Practice Plan Regional Support Manager, Louise Anderson, urges practice owners and managers to take a regular look under the bonnet of their business to ensure smooth running.
Just like a machine, the business side of a dental practice needs regular checks and maintenance to keep it running successfully. That includes examining your finances, efficiency, marketing, HR, and legal compliance.
Why not take some time to give your practice a good once-over using this comprehensive checklist. It could help you identify areas where you might be leaving money on the table or missing opportunities to improve performance.
Number 1: Financial and pricing checks: Is your charging structure right?
- Review your fee structure: Are your fees both competitive for your area and profitable for your practice? Regular benchmarking against local competitors is essential. However, you don’t always have to be the cheapest – value and service are important to patients too. Analyse your treatment mix: Are you offering a broad range of high-value services such as implants, Invisalign, and private care? If not, consider what might be limiting your offerings—space, skillsets, or demand? Also, how many treatment plans are being prescribed per dentist? Audit this regularly to ensure you’re not underutilising your team.
- Check profit margins on treatments: Some treatments may be consuming more chair time and material cost than they’re worth. Are you pricing accordingly, or are hidden losses eating away at your bottom line?
- Write-offs and discounts: It’s tempting to offer discounts, but are you doing this too often? Every pound discounted is a pound off your profit. Make sure you apply discounts for a business reason and not just out of habit.
- Payment collection process: Are unpaid bills piling up? Monitor bad debt levels, slow payers, and underused finance options. How many open treatment plans do you have without future appointments booked? These may indicate an issue with how you communicate with your patients
Number 2: Operational and efficiency checks: does your day run smoothly and profitably?
- Diary utilisation: Are you maximising all available slots? White space in the diary often indicates problems with your recall systems or weak follow-up protocols.
- Cancellation and no-show rates: These are silent revenue killers. Do you have a clear cancellation policy that you enforce? Taking deposits and sending automated reminders can help reduce DNAs.
- Hygienist and therapist use: Are you making the best use of their time? Are you delegating to free up dentist time for higher value/more complex treatments?
- Lab and material costs: Have you renegotiated with your suppliers recently? While it’s good to be loyal, you still need to ensure you aren’t paying over the odds. Compare prices and see what deals you can get.
- Staff productivity: Are you making the best use of your team? Are inefficiencies getting in the way of optimum performance? Do your opening hours align with staff availability and patient demand. Does opening Saturdays really make financial sense?
Number 3: Patient and marketing checks: Are you growing and retaining your patient base?
- New patient numbers: How many new patients are you seeing weekly, and where are they coming from? Track your sources—Google, referrals, social media—and optimise accordingly. Do you use a chatbot? If so, ensure it’s managed efficiently to convert leads.
- Patient retention rates: Are patients coming back or do they disappear after their first visit? Audit drop-offs and ensure staff encourage follow-ups at every visit.
- Marketing ROI: Do your campaigns generate real revenue, or just impressions and clicks? Focus on marketing channels that deliver high-quality patients.
- Membership plan uptake: Are your plans priced correctly? Do members attend their appointments? Do you ensure your team receives regular reminders and updates on the benefits of plan membership?
- Conversion rates: How many treatment plans are being accepted? If the answer is “not enough,” consider whether cost, communication, or confidence is the barrier. Could a Treatment Coordinator (TCO) improve your conversion rate?
Number 4: HR and team management checks: Is your team productive and motivated?
- Staff costs vs. revenue: High staff costs will take chunks out of your profit, especially if they’re not linked to productivity. Compare revenue per clinician and per surgery to ensure you’re getting value for money.
- Associate pay vs. productivity: Associates should be paid fairly —but also profitable. Monitor surgery usage and ensure room time is generating appropriate returns.
- Training and upskilling: Could your team members deliver more value for you? Investing in training in communication, case acceptance, and patient experience can yield a high ROI.
- Team morale and culture: A disengaged team leads to a poor patient experience. As the author and management consultant, Peter Drucker says: ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ When did you last share your vision with your team? Does everyone understand their ‘why’? Without the right culture you’ll be on a constant merry-go-round of recruitment.
Number 5: Competitor and market positioning: How do you stack up?
- If patients are leaving, try to find out why: Are your prices too high? Is the patient experience lacking? Make follow up calls to help you find the reasons why.
- Patient feedback: Do you conduct regular patient surveys? Do you ask the right questions to get the information you need, and do you act on the responses?
Number 6: Legal and tax considerations: Are you structured to save money?
- Tax efficiency: Are you taking full advantage of any allowances and reliefs you may be entitled to? The right business structure can make a significant difference to your tax bill. speak to your accountant to ensure your practice is financially optimised.
Think of your practice like a patient. Without a regular check-up, underlying issues can worsen almost unnoticed until they cause real pain. By regularly examining and reviewing these core areas, you’ll not only protect your profit margins—you’ll also build a more resilient, attractive, and future-proof dental practice.