to know. But a good benchmark is like one month's worth of collections should be all that's in your AR. So if you're producing a hundred grand, we should have no more than a hundred grand in total AR. So those are just some downstream of I think like really making sure our schedule's full and we're treating patients amazing so they're not leaving before we even get that opportunity. Our cases being closed, and like we've got great verbiage to close cases. And then honestly, like there was a practice, and I walked in and there was a huge stack of checks. And I was like, what are these doing? They're like, oh, I just don't have time to enter those. And I'm like, well, we don't have time to like pay you either. So get those checks in, like, really truly. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but like, you got to get these in. And then looking at the claims and how much AR is sitting in there just to see. And then doing a quick audit trail to see, I had a practice. They had about, gosh, about a million dollars worth of AR. And I was like, oh, this is high. And they're like, oh yeah, like if we can't get in touch with the patient, we just write it off. And I was like, I'm sorry, what? Like you just write, they're like, oh yeah, we try, but like if they don't answer, we just write it off. And I was like, so that's like not allowed, and we need to have the doctor approve those. So I think some of those little pieces and those can be set up with audit trails or permissions within the software. And I think even just some of those safeguards can really help a practice. Like these are, I think, a lot of red hot fires that could be worse than you realize.

Paul Etchison 12:01

I always like to think of the idea that if we've got like a $1 million practice, and typically we see case acceptance in like the one third, like 33%-ish, you know, when we're looking at a fee. So you would think that we're diagnosing $3 million. So most doctors will focus on the things such as like, well, let's work on the way I talk to the patient, let's work on this. Whereas completely missing the fact that I mean, just even getting a 5% increase in case acceptance that would come from training on the front desk end versus stuff that you would do on the back. So it's like, it's a valuable part of the office. But you know, I I'd love to ask you, we got this part of the office that is a lot of competing demands, a lot of different things to do at once. And what I see is doctors often getting upset at their front desk when they're not filling the schedule because the doctor has a cancellation. And now the doctor has time to like say, what is going on? And they go to the front, they say, Well, who's filling the schedule? And everyone's like, Well, we're doing this, this, this, and this. How do you, as an owner, help a department see these competing demands and have the right sort of priorities?

