Stop the Bleeding: How Cancellations Quietly Destroy Profit with Carrie Webber

Cancellations are up, no-shows are almost expected — and most owners are handling it the wrong way.

In this episode, Carrie Webber of Jameson Group walks through what every person in your practice can start doing today to keep patients on the schedule. You’ll learn exactly what to say to patients to get them to show up, the front desk mistake that costs you appointments, and the unexpected reason patients don’t follow through..l

Topics discussed:

• Three issues every practice is dealing with right now
• Why cancellations and no-shows have increased
• The first step to fixing a cancellation/no-show problem
• The strategy most owners try (and why it doesn’t work)
• Seven value-building skills every role needs
• The burnout problem hurting your patient experience
• How to audit your entire patient experience in one day
• The front desk mistake that loses patients before they book
• Power words that ensure patients show up
• The biggest obstacle to patients getting treatment

Connect with Carrie Webber:

https://jmsn.com

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

Title Options:

1. Stop Charging Cancellation Fees — Do This Instead
2. Say This and Watch Your No-Show Rate Drop
3. The Words That Get Patients to Actually Show Up
4. The One Phrase Your Front Desk Needs to Stop Saying
5. Stop Saying This to Patients and Improve Your Cancellation Rate

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Transcript

Why The Schedule Feels Fragile

Paul Etchison 0:47

Do you ever feel like your schedule looks completely full, but somehow it still feels fragile to you? Like it's good, but you know that all it takes is one or two cancellations, and all of a sudden your whole day is gonna fall apart. And what's frustrating is that you've got that all-star team, you've got the systems in place, and you're doing so many things right. But let's face it, patients just don't seem as committed as they used to be. They cancel more, they reschedule more, and they don't show up more. And it just feels like the value of the appointment, it just isn't there anymore in the patient's eyes. So today we are gonna talk about what's really changed with the patient over the last few years, why your schedule feels more fragile than it ever has before, and how you can rebuild consistency around your patients keeping their appointments without adding more stress to your day. You're gonna learn how to finally keep those patients on the schedule, finally fix your cancellation issue, and get this. It has nothing to do with charging your patients more money. Now, you are listening to the Dental Practice Heroes podcast, where we teach you how to build a practice that runs with better systems, stronger communication, and a whole lot less chaos. I'm your host, Dr. Paul Edchison. I'm a dentist, I'm a coach, I'm an author, and the owner of a multi-doctoral practice in the south suburbs of Chicago. And today I'm joined by my friend Carrie Weber of Jameson Consulting. She is absolutely fantastic. She has been working with dental practice owners for so many years, and she knows what works, and she's going to share it with us today. This is a conversation that honestly every single practice owner needs to hear right now. Let's dive in. Well, hey, Carrie, so glad to have you back on the podcast. For listeners who have been listening for many, many years, eight years, Carrie was like my third guest that I ever, ever had. And she was so nice to come on and be interviewed. And I'm so happy to have her back on because she's one of my favorite people. Like she's you'll see, there is so much knowledge, and you will learn so much today. So welcome back, Carrie.

Post Pandemic Behavior And Practice Pressure

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Thanks, Paul. Well, now I didn't realize I was the third.

Paul Etchison 3:00

You were.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

I mean, I knew it was early on because you you had said that in our communications when we first met.

Paul Etchison 3:05

You were the third.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

But man, how cool do I feel now?

Paul Etchison 3:09

I kind of want to go back and listen to it. It'll make me crazy. I know.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

I mean, it was almost 10 years ago. That's what really blows my mind.

Paul Etchison 3:15

Yeah, it was. 2017. It was crazy. Yeah. So much has changed.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

So much. And yet, so much is still the same.

Paul Etchison 3:25

That's so true. Like, talk about Carrie. You have been consulting with dental practices for many, many years now and helping all sorts of practices and all sorts of beginning stages and more mature stages and stuff like that. And you've also got some clients that you've had for years and years and years. I mean, what are you seeing the most often now? I guess in this day and age, I guess we could say this day and age, post-COVID, five years past COVID. And I mean, my impression is that everybody, all the patients are mean and everybody has high expectations that can't be fulfilled. But that just could be my little micro tunnel vision. But what what are you seeing?

