We are fortunate to have clients that are patient, provide critical feedback and stay by our side while we are building worlds greatest dental software. In only 8 months we grew to 50 active clients and 44 that are in the onboarding stage, so in no time we believe we will cross that significant mark of 100 offices. I can tell you that we have learned a lot and continue to learn every day and through our daily mantra of “Let’s screw things up” we continue to push the envelope. During my sales calls, doctors ask me “Tiger, what is the most difficult aspect of your system?” and unfortunately my only answer is Human Nature. Yes, the software part is easy, we can design pretty buttons, make it all work just like a Cerec machine, but the human part is the most challenging. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that it’s this way, it helps us build a better software, more intuitive, and by no means is this a “The world needs to change” article. This is to simply acknowledge that change is indeed hard! Remember trying to lose weight? Fix a relationship? Or grow your business? We have a lot of startup offices and doctors who are opening new locations, remember first 30-60 days, I bet it wasn’t easy. I bet there were days working late seeing patience, then working on marketing, then looking at the finances, and then writing an ad to hire a new dental assistant. Then eventually all the hard things led into building knowledge, systems, attracting the right people to get to the next level. On a side note, it shouldn’t be easy, these things need to be hard, for a simple reason that you want the life to be on your terms. How does this all relate to ZenSupplies and implementation? Luckily it’s easier than losing weight or looking for a new dental assistant, but it has similarities. Let’s break it down: Decision - just as deciding to open an office or building a startup practice implementing a dental inventory management system has to be a well thought out process. I’ve seen several instances where doctors make a decision to implement, then life takes over with busy schedules in and outside the office. More Importantly if your dental assistant thinks that you don’t need one and it will over complicate things at this point you know, it’s a game over. A well thought out decision builds reasoning beyond “let’s just try it” and runs deeper in the culture of the office. Leadership - the amount of times I’ve heard doctors’ say “Let’s give it a try and see what my assistant thinks” is staggering. Again luckily for us there are a lot more really hard working, positive, dental assistants and team members in the field of dentistry that are willing to put it all on the line for the success of the practice; however the 5% that’s negative just kills the mode of action. Moreover, I can’t imagine going into battle and the general says “Let’s try this strategy and see if our soldiers will like it”. Just to be clear my problem with this point not the assistants, but the doctors who are putting the “leadership hat” on to someone else. If you made a decision, stick with it. Which leads me to my last point. Take 100% ownership. Building systems driven practice is a hard task but it will allow you to step out from the day to day routines and build the life you desire. The process of getting there though is usually not an easy one. Let’s take Zen as an example - going through the training, 1 week morning huddles with a team, taking full dental inventory count (only 1 time) and learning to stick to the budget. All these things are hard especially when your team had full freedom. This is where our offices with GREAT leaders shine. They know how to delegate, not to get involved, but when need be to roll up your sleeves and get to work. For example, one office decided to get the entire team together to take full inventory count. Ordered Pizza and for 2 hours worked as a team to accomplish the task. More importantly when things weren't’ done, the doctor and the leader in charge for the practice took the blame and did everything in his power to remain focused on implementation. Now you might think, all this for an inventory system, then why do I even need it. You are correct, for inventory management it is an overkill, however if you look at all the systems that a dental practice needs to have in place, marketing, phone skills, presenting treatment, patient’s first experience to name just a few above mentioned is a must. Let’s finish on a positive note, just remember any hurdle you had in the past and turned into a system (from morning routine, to workout, even eating habits) you now don’t even think about. That’s what all systems should lead to or aspire to, giving you FREEDOM! Turn ON no Excuses mode! Tiger
It is often said that the best way to learn a new language is immersion. Simply stated, it’s the concept that being present and surrounded by the speakers of that language with active context accelerates the learning process. Even greater than formal, structured education, immersion allows the learner to strip away all of the hypotheticals. The only new words and phrases that are introduced are ones that are people all around are using. This type of focus makes their use of their new skills much more impactful to those they are conversing with. At Zen, we believe in constant learning. One of our core principles is curiosity. After all, it was insatiable curiosity that gave birth to ZenSupplies in the first place. We wanted to learn more about everything that concerns our ZenFamily. What do our customers love about Zen? What do they need to be changed? What do they to be changed? From ordering to dental inventory management to reconciliation and payment, how do we improve the experience at every level? These make up a minute sample of the questions that we were dying to answer. That thirst for understanding allows us to stay rooted in our cause and plugged into our network, for their benefit. So much like learning a language, we took the opportunity to immerse our selves with our customers as soon as possible. The greatest number of users were in Texas, we were sitting in Chicago. That made the choice very easy. Despite the challenges of travel and working from the road, we knew we had to go where we were needed. We could have called all of the same clients or set up video conferences. We would have gained some insight. But there is no substitute for being shoulder to shoulder with the assistant, hygienists, and managers that have made Zen part of their daily lives. We found such wonderful works of art and culture all over Austin. From the very moment that we stepped into our first practice of the trip, we received immediate confirmation that we were in the right place! That first practice blew our minds with their organization and strong dental system software that, in some ways, were contrary to how we guide practices to run. This new perspective prompted even more questions. There were more things that we wanted to understand about their workflow. All of this feedback is invaluable to the curious. Had we not been able to physically see, touch, and feel these processes, the impact could not have been nearly as great. The revelations did not stop there. Meeting with over a dozen customers in almost as many cities, we picked up a tremendous amount of knowledge and feedback. We got right to work with this information. Some minor tweaks were implemented right away. Changing the color of a button, or moving a function to a place that is easier for the user were things that we could implement immediately, so we did. The things that will provide a significant impact but also require a significant amount of development were prioritized, planned, and scheduled for implementation. Austin skyline at Night We value all of the feedback from our clients and partners but something is truly extra special about the connections made in this way. Looking at each other eye to eye, and tackling challenges together makes for solutions that are far more applicable to the people actually using them. No changes were made nor features added over this trip that did not come as a direct result of the one on one attention both given to and received by our customers. When looking at the journey through this lens, racing through a blizzard, stopping to work in coffee shops, long hours driving and all of the other obstacles seem so small. Nothing could possibly be as important as doing the right thing for our users. Enjoying some down time with happy members of the Zen Family Apart from the amazing knowledge we were able to gain through visiting our current customers, we had some other great opportunities as well. We were able to provide world class customer support to local clients, identify best fits for ZenSupplies, explore Austin, and even host our fist Zen Meetup! Stay tuned this week for more details and stories from the road!
Welcome to our first webinar on Dental Inventory Makeover process. In this 30 minute video we break down the process into 5 major steps: Organizing Physical Space How to Implement Dental Inventory Controls Ordering Process How to Control your Budget How to Negotiate Prices Hope you find it productive and something you can implement right away. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMlRKkiTlw[/embedyt] Resources mentioned during the webinar: TipOut Bins: Zen Recommended Assembly Are Free Goods really FREE? CheckLists and Budget Tracker
When we started Zen back in 2016 it was a simple onboarding process that included - distributors, navigating Zen and pretty much that's all. Then we started going to our client's practices to learn and observe and we realized our offices are busy. Rarely we get someone excited over "Let's rebuild your dental inventory", and it's more "Wow you guys do that for us?". One of the first "Aha" moments was when I visited Bright Smile Dental - Dr. Rami Salloum when he said, "Tiger, you have so many offices, why don't you give us a template and we can build from there..." This was the beginning of us trying to push the envelope. What else can we do for our practices? Can we share more of what we've learned from our visits? Can we help organize physical space? As a result, 2 important elements were added: We share all of our knowledge through Dental Inventory Makeover Webinars (link to the most recent) where we break down entire process with forms and checklists to encourage our members (and pretty much anyone who is interested) to take full control of their inventory We introduced additional setup plans. Some offices wanted to get basic training. However, lately, a lot more practices ask for either advanced training or even for Dental Inventory Makeover. So more on this below So What Zen Setup Plans are there? Standard Setup Is for practices that need help building virtual inventory and getting comfortable using Zen dental software on a daily basis. We designed this plan for teams who feel more comfortable around computers and need Zen Instructor just to help review all the features and how to navigate the system. This plan includes: Distributors Setup Building Virtual Inventory Assign products to a template; identifying duplicate products in inventory; review of missing products in virtual inventory 1 HR Training 3 Follow-Ups on the 1st of each month Standard Setup Investment: $399/1st location/one time Advanced Setup Is for Teams that need to take their inventory control to the next level or start from complete scratch and customize to their unique environment. Advanced Setup is for practices that need a custom design of the storage space, help with analyzing floor plan and help to select the right storage solutions. Our Zen Instructors will be able to handle the entire process of customization from start to finish as well get the entire team comfortable using Zen and take full advantage of the system. This plan includes: Distributors Setup FaceTime Call with one of our Dental Inventory Experts Help to prepare an order to purchase storage units (we call them Tipout Bins) Help to allocate products to the right bins 1 HR Training 1 30 Min Training 2 3 Follow-Ups on the 1st of each month More on this here [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8oMEnRU-vo[/embedyt] Advanced Setup Investment: $799/1st location/one time Dental Inventory Makeover Is designed for practices that require on-site help from one of our Zen Instructors to completely revamp the entire process from physical storages, getting read off old and expired products to designing new storages. Our DIM plan includes all travel expenses as well as expenses required to purchase and install new storage units. DIM is truly transformational for many practices and a guaranteed way to get your practice organized and under 5% overhead goal. This plan includes: Distributors Setup FaceTime Call with one of our Dental Inventory Experts Help to prepare an order to purchase storage units (we call them Tipout Bins) 1-2 Days On-Site Visit to work on inventory; storages; help count inventory and simply get the entire team excited about the process. 30 Min Training 2 3 Follow-Ups on the 1st of each month More on this here: [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arj9O9XBoPQ[/embedyt] and here [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tBCVE7ZxYA[/embedyt] Dental Inventory Makeover Investment: $4,999/location/one time - includes travel expenses and the cost of purchasing storage units. Pretty much all-in cost. I truly think these 3 plans are designed to provide the best value to our practices and anybody who is looking to get full control over the ordering and supplies management. We look forward to seeing you soon and let me know what do you think of new setup plans? Tiger CEO ZenSupplies.com
When we hear the word systems, we instantly think of a machine, or a computer program, where everything MUST be black and white. We think redundancy. Ultimately, we think of the dreaded word...CHANGE. Yup, that's the dreaded word we hear all too often!! CHANGE. Instantly our minds go to “She isn’t going to like the new way. What do I do if they won’t change? What if they leave because of all of the change?” So, how do we set up dental inventory system to positivity impact the overall flow of the dental office systems, AND keep our team happy. These are ALL valid concerns. Especially during this time. It is so scary to think about losing a star team member, or having to hire another team member, while trying to open AND follow all the new guidelines. Setting up systems initially CAN cause some fuss in the office. So let's talk about how to minimize the effects of the change by creating systems. Set up regular team meetings with your team, (At LEAST once a month). IF this is your first time having regular meetings, feel free to schedule one every 2-3 weeks. *Remember, people will own what they help create. So lets involve them!! Keep open communication with your team about what is up and coming, and how they can play a role. *Remember, people like to be in the KNOW, and they like to HELP. Find those team players and maximize on their strengths! Set up consistency and stick to it! …What do you want your office to look like? What does success look like in your office? What do you want your culture to look and feel like? Come up with a plan-(I would like to have a morning huddle EVERY morning by the end of next week.) What is that going to look like? Explain the “Why”. What would we like to accomplish, and Why? What will we discuss? *Morning huddles are important to touch on all the “other” stuff other than the patient's treatment. Talk about additional opportunities for that day, celebrate birthdays, HIGHLIGHT who in your office has done a positive action! Set deadlines for implementation. Setting a deadline is important for clarity. When the team knows changes are coming, they want to know WHEN. Remember-systems are able to be improved and changed anytime! Get feedback from your team on what they like, and what they would like to change regarding the system. Be open with your team. Barriers create miscommunication and misunderstanding, along with CONFUSION. No one wants to show up everyday confused and worried! Creating systems in the office will ultimately lead to personal accountability. No more will your team wonder, what should I do here? What am I responsible for at the end of the day? With a few simple steps and ultimately implementation, systems will lead to positive changes amongst your team. This can build rapport within the office and cut out blame within the team. Your TEAM is the most important thing you have! Without open communication, trust, and accountability, your team is only a group of individuals. Create your systems, your CULTURE, and the flow you have always wanted in your office! YOU are ultimately the LEADER! ~Kellie Black, RDH Disclaimer: This article is the sole opinion and research of the writer and doesn’t reflect the opinions of ZenSupplies.
Hi, everybody. Let's break this down into the simple steps and figure out a way to use spreadsheets to simply and easily control your dental inventory, submit orders, and pretty much stay within a budget. First, we're going to start with what we call Operatory Inventory Checklists. So that's going to be available for the download at the link below. You can use it. You can adjust it. It's an Excel Spreadsheet. The credit on that one goes to the Dentist of Omaha for providing the treatment room list, the one that you guys are looking at right now. So we highly suggest you use that spreadsheet to track your items in each treatment room, meaning that you're going to go and open all the cabinets, all the drawers, everything you've got. Write down on that list, adjust it, and the most important part, put what you want the quantities to be, either for the day or for the week, meaning that before you guys implement this checklist, you'll need to decide if each treatment room will get restocked either on a daily basis or on a weekly basis. And so you're going to put the stocked quantity, the quantity for that period of time, either the day or the week. Let's just say two carpules of red lidocaine. Most likely you're going to use a lot more Septocaine, so you're going to put that, and on and on and on and on, including a restorative. So the idea is to get everything that's in the room on that checklist. Whatever you can't figure out, that doesn't belong on that checklist, that means it doesn't belong in the room, so get rid of it. Buy a huge garbage can and just put it in the garbage can. The last item on this list that's really important is to put who is in charge. So I always like to have the Responsible in Charge. I call them RIC, our lead dental assistant or assistant responsible for that treatment room, who is responsible for restocking that specific room. The idea is you want to have Responsible in Charge for that room. So you got the list. Download the list. Take a look. Put it in the room. Laminate it. I wouldn’t suggest laminating it right away. Maybe try three or four times, adjust the quantities, adjust the products, and then laminate it. Next, you are going to use the Purchase Order. That means, each assistant, or let's just say your lead assistant, we’ll call her Susan, will compile the Operatory Inventory checklists from your assistant(s). Then, Lead Assistant Susan will figure out the quantities of all the products that she needs to buy. Using the Purchase Order is an easy way to control which distributor will get which order. So here's the process and how it will work. Lead Assistant Susan gets the Operatory Inventory Checklists from your assistant(s). Next, Susan goes onto the distributor website of your preference and, using your preferred vendors, puts an order together in the shopping cart. Then, she takes a screenshot the shopping cart, prints a copy with the twirl at the bottom, and puts it in a Purchase Order. So, the Purchase Order has to be filled out. Again, you can download it at the link in the bottom of this article. Download the spreadsheet called Purchase Order. Be sure to fill out which distributor, the total, etc. and text the screenshot over to the shopping cart. Now, the next step of that would be using Dental Budget Tracker. By the way, the Purchase Order credit goes to Michael Lomaton of Dental Design SD a huge supporter of Zen. They provided this Purchase Order idea and the actual template. Now, we're going to move into your Dental Budget Tracker Spreadsheet. That came from a good friend, David Bender at Village Dental at Saxony in Indiana, so huge credit goes to them for providing us a spreadsheet called Dental Budget Tracker. So once you get those Purchase Orders, you're going plug it in, into that specific month, what you guys are going to be using for that month with that distributor, for which week. Then the system will calculate for you what’s the month to date and things like that, and give you the total. I think it's called in Supply Budget Tracker. Somewhere at the top, for that month, it will tell you what it is. So all you have to put in is Allowed Spending. The remaining balance will be calculated automatically. Actual spending will be calculated automatically, and then Prior Month Collections, you guys are putting in for each individual month. I will have to mention that ZenSupplies does it all for you automatically. You don't have to do it. The only thing you're going to have to do with Zen is just plug in your collection numbers for the previous month, but the PO process and putting it together, downloading spreadsheets and things like that, it's all done on Zen automatically. So now, the last part that I want to mention, what a lot of you will do, specialty endo implants, oral surgery, and things like that. I would highly suggest you use a separate spreadsheet for each individual cart if you're tracking items separately. And we do have a checklist called EndoCart Westgate, and a huge credit goes to the Westgate Dental and the awesome assistants at the Westgate Dental who provided the checklist. You're going to use it, and again, it's the same concept as the first checklist. All the items listed and all the quantities that you need to keep in that endo cart. So that's all for now. We've got the Operatory Inventory Checklist, where you're putting all the quantities. You've got the endo cart, oral surgery cart, or ortho cart. They can all have the checklist. Then your lead assistant is using the Purchase Order. It's absolutely the must to use that Purchase Order, and then you guys can plug it into the final spreadsheet, called Dental Budget Tracker, and only then the order can be submitted to the distributor. Now, all these spreadsheets can be converted into two things. You can either convert it into Google Docs, so it's easy for everybody to have access and plug in the numbers, or I've been playing with a thing called Airtable. It's a new app. It is pretty much a spreadsheet on steroids. You can get a subscription and start using that spreadsheet specifically for tracking budgets and things like that. I hope you guys enjoyed this. There's going to be a reference to this article at the bottom. For the full Dental Inventory Makeover Webinar that we did, where we go in detail on how to control the inventory, what to do with products and things like that in each individual treatment room. So I would highly suggest you check it out, and if you liked it, come back to this blog, read more, and we have a lot more videos coming up. Also, check out our podcast that's coming up really soon, called Zen and Work! See you later. Please download the simple inventory control spreadsheet and other useful documents here: Operatory Checklist Purchase Order Dental Budget Tracker Spreadsheet EndoCart Westgate Budget Allocations Guidelines All CheckLists and Spreadsheets Startup Supplies List Reference: https://www.zensupplies.com/blog/dental-inventory-makeover-webinar/ Thank you & Credit: Dr. David Bender, DDS for providing Dental Budget Tracker Spreadsheet Westgate Dental Care for providing Supply List for Endo Carts The Dentist of Omaha for providing Treatment Room List
