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Posted by: Dental Design 19th June 2023

A new Software of Excellence podcast for the whole dental team offers reassurance and advice on how to build growth that can be sustained in the face of current market challenges

Software of Excellence has released a new podcast covering some of the most important issues in UK dentistry today. Durable Growth – a practice perspective is a 50-minute conversation with two people involved in practice life on a practical level, providing ‘real world insight’ into how they are overcoming the challenges currently being faced by practice owners. Here’s a taster of what the podcast covers.

Emerging industry challenges
Team empowerment and motivation
Staff recruitment and retention
In-practice experience and patient journey
Operational control and the power of delegation

Join Sales Manager at Software of Execllence Josh Wren and listen to the thoughts of two people at the sharp end of UK dentistry; Clinical Director at Archway Dental in Devon, Felicity Bender, and Kunal Thakker, CEO of Tooth Club, a medium sized group of 11 practices across the South East.

A brief analysis of the rollercoaster landscape in which dentistry has existed since 2020 demonstrates clearly why creating growth based on strong foundations gives practices the ability to flex with changing external factors – building what Software of Excellence calls ‘Durable Growth’. In his introduction Josh asks listeners to consider the factors that are contributing to a less predictable dental arena. He highlights the drop off in Google searches for dental terms such as ‘teeth whitening’ and a reduction in average transaction values, as pointers to some emerging challenges for dentists, which, if not tackled, could present real dangers for practice teams in the near future.

Both Felicity and Kunal explain their personal experiences and paint a picture of a challenging but as yet manageable environment, raising issues of recruitment, team morale and motivation, and the importance of delivering great patient experience.

Anecdotally we know that recruitment remains an issue for practices and Felicity and Kunal’s experience bears this out. They give practical examples of how they expedite these challenges by putting the team at the top of their priorities, offering suitable training, a clear career pathway and good working conditions. They recognise that team building and developing a positive culture is an important part of each individual’s motivation and these factors are acknowledged as being fundamental to the success of their practices.

Felicity explains that in her view a happy team is contagious, and she believes that patients can sense a positive atmosphere within a practice, which in turn puts them at their ease. In her practice their team is empowered to act independently and use their initiative. She finds that giving her team this freedom promotes goodwill throughout the practice and means that people are willing to ‘go the extra mile’ and she gives some great examples of how they do this.

Kunal explains how he personally has found it difficult to ‘let go’ of some aspects of his operations but knows that to grow he needs to do so. He explains how he overcomes this by recruiting people who are the best at what they do – thereby building his confidence in their abilities.

Interestingly Felicity and Kunal both encourage a vibrant therapist’s model within their practices, working to their full scope of practice, they explain how this benefits the whole practice and its patients, who enjoy better access to care.

The podcast points to the importance of providing patients with an excellent experience and offers real-world insight and examples of how the teams work to ensure that the patients’ journey is as smooth and stress free as possible.

Kunal and Felicity are both passionate about their businesses and this podcast provides an opportunity for them to share their experiences, successes and failures with dentists and practice owners who might be undergoing similar challenges.

This is just a small taster of the many topics covered in the podcast, which can be viewed here: