Dr. Heather Skari

SCENE 1 – Growing Pains

Dr. Heather Skari bought into an established practice and became a partner with another dentist. From the beginning, she realized that she and her partner had different visions for the practice; different ways of doing things and different approaches with their teams. Neither partner was wrong; they were simply different. Dr. Skari attributed the struggles to “growing pains.” But over time the differences started to take more energy – energy that Dr. Skari much preferred to spend on her patients.

She found herself venting her frustrations to friend and colleague, renowned dental professional and educator, Dr. Mike Fling. Mike told her, “You need to call Kirk Behrendt at ACT Dental Practice Coaching.”

SCENE 2 – Getting Their “ACT” Together

Dr. Skari approached her partner with the idea of taking their team to hear Kirk speak at a Pankey Study Group. He agreed. The entire team attended Kirk’s presentation and was thrilled with the experience. They were all on board with having Kirk and the ACT Team come to the practice and help them ease their growing pains.

Kirk and Sheri Kay came to the practice and began working with both the doctors and the team. Everyone put forward their best efforts to make the dental practice work seamlessly. But after three months, a few issues became very obvious. The most prevalent of which was that these two dentists did things very differently.

Kirk and Sheri worked with Dr. Skari, asking her to define her vision for her life and her vision for her practice. Over time, they helped her focus on what she wanted. It became very clear to Dr. Skari that this partnership was not going to work. But she also had the confidence to realize she could thrive in her own practice.

SCENE 3 – Going Solo

Four months after Dr. Skari and her partner began working with ACT, they decided to part amicably and form two separate practices. They would still work in the same building, but formed two separate teams, administrative programs and separate patient data bases.

Now it was time for Dr. Skari to focus on the growth of her practice.

In Dr. Skari’s community of Fargo, ND, dental marketing is not the norm, as 95 percent of her patients are referrals. But now on her own, she wanted to do something to promote her practice and increase new patient flow. She turned to ACT for advice.

Kirk’s response? “Specialists.”

Kirk explained to Dr. Skari that by marketing to other dental specialists, she would get the quality patient she was looking for. They decided to host an Open House. It was the perfect opportunity to have the various teams meet and get to know each other in a relaxed environment.

Dr. Skari and her team invited dental specialists and their teams. While many of these dentists saw patients who already had general dentists, those dentists might not offer the more advanced care offered by Dr. Skari, such as equilibration. She hoped that in the future, if they had a patient that required this specialized care, they might refer to her.

The event was a tremendous success. Twelve practices (doctors and teams) attended this purely social event. There was lots of food, beverages, giveaways, laughter and fun.

One Happy Team

Today, Dr. Skari’s practice is thriving, her team is cohesive and happy, and she is living the personal and professional life she had always dreamed of. “Because of ACT, I not only have a different practice, I have a different life,” says Dr. Skari.

“When you work with ACT, the team helps define, develop and implement systems, policies and procedures,” says Dr. Skari. “It’s a completely collaborative experience. We’re all motivated and on the same page. We discuss all issues and make decisions together. We all believe in what we’re doing for our patients and the practice. We are truly a team.”