Let me start with a bunch of questions that I still don’t have all the answers to. How is it possible that during a pandemic that we are left with no masks, gowns, respirators? How did we get to the point that we have to rely on another country to get us protection equipment? If we would have US manufacturing kicking in full gear would we even have to shut down dental practices across the US? How can we help turn things around to start manufacturing products in the US again? Lots of questions and I also hear a lot of excuses, “too expensive”, “Who would pay X amount for a mask made in the US”, “What’s the problem with making things overseas?”, “We don’t have the material to make the product here”, “Labor is too expensive in the US”. Remember the days when American made was a big thing, at least I do! Growing up in Russia I remember craving Levi’s jeans. It was a huge shortage and if you can get a pair, you could literally sell them on the black market for double the cost (reminds me of the current PPE struggle :). To me, Levi’s was an epiphany of the quality. When you wear American jeans it was a statement. It was Freedom! So why can’t we get back to making things here, in the US, again? In search of answers to my above questions, I frequently asked our distribution partners “Why can’t we get US-made products"? Some were even able to get the equipment but couldn’t source the raw material. We continued to ask and most of the time the answer was “It’s impossible”! Until one day, one of our Zen Members sent an email with an introduction to a nonprofit organization in Detroit, Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center, originally started as a community-driven nonprofit for apparel manufacturing, that had to change gears during the pandemic and start making gowns and masks. So as usual, I got in the car and drove to Detroit to see how in the world a nonprofit is figuring out how to solve this “impossible” challenge. After being greeted by Kimberly, who checked my temperature and asked medical-related questions, I was welcomed to the manufacturing floor. I was Wowed from the first minute: equipment, people, space, drawing boards, raw material, the meeting room, all of it makes you feel part of something special. Makes you feel you are part of the big dream! A short walk through: https://youtu.be/GQ7JxbXEXvA After a few minutes of meeting Jen Guarino, CEO of the ISAIC, I started trying different gowns, masks and kept on asking lots of questions. Curious to find out the answers? In this short interview I ask Jen Guarino, CEO of the ISAIC nonprofit organization, important questions related to US manufacturing: The cost of manufacturing products in the US and what are the drivers of cost? How to stop losing trade skills due to manufacturing moving overseas? How Manufacturing is solving a lot of the problems that our society is going through today? Is it too late to bring manufacturing back to the US before we lose trade knowledge? I really hope you find this interview informative and I ask you to pledge 20% of your ordering to the US-based manufactures. Full Interview is here: https://youtu.be/ykI5AdTaiYY Tiger Safarov CEO, ZenSupplies Inc
Happy Monday to all! As another busy week begins, I’d like to provide a recap of the live events and webinars we’ve had at Zen this past week as well as some exciting live events that we have planned for the week of June 29! So last week, on Thursday, June 25, we invited Tim Twigg to discuss the post COVID hiring challenges and Tim also provided an Update on the PPP Forgiveness. For many dental office systems across the country it's been really challenging to bring the team back, adjust the schedules to the new guidelines and hire new team members. Tim helped us better understand "the tsunamis of the coronavirus", the most recently asked HR questions and what the hiring process should look like for dental offices. Please find the full webinar here: https://youtu.be/ftdRF5OMYyY And here is the podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/0030262a On Friday, 6/26 at 11 am CST, Tiger hosted our traditional "15 min Friday Supply Availability Update" for Zen Offices! This Friday Jordan Lorenz, Director of Special Markets from Dental City joined Tiger to review the supply availability. Please join us Every Friday at 11am Central for a live update on what is going on on the market and availability of dental supplies. All you have to do is login to your Zen account, app.ZenSupplies.com For the week of June 29, we have planned the following event: Wednesday, July 1 at 12 pm CST, we invited Jen Guarino, CEO of ISAIC to discuss The Importance of Supporting US Based Manufacturers. With the 4th of July holiday coming up in a few days, we decided to host a webinar on the importance of supporting US based manufacturers. There are a lot of discussions on US made products. Some were surprised with "why we don't make masks anymore" and "Why US made PPE is as expensive as from outside of the US". These and many other questions I would like to address with Jennifer Guarino, CEO of ISAIC (Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center), a fashion non-profit that changed their direction to making Gowns and Masks during the pandemic. Please tune in on Wednesday for an exciting live discussion. Please check out ISAIC (Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center) here: www.isaic.org. If you would like to jump on the webinar and share your experience and challenges (many are concerned that US based manufacturers are more expensive), Tiger will add you in! The benefit of the LIVE Webinar is that we will be able to answer YOUR questions during this time. So please join us at 11 am CST on Wednesday 7/1! All you have to do is login to your Zen account, Or follow this link: https://livewebinar.com/353-515-414 Since the Friday supply availability event falls on Independence Day (observed) this week, we will be having our next 15 minute supply availability live event on Friday, July 10. Thank you to all for participating in our live events and we look forward to seeing everyone during this week’s webinars!