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Gosh, that's a loaded question, Paul. And I'm sure, you know, there's a lot of narrative that is pretty much on repeat right now, depending on what you're listening to or reading. But yeah, I would say the last six years in particular, it's currently 2026, and we are still dealing with some aftermath and shifts in behavior that I think were brought on to us by the pandemic. Or maybe it wasn't created by it, but it certainly took a simmer to a boil, if that makes any sense. I think it's consumer behavior and employee behavior have really played a big part in the continuous conversations that people are having in our profession. I think a lot of tools have been created post-pandemic that are great from that kind of consumer behavior standpoint and helping patients get what they want or need more easily. And so we devalued the appointment because we had to. That's not a criticism by any stretch. Please don't misunderstand listeners. It's simply what we knew to do or felt like we had to do at the time. But now those behaviors have made patients think, oh, it's just a hygiene appointment. They'll just reschedule me. And so we have work to do to rebuild the value that patients perceive in their appointments. And so I see and hear a lot of that. I hear a lot of frustrations from dental practice owners about employees and hiring and employee behavior and engagement and accountability. Obviously, the hygienist shortage has continued to be a narrative that we hear often. And I don't think that's going away anytime soon. I love, and I don't know if you read and study these, Paul, but you know, the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute does quarterly state of the industry surveys to groups of dentists across the country to get a read on the state of their practices. And the institute, I think, seeds the questions, obviously, and takes them in direction, whatever direction they're trying to get a feel on. But at the start of the last couple of years, they've done a what are you anticipating your biggest issues or concerns for the year are. And this year's top three issues are insurance, hiring, and team, and rising costs and overhead in their practices. And that's actually what they were in 2025 as well.

Paul Etchison 7:18

Yeah.

Why Cancellation Fees Miss The Point

SPEAKER_01 7:19

So while some of those may be less concerning as they were last year, they're still definitely front of mind for dental practices. And I definitely hear that when I talk to doctors every week, not being able to find somebody to fill a position or having a less than stellar person on the team that's not performing in the way that they need them to, but also feeling stuck because they're afraid to release a person when it's very difficult to fill positions. That is definitely a mindset, a bit of a fear-based mindset in the dental practices across the country that have a lot to do with practice culture and practice performance and systems and all of the things that can help a practice run, whether they're fully staffed or short staffed, and help them make the right decisions on who the right people to have on their team. So, and insurance, you know, is continuing to be a juggernaut of an issue in practices in terms of continuing to be able to run a profitable business while wanting to provide patients with what they want, which is to use their insurance to help cover their care. But you and I both know that dental insurance is more of a benefit versus being actual insurance. And there's a lot of misunderstandings around what it is. And our responsibility as a dental practice to deal with that and decide how we want to engage or whether you want to have a relationship with insurance plans or not. And so that's constantly a conversation. And then the overhead piece, both insurance and salaries play a part in rising costs in dental practices. And those new standards of overhead are, you know, they're painful for practices that if the practice isn't growing, but the cost of running the practice is growing, then we start to have a problem.

Paul Etchison 9:58

Well, it's all related too. Because like I'm thinking back into after coming back from the pandemic, yeah, all the costs went up. And then we had the great resignation. I just hated that term. Like I just it just bothered me so much. I'm like, why are you resigning? Show up. Come to work. And then when you and when we call you for an interview, show up to your interview. What's going on? And uh but literally, but like, yeah, that's what we went eventually dropped Delta because of that reason. I said, I can't do this. And I and I've never reached a point in my career before that where I was like, I can't provide the level of service. And I truly, I think, you know, we say that sometimes because we're just like, okay, we should be paid more for this. But I literally could not provide it. I love what you said about the cancellations because before pre-pandemic, and and we're actually back to this right now. This is our policy, is when people say they're sick, we tell them to come in anyway. We say, just get in here. We all wear masks. We don't wear masks, we don't care. We used to always call that bluff. We do the same thing when they call, when they say, Oh, I just got nobody for our kids. We're like, bring them, we'll play with them. Come on. I would say three out of four times they come, they don't bring their kids still. So it's like it's a thing. So we call that bluff. But like I never thought about it from the perspective that yes, it was there was a time we had to change it when people said, I'm not feeling well. We had to say, no problem. No problem. We'll reschedule you, no big deal.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

No big deal.

Go Back To Value Building Basics

Paul Etchison 11:17

And cancellations in my personal practice have been higher than they were pre-pandemic. We got them down to almost like 4% at one point. And I think we're pushing uh low teens or not low teens, but like 12, 15%. Sometimes we have in some months. It's something we're addressing right now. So, I mean, you're seeing this in a lot of practices. I love that you've got this hypothesis that that's what caused it because I've never thought about it from that perspective. But what are you recommending doctors are doing to build that value?

