Purchasing mailing lists can be very expensive. Depending upon how many local residents you'd like to target with your mailing, you can spend well over a thousand dollars just to get access to the list. Beyond the COST of the Lists, there's the Question of Quality

Although have sources in whom I have the highest faith and trust, inevitably the majority of lists we purchase have a significant amount of DEADWOOD in them. Bad addresses, changed address, unknown addressee etc.. We always take all the returned mail and update our database, but even then, there's always many that come back with no further/forwarding information. But now (courtesy of the USPS) there's an EFFECTIVE SOLUTION...

Great question! This one comes up from time to time as doctors struggle with trying to set a consistent and fair protocol for who should, and who should not be paid Team Bonus when the goal is achieved. 1) Should you pay the bonus to the employee who was on vacation while the rest of the team achieved the goal?

Two other questions about the team bonus we receive regularly are:

2) My hygienist is on Gems' Hybrid Hygiene Compensation (HHC). Should she be excluded from receiving Team Bonus?

3) I have a dental assistant who has a full-time job at another practice. She only works with us one day per week, Fridays. Am I correct in assuming that she should NOT be paid anything from the Team Bonus System since she's only here one day per week?

Last week I was navigating an unfamiliar highway with the help of Google Maps. Exit in 0.5 miles. When I entered the ramp I was faced with a fork in the road (reminds me of Robert Frosts' poem!). Split to the left to another local highway. Split to the right to the road less travelled. Not an issue, since for the most part Google knows which path to take.

Well, Google did know which way to go but as I approached the fork, a SPAM MARKETING CALL came in and made it impossible for me to see the map. As recently as 3 days ago I was getting anywhere from 3 to 5 spam calls every day. Of course I don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize but still, the interruptions are well, just that. Interruptions.

With enough new patient flow you can enjoy a pretty comfortable living, even if your management style isn't well, running on all cylinders at once. Not ideal. But it's a fact that a robust new patient flow can make up for moderate deficiencies elsewhere (to be clear, I'm not recommending poor practice management, just pointing out the powerful impact of new patient flow on your revenue).

I'm often asked by my Gems Family members, if I could only choose one thing for marketing, what should I do? To which I respond with two answers. First answer is that the number "one" in marketing is a very dangerous (foolish) number. Even if your one marketing strategy is going gangbusters, if (when) it eventually craps out, the financial risk to your practice is unnecessarily severe. Fact is you should be deploying at least 6 or 8 marketing strategies simultaneously and consistently throughout the year.

Second answer... is that there was one thing... if you could only choose one thing. But with the recent shift (they've changed the rules entirely) is it still the place you should invest your marketing dollars?