Dear ZenFamily, Happy Monday to all! We hope everyone had a phenomenal weekend. As we jump into another busy week, we’d like to share a recap of live events and webinars for last week (the week of July 20) as well as some exciting live events that we have planned for the week of July 27. So here goes! On Thursday, July 23 we invited our friends at ProEdge Dental (https://proedgedental.com/) The "Wizard of Water" Mike Rust and Kellie Thimmes to share more on launching 2 new products, to bring light to what these products are and how they can help dental offices. Once again, we discussed the issues related to water treatment within a dental practice. If you remember from the last webinar, Mike is a great guest and we can talk for hours. Here is the podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/38ba3035 By the way have you seen their awesome video clips? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSugiQTRVaxwnOIiCj3eog/videos On Friday, 7/24 at 11 am CST, Tiger hosted our traditional "15 min Friday Supply Availability Update" for Zen Offices! Please join us Every Friday at 11am Central for a live update on what is going on on the market and availability of dental supplies. All you have to do is login to your Zen account, app.ZenSupplies.com For the week of July 27, we have planned the following events: 1. On Wednesday, 7/29 at 11 am CST we will host a webinar with Mary Govoni on OSHA/CDC Updates and What are the Options if we Run Out of Gloves/Wipes? By many of your requests we invited Mary Govoni to the live webinar to discuss the new OSHA/CDC guidelines, requirements, and simply what's working and what our teams need to know about infection control. Tiger will ask Mary about the current shortage of Nitrile Gloves and Surface disinfectants (wipes). What are the options if we can't buy any more (which our team is working really hard to make sure that doesn't happen). Mary's Bio is Here: Mary Govoni is an internationally recognized speaker, author and consultant, working with dental teams for over 40 years on clinical efficiency, infection prevention, ergonomics, and team communication. Mary is a Certified OSHA Outreach Trainer and assists dental practice across the country in achieving compliance with regulatory requirements. Mary also is known for her practical approaches to implementing dental system software and protocols to enhance patient safety, privacy and data security. Mary a past president of the American Dental Assistants Association, a member of the American Dental Hygienists Association, a member of the Organization for Safety Asepsis and Prevention, the Academy of Dental Management Consultants and the Speaking and Consulting Network. She has published numerous articles in Dental Economics, The Dental Assistant Journal, RDH Magazine, Dentistry Today, Inside Dentistry and many others. Together we can PLAN in Advance! The benefit of the LIVE Webinar is that we will be able to answer YOUR questions during this time. So please join us at 11 am CST on Thursday 7/9! All you have to do is login to your Zen account, or follow this link: https://livewebinar.com/659-178-092 2. And of course, per our new Friday tradition, on Friday, July 31 at 11 am CST, Tiger will host a 15 Minute Supply Availability Update with a Special Guest. Everyone is beyond ready to get back to work in a safe environment. The ZenTeam is spending countless hours every week doing due diligence, learning about FDA approvals, learning about product shortages, and sourcing new vendors. In addition, the landscape of the supply chain is constantly changing and so are the prices of PPE products. Therefore, Tiger will host a 15 min live event EVERY Friday at 11 am CST to go over what we learn during the week. We will share EVERYTHING-good, bad and what to prepare for. Simply login to your ZenSupplies account and join us there for all live events! Thank you to all for participating in our live events and we look forward to seeing everyone during this week’s webinars!
