Author Archives: soenews

Your Practice Can Survive the Recession

By soenews on March 6, 2012

The positive face of dentistry found a voice during a live webinar on the 23rd February led by dentist and front-man for “Heart Your Smile” James Goolnik, as he voiced his opinions on on how dentists themselves can determine how they cope with the continuing recessionary pressures.

As principal of Bow Lane Dental Practice James fully understands the challenges that are facing dentists, but despite the prevailing economic conditions, continuing legislative demands and the air of negativity currently surrounding the profession, James is very optimistic about the future.

Using personal anecdotes and experiences from his practice, he encouraged listeners to develop a personal and professional plan and emphasised the importance of understanding what patients really want from their dentist. Only in this way, he explained, could patient fears, of cost and pain, be lessened and the barriers to regular attendance eliminated.

James was followed by Greg Clay (Sales and Marketing Director at Software of Excellence), who invited attendees to benchmark their own practice performance by completing the Best Practice Check Up www.soebestpractice.com

Greg explained how Key Performance Indicators such as chair-time usage, FTA rates, short notice cancellations and recall effectiveness can all be measured, analysed and monitored to provide evidence of performance and he illustrated how improvements in each of these areas can impact on profitability. This type of data is particularly useful in helping dentists draw an accurate picture as to where their practice stands and pinpoint where under-performance is occurring.

Greg also showed how technology, in the form of on-line booking, is helping practices to engage with existing patients and provides a means of capturing potential patients via a practice website all at a time and place convenient to the patient.

At a time when many challenges face the profession, this webinar provided motivation and enthusiasm, supported by clear, practical advice, that dentists can immediately put into action.

If you missed the webinar you can now view it by following this link
“Heart Your Smile” is a campaign designed to change the public’s perception of the dental profession and has, at its core the “9 habits of a happy dental professional”. Find out how to join the campaign at www.heartyousmile.co.uk

Dentists can benchmark practice performance by completing the survey at www.soebestpractice.co.uk

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Cardiff Local User Group – Postponed

By soenews on February 15, 2012

Software of Excellence has unfortunately had to postpone the Cardiff Local User Group
on 8th March 2012 due to circumstances beyond our control.

We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may of caused but we are busy re-arranging another date in Cardiff and will let you know as soon as possible

Kind regards

 

Software of Excellence

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South East Local User Group

By soenews on June 14, 2011

Software of Excellence invite you to attend the South East Local User Group
Hosted by Software of Excellence and Julian Unter of “The Rainham Dental & Implant Centre”.

Being held at:
The Best Western Russell Hotel & Conference Centre,
136 Boxley Road ,
Maidstone, Kent,
ME14 2AE

Time 6:30pm and finishing at approximately 8:30pm / on 20th June.

The event is free to attend with complimentary refreshments available. We have limited spaces so please contact Natalie on 0845 345 5767 or email localusergroup@soeuk.com to book your places today.

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Software of Excellence “highly rated” for customer satisfaction in support

By soenews on February 2, 2011

The Software of Excellence Support Team have reported their best ever customer satisfaction results following a survey conducted at the end of last year by independent research consultants Converso.   In the survey Software of Excellence outperformed their largest competitor in every key area, achieving a clear 12% lead in overall customer satisfaction ratings.

The ability to resolve issues quickly and easily is vital for practices, as any disruption to the management system can cause surgery downtime.  Most practice managers and principals regard excellent customer support as a critical part of what they expect from a practice management supplier.

In the survey, customers were asked about many aspects of the service they receive from product knowledge of support staff, to time taken to resolve problems and telephone manner.   Software of Excellence’s support centre is now open on Saturday mornings from 9am to 1pm.  This has been a contributing factor in increasing satisfaction levels in comparison to a similar survey conducted in 2009.

Brian Weatherly, Managing Director of Software of Excellence commented;

“We believe customer service, both for existing and potential customers to be one of our key priorities.  Software of Excellence has continually strived to improve our levels of service and support.  The results of this survey are a reflection of our ongoing investment in product,  people, processes and technology, and we are delighted with the results. “

For more information on Software of Excellence and EXACT™ practice management system call 0845 345 5767 or visit www.soeidental.com

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Next Local User Group Meeting – 24th May

By soenews on January 14, 2011

Software of Excellence would like to invite you to our first EXACT Local User Group meeting in the Cotswolds area. We have been running these events across the country for the last 4 years with great success as they give you the opportunity to share in the development of EXACT and gain and share insights on how to get the most from the system.

We are delighted that Richard Grant has agreed to host the next meeting on the 24 May and plan to start at 6:30pm with a welcome and introduction by Richard and then we will cover the following topics:

  1. EXACT Update
  2. Patient Education and Treatment Plan Acceptance
  3. THRIVE Business Services
  4. Q&A Session
  5. Free Support for 6 months
  6. Additional Modules

Starting at 6:30pm and finishing at approximately 8:30pm the meeting will be held at:

The Village Hotel, West Street, West Allotment, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE27 0RA

The event is completely free to attend with complimentary refreshments available. We have limited spaces so please contact Natalie Emerick on 0845 345 5767 or email localusergroup@soeuk.com as soon as possible to book your places.

