Episode : #1,223: The Best Way to Synchronize Your Team’s Communication With Patients

Podcast Description

It’s time to stop cringing when your office manager suggests role-playing various client interactions! Tiff and Nikki break down the powerful benefits of role play (or practice simulation) as a team, including:

• Building muscle memory

• Getting comfortable with uncomfortable conversations

• Communicating the same way across the board

• And more!

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Transcript:

Tiffanie (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back again. This is our consultant takeover. I’m calling it that. we used to call it that. I don’t think we call it that anymore, but I like the consultant takeover. Miss Kiera Dent, she is our CEO or co-founder or our founder, not our co-founder, she is our founder. she is our guiding star and our lighthouse in this world. And gosh, she puts out a lot of podcasts, you guys. So every once in a while we like to give Kiera a little break and record some of our own and spotlight our incredible.

Consultants. And if you haven’t met our consultants yet, please pop over to our social media. We’ve got like welcomes, we’ve got hellos, we’ve got all kinds of information on all of our ladies here and truly how inspirational they are and how much work they do with their practices. And today I am spotlighting Miss Nikki and I am so excited to have you here, Nikki. I truly enjoy just talking with you. I love our time together and I love

Nikki Mack (00:56)

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (00:57)

watching.

You shine. Like I you were just in offices, you’re going back in offices. She’s on boots on the ground a lot recently. And I value that. I appreciate that travel is hard. And we love you for all that you are doing out there. And it’s just so fun to see the recaps from your office visits and hear all the great things from the doctors and the teams and get to watch you shine. Cause I know most of the consultant team, like we feel the biggest hype, right? We get the most excitement from being

in office and we love our calls too, but that in office just does something different. So Nikki, I am excited to have you here with us today. Thank you so much. How are you? How has travel been? How has like what are you prepping for? What has life been like out there on the road?

Nikki Mack (01:45)

Yeah,

good to be here. I agree with you. I love my meetings. I have some teams. I’m like, my god, I get to start my day with these guys. I get to wrap my day with these guys. But being in office is different. It it fills my cup in a way that’s just hard to explain. I think it’s because I miss those days. You know, we we lived that life, right? So I know what it’s like coming in and huddling with your team and being excited about something that happened and I just love to kind of soak up that energy because we have such great clients and their teams are just

amazing to be around. So I have been boots on the ground a lot lately. but it’s kind of fun. You know what? I get to see leaves changing.

Tiffanie (02:22)

Yeah.

Nikki Mack (02:23)

I get to see these beautiful offices that our teams live in. And I’m a people watcher. So you know what? Some time at the airport between flights and things, I kinda dig it. It fills that little cup too that I just get to like watch people at life. You can tell who’s going on vacation, who’s probably also on a work trip, right?

Tiffanie (02:43)

Yeah.

Nikki Mack (02:44)

And I love it. It’s it kind of makes it interesting and it’s something new. So I like it.

Tiffanie (02:49)

Yeah, I agree. I agree. I’ve actually had like Monday morning flights, those are the biggest commuter flights, you know. I’ve actually been in line in flights where like two guys who are not they don’t work together, they don’t really know each other, but like they end up on the same flights together all the time. So they’re like chit chatting behind me and I’m like, This is kind of cute, you know, like you get

Nikki Mack (03:09)

Mm.

Tiffanie (03:09)

all walks of life everywhere you go, but we value and appreciate that. we love you for your travel and

Gosh, it’s we’re wrapping up the year here. So this is kind of cool and it’s kind of crazy. I keep telling everyone, I’m like, which I think because you and I both like we go out next week, right? So we travel. I feel like travel weeks are like blank weeks in the calendar, right? We’re super busy, but

Nikki Mack (03:32)

Okay.

Tiffanie (03:32)

we’re not home. So it’s like I lost that week is almost what it feels like, right? Like I’m doing something really cool, but it doesn’t count in the month. it feels like October is like over. Cause I keep just, it’s like.

Nikki Mack (03:43)

Hundred percent I had that thought.

Tiffanie (03:45)

Early

October in recording this and I just I feel like the whole month is gone and like tomorrow’s Halloween. It’s not, but that’s what it feels like.

