Back in business

After a week of Covid, I enjoyed being back at my desk yesterday with a measured day of work, culminating in last night's Densura webinar on "Marketing in a cost of living crisis".

All of the advice has been to NOT throw myself fully back into it and, for once, I'll be following that.

Whilst I was away, the Covid-related disruption to rotas and appointment books continued, as did the real-time pay demands and the disruptive behaviours of those "not on the bus".

However, I have a real sense that owners and managers are now so battle-scarred and weary that they are no longer tolerating performance and behaviour that isn't in line with core values.

In the meantime (and I may be tempting fate here), I see no evidence of patients (consumers) losing confidence in their ability to spend money at the dental practice.

When times are tight, first to suffer is usually the hygiene book, with patients seeing this as a non-essential expenses that can be deferred. Second can be lower-value cosmetic treatments like whitening, again regarded by patients as a non-essential luxury.

However (and as I was at pains to make clear last night) there is no evidence from previous "cost of living crises" that higher value treatment sales will dry up - in fact, quite the contrary.

The last time we considered serious belt-tightening was during the 2008 banking collapse and I know plenty of practitioners who either bought or opened practices during that period and went on to survive, thrive and prosper.

Last night, I shared a "Top 10" list of actions to ensure that your business continues to prosper during the coming months.

I have every confidence that those who follow my advice will continue to be as busy as ever.

On my client webinar this evening, we will be sharing two real-life case studies from recent weeks:

• Practice 1 - sharing their complete marketing campaign that generated over £100,000 of Invisalign sales from an open day a few weeks ago and

• Practice 2 - sharing their return to a local business fair and how they generated new business leads.

It's good to be back.