Whether you’ve been practicing for ten years or you started roughly two years ago, slow times are inevitable. You’re going to experience slow periods and a downturn in business at some point in time. While the timing is different in every practice, the dental industry sure has a particular period of its own. It mostly happens around September when school children and students resume back to class and become busy.
These slow times usually come with lots of challenges such as white pages in financial books, lots of idle moments, inability to meet up with employee pay, etc. if this is the case for your practice, you shouldn’t panic; it’s quite familiar with every industry. Instead of worrying about what’s not working, you should see this period as an opportunity to evaluate things and come up with new initiatives that can help turn things around.
Most times, it turns out to be that you need a dental CPA in Kansas City. Beyond needing a CPA, it might be that you need a whole new approach to things. However, while brainstorming on what needs to be done and undone, here are four tips for coping with slow periods in your dental practice.
1. Carry Out a Marketing Evaluation
Slow times are a significant period to start evaluating your marketing efforts. They offer the perfect opportunity to take a proper and detailed look at your marketing strategies since they could be the leading cause of the dip in sales, besides not having a dental CPA in Kansas City.
Were your marketing strategies working and suddenly stopped? What other practical approaches can you introduce to turn things around? These and many more are questions to which you and members of your team should find answers.
If, for a reason, you’ve not been marketing, now’s the time to start. Design several strategies and experiment on them, then you should adopt the ones that offer the best results.
2. Maintain Efficiency
When business is slow, you may be moved to relax and not take things seriously. However, this should not be the case. The need to remain efficient is essential, and that’s what a dental CPA in Kansas City would tell you. Maintain your regular schedule, don’t spend two hours carrying out a task you usually do in one hour. Staying efficient and consistent will help build your reputation and gets you prepared for when things become routine.
3. Reconnect with Patients
There’s no better time to reconnect with old patients you haven’t seen in a while than when business is slow. It offers you the opportunity to review the list of patients who haven’t met up with appointments. You’d be surprised at how helpful doing this can be. Many will feel loved and might prompt them to make new appointments, and guess what, they’ll honor them.
4. Learn New Skills and Brush Up on Existing Ones
Instead of sitting idle when things are slow, use that time to learn new skills that will set you apart from the competition. Use the time to develop excellent marketing pitches that can help you attract new patients.
Conclusion
Slow times aren’t uncommon in dental practice. How you handle them, however, matters a lot. Instead of beating yourself about it, channel the energy into being creative and finding new ways to get things working again.