Nikki Mack (03:50)

Yeah.

I’m already thinking about the beginning of November and who’s hosting.

Tiffanie (03:55)

Literally.

Nikki Mack (03:56)

Like what are we where are we doing?

Tiffanie (03:59)

Literally. And I’m like, do we put the Halloween cat out? Like, is there really been time? Like, what’s the point at this point? Halloween’s tomorrow. Like, no, we’ve got a whole month ahead of us, but I don’t

Nikki Mack (04:07)

Thank you.

Tiffanie (04:09)

know that we’re putting the cat out, you know? Whatever. Whatever. It does fly. It does fly.

Nikki Mack (04:11)

Yeah. Time flies. I agree with

Tiffanie (04:17)

with all of that, we do travel. We are boots in the boots on the ground at this time in our company. we love being in person. We love what we do, and we also do virtual really freaking well. And

Kiera and I a long time ago, we did not do as much virtual as we do now. And we had, you know, I don’t know if any of you remember six-ish years ago, the world shut down for a couple of months. And, you know, it kind of it it brought some fun things to our company. And something that it brought was it really pushed us to innovate and it pushed us to figure out even better ways that we can reach clients and reach people.

All over the country and world. Honestly, we have Canadian offices. We’ve worked in Australia before, like we’ve worked all over the place. So it really pushed our innovation, which is a huge core focus in our company. used to be a core value. It’s since changed. That’s okay. It was innovator die, which is kind of rough. but we innovated, we did not die. Our company did not die. We innovated. We got really good at virtual consulting, meaning kind of how Nikki and I are here today on this podcast. We meet with teams.

virtually and and doctors, office managers, like whatever it is that we’ve determined your practice needs and do a ton of work in in virtual. And then also we have our practices that do in person. And Nikki, I wanted to pick your brain today because I think you’re really good at this. We’ve kind of you already know what I’m gonna say. We’ve we’ve talked about this, but I think something that you just mentioned, I originally chose this because this topic because you did it in office.

Recently, and you did it in office for an office who I hope is listening because you will know who I’m talking about, who didn’t want to do it right. And they didn’t want to do it virtually. and I’m not sure that they were really sold on it in person, but then you just mentioned prior to coming on here how you set up an office manager, we’ll call her, to s to do this on a on a meeting you weren’t going to be a part of. So as a virtual, this is a virtual team. So you have your in-office team that you did it with in person.

But then you also have a virtual team that you helped that manager prep and plan for a meeting where she would do this on her own without you. And this is role playing. So Nikki is like a phenomenal role player. She’s great. And Nikki, I think you’re you’ve got consulting background, you’ve got dental background, but you’ve also been a teacher. And I think that education background, that teaching background helps you be such a phenomenal role player.

But when you said that today before hopping on that you actually helped that specific practice set up their team meeting, I thought, my gosh, this is even more than just the you know a case study of you doing it in person. So walk us

Nikki Mack (07:01)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (07:02)

through that. And I think there are some key pieces here. One, I would love to hear why, Nikki, you prioritize role-playing, why you think it’s important. And then like the how-tos in what you see as the results, like especially.

having done it for a practice that maybe didn’t want it and it wasn’t the team, right? It was the the maybe the management doesn’t prioritize it too. Walk us through all of those pieces.

Nikki Mack (07:26)

Yeah, of course. So I think first off, role play is so important, guys. And like the reality is everyone hates it. I mean, that’s like across the board. It’s not just dental. It’s anywhere you go. You say, like, we’re gonna role play this, and people cringe. And honestly, I lean into that with teams, right? When I talk, I’m a big fan of transparency, right? I know you don’t wanna do it. Cool, we’re gonna do it. And here’s why. it makes such a difference. Cause here’s the thing.

We are humans, right? And human nature, we have to practice things to be good at it. That’s it. I mean, that’s like kind of the baseline of it. You have to practice things to get really good. And when we talk about the things that we go over in role play, that’s not creating a chart in dentrix, right? That’s not filing our cases from the lab. These are those communications and interactions with our patients and sometimes even with each other.