Angie Bachman, Director of Education at Design Ergonomics, shares her story from Dental Assistant to Supplies Sales Rep and to a role at Design Ergonomics where she helps dental office systems to truly get organized. We cover many things including my favorite topic, a career path for Dental Assistant how practices can create one to provide a path for your team. Other topics include: - Career Path for dental assistants, clinical track and business track. How to make it work - Ways to motivate the team - Becoming an Expert in the field - Empowering the team to make decisions - How to design workflow of the dental practice software for maximum efficiency - How to layout Inventory storage in the dental practice
Many of our friends have been asking "What is going on with Zen?". Well, we have been very busy and now I'm excited to share with you what's new, what's coming in the next few months and what's the format for ZenOne Podcast. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubS2BNRNyhc[/embedyt] About our YouTube Channel: Hi friends, my name is Tiger and I'm the founder and CEO of ZenSupplies, a dental inventory management and ordering dental platformfor Dental Practices across US. We focus on building a simple solution for our clients to manage inventory, place all orders in one place and customize products your way. If you like videos about efficiency, inventory process and smart ordering as much as we do, please subscribe to our channel. 🔗 LINKS ZenSupplies Blog: https://www.zensupplies.com/blog/ ZenSupplies Podcast: https://www.zensupplies.com/zenone-podcast/ YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4I-NnQ8VfQ73hQS80gDB4Q Follow us on Instagram: @zen.supplies
For Elizabeth Bueno, the clinical director of a busy, multi-location dental practice, incorporating ZenSupplies into her systems increased efficiency, eliminated stress, and spurred further business growth. After five years utilizing ZenSupplies for ordering and dental inventory management, River Run Dental Spa in Richmond, Virginia has grown from one practice to five, and Bueno herself has transitioned from a hygienist managing direct patient care to a director managing bourgeoning practice operations across multiple locations. "I have a lot going on...our practice is rapidly growing," said Bueno. "[ZenSupplies just improved the efficiency of ordering and training and supply inventory management." After hearing about Zen on a podcast over five years ago, Bueno and her team approached founder Tiger Safarov about signing up for a subscription model at just a few hundred dollars per month. "Working with Tiger from the beginning, he was kind of at the forefront of his company," said Bueno. "It was great to have that personal relationship with him from the beginning." At the time, with only one River Run Dental Spa location, "We really didn't have budgets that were shared with us or budgets that were super strict," said Bueno. Though "There was a lot of flexibility and grace with it," Bueno noted, it was difficult to manage exact inventory and spending. "With Zen, we were really able to have one dental platform, order from multiple distributors, get the lowest prices, create new relationships with new distributors, and manage our inventory and our budget all in one place." Because River Run Dental Spa is highly focused on the patient experience, outsourcing product management allowed new freedom to further enhance patient care while leaving the inventory logistics up to Zen. "We really focus on providing an exceptional patient experience and have really grown our practice through focusing on that main vision," said Bueno. Their priority, she added, is "Exceptional dental care...we strive to leave a lasting legacy in Richmond by creating an experience that's different than others and providing a place that isn't your typical, average dental appointment." Bueno also noted that the practice saves thousands of dollars each year on dental supplies through the savings comparative tools Zen provides. "It was kind of a no brainer." Typical dental offices spend about 5% of their collections on products, and after implementing Zen, River Run has maintained a 3.4% spend on inventory. Instead of spending hours on organization, ordering, and searching for the best prices, River Runs Dental Spa staff can focus on providing the best patient experience possible. "Because it is just a click of a couple buttons...and the way that the storages work within Zen, makes it super efficient," said Bueno. Saving time, money, and energy has resulted in exceptional growth for the business. "We're continuing to grow. We plan on opening several more practices over the next couple years," added Bueno, who is currently overseeing the opening of River Run's sixth office this fall. "That's super exciting."
By Lauren Carlson Let's face it. Inventory dental inventory management in a dental office can be complicated, frustrating and, above all, time consuming. Instead of providing the best service and treatment to your patients, you (or your office managers or dental assistants) are busy in the supply closet counting gloves, masks, etc. until they're cross-eyed, all with the goal of maintaining steady daily operations in the operatory. But as the old adage goes, 'There's gotta be a better way.' And there is; in the past few years, technology-savvy startups have crafted new solutions that streamline and/or automate product counting, ordering, budgeting, and price comparisons. Instead of paying the high hourly rates of your skilled employees to complete these tasks, dental offices have outsourced this labor to dental software systems or individuals ready and able to efficiently manage inventory processes. So instead of focusing on products, your skilled staff members can provide better service to your existing patients, take on higher workloads, or train for completed procedures. Brian Mc Court, Global Procurement & Supply Chain Professional for Abra Health Group, has worked in the health and wellness industry for 15 years, with seven years directing supply chain and commerce. In his current position for Abra, a health collective that provides affordable dental services for underserved communities, Brian works to streamline team and client communication along the supply chain. As the health group continues to grow — Abra went from three sites to over ten in the past year and plans to double that number in the next 18 months — its many sites required better oversight of vital inventory information. Specifically, Brian needed support to help determine the amount of staff necessary and the roles that they fill. Improved processes would also help him visualize product needs, procure the necessary items, and control their flow into and use within the office. "Now's the time. We're kind of right in the middle of that huge growth," he said. 1. Streamline your reporting One way inventory management tactic that Brian uses to help save his team money is regular reporting. By collecting data, either using outsourced support staff, scanning product QR codes in the supply closet, or the old fashioned manual counting method, Brian ensures that Abra's many locations have up-to-date information on product needs. "[Dental staff] have a whole clinic to run," he said. "The last thing I want them to worry about is trying to figure out what they need. If we have better visualization of our inventory we can create KPI [Key Performance Indicator] report...and that can be done at the corporate level." By collecting all data in a single location and having one staff person oversee product needs for all locations, Brian says, he can better utilize on the ground staff to do what they do best. By consolidating the work of weekly reports under one corporate staff member, the entire health group saves time and money. 