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah.

Paul Etchison 11:46

Because I've got some theories too, but man, I don't have the solution either, you know?

SPEAKER_01 11:50

So some of my things are gonna be no-brainers, some of my things are unpopular opinions.

Paul Etchison 11:55

Well, well, anyway.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

But you know, as a company, so you know, I've been in Jameson for 26 years. I've owned it for half of that time, but the company has been around for almost 40 years. So we've seen a lot. And the best advice I can give practices if you start to see a trend, a trend in cancellations and no-shows, you have to go seeking out the root cause of that trend. And what I mean by that is it's time to go back to the basics. What did you used to do consistently and do well proactively, that built trust, need, urgency, and value in the minds of the patients to where they not only say yes and schedule the appointment, but they are mentally locked in. They're committed. They see the value, they see the need. And so a lot of people, when I ask at the start of a lecture, you know, what are you hoping we talk about? What do you want to make sure that we cover? I want to, I want to know what your expectations are coming into this course because everybody's got one. And almost every time somebody says, Well, how much do you recommend we charge as a cancellation fee? And I say, Well, first of all, you're already acting in a reactive state.

Paul Etchison 13:16

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

And I say, if your first question is, what do we charge when they cancel, you're too late. And so I want people to think about going back to the basics and going all the way back to before they even schedule the appointment with the patient. So I want you thinking about your telephone technique. I want you to think about your verbal skills. I want you to think about your doctor hygiene evaluations and the conversations you're having there about the appointment they're in right now and the treatment you're discussing to move forward with. I want you to think about patient checkouts. I want you to think about how we're not only scheduling the appointment, but how we're building the value of the appointment from the very beginning. And I want you to think about verbal skills and value-building verbal skills with patients. And I want you to think about repetition of messages. So all of that is psychological babble to tell me that I want to partner with this patient in a real continuous conversation, get them involved and engaged in their responsibilities for their continuous care. And I need to work on my verbal skills to educate patients on the value and the need and the urgency, even if it's not about restorative treatment, Paul, even if it's about simply maintenance, staying committed to their hygiene appointments and continuous care, you know, giving them the reasons to come back, supporting and celebrating their good decisions for their commitment to care, and getting all these little yeses from them that are telling me that they are locked in and they're not just giving me lip service.

Hygiene Visits Need Better Guidance

Paul Etchison 15:01

Well, it's interesting that you say this because this is a very relevant conversation in my practices over this previous year. And we've been noticing that the cancellations go up. And my lead hygienist, she comes to me and she says, You know what? I was sick the other day and I uh I canceled my laser appointment. And they said they charged me 75 bucks. They said, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you're sick, but I have a business to run. And I was like, okay, I accepted it. I felt like my whole team was behind. This is your front desk's fault. They need to save those appointments with charging the stuff. And I had asked all that we did as a team meeting. I said, realistically, our best speaker at this practice, get somebody who's gonna cancel. What is a reasonable amount of percentage of appointments you think they can save by threatening our cancellation policy, by threatening$75? And everyone's like, oh, uh, well, I don't know, maybe 15, 20%. And I'm like, well, then that's not the right place that we do it. We need to go further up line. So the same thing that you're saying is that that's too late. But it you're right, it's reactive. So you mentioned it's it's a full team thing. But I mean, what I see is most of the time it's on the hygiene side. It's it's mostly on the hygiene side, at least in my practice. We're pre-collecting to get restorative appointments. So like we have a little more commitment.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

You're locked in there, yeah.

Paul Etchison 16:17

Yeah. What is the hygienist? What should hygienists be doing with their patients?

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Well, I think there's a lot of things that could be done. And, you know, hygienists, please still love me when this is over.

