Dental Practice Technology: 3 Steps to Get Buy-In from Your Office Staff to Improve Efficiency

To make this transition as smooth as possible, here are a few steps to get your team on board with new dental practice technology.

As technology continues to advance, choosing to upgrade can help many teams work smarter and enhance patient experiences. Dental practice technology like practice management software, marketing automation software, and cloud-based communication systems can optimize workflows to better engage patients.

That said, this doesn’t make the process any easier. While you may realize that this change is the best option not only for in-house operations but for your patients as well, your team, very often, will still need some convincing.

Here are three strategic steps you can take to secure staff buy-in with your dental practice technology and make the shift as smooth and efficient as possible for the entire dental office.

1. Emphasize the Benefits

Buy-in strategies vary and may include getting input from staff. Before implementing any changes, make sure you have identified the reasons behind the move to new dental practice technology and the benefits they will bring—making it easier for the dental office staff to perform their daily tasks, helping your dental practice function more efficiently, and having a positive impact on your bottom line.

Dental practice owners and managers must meet to outline exactly how to introduce new changes to the dental office staff and team. There’s a compelling reason you have chosen to shift your dental practice to a new form of technology, which is probably due to some aspects within your operations that could be more efficient.

Specify what areas are not optimized in your workflow and run through how a dental practice technology upgrade will help, as follows:

• State the problem identified
• Explain why it needs to be addressed
• Present the solution to the problem
• Detail how the presented solution fixes the identified problem

It’s also crucial to speak with empathy and acknowledge that the transition may not be easy. Accept that when change is implemented, there will be bumps in the road. Let your dental office staff and team know that you have created room for trial and error throughout the transition and reassure your team that the trial and error period will be treated as a learning opportunity.

Allow time and space for any team feedback, no matter how small. Your dental office staff is uniquely positioned to provide you with more insights into daily workflows and how to optimize them, so ensure your rollout plan has room for flexibility.

With your dental office team aware that you’re all in this new journey together, they’ll embrace change and adapt more ready and willing.

2. Set a Clear Plan for Implementation

After you have made your decision to implement new dental practice technology and had initial discussions with your dental office staff and team, it is time to put together a clear implementation plan. There is a good chance that despite spelling out the benefits of the new technology, the staff will still be skeptical. It will all come down to careful and strategic planning.

Take all the team feedback and begin by outlining a transitional timeline to clearly lay out the weekly operations required leading up to your completion date.

Important factors to consider should include:

• How long will it take to phase out your old systems and transition to the new technology?
• How much extra time will need to be accounted for unanticipated delays?
• How many days are needed to schedule training?
• Which specific operations will fully transition to the new tool and when?
• When will meetings for feedback take place?

Be sure to highlight staff recommendations in this timeline so the dental office staff and team feels acknowledged and heard.

Once your timeline is complete, share it with your team for final feedback and get started.

3. Dental Practice Technology Training

A key component to the smooth transition to your new dental practice technology is proper training and onboarding.

While creating your own training is most certainly doable, do not forget the strong resources the software vendor can provide. You’ll save time and stress using their ready-made roll-out developed training and onboarding resources.

With high customer satisfaction, ease of use, efficient admin perks, and high-quality support—you can quickly and easily roll out an effective training program. The training your team needs is ready to go—simply plug it into your training plan and timeline, and you are ready to get started.

Overall, transitioning to new dental practice technology is a step that any practice will take once they are ready to make their in-office workflow more efficient and to make patient experiences better. Both of these are key to the success of your practice and will enable you to grow your dental practice faster.

Ensure Success For Your Dental Practice Technology with RevenueWell

Instead of collecting information and formatting all that into training sessions for your team, RevenueWell offers an accessible and optimized training plan. Choosing dental practice technology like RevenueWell ensures that you not only have the tools you need to optimize your workflow but that you’ll also have that additional support as you make this transition.

RevenueWell solutions are designed to help you succeed. They were developed in the absence of a seamless, all-in-one platform specifically customized to the needs of the dental industry. Instead of trying to make dental practices fit other options, we created an all-in-one patient communication and marketing platform designed to fit our unique industry.

With careful planning and dedicated support of RevenueWell, your dental office staff and team will be fully on board and ready to implement new, exciting, and efficient changes that will streamline your operations while raising patient satisfaction.

Schedule a RevenueWell demo today, and say hello to more engaged patients and productive workdays.