Setting Priorities And Daily Goals

Kiera Dent 13:03

Yeah. Paul, there's a great book that I am obsessed with this year. It's called Begin with We, and it's by Kyle McDowell. And it was something that I really got obsessed with this year because there was a one of his 10 rules is outcomes over activity. And I realized that I think that that is one of the greatest hiccups in the dental practice is we're so obsessed with activity, but not outcomes. And so in a dental practice, I'm really big on what is the outcome that this position needs to get. I don't want them, and I used to do this. Like I used to have end of day checklists that were like front office team needs to make 25 recare calls. And then I was like, why am I saying that? What I really want from those 25 recare calls is I want a full schedule. And I don't want my team to be perfect, but I do need to make sure that the main outcome, so like one main outcome or KPI or metric per position, and they know. And like some people are like, Carol, how do you get your team to do this? And I'm like, my team knew that if our schedule was not full, they were not going home. Like, period. Like, you're gonna, I don't care, you're gonna stay until eight o'clock at night. But like that schedule is expected to be full. And it's not that I'm like driving hard lines. It was this is the most important thing. So my scheduler, their goal is that they need to have my doctors scheduled to goal 90% of the time, like we are scheduled to go. Or it's front office team knows that my hygiene schedule needs to be completely full with all confirmed patients because don't worry, they play games and it's like, well, my schedule is full. And I'm like, yeah, well, half of these weren't confirmed. They're gonna be no shows. So it's uh, my schedule is full, or we're allowed one hygiene opening with all of our hygienists per day, but like by end of day, this needs to be done in every day that that's our goal. And our goal is to make sure that hygiene's up to goal 90% of the time. We track it daily, we track it weekly, we make sure they're there. My treatment coordinator, my doctors need to be up to goal, like to their scheduled daily production goal. That's the expectation every day is that they're scheduled to goal. And when I look at the course of a week or a month, my expectation is that 90% of my days, Paul, you're hitting your daily goal. That's their main focus. I think so often we're like, we want the schedule full, we want the patient experience, and we want this and we want that. But I'm like, if I can simplify it for my team, just like my AR, my AR needs to be less than one month's worth of collections, and I need less than these amounts per category. Great. There's so many other things they can do that they can get busy and like, I got to answer the phone. But if I know before I leave, like the way I win and the way I check my day off is I've got my doctor scheduled to go, I've got my hygiene schedule full, and we've got our months collections done. Those are three of your biggest areas. Of course, there's a thousand things, but when we lock and load on that, and my doctor needs to diagnose X amount, it does also then impact our case acceptance. Because guess what? Now that that treatment coordinator is like, shoot, I have to get Dr. Paul up to, I don't know, 5,000, 8,000, whatever your daily goal is. And I know that that's my expectation. And I'm gonna be reporting every single week on this. And what happens if I don't hit goal? So some people incentivize with bonuses, some people, this is just part of your job description. Some people are meeting on weekly one-on-ones and like helping them through it. Some people, like treatment coordinators, work with their doctors and they review treatment cases every single week. But it's if you can laser focus each one of them, but it's not a would like to have, it's a must-have as a culture. And we are a culture of we hit our outcomes consistently, we don't miss those. We don't have to be perfect, but that's what we track and measure by. That's how you improve a practice. And then all the other noise goes away because me as a team member, I'm not trying to compete for what I think is most important. You've helped me know, and we've aligned and we've agreed. And I know what's going to be the outcome if I choose not to. And then everything else kind of falls into place. As a front office team member, there's a lot to do. But I think just giving one or two really helps streamline that.

Paul Etchison 17:45

So, like what I hear you saying is that if it's important to you as the owner, you've got to make it important to the team as well. And that's by discussing, making it a focus. Yet I find that a lot of practice owners are very scared. And I don't know if it's scared is the right word, maybe fearful of pressing too many buttons up there, like upsetting people, over asking, asking too many things. I mean, do you think that practice owners need to have a mindset shift around the leadership that comes with the front office?

Leadership, Vision, And Accountability

Kiera Dent 18:14

I think it's a, I don't know, it's almost like a family motto and it's a team motto. Like we all work and contribute, and each of us is part of this bigger whole. And so, like, if Dr. Etch does not diagnose enough dentistry for us, like that's a broken part in our whole like wheel. And I need to be as a team member able to count on Dr. Etch to be on time for our patients and to diagnose enough treatment for us. Like, that's his part of our puzzle. And if he doesn't do that, I need to hold him accountable. And so it's not a Dr. Etch is the like top dog supervisor. We're all part of this to make a whole, and we all need to be able to have like go to five dysfunctions of a team. Like, how can we have more healthy debate and call each other out? I love thinking of sports analogies where they want to win. We all know what like win on the scoreboard looks like. And I can only imagine, like, could you imagine? Like, we'll just use the Chiefs. I feel like everybody knows the Chiefs. Like, right now, it's like, could you imagine Patrick Mahomes? Someone doesn't block for him and he gets completely smashed and he's like, Oh, hey, Coach Reed, could you please tell the team to tell them to block? Like, it would be ludicrous. Like, Paul, you even laugh about it because it's so ridiculous. Instead, in the moment, he's like, dudes, block for me. Like, we're not gonna win if you don't do your job. But yet in the dental office, we don't see ourselves in that way of being able to call each other out when we're not, we're not doing our part of the puzzle to win on the team. And so I think doctors, I think that's the mindset shift of you should be able to hold them accountable just like they should be able to hold you accountable.