That all build on that patient experience and what we are doing in our office, right, for our patients. Every way that we relate to them, that we build a relationship, that we build a trust, and eventually are able to help them get the dental treatment that they need and want, right? And we have to be, in my opinion, so good at that that it’s just second nature, right? And you’re not reading from a script, but we’ve practiced verbiage.

And we’re so comfortable with it, just kind of, you know, in our core that we can roll with it and have those conversations and help answer patients’ questions, right? Help address their frustrations, whatever that is. And the only way that you get to do that is repetition. And so I mean, I guess you could be awkward for a hundred patients, or like we could just practice with our team, right? And

Tiffanie (09:13)

Yeah.

Nikki Mack (09:13)

who better to be awkward with than your team, right? Get it out with them, get in the habit.

And then that way with your patients, you are just like a cool cucumber and very collected, and it’s a lot easier to deal with them. So it it’s rough, no one loves it, but we have to do it. It’s how you get better, it’s how you get confident and just make it muscle memory. So that’s my why. That’s why you have to do it. I’ve lived through different iterations of role play in different jobs, right? I’ve been the team member role-playing with the consultant, I’ve been the consultant, role-playing with teams, and I’ll tell you what.

We role play as a team. We have those conversations. We’re consultants. And if we’re talking about a new strategy, system, concept, you know, something that we maybe haven’t been rolling out before, we train each other. We practice talking about it. Cause I want to make sure that I know what I need to know so I can help you get all the information that you need. So that’s the why. The why is you have to, right? Like that’s just how we get better. So that’s where I start.

And then here’s how I approach it. And I’m gonna share two things. one, so we were recently at a CE, the Western Region dental conference, event, conference. You know what I mean.

Tiffanie (10:31)

Mm. Yeah. Convention.

Nikki Mack (10:34)

Western Region people, you know where I was. and

Tiffanie (10:35)

Yep.

Nikki Mack (10:36)

there was one doctor who was speaking about case acceptance, you know, relationships with his practices and

Amazing speaker, first of all, had so much great information and he’s taught and ran a bunch of practices. But he said a phrase that has stuck with me since then and he said he stopped thinking of it as role play and he thinks of it as practice simulation. And he talked to his team because a pilot has to do so many hours of flight simulators, right, before they even get in the real plane. And then part of their continued training and certification is more of that simulation, more of that practice.

And he said, if it’s good for a pilot who I definitely hope is doing those hours right before they’re flying my plane, it’s good for us too. We have to do those simulations, we have to do those reps to stay really confident and make sure that we’re delivering the information to our patients the best way we can. So I’ve just kind of kept that energy, I guess you could call it. And it is true. Role play is uncomfortable. Practice simulation is how we give our patients the best experience that they can get.

And it’s super important to, you know, frame our mindset. So then I’m gonna walk you guys through it. You ready? I hope I hope

Tiffanie (11:52)

Really?

Nikki Mack (11:52)

your earbuds are in. I hope you’re on the treadmill, wherever we’re at, get ready. when we’re doing role play or practice simulation, don’t come in with a set plan. Now we know as leaders, I know as a consultant when I go into a team, usually something that we’re struggling with. maybe we just started offering financing through like cherry or care credit.

And so comfortably relaying that to patients is an opportunity. So I I know a little bit, but I don’t walk in with a set agenda. Okay, today we’re role-playing and we are gonna go over this scenario, this scenario, this scenario. I like to get team buy-in and have that conversation. Hey guys, what are areas where you’re working with patients that you get the most pushback, the most questions, or see consistently that patients are just

not easily confident, right? Or maybe you’re not easily confident because you’re new to the role, new to the system, new to the thing we’re explaining. And how do we work as a team to support that? Because the thing is, if you have a question about it or you’re not fully confident on it, I bet you someone else on the team is too. And we just haven’t had the conversation yet. So we build a list based on what are you guys truly seeing? There’s some common heavy hitters, Tiff, I’m sure your teams tell you this too.

X-rays, right? How come my last dentist didn’t tell me I needed this? my gums feel fine. What are you talking about? I just want a regular cleaning. There’s there’s ones we see a lot, but having the team be able to bring those to the table and identify those opportunities as a team already builds a layer of, this is how we’re gonna support each other. Because there’s always someone who’s like, I have the perfect phrase.