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London SOE National User Day Feedback

By soenews on June 9, 2010

Here is some feedback we received from the London National User Day Event:

“We’ve been using EXACT(tm) for 10 years now and we continue to attend these Users Days as they help to keep up with the demands of technology. We attended this particular User Day to see the latest features of EXACT(tm) version 10 and what they can offer our busy practice.”

Karen Tobias – Cambray Dental, Gloucestershire.

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THRIVE with Software of Excellence

By soenews on June 4, 2010

THRIVE is an integrated six-month programme that works alongside EXACT(TM), THRIVE has been specifically designed to help you look inside your business to see how effectively it is operating, delivering evidence-based analysis which helps to make simple changes that can have a dramatic impact on business.

THRIVE uses the following 10 Key Performance Indicators to benchmark the efficiency of a practice:

1.      Chair Time Utilisation
2.      Failed To Attend (FTA)
3.      Top 10 Invoiced Treatments
4.      Referral Sources
5.      Gross Earnings Per Hour
6.      Forward Cover On Appointment Book
7.      New Patient vs Existing Patient Mix
8.      Recall Effectiveness
9.      Payment Plans
10.     Patient Debt

By using our experience and analytical skills to extract and analyse the everyday business data held within EXACT(TM) our consultants are able to benchmark individual practice performance and deliver findings in an easy-to-understand, graphical format.

THRIVE delivers an invaluable, instantly actionable insight into what a practice is doing well and where there are service and profit shortfalls, focusing on achieving rapid results that go right to the heart of practice efficiency. This makes the THRIVE programme perfect for busy Practice Managers and Principals who want expert support to improve business profitability.

With over 60 practices already taking part, the THRIVE programme is already delivering some startling results. THRIVE Product Manager Andrew Hepburn has worked with many of the practices:

“We have been extremely pleased with the initial results and so have the practices who are on the THRIVE Programme. We have worked with NHS, private and mixed practices and THRIVE has provided information that has helped increase recall success rates, improve treatment plan acceptance and provided an interesting insight into the operation of each and every business. THRIVE is having a real impact on practice efficiency and delivering  a significant return on investment, in terms of attracting new patients, maximising retention, loyalty and value and increasing productivity.”

THRIVE is currently undergoing a nationwide roll-out. For more information or to join the THRIVE programme please click here.

www.thrivewithsoe.co.uk

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Effective Recall Systems

By soenews on January 29, 2010

Effective Recall Systems: A Critical Tool for Uncertain Economic Times.

recall list picture

Recall List 1

A recall system is the heart of patient retention in every dental practice, and yet very few practices run a really good, effective system; so why is that?  I’d propose the main reason is that many practices naturally accumulate a good and reasonably loyal database of patients, so the practice remains busy even when their recall system is not optimal. In one extreme case I watched a practice principal placing hundreds of prepared recall cards into storage boxes; the dentist was already booked solidly three weeks in advance and he felt unable to manage his workload.  As our economy slows down many patients are now slower to respond to their hygiene or dental recall so this is a really good time to be tuning up your recall system, if only for peace of mind.  When a practice does slowdown, typically the hygienist’s book is the first to experience gaps, followed by associates.

Recall List 2

There are 6 parts to an effective recall system:

1. Accountability and Review

Make sure one person clearly understands that they are accountable for this critical activity.  Ask them to produce a monthly report showing each of the last 6 months. For each month show how many patients were due for recall and how many have yet to make an appointment.  Then have each provider sit with the person and discuss their individual data.  Some providers, particularly hygienists, might have a greater need for focus on their recalls compared to other providers.

Continue reading »

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Bad weather impacts on attendance

By soenews on January 29, 2010

With many anecdotal tales of increased numbers of missed appointments due to the poor weather in early January, leading practice management software company Software of Excellence, decided to conduct a poll to find out the true extent of the problem.
In an email survey conducted on Wednesday 13th January, practices responded to questions regarding levels of FTAs (Fail to Attends) and whether these had increased in the previous two week period.
For the average practice FTAs run anywhere between 0% and 6% depending on the practice and the type of recall procedures they employ. Indeed some practices admitted to having FTA figures far in excess of these.
Software of Excellence wanted to know whether the stories of increased FTAs were true, and they were. Almost 75% of practices reported an increase over the last 2 weeks due to the bad weather, and 75% of these practices reported FTAs anywhere between 9% and 40% or in some cases more. The vast majority of practices surveyed did manage to open during the period and those who did have to close, did so for between 0.5 and 3 days, depending on their locality.
These figures in themselves show just how severe the weather was or at least our inability to cope with it, but they also provide a deeper concern. Although almost half of respondents said that over 80% of patients had rescheduled missed appointments, there are worries that patients, already reducing regular dental attendance as a result of economic belt tightening, will use this as a further excuse to “opt out” of routine dental care.
Brian Weatherly, Managing Director at Software of Excellence commented “The impact of the bad weather was a quite shocking. Although we knew it would have affected practices we weren’t clear as to the extent. These figures show just how important a rigorous recall process will be for practices in the coming months, to ensure these FTAs do not become lost patients.”

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