How To Maximize Your Service Dollars For Your Dental Equipment

Your service technician is paid to identify and solve problems, minimizing your downtime. No matter how good he or she is, there are steps that you can take to minimize the cost of that service by maximizing their time in your office.

A simple service needed checklist centrally located in your office is one of the best ways to do this.

Your staff writes down the problem, the location, and the name of the person the technician should talk to. When your technician comes, they can look at the list and fix all the problems on it, or let you know that they have to order a part. Without a list, items are often missed, meaning you pay an extra office call charge when the technician returns.

In addition, knowing all the repairs that you need done will allow the technician to multitask. The technician could be looking at your Assistina while the test cycle is running on your Statim, but only if they know it needs repair.

Similarly, simply keeping track of all of your dental handpiece repairs and the serial numbers and repair dates for them will ensure that you never pay for the repair of a handpiece that should be under warranty.

Finally, a simple maintenance checklist for the items in your mechanical room will help to minimize breakdowns. Running a compressor head dry and having it seize up is an expensive way to be reminded of the location of the oil sight glass.

Regularly checking this equipment helps to identify problems while they are still small, before they get big (and expensive).

These steps don’t all need to be done by the technician.

One of your staff members can be placed in charge of keeping these lists and forms up to date. That same person can check the compressor oil levels and track how long it has been since the Amalgam Separator has been changed. They can walk through your operatories once a week looking for broken hoses and items that need repair. That staff member becomes a single point of contact for service in your office, which reduces mis-communication errors and ensures that things get fixed right the first time.

This can ultimately save you valuable time and money.