2. Manage the supply chain The COVID-19 pandemic has forced uncertainty and chaos into industries across the globe, but has especially impacted those in medical and dental services. As community health needs and worries shift, dental practice owners need to remain flexible to ensure that have the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and everyday supplies at the ready. Jordan Lorenz, Director of Special Markets for City Dental, has worked for the dental supplies distributor for almost a decade. "The business end of it is what I enjoy," said Jordan, who is inspired by the efficiency and constant evolution of the dental industry. His team works with dental office customers who use a variety of methods to place orders. Some place orders over the phone, others partner with a DSO (Dental Service Organization) or GPO (Group Purchasing Organization). Still others utilize technology platforms like Zen Supplies, a tech startup that organizes inventory data and helps offices compete for the best prices. For Jordan, "understanding what my office needs and when they need it." And "Operating in a lean way is the best method to save his clients money through better inventory management. When you have access to real-time data, "You're ordering the things that you need and you have tight control around that supply chain," he said. Also, by partnering with one of the inventory platforms mentioned above, you have access to dozens of suppliers at a variety of price points, ensuring that supply chain woes become less of an obstacle—both in emergencies, and in everyday patient care. "The one thing that probably the pandemic taught people was that...the more sources for products you have, the better," said Jordan, who noted that if a certain product is out of stock at a go-to provider, platforms like Zen Supplies offers relationships with additional suppliers. "You gain efficiencies if you have multiple suppliers available to you," he added. 3. Outsource the simple stuff For Julie Telles-Carrizales, Executive Assistant for Apex Dental Studio, improved inventory management was all about outsourcing the tedious task of counting. For two years, "I took on pretty much whatever needed to be done in the office...and that included inventory management," she said. However, the practice has recently outsourced its inventory counting to a virtual assistant who uses images of the office's stock to remotely count products. Julie has also crafted an in-depth spreadsheet with detailed information for exact product ordering that has cut down on manual ordering tasks. With outsourced data in hand and a streamlined center for her data, "It's just click click click," she added. This efficient system saves the dental assistants and dentists from using their skilled time on inventory. Instead, they can better care for their patients. "They're here for and with patients," said Julie. "A lot of them don't want to be stuck in the back taking numbers." Whether your role is in the corporate office of a health group, managing customer needs at a supplier, or on the ground in a dental office, better inventory management processes can save you time and money. By streamlining reporting, managing the supply chain with access to multiple distributors, and outsourcing simple tasks, your practice can begin operating more efficiently and earning more profit overall.
Budget is one of the main reasons dental practices sign up with Zen. A single place for all distributors provides a better platform to manage the budget. Therefore that's one of the questions we ask and the answer can be anywhere from 2.8-12%. To be honest, when I hear anything more than 7% I tend to think it's primarily due to wrong budget allocations. So I decided to ask my good friend Jake, who is VP of Business Intelligence at Flagship Dental Group and works along the side of Dr. Mark Costes, to help me out on this one. I asked Jake proper allocations, sample form and what targets practices need to look for. Hope you enjoy it. Tiger Savarov: You and I went on this back and forth several times, and I still keep coming back to it, I guess, until, with your help, I want to write a solid piece on my blog about budget allocations and the details of the budget allocations. So I do want to take maybe 10, 12 minutes of your time to go into this because you have so much perspective, you have so many clients coming to you. Tiger Savarov: I'm just going to fire up some questions at you and let's go into the details. Jake Conway: Sure, go ahead. Tiger Savarov: Okay. So, first of all, when people come to you before they join the DSI and mastery group, what are the percentages that you see that people spend on supplies? Jake Conway: Oh, the percentage of the supplies. So once we sift through the missed allocations and get a true percentage, I'd say it's between 6% and 8% on average before they come to us. Tiger Savarov: Okay. We will get to the missed allocations. What do you think drives that 6% to 8%? What's your gut feeling? What's the number one reason? Jake Conway: Just not knowing, just unaware of what they're spending, unaware of their ordering processes, and unaware of their inventory, so just overall general unawareness of those three, I guess, three underlying issues in the practice. Tiger Savarov: And then when you sit down with them, what's the number one thing you tell to do? When you see that high percentage, what would you say that would help them to get pretty quickly to a lower number, at least cut a percent out? Jake Conway: I would say start by looking at what a budget would be. So yeah, we can look at percentages, but what's that dollar amount look like and what are we currently spending per month? *Tiger: Take your last month collections (or as Jake suggested net production) and multiply that by 4%, that’s the dollar amount you are looking to spend per month Jake Conway: Once we find out that dollar amount, then we can start looking at how our ordering processes work to start, who's in charge, how does that work? Is anyone in charge? I guess alongside that is to get a handle on who you're ordering from. So, looking at ways you can shave two, three, five, 10, sometimes 15, 20% off of each item line and kind of start there to see how we can start shaving and kind of get a spreadsheet going or a list of the supplies you're currently ordering, who you're ordering from, and then start the negotiation game there. Tiger Savarov: Got it. So why are you doing budget off of the collections? Because I know you and I and Mark talked about this extensively. Why not productions or net productions? Why do you always go by collections? *Tiger: This is where I have my own point of view. I like to spend what’s on the bank for the last month. I see that net production is a more accurate way to plan for supplies. However, this is just my POV. In the end, we are talking about minor difference. Jake Conway: Sorry, I meant to say ... did I say collection? I meant to say net production. Tiger Savarov: Okay. Jake Conway: I mean, ordering is based on that and, of course, you have ebbs and flows in the collections. So it is based on net production just because that's what's driving the ordering. It's not collection. Tiger Savarov: So now let's look into the missed allocations. What