Paul Etchison 16:31

We are not placing blame on one position. We're gonna we're gonna go through everybody. We'll we'll get to you. We'll get to you if you're just like, see, I knew it was the hygienist. No, we're gonna get to you.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Fingers pointing. Hygiene appointments specifically, I think is a perfect place for us to start taking our relationship with patients for granted. And the reason I say that is we get busy, we have a lot of boxes to check if you're understaffed or if you're, you know, if you're kind of busting at the seams in terms of patient flow. Your hygienists, if it's a well-scheduled day, has have a pretty robust schedule happening, you know? And we do so many things repeatedly with patients that we forget that they don't really understand what you're doing. So from the very beginning, I would think of myself as a guide and an educator to my patient in terms of every leading them through the appointment and explaining everything that we're doing and its purpose. Now, I'm biased because our practice that I'm actually a patient of has been thoroughly trained repeatedly on their verbal skills and our hygienists are exceptional at it. But it still leaves me impressed and in awe when they take the time to explain to me what they're gonna be doing. Here's what we're doing next. And, you know, all the way down to the oral cancer screening. If you're doing an oral cancer screening, tell me what you're doing. Let us not assume that a patient understands everything that you're doing in an appointment and its purpose. And in the doctor hygiene evaluation, I would recommend the same. Doctors, so now let's talk to doctors, you know, tell them what you're gonna do, do it, and then tell them what you did. Tell, show, tell, tell, do, tell. And the purpose of this is for every explanation and every repetition of a conversation that builds value in my mind and my perception as a patient of wow, this is important. Oh, they're checking me for cancer. This is important. Oh, he's evaluating my mouth to make sure I don't have any disease that has arisen since the last time I was here. Oh, this is important. I mean, this is the epitome of preventative care. And so if we want our patients to be more proactive, then we have to show them what their choices to stay active in our practice are doing for them in a positive light. So I would say you can never over-communicate, but you can certainly under-communicate. So think about how you're communicating and guiding patients through appointments that build value. And then use visual aids, use photography, even if the patient's healthy, if we have helped them get to a state of health at one point, don't be afraid to show them how far they've come, because that really reaffirms their continued commitment. We all have short-term memory loss issues. And so sometimes we forget some of the things that you've done for me. And then making sure that we're affirming the purpose of upcoming appointments, supporting their decisions to schedule those appointments, giving them a reason to come back, and then really being committed to being an advocate for their care and using repetition of message when we're with the doctor doing the hygiene evaluation, when we're preparing the patient for checkout, when we're taking the patient to the business team to check out, that we're repeating messages and repeating those upcoming appointments and the purpose for them and not taking for granted, even if it's a patient that's been a patient of record for many years, don't assume anything. Assumption is the lowest form of communication. So when we start assuming on behalf of our patients and taking them for granted, that gives them a door to exit out of. We don't want that.

Paul Etchison 20:14

Yeah. And I'm thinking, like when you're saying this, is I'm wondering how many hygienists went through the pandemic and I mean just kind of like got a little burnt out from like all the protocols and stuff. And then when all those things like relax, they're just like, I don't feel like doing any of this stuff. Like, I mean, we know we had a lot of people just drop out of the workforce completely. So it's like it's like going back to those fundamentals of providing an amazing visit.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

That's right.

Paul Etchison 20:38

And engaging your patient. And I'm wondering, as I'm hearing you say this, I kind of want to walk around my hallways. Yeah. I've got 13 hygienists.

Recalibrate The Full Patient Experience

SPEAKER_01 20:46

The key is in the mindset and then building up your skill sets because if I don't feel comfortable having those conversations, or if I'm not a strong communicator, I'm not gonna want to. Right. I don't that makes me uncomfortable. So we all have to practice communication skills. We all, you and me included, have to practice our verbal skills to get better and better and better and overcome our lack of confidence because I agree, Paul. I think our hygienists have really struggled with burnout. I think every member of a dental team has struggled with burnout. I think our doctors are struggling with that and have struggled with it. I'd like to optimistically think we're getting through that, but I still work and talk to a lot of dental professionals that are trying really hard to get through the burnout. If we can help people be reminded of why they chose this profession in the first place and really own that role in a different way. Instead of being simply a check the box, I mean, I do what I have to do and that's it. If we can get them to really see I have an opportunity here to be a difference maker in these relationships I have with these patients that come through the door every day and choose to approach their appointments and their time with patients differently, we can build the skills if we can tap into a want to from a person. If I have 13 hygienists that want to, they simply don't know how to. Oh, the sky's the limit.

Paul Etchison 22:21

Yeah. It's almost like a recalibration.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Yes.

Paul Etchison 22:23

I love that. So we're gonna build more value, we're gonna get more engaged, we're gonna recalibrate and try to be more engaging with our patients, providing great experience and realize that we're taking somebody in a very something that they probably have some level of fear or dislike about and making an uncomfortable experience. What about the person making the appointment? You know, what about the person at the front desk or if the hygienist making the appointment? Is there another discussion that happens? Are you you mentioned repetition? You know, are we talking about the policy?

