If there is one major lesson to be learned from the Australian retail market in past decades, it is that being readily available to your customers is absolutely paramount to success. In retail, the times of just a quarter of a century ago, when stores shut weekdays at 5pm and Saturday trading ended at midday, are a distant memory. Opening hours have gone through a revolution, and are now in keeping with the change in lifestyles to be available at a variety of hours for customer convenience.
And it is time, Dr Ramesh Sivabalan of My Dental Team clinics says, that the dental industry acknowledges the trend and follows suit. “Health is now retail, and if you are not convenient and are not available, then most clients will go elsewhere,” Dr Sivabalan says. “Ten years ago, you would not have worried about opening on Saturdays. Now it needs to be something you seriously consider. “It is no longer enough just to be offering a great service,” he continues. “You also need to be doing so at a time that suits the lifestyles of your patients.” Traditionally, dentists have for a long time followed the model of being open regular business hours.
Better availability through extended opening hours, says Julie Parker, co-founder of Julie Parker Dental Management, is a point some dentists continue to ignore. “Patient behaviour has changed and what we are seeing now is less patients inclined to ask for time off during their work hours. They want their dental service to fit in with them,” she says. “It can be a big part of your success and a real moneymaker to open beyond regular business hours.”
Just as Dr Sivabalan has discovered at his dental clinics in Bella Vista in suburban Sydney and at Shellharbour on the New South Wales South Coast. Both clinics are open from 8am to 7pm weekdays, on Saturdays, and for emergencies on Sundays. Three years ago when Dr Sivabalan opened his first practice, he noticed it was always the after-6pm slots and Saturdays that booked up first. “Saturdays are our busiest day of the week,” he says. “Last Saturday, we had almost 50 patients through. Of those patients, one-third of them are new. Saturdays are always good to give new patients a chance to try us out and once the rapport is built, it gives them more faith to return at other times.” It was four years ago that Dr Safa Souzani of Brisbane’s Springfield Lakes Central practice decided to test the demand when he opened the practice one night a week until 7pm. Four years on, Springfield Lakes Central is now open from 7.30am to 7pm week days, as well as on Saturdays. “We noticed such a shift as the early and late appointments were always the first to be booked,” Dr Souzani explains. “It seems that patients are more interested than ever in convenience. Loyalty these days will only cover so much of a patient’s patience.”
In business, it is not always as simple as the adage, ‘Build it and they will come’, as patients cannot be relied on to change their behaviour simply because their dental clinic has. Before considering changing opening hours, it is essential to establish that customer demand is there. “It is no good deciding to open later hours if you are then going to be sitting there with a full staff looking at empty chairs,” Parker explains. “Staying open at later hours may not work depending on the location and the type of clients you appeal to. “Sometimes the best way to decide about this is to just directly ask your patients if that is what they want, or ask the receptionist what kind of questions people ask about later hours.” Checking on the opening hours of other dental practices in the same area can also be an effective way to determine whether to alter the current business model. “If they all are, then there obviously is a demand,” Parker says. “If not, then that could be your point of difference. Then again, it could be a risk, so it might be best to trial it for one day a week and just test how it goes.”
While convenience will always be paramount for patient retention, there is also the reality of creating a workplace with happy and engaged staff to keep a business running. And doing so with irregular and extended opening hours can prove to be the biggest challenge of all, says Dr Souzani. “You can’t walk in one day and announce the business will be staying open until 9pm every night—that won’t work,” he says. “Staff need to have the changes explained to them and why it is happening. But there can be resistance and that has to be dealt with. “Once a culture changes and if existing staff members may not wish to do those hours, then recruitment might be needed. We found there were a hell of a lot of dentists and auxiliary staff who are happy to work this way, but that is not always the case with existing staff as change is always difficult,” says Dr Souzani. Creating a work roster to accommodate the various shifts across all the hours, not to mention the staff’s lifestyle commitments, can prove to be something of a juggling act. It can also create a minefield for both the roster as well as the wages sheet, when taking into account full-time and casual staff pay rates. An extended schedule needs to stay within the FairWork Penalty Rates of the Health Professionals and Support Services Award, and may include additional overtime rates for Saturdays. “To get the system going, it does take time and commitment from every level of your business to make it work,” Parker adds. “You just have to ensure that the staff are all on side and enthusiastic about working these various shifts, and do not get tired or resentful. Energetic, happy staff will ensure your overtime hours are a big success.”
Dr Sivabalan along with the My Dental Team clinic discovered the best way to solve roster dilemmas was to involve the staff into the decision-making process. “When we decided to extend the hours, we included the staff in those discussions about the pros and cons and what could be the problems of doing so,” he says. “It was the staff who came up with the solutions to any hurdles. When they were actively involved in process, the propensity for them to make this work was so much better. And the staff were not worried about telling us what was working and what wasn’t as we changed, and that was invaluable.” Even taking into account the longer hours, the increased needs of patients, demands on staff and higher wages, Dr Souzani says his practices now run smoother than four years ago. “There has been a big change in workplace routine and we actually found staff like to work different hours and routines, and few wanted the set nine-to-five anymore,” he says. “It can take time and there might be periods early on when it is quiet, but you might have to just wear that. Once the culture changes and everyone gets used to it—both staff and patients—then they see the difference, as well as the results.”
