What is your Outlook for 2015?

Posted on March 24, 2015April 8, 2015 by amsadmin

LMT Magazine began releasing the results of their survey of the Dental Lab Industry last month. There is a lot of really interesting information which matches well with comments made recently by Keith Crittenden, President and CEO of AmericaSmiles Network founder of the American Cosmetic Dental Lab Association. In his seminar at LabDay Chicago he spoke passionately about the challenges facing the industry. He described an industry in flux. In the last 5 years dental restorations manufactured...

We are They – Representing Your Team

Posted on March 20, 2015March 20, 2015 by amsadmin

When I was first managing a new customer support team I moved into the area a few hours a day so I could get a feel for how people were responding to customer calls. It wasn't soon before I heard a relatively new Customer Support Rep (CSR) say to a customer, "I don't know why we don't have that product in stock, there is no telling what those guys are doing over there in production. I've told them we need this but they do whatever they want," or something like that. Now, this particular produc...

ACDLA Founder Rallies Illinois Dental Labs Against Harmful Legislation – SB58

Posted on February 18, 2015April 7, 2015 by amsadmin

February 17, 2015: A new bill filed January 15, 2015 in the Illinois Legislature by Illinois State Senator Pamela J. Althoff seeks to require the registration and licensing of all dental labs within the State of Illinois. In addition, labs would be required to operate under the supervision of a dental technician or dentist. Hearings will be held on February 18, 2015 by the Senate Committee on Licensed Activities and Pensions. Keith Crittenden, President of United Dental Resources and founder of ...

Setting SMART Goals

Posted on October 24, 2014February 12, 2016 by amsadmin

Whether you have employees, partners, or are a one-man band, planning and setting goals is one of the most important management activities that you should be addressing. It is particularly important that you help your employees establish goals and objectives that will be the basis for any sort of evaluation. If you are not on the same page at the beginning of the period (year, quarter, month or week) it is extremely difficult to coach throughout the period or to effectively evaluate at the end o...

Be Proactive

Posted on September 15, 2014September 15, 2014 by amsadmin

One of the most influential books I have read teaches us to Be Proactive. If you haven't read Stephen Covey's"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", I would highly recommend it. I'm not exactly sure how I would have defined being proactive before reading Covey's book ,but I definitely thought it had more to do with trying to make things happen then about how I responded to things when they did happen. That's the big difference I learning from Covey. Between stimulus and response, we have ...

Building a Healthy Organization

Posted on September 7, 2014 by amsadmin

I recently sat down with Drs. Jeff and Renee Hale of WellSpirit Consulting Group to talk about Healthy Organizations. In their view, Healthy Organizations are not measured strictly by a series of financial factors, nor by employee longevity, market share, nor even profitability. Instead, they are measured by a series of five key drivers that attempt to measure the overall organizational effectiveness. Patrick Lencioni, in The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in B...

Differentiate Your Business

Posted on September 5, 2014February 19, 2015 by amsadmin

According to research by LMT Magazine, more than half of dentists switched their primary lab in the last five years. The reasons cited for the change are no different from what you might find in any industry: Poor Quality, Prices too High, Poor Relationship/Communication, Slow Responsiveness or Turn-Around, and Errors. As an ACDLA member, we know you have already made a commitment to quality and service, but there are definitely additional steps you can take to win new customers and maintain y...

Labor Day – Race to the Finish

Posted on September 2, 2014September 22, 2014 by amsadmin

Labor Day is certainly an opportunity to rest and reflect on the work completed so far this year. For many of us, we barely catch our breath before turning the page and looking square at the last third of the year. Now that Summer is essentially over and Fall is upon us, for many of us, it is a great time to look forward. September 2nd - still plenty of time to make changes, put new plans into action, and make an impact on this year. Plenty of time to do something, but maybe not to do a lo...