Paul Etchison 19:44

And if I'm a doctor and I'm listening to this podcast right now and I'm like, yeah, that sounds great in theory, but that would never work in my office, not with my personnel, not with my team. They wouldn't take that sort of constructivism or that feedback and they wouldn't have that team attitude. And I deal with this a lot with coaching clients, and I'm sure you do as well. It's a culture change that's required, but it could make the owner's life so much easier if we just only had to focus on the outcomes and not so much micro things. How would you suggest a doctor maybe have this conversation with their their front office team to say, like, this is what my vision is for this, help me get to this point. Like, what do you think that would sound like?

Solving Root Problems, Not Whack‑A‑Mole

Kiera Dent 20:24

Yeah, and I do love this. This is why we coach like doctors and teams. This is why we come in because sometimes an outside voice is easier than an inside voice, right? Like, I get it. Um, it's scary for me. This is why know yourself and be free. And if you're not the one that's like, I'm good at setting a vision, but like holding lines like this is not my jam, rock on. Like, you need a good pair to you that's a great office manager who's really good at communicating this and getting a team on board. So I think like sometimes Dr. Schwill, they've got to be the producer, the diagnoser, the sales, the marketing, all the pieces, plus the accountability. And I'm like, know what you're really, really good at. And like, Paul, I look at you. You're an amazing visionary. You're really talented at dentistry, you're great at culture. And your office manager was kick A next to you. Like, she did so good at holding pieces together. And you would bring in training to give her support so they could grow to the next level. But you're like, I'll kind of do it, but like that's not who I am. I'm the same way. I've got an operations person next to me. And can I do it? Yes, but is that my zone of genius? No. And that doesn't mean we abdicate and we're like, well, just because I don't like it, I don't do it. But I think if you're really good at this, then rock on and do it. But doctors, we need a vision of where you're going. And that's your main thing that we need from you of like, what does this look like? Where are we headed and why? Like, what's the lighthouse on the hill that we can all rally behind? And then we need a really good like leadership team or office manager next to us. And I every time I talk to doctors about joining us in consulting, my first question is like, great, what are your issues, problems? Like, tell me about your practice and who's your implementer next to you? And if they don't have a strong OM next to them, I know that that's 90% of their problems. So we need to fill that seat next to them because a good yin and yang, Paul, you know this just like I do. They need to be that accountability person. You're drilling and filling, but then that becomes part of our culture. And I think if you've never been this way, a good way to take this into action is like, let's have a team like state of the company or like next vision or whatever you want to call it. But like this is how we've been operating and this is where we're moving to, and this is why. And this is how it's gonna make all of our lives easier. And I understand that it's gonna be a little jostly. And hey, so maybe you hire a coach or consultant that's gonna help with that. Maybe you and your office manager rally. But I think it's gotta be a this is where we've been, this is where we're going, this is why. And if a doctor were to say, that's not my team, they won't relate to that. I would say look at you first and say, choose your hard. If your team's that way, like, do you really want to move into this next layer? Like, how bad is that pain? Because if you're not willing to do this, your team's not gonna follow you either. But you are the culture setter of your practice. So, what you tolerate, it's not what you save, it's what you tolerate. And So that is truly your standards of the practice. So I would say it's also a you gotta have like a little like conversation with you in the mirror of am I really willing to change my culture? Am I really willing to go through the like there is a chasm you've got to cross, but the other side is truly beauty and it does work. And teams do actually thrive if they know how do I get my win? What does my doctor truly want from me? And teams genuinely do want their doctor to thrive. Like that's why they're there. So I think you have to be committed to holding that line, to driving that vision, to having the uncomfortable conversations and making them comfortable and having a really good person next to you. It can be a DA, it can be an OM, it can be a hygienist. But I think a lot of times having two voices that move it forward oftentimes are easier. But, doctors, you've got to be a really strong lighthouse on the hill and you've got to be committed and you're willing to go through the effort to change a culture. Culture doesn't happen overnight. Culture is a slow burn that takes a while to turn. But I think it's like the Titanic. You don't think it's moving, but then when you like look up, it has made progress, even though it didn't feel like it. And I think that that's the theme with culture.