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Right.

Paul Etchison 22:54

How much are we charging, Carrie? It's good, we're gonna fix it because we're gonna charge them to show up.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Right.

Paul Etchison 22:58

I've had people ask me, should we take a deposit for a hygiene visit? I'm like, ooh, I don't think so. But yeah, I'd love to hear what your thoughts on this are.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Aaron Powell There's a lot of frustration from our people on the phone. And I understand that. I mean, the first question they usually get asked is, do you take my insurance? There's not a lot of enthusiasm probably coming from potential patients or the patients calling to talk to a dental practice. It's not like they're calling to reserve their hotel reservation for the, you know, vacation of their dreams or anything.

Paul Etchison 23:29

They don't do doubles, not like a double. Massage or a couple massages. Do you have cattle chairs in the same room? We can make them romantic.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Right.

Paul Etchison 23:37

No, we don't do that.

Phone Scripts That Hold The Schedule

SPEAKER_01 23:39

What kind of essential oils are you using? Yeah. So I would say, again, going back to the basics, every practice, I'm just going to put this out here, that I believe every practice could benefit from what I love the word you used, a recalibration. And what I mean by that is that you shut down the practice and for a half day to a full day, you sit as a team and doctors, practice owners, practice leaders, you stand in front of your team and you cast vision. You clearly communicate what your vision of what right looks like in your practice and how you want a patient experience to go, what you want to be achieving from those key performance indicators, what your goals are, what team cohesiveness looks like and feels like, what your expectations are of every team member's engagement and performance and their role in that patient experience and the daily workflow. And then we as a team self-evaluate how are we doing in every aspect of that patient experience? From the telephone, even before the telephone, how are we looking online? What are our reviews saying? What's our website like? What's our social media doing for us? What's the engagement online about our practice? What are people seeing? What are their first perceptions of us? And then from the telephone to how we schedule the appointments, to how we confirm the appointments, how we check them in, how we greet them, how we seat them, how we walk them through their appointment, how we educate them on treatment and present treatment, how we talk about financial responsibilities, how we schedule that next appointment, how we check that patient out, and how we follow up all of it. How well are we doing? And if we were a patient in our practice, in each part of that experience, would we be exceptionally pleased? And if the answer is no, in any of those steps, go back to the basics and say, what do we need to work on? Or what did we used to do that made it so successful that we're not doing anymore? Or what do we need to do differently? Or what do we need to change? A lot of the time, practices used to do things that made a difference. And somewhere down the line, they stopped doing little things that made a big difference in the patient's experience. And they didn't even realize that they stopped. I hear it all the time. And taking us back to your question, thank you, Carrie, for taking the long road. But in the telephone, we never evaluate our own performance.

Paul Etchison 26:21

No, we don't.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Are we listening to calls? Are we practicing the calls? Are we having a teammate call from another room to hear how you answer it and role-play that conversation and give feedback and coach each other to be better? If I'm getting hit with the same walls of resistance from people calling the practice, wouldn't I like to have some help figuring out how to approach or respond or answer those questions or that resistance in a different way? Because if I don't change something about how I respond, the results will not change. So if I have a team that's coachable, again, we can do something about this. So there's so many opportunities in terms of how we ask questions, how we build value, how we use elevated words, and I call them power words instead of weak words to build value.

Paul Etchison 27:15

Give me some power words.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

So from the telephone.

Paul Etchison 27:19

Is one fantastic? Because that's my power word.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Oh, I love that word. No, but it is name.

Paul Etchison 27:26

I love saying fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

A lot of times when I'm like, you gotta be kidding me, I go, Well, that is so fascinating.

unknown 27:32

Yeah.

Paul Etchison 27:32

Yes. Yes. So fascinating. Yes. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

In the more basic ways. So instead of scheduling an appointment, I want to reserve an appointment.

Paul Etchison 27:41

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

We've reserved 90 minutes of Dr. Etchison's time for you next Thursday at 2 p.m. So I want to elevate it in that way. Instead of the cost or the price, I want to say the investment or the fee. I don't want to think retail, I want to think service, if that makes any sense. Yeah. And I always joke around in lectures and I say, you know, if a fast food chicken restaurant can have all of their employees say things like, my pleasure for customer service, so can a dental practice.