I have this thing that I’ve come up with that I always say and it works. And that’s how we have that knowledge sharing because that’s the underlying goal of the role playing, not just getting comfortable as a team, but sharing our best practices and tips with our teammates so that we are all communicating the same way with our patients and building that relationship on that level.

Tiffanie (13:59)

Yeah, that’s beautiful. Earlier you said your why. And what that made me think of is getting really com excuse me, getting really comfortable with something in an uncomfortable space. So that when you’re face to face with it in the real world, it’s not as uncomfortable there. Because I think something you you keyed in on is that people like people hate role playing, right? Nobody it’s a rare occasion you walk across somebody that’s like, my God, I can’t wait to roleplay. Like it’s uncomfortable and it’s uncomfortable.

Mostly because we feel like we’re being judged by the people we know. And so in a team setting, we’re like, I don’t want to look stupid in front of Joanna. Like I work with her every single day. I don’t want her to think I don’t know what I’m doing, right? Or in front of my doctor, my leaders, my manager. Like, I don’t want to do these things and look stupid. But the reality is to your

If I can practice here where I my fears are so built up because talking to a patient, like I’m not usually worried, and maybe I’m crazy, maybe I’m the abnormal one, but I’m not typically worried that this person’s gonna think I’ve misspoken or said something done. Like I don’t go into every conversation that high strung. But when you tell me I’m in a role playing, that role play, like that high strung comes immediately. And so if I can

practice it and practice it and practice it in a safe environment that feels incredibly unsafe and and unpredictable, but I can practice it here until I can flow through it with you. When I get out into the real world, into the jungle, and there’s a patient standing in front of me that comes at me with this objection, my emotion won’t spike so quickly because I’ve already done that and I’ve lived through something that’s more difficult than this patient. I don’t

Like, I I’m not gonna see Joanna tonight, you know. Like, I’m not gonna see her maybe tomorrow morning. Like, so that emotional spike that we get, that fear that pops up, is less because we’ve already done something more difficult than this, lived through it, and our subconscious is like, Girl, you got this. You’ve already lived through harder than this, you know what

Nikki Mack (15:59)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (16:02)

to do. And so not only do we get like the repetition of and the memory, so we build that habit and we build the memory, we also

keep our emotions more in check because the role play was such a higher emotional point that our body is like, this is easy.

Nikki Mack (16:22)

Yeah. There’s that muscle memory. Well and

Tiffanie (16:25)

Yeah.

Nikki Mack (16:26)

’cause I don’t know about you, Tiff. I’ve never been a part of a team roleplay where the people role playing went easy on each other. So to

Tiffanie (16:33)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s fair.

Nikki Mack (16:35)

your point, you’ve had it worse because we all like, my gosh, this is our chance, right? Every objection I’ve ever heard, I’m ready to spit it

Tiffanie (16:42)

Yeah.

Nikki Mack (16:42)

out person that I’m I get to be the patient, amazing, right?

Tiffanie (16:46)

Yeah.

Nikki Mack (16:47)

So yeah, you’ve lived through I guarantee if you’ve role played with your team, you’ve already lived through everything that a patient could throw at you and

Tiffanie (16:53)

Seriously.

Nikki Mack (16:54)

tenfold. So when then when with your patient, easy peasy, I tell teams a lot too, think about your new patients. When we’re doing a new skill, something we’ve role-played, man, your new patients are your best audience because they don’t know a different you yet. They’re still meeting you. So anything you stumble or maybe don’t say, they definitely have no idea. And you get to work through that.

And you had that foundational start with your team for sure.

Tiffanie (17:20)

Yeah.

I’ve had piggybacking off of that, I’ve had role playing, I do role playing in office too. And I’ve had role playing and and I’m like, all right, guys, how did it go? And inevitably every single time there’s a there’s a pair over in the corner somewhere and they’re like, I couldn’t get her. She just like legit wouldn’t. And I was like, Yeah,

Nikki Mack (17:38)

Right.

Tiffanie (17:40)

well, that’s fair. It’s usually a hygienist that’s like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Right. My hygienists

Nikki Mack (17:44)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (17:45)

are like hardcore.