Paul Etchison 24:09

I see this with my clients is that they're focusing on the wrong area. Like we're looking at someone might reach out to you and say, hey, my front desk, I want them to do this. They're not doing this. I want them to do this other thing. They dig their feet in, they say no. I mean, can you tell a story of a recent client that you worked with that maybe came in and thought was pointing a lot of fingers, but really it just needed to look in the mirror?

Dental A‑Team Resources And Events

Kiera Dent 24:30

Yes, this happens often. And I think it's like a whack-a-mole. And I think that that's why people do reach out for coaching. I think that they recognize that I'm like spinning all these tops and I just don't know where I need to go. And it's like, great. So a recent client that I would say they were so obsessed about their hygiene department and like they were like trying to run around. They're like, we need to fix this, we need to fix that. And I was like, actually, what you're like, what you're saying with all these words that you don't realize is you just want more profitability. You're stressed out of your mind. So you're going after all these different things when we just need to get your profitability dialed in. We need to figure out like where are we cash bleeding and fix that issue because your hygiene department probably only needs like a small uptick, but you're after that, you're after this person, you're after this. But your real main problem is your cash flow low. Like that's it. And that's a you thing. That's a you not knowing business. That's a we need to fix that. And then we look at which systems do we need to implement or which department do we need to go attack that's going to actually fix that problem for you. And so I think so many times people want to, we hear podcasts, right? So it's like, okay, I'm taking notes today. I'm gonna go check in on all these KPIs. But something I love about how we consult is a lot of consulting companies like A, B, C, D, you got to do that. And for me, I look at, all right, what are we already doing really well? What is the true pain point of the practice? And what's the one, two, or three things that are very easy changes that are going to exponentially get you out of the problem you're in and move you forward. I might have a set way that I want you to say a phone script. I might have a set way that I want your case acceptance to go, but those might not be the root issue. And the root issue might be you as a leader need to get us a vision. I will tell you, Paul, we had a mastermind in person and people were like complaining, like, my team's not bought in, my team's not bought in. And I was like, all right, guys, I just have a quick question. If I were to walk into your practice today, how many of you like talk to your team? You're not allowed to give them influence. How many of them could tell me where we're going and like where we're headed in the next five to 10 years? They did not raise their hands. And I was like, that's your problem right there. You have not given this team where we're going, why we're going. And so they're just rowing their own little boats over here, thinking they're doing the most important thing, versus I'm headed towards this. This is my number. This is how I win. And you gave them that clarity and you looked in the mirror first and got the vision. So I say, there's this is twofold. There was one of you need to give the vision to your team, you need to have the clarity of where you're going. And second, instead of playing whack-a-mole and like trying to fix every little thing, what's our true root problem that we need to solve? And if things are going good or like mostly good, let's go after the fastest, easiest levers. Like people are like, I need more profit or production. I'm like, okay, what are the easiest, fastest ways? Increase our production, increase our collections, decrease our spending, production, diagnose more, close more cases, look at our block scheduling, and look at our hygiene. Like those are like your simplest, easiest ways to make sure like our schedule's filled to goal. That's really there's not a lot that we have to do that I think we sometimes overcomplicate when we could simplify and make it a lot easier. And I think that that's probably the whole message of this I think it's actually a lot easier to get to where you're trying to go. So just finding that simple piece, I think is where people, it's hard because they don't know. So they're gonna play whack-a-mole rather than give me the vision, get the numbers dialed in and let your team thrive in those departments.

Paul Etchison 27:43

Yeah, I just couldn't agree more. I I love that you said that. And I think that's gonna be so useful for so many people to hear. Talk about what the A team is up to this spring and how people can reach out to you if they want to learn more.