are some missed allocations have you seen? Jake Conway: Oh man, a lot of implant material. We actually have a lab/specialty item line and that's where we allocate implant supplies. I see a lot of like BioHorizon, which is I think along the same lines. Some Ortho lab cases will go into supplies (Invisalign), and equipment as well. Equipment is a big one. If the accountants or CPAs don't know if it's a Henry-Schein order or something like that, even like a chair repair or whatever, a lot of equipment gets snuck into supplies as well, which actually should go in facility equipment. Jake Conway: So between facility equipment, lab, and supplies, there's a lot of misallocation between those three item lines. Tiger Savarov: Okay. Would it be possible if you share how you do the allocations, like a spreadsheet or a screenshot, of what you suggest? Jake Conway: Yeah, I can actually send you a ... I have a 2019 allocation cheat sheet that breaks all that down every category. Tiger Savarov: Awesome, awesome. So under supplies, you're just going to have dental supplies, and then you have a lab bill or the lab line item, and under the lab, you're going to have the implants and ortho and stuff like that, right? Jake Conway: Yes. That will fall into a lab and what we're calling this year labs/specialties. That way we can discern the difference between the two, lab and what true supplies are. Tiger Savarov: Got it. And what are you shooting between ... So what's your goal for supplies when it's properly allocated and what's your goal for the lab/specialty? Jake Conway: Good question. So ultimately, we want to get our supplies to 4.5% or lower and lab, we want to get that to 7% or lower. So between the two, it's 11.5% Tiger Savarov: Okay. Where have you seen people putting CAD/CAM? Jake Conway: Supplies. A lot of times it goes in supplies. I've seen it in office supplies as well, but that should be ... it should be facility equipment. Tiger Savarov: Well, what about the blocks? If we look at the ... like if people are buying ... Jake Conway: Oh, the blocks themselves? Tiger Savarov: Yeah. Jake Conway: Yeah. That usually goes to supplies, which should go into the lab. Tiger Savarov: So that would be lab/specialty? Jake Conway: Correct. Category Sub -Category "Overhead Goal %" Facility & Equipment Rent Facility/ Equipment Repair Equip Lease Storage Real Estate Tax Landscaping Alarms/Fire Protection Building Insurance Cable/Utilities Computer Hardware/Repairs Dental Supplies 4% General Dental Supplies Ortho Supplies Lab Fees/Specialties 7% Implant Materials Crown and Bridge Ortho (Invisilign) Specialty Supplies Tiger Savarov: Okay, got it. So I've talked to some of the offices, probably the last question. I've talked to some of the offices, right, and some of them are very successful, and you and I both know people that run at 2.8%, 2.9%. Obviously, the reallocation plays a huge role, right? Tiger Savarov: They would put separate items in the lab/specialty separate in supplies, but one of the things that I hear from some of my offices, they say, "Look, I want to put implants as part of the dental supplies because if we start doing implant cases, our collections are going to go up or the net production is going to go up. So we want to make sure that it's in one category so that the budget is there if it goes up and down based on the net production that we're doing for the implants." What's your take on that? Jake Conway: I mean, you could track that in a lab. If you have a big lab spike and overhead in general spikes, there are a few things that could come out of that. Either we're not collecting and collection percentage drops, maybe the treatment of customers is going down, whatever the case may be, but the bottom line is if, if we see a spike in the lab or overhead, then we can look at the different contributing factors to that. So I would say that's a mute point because either way, you can track that. Tiger Savarov: But technically it doesn't matter. As long as they know where they're tracking it, they can put it under supplies, right? Jake Conway: They could, but just know that that's going to obviously fluff the supply category. Speaker 1: Have you seen people, and again, we'll look at your sample. Once you share it, I'll include it in the article. Have you seen people doing these allocations within the supply category? Like they will have dental supplies, and under dental supplies, they'll have a subcategory as they would do in QuickBooks? Jake Conway: Yes, I have seen that often. In fact, so I've had actually some of the clients request in our reporting where we break out implants under lab, so we can track that stuff like implant supplies and so forth, or like Ortho sometimes we'll break out Ortho Sub Category. So I do see that, especially if it's like a big specialty office with GP/Specialty, we will just have like a blended reporting where we do break out like specific item lines out. So we can track those separately, but ultimately it does fit the bottom line of either supplies or lab when it comes to that, so, to answer it in short, yes. Tiger Savarov: Would you suggest startups or the growing private practices to start doing it from the get-go? Jake Conway: I mean it's nice to have that broken out for sure. If, your plan is to be a specialty of multi-specialty office or if you really want to push, you know, big cosmetics or whatever, you know, I would say that it might be a good, a good idea to go ahead and break those up just so you can track that as you grow with it. You know, if it's sort of built in, you can see the impact of not only production collection, but the cost associated with that. Tiger Savarov: Got It. Anything else you would add to this question? What you've seen, anything that I missed that I should've asked you? Jake Conway: I would say to make sure we're tracking on an accrual basis because sometimes that will definitely jack with the numbers month to month. So, accrual, what I mean by that is let's say you get, you know, a lab or dental supply bill, we're going to record that bill when it comes in rather than when we pay it because that's the truth, you know, the true nature and the true performance of the practice itself. Jake Conway: So when you're trying to, you know, for dentist's office, they are trying to nail down their budget. I've worked with your CPA to get accrual basis going on the expenses side and make sure that's in place so you can get a truly accurate representation of the expenses coming in. Tiger Savarov: So meaning you got the bill from your lab April 15th and even though you have been at 30 and you're gonna pay it May 15th, you need to record as the April 15th bill? Jake Conway: Absolutely. That's exactly right. Tiger Savarov: Okay. Awesome. Well, I hope this would be one of the pillars that we don't need to go back and forth on, too because I've been asking you this question probably like 55 times, and I really appreciate you finding the time for me to do it to answer these. You can contact Jake directly for a more detailed template for budget allocations and consulting on your financials - Jake Conway jake@custompracticeanalytics.com
We traveled a long way and our first stop in Texas did not disappoint! We were blown away by the systems put in place at Acre Wood Dental. They got After embracing Zen, this office dropped their supply overhead from 10% in October to 5% in December! (And they are doing it in January) Stay tuned to the blog to see more details on this and other success stories from our AMAZING Zen Family.