And they’re like, you’re not selling me. I’m like, eventually your patient would have said yes. Like, eventually, or you would have set up the like that’s fine. Like, they say no, no, no, no, no. And you set up the follow-up. So that’s

Nikki Mack (17:58)

Mm.

Tiffanie (17:58)

a learning tool as well. Like, you couldn’t get, you couldn’t get Jessie over the hill. She wouldn’t say yes. Great, set up your follow up. Like, what’s your next step? So, to your your point of full embodiment of role play, it’s you’re not, you’re not trying to convince.

your team member to just say yes or whatever it might be, but you’re also like, okay, cool. Well when a patient doesn’t say yes, what is my next step? And my next step is the follow-up, right? So we’re not just like, I failed. Like, nope, fine. Great. Here’s my next step. Awesome. I’m going to follow up with you. I love it.

Nikki Mack (18:34)

hundred percent.

And then you get to pull the good because then that’s the takeaway after, right? We don’t just role play and then dismiss. It’s okay, what went great? What did you guys hear that maybe you haven’t been saying that you want to use? Or what is something that you maybe do differently? Cause almost nothing is a wrong answer in a role play. you know, pretty pretty sure it may not be our best answer, but it’s probably not wrong. But this is our chance to recalibrate as a team too and decide like yes, we want to say that, right? We love that language.

Tiffanie (19:04)

Yeah.

Nikki Mack (19:04)

we’re gonna utilize that, that’s important. And everybody gets that chance to observe, elevate and participate. And that’s how we take that forward, right? And grow as a team. So that’s your action items after it’s done. What do we learn? What are we gonna do differently? And then we’re all gonna listen out and support each other after.

Tiffanie (19:23)

I love that. I love that. All right. If you had to build action items for our listeners here on this topic, Nikki, what would it be?

Nikki Mack (19:33)

Okay, so if I’m going into a team meeting, my preparation action items are what are some opportunities I know as leadership that we need to strengthen up, right? Tighten up. And then coming into it with the expectation for my team that I want to hear from them. What are your areas that we need to work on? What are areas you personally struggle on? Or what’s a conversation that you know is tough, but you feel like you’re a rock star and you nail it and lean on them to build that list? Then when we role play, you have to discuss takeaways.

We can’t just role play and celebrate what did we learn, what went really well, what is something that we could all take from that, and then deciding if there’s any unified team verbiage from that. it comes up a lot around period. Great, we’re gonna say active gum infection, we’re gonna say periodontal disease, whatever those languages are, things that become office verbiage, be firm on that. Take that away, and then follow up.

Listen to each other. my God, Tiff, I heard you with that patient that other day. It was exactly what we practiced in the meeting. You did great, right? The patient was super happy. Follow up, share successes, and then do it again. Because you’re never done with role play. We’re always perfecting and and working on it.

Tiffanie (20:47)

Beautiful. Thank you. All right, guys. If you were driving, go back, listen to this again. Nikki, this was incredible. I am so

Nikki Mack (20:56)

Mm.

Tiffanie (20:56)

happy that you role played in the office the other day and it went really well. because I when I was told to come up with the topic, I was like, I want to probe Nikki’s brain on

Nikki Mack (21:06)

Okay, cool.

Tiffanie (21:06)

role playing. So this was incredible. This was great for me. I love the flight simulation, like

you know, like comparison there. I love that. You’ve given me an idea for my in-office meeting next week. So thank you so much. Thank you for being here with me this morning. teams that are listening, doctors that are listening, go implement these things. She gave you the action item. So if you’re driving, go back, listen again, write these things down, go do a team meeting and then let us know how it went. We want to hear from you. [email protected]. What worked really well? What got stuck? What can we help you with? [email protected].

As always, drop us a five-star review below. And I would say if you don’t share this one with someone, whether they’re in the dental field or otherwise, any company, any person, anyone can utilize this. If you don’t share this, goodness gracious, that is just going to be so sad. So go share this, tell a friend.

Nikki Mack (22:00)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (22:01)

And Nikki, thank you again. And everyone out there, we will catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast. Bye.

Nikki Mack (22:08)

Okay.