Key Takeaways And Next Steps

Kiera Dent 27:54

Yeah, we are always like, we're just here to help. So we do doctor and team training, we do virtual and in-person, we have in-person masterminds, which are super fun for doctors to get connected. And I didn't like to be the owner that like I go get rallied and then my team doesn't. So I'm really big on like, let's rally you and your team so you don't have to try this like got super pumped on the podcast, but like, hey OM, could you go listen to this podcast and do your job better? So we do a good job of blending for people. And so, yeah, in February, we're in person. And then in April, we're doing our our summit. So we always do a summit. And if you guys tell us that you heard about it on Paul's, definitely you will get a VIP ticket. But that's going to be on April 24th. It's a four-hour CE. It's our amazing summit. Head on over to thedentaliteam.com or you can email us hello at thedentalateam.com. I'd love to have you there. But yeah, if you're like, gosh, I just need help, we do like a full practice like autopsy with you. And like, hey, let me just give you some free advice, let us help you out. But yeah, anyway, we can help you and your team streamline. So doctors can be amazing doctors and CEOs. Teams can level up to their highest potential and we do it together conjectively. Paul's an amazing doctor. Like, talk to him about like doctor mindset. I don't know how to tell you how to do a fill, like that's Paul's world. But how to get your team on board and how to rally with you and support you in the life you deserve. That's what Deadly Team's about. And I would say, doctors, be selfish. You're CEOs. You should be the dentist, you should be the CEO. You don't need to be the everything, you don't need to know all the front office. There are people that can help you and support you. But learning that and getting your team the tools, that is your job to do. And I would encourage you to reach out if we can help in any way. And always a huge fan of Paul and his group. And listen to Paul, he's got brilliant ideas. He's one of my favorite dentists that I've ever coached. And he's an amazing person at culture and being able to drive people to results. And I think I'm just a good jelly to his peanut butter. We do the team side, we do the helping your doctors get to the life they want through team team execution.

Paul Etchison 29:44

Awesome, Kara. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Always a joy having you on. Love connecting with you. And and listeners, go check out Kara's stuff. She's brilliant. She is a brilliant person, and she knows how to get your team on board and to do the things that you want them to do. So thank you so much, Kara.

Kiera Dent 30:00

Thank you. I appreciate it so much, Paul. Thank you so much.

Paul Etchison 30:03

All right. Well, the front desk, it doesn't have to feel mysterious. You don't have to personally master claim submission and the insurance breakdowns, but you do need enough awareness to know what good looks like, what you should be measuring, and what outcomes you're holding your front desk team accountable to. So when the front office is stable, your schedule gets fuller, your collections get so much cleaner, and your stress levels, man, they drop fast. So here's what I want you to remember from this episode. First of all, stop confusing activity with outcomes. The outcome is the full schedule, a clean AR, and closed cases. Go for the outcome, not the activity. Second, pick one or two core KPIs for each role and make them visible for your team. Third, do spot audits quarterly so that when you're delegating, it's not completely blind. And lastly, the fastest way to improve all of this is just like everything else. It's training and clarity. It's not you getting all pissed off at that cancellation that just happened at one o'clock. Now, this is something at DPH, we do very well organizing the front desk, systematizing it. And if you want help getting those systems and the leadership in your practice dialed in so that you can step back without everything falling apart, please go to dentalpracticeherals.com/slash strategy, book a call with me, and we can discuss what's going on in your practice and I can give you some advice. And if dental practice heroes can help you, I'll let you know what that looks like. And before you go, if this podcast has been helpful, leaving a five-star review is the easiest way to support it. It takes about 30 seconds. It helps other dentists find the show, and I'm so grateful for it. So leave a five-star review. If you're thinking you're gonna leave a four-star review, don't leave anything. It's gotta be five, and you know it's five. Just give it a five star review. It takes 30 seconds. Thank you so much. And I mean it when I say I'm truly appreciative. I hope you believe this is a five-star podcast. We will talk to you next time.