In order to grow, you have to be willing to adapt. The world around us is constantly changing, and dentistry is no exception — how we do dentistry is always changing through new technologies and processes.

Growth isn’t easy, and it doesn’t happen overnight. But with a constant, concerted effort, you can implement scalable changes to help your DSO thrive.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Brandi Williams of Catalyst Dental Allies, a DSO based out of Edmond, Oklahoma. She has almost thirty years of experience helping practices grow in various roles, from dental assistant to insurance coordinator to office manager, and now, VP of Growth.

“This is the perfect time to rewrite the rules of dentistry,” Brandi said. “It's time to think outside of the box and kind of pioneer the new frontier of dentistry. I think there are endless possibilities right now.”

When Brandi walks into one of her offices, she always finds an opportunity for growth. She uses data to find growth opportunities and then implements new processes to achieve the desired outcome.

Here are three key takeaways from Brandi that have helped her grow practices successfully.

1. Implement New Processes Effectively

It’s challenging to create a new process and then get an entire team to adopt it. Some might say if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. But if you can make it better, why not try?

To get new processes to stick, Brandi finds accountability is key.

“I've discovered the best way to get buy-in is setting the expectation and getting a commitment from each person on the team, and then holding them accountable by following up.”

Previously, Brandi would quickly check in with team members to see how they were doing with applying new systems. However, she found she wasn’t getting the traction she needed from her team. Recently, she’s started to refocus how she spends her time by scheduling time to meet and follow up with team members.

“Now I understand the importance of having these meetings and spending a little more time on the why behind the process,” Brandi said. “I don't always have to spend as much time retraining and explaining if I put the time in the front end.”

Brandi also started applying weekly scorecards with measurements every team is responsible for completing. That way, they have ownership of their practice.

Communication is key to implementing new processes effectively. Each team member must clearly understand your expectations of doing their part to improve the practice.

2. Discover Opportunities with Data

Data helps you see where you are and where you are projected to go, but without knowing the story or the “why” behind the numbers, you won’t be able to know how to improve.

With Dental Intelligence, we help you see the story your data is telling so you can intelligently shape the future of your practice.

“Dental Intelligence allows us to dive deeper,” Brandi said. “The metrics from Dental Intelligence give us a great landscape of how the practice is doing, but then we're able to take that to the next step.”

Brandi uses Dental Intelligence to make important decisions with her practices, so they know where they need to focus their efforts. Once Brandi and her team determine what needs to be changed, automation from DI helps implement those changes smoothly. For example, if she discovers a practice has room for improvement with their accounts receivable, her team will then use Dental Intelligence Payments to collect payment through the automated text-to-pay features.

Dental Intelligence not only allows Catalyst Dental Allies to automate their processes, but also saves valuable time.

“The last thing we want is for anyone to spend hours and hours on reporting, just for the sake of reporting,” Brandi said. “It's more beneficial for them to be able to know where to find the number and understand where the number is coming from and why.”

3. Fill Chairs with Online Scheduling

Keeping chairs filled is a problem practices often face. Calling patients to schedule is time-consuming and exhausting. You say the same thing repeatedly and get rejected…a lot.

In the past, Brandi’s practices had an appointment request option on their website, but that didn’t prove very effective either.

“Patients would get lost in a sea of emails and it just wasn't very patient interactive,” Brandi said.

A process that only allows for appointment requests and not fully booked appointments creates more work for the practice. Brandi discovered most appointment requests came in after hours when patients were available to schedule. Usually, by the time someone followed up the next day, they would be busy, and phone tag ensued.

When Brandi first heard about Dental Intelligence Online Scheduling, she was skeptical of the power it could provide for her practices. However, that all changed when Brandi had firsthand experience using it in her practices.

One day while filling in at one of their practices, Brandi faced a dilemma. She had a new provider starting soon and knew that meant many new openings in her schedule, but didn’t want to spend hours calling patients. That’s when she decided to experiment with Online Scheduling.

“I'm just clicking a button — it's the craziest thing,” Brandi said. “Nobody told me ‘no,’ and it took me 20 seconds.”

She started sending bulk scheduling messages from a premade list of patients due for hygiene. During that month, that practice had nearly 50 appointments booked online. When comparing that number to the number of phone calls she would have had to make, it was clearly a game changer.

“It's so rewarding to see that I did this and now look at how many patients are scheduled.”

Boost Your Practice’s Performance Today

Stay ahead of the dental industry by implementing automated tools into your practice. Find powerful insights with Metrics and Reporting and make impactful decisions. No matter how big or small your DSO is, DI will help you boost your practice’s performance and find opportunities for growth. Schedule a free demo today to see how Dental Intelligence can help you intelligently shape the future of your practice(s).