Paul Etchison 28:13

Totally. We just need more Chick-fil-A employees. We need to be special. We just don't have the right team, Barry. It's hard in dentistry. No, yes, yeah, I totally agree.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Sounds like someone's gonna go get a chicken sandwich at lunch and see what's gonna be.

Paul Etchison 28:28

Spicy.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Spicy. But take notes from the playbooks of other businesses in your community that you're impressed by. As a team, talk about the stories of the businesses that you've talked to on the telephone and what left a really positive impression on you. And how can you fold what they do into what you do? I want you, as the people on the telephone, to stay in control of the call. A big no-no is to say, so when would you like to come in?

Paul Etchison 28:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

And you know, I want to say, do you prefer mornings or afternoons? And then I want to lead the call, but I still want to give that patient the opportunity to participate in finding the best solution for them. And this happens a lot when patients are trying to cancel. Oh, okay. Well, do you want to go ahead and reschedule now? No, I'll just call you back later. Oh, okay.

Paul Etchison 29:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

That's a no and a no and a no. That whole conversation was bad. Because I want to try, number one, to rescue the appointment. And number two, if there's no way to rescue it, I want the best time to schedule appointments is face-to-face. The second best is if we're actually on the phone with them at that point. If they say I'll call you, they're not gonna call me. Maybe what's a guesstimate of a percentage of people that when they say they're gonna call you, they're actually gonna call you.

Paul Etchison 29:47

Probably 30.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Maybe if we're lucky. So staying in control, and I always joke around the people that I think are the best as scheduling coordinators and dental practices. I call them bounty hunters because they're gonna get you on that appointment. They're gonna get you scheduled and they're gonna make sure you're confirmed and keeping the appointment because they they're passionate about it. And the people that are considered the most influential, this is from Amy Cuddy, who wrote the book, Presence. One of the characteristics of what people consider influential people is that they're passionately enthusiastic. So they have passionate enthusiasm for whatever they're doing. And if you have the right person on the seat of the bus answering the telephone, that passion and enthusiasm comes through. And from the very beginning. Oh, Paul, it's so good to hear from you. How are you doing? I'm so glad you called. Tell me, how can I help you today?

Paul Etchison 30:47

My toothherts.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

And I want to be that level. What did you say?

Paul Etchison 30:51

I said my two-thirds.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Oh, your tooth hurts. I'm so sorry. Well, let's get a little information here and see how we can help you, okay?

Paul Etchison 30:59

Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

I'm going to stay in control. I'm going to ask Paul all the questions. Tell me. Tell me what part of your mouth hurts.

Paul Etchison 31:07

The top and the bottom.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

The top? All of them?

Paul Etchison 31:11

The upper and the lower. Upper lower.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

All teeth.

Paul Etchison 31:17

We are sober, I promise. Like this is the All teeth.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Gosh, I can't even imagine how lunch went today.

Paul Etchison 31:24

It didn't. It didn't go. It was smoothie king. But the cold hurt.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Oh, the cold. You're so you're sensitive to cold.

Paul Etchison 31:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Okay. Well, you know what? I'm going to work hard to get you in to see Dr. Jameson as soon as possible so that we can get you comfortable. Does that sound good to you? Let me take a little bit more information.

Paul Etchison 31:42

Ooh, I like that. That you're going to work hard to get you into. We get everybody in the same day, but we don't work hard to get them in the same day. But we do. We don't tell them we do. I love that. That was good.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Yeah. So, you know, it's important to us that we see you as soon as possible. So I'm going to work hard to make that happen for you right now. Okay. Let's see what we can do. And I also use Dr. Jameson's name. So, oh, I know Dr. Etchardson's going to want to see you as soon as possible. Well, I'm going to work hard to see if we can make that happen. I know he'll want to see you. And then when I reserve time with you, okay, we have 60 minutes and a full hour of Dr. Etchitson's time this afternoon at 3 p.m. Will that work for you?

Paul Etchison 32:21

Yeah, I'll be there.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Do you see any reason why you wouldn't be able to make that appointment? Okay, so can we count on you to be here?

Paul Etchison 32:30

Yes.

Value Patient Time And Fix Running Late

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Then you can count on us to be ready for you, okay, Paul?

Paul Etchison 32:34

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

So I asked a couple of things. Do you see any reason why you won't be here? And I know we're using the emergency reason, but I want to do this for all of them when I'm confirming. Do you see any reason why you can't make this appointment? And this is a new one for me since the pandemic. Can we count on you to be here?

Paul Etchison 32:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

And when they say, yeah, then I say, awesome. Then you can count on us to be ready for you.

Paul Etchison 32:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

And then people be ready for them. Because one of the biggest deterrents for treatment is time. So one of the top obstacles to care, based upon what consumers are telling us, is time and convenience. If you have an issue, and we're not even talking about scheduling, really. I mean, kind of. Well, yeah, sure we are. Reducing cancellations and no shows. That's what we ended up talking about. But if you are running behind schedule regularly, you have a glitch in your system that must be fixed immediately. Because if you want patients to value appointments, you must in turn value their time. Period. So every practice is sometimes going to run behind schedule. But if it's happening regularly, then you need to identify the root cause of those issues and you need to fix it. Either how you're scheduling for certain appointments or how we're managing our time or when we're putting emergencies in. Because if you're just putting them in wherever and our assistants can't turn those rooms around, or our doctors can't get to that patient to give them palliative care in a timely fashion, and we start punishing the upcoming patients by running behind schedule, then we've made a mistake. And so be aware of how long people are waiting, because that is either building or diminishing their perception of value, urgency, and need every time they experience that type of treatment.

Paul Etchison 34:30

That is so true. And I would say honestly, man, 50, 60% of the offices I work with consistently run behind when we start working together. It is, it happens. It is such an acceptable thing for most doctors and most dental teams. And I agree with you. I find it completely unacceptable. And I think the patients do pay attention to this. Now, you know, if someone's listening and they're just like, oh my gosh, Carrie, I wish somebody would come to my team and like share this stuff with them because they don't listen to me as the doctor. And I think I think a lot of doctors can relate. How do they learn more about what you guys provide at Jameson and the services you provide?

Key Takeaways Plus How To Get Help

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Oh, well, the easiest way is to find us on our website. It's jmsn.com. So Jameson with no vowels. And you can find everything about our coaching services as well as our marketing services. And if you want to have a conversation with me about your practice and, you know, what your pain points are, what you need to work on, or what your goals are, then you can reach out to request to reserve a call with me through the website. So let's keep it easy, jmsn.com. And uh you can learn all about what we do for practices across the country. We'd love to hear from you.

Paul Etchison 35:43

Love it. Well, Carrie, thanks so much for your time today. And man, I learned a lot. I personally learned a lot.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Oh good.

Paul Etchison 35:49

And I got a lot of pearls out of this, and I know the listeners did too. And it's always fun having you on. Always fun. Good to see you and talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

It's really good to see you too.

Paul Etchison 35:57

So, what it really comes down to is this if the patients don't truly value the appointment, they're not going to protect it. And they're just going to blow it off, cancel it, reschedule, or not show. And most of the time, it's not because deep down they don't care. It's because somewhere along the way, we at the dental office stopped reinforcing why it matters. Like we learned in this interview we just did, it's not about stricter policies. It's not about charging more for cancellations like we always want to go to. It's about building a better system around the communication, around our expectations, and really just consistently applying it so that your schedule can stay healthy and stop falling apart every day. So here is what I want you to remember from this episode. First, fixing cancellations is not about 24 or 48 hours or$50 or$75 charges. It's about communication. Second, your team plays such a huge role in this. The way that they talk about appointments, the way that they confirm, the way that they position the value. It all matters so much. And we need to be focusing on that, not on the written policies and the threats of the consequences that we are making to our patients. And third, guess what? It's fixable. You don't need to work harder, you don't need to add more to your plate. You just need to tighten up this system and discuss your goals and your strategy with your team. And when you get that under control, your days are going to feel so much more calmer. Your schedule is going to hold so much stronger. And man, are you going to have a lot less frustration each day? And if you want help figuring out where your gaps are at your dental practice and what you should really be fixing first, head over to dentalpracticeheroles.com slash strategy and schedule a free strategy call with me. We will have a conversation. There's no pressure. And I'm going to help you get clear on what's going on in your practice and what your next move should be. And lastly, if you've got value from this episode, man, would I so very much appreciate if you just took just 30 seconds to leave a five star review? It helps more people find the show and get the same kind of help. And it really makes me feel good deep down. I get the warm fuzzies. And don't you just want to give me that excellent feeling? Yes, leave the five star review. Thanks again for listening. Have a great week at the office. I will talk to you next time.