Everyone knows that the vast majority of patients do not like going to the dentist. In fact many people are afraid of the dentist and won’t even go when there is a problem. Therefore, it is important that dentists focus on the customer experience to create customer success and have patients keep coming back. Having positive outcomes for patients can lead them to refer their friends and family to the practice. Dentist should consider questions such as “are our customers happy?” and “do we provide quality care?”. Below are some ways to improve the customer experience for dentists that will lead to better outcomes for patients and for dentists:
1. Stay in Touch
Even though you may have a dental patient, it is important to continue to cultivate that relationship. After they leave the dental office you may consider calling the patient sometime later that week to make sure their experience went well and if not offer any suggestions. This feedback loop could help improve patient satisfaction across the board. Alternatively a dental office could send out something in the mail to reminder patients to book an appointment or thanking them for coming in.
2. Be Nice
You should treat your patients like everyone wants to be treated. This means to compliment your patients if you can. Perhaps you like something they are wearing or they have been doing a particularly good job of keeping their mouth and teeth healthy. This also means to keeping patients updated if their are any delays with the appointment such as if the dentist is running late. Perhaps most important is to make sure to greet patients that arrive and say goodbye to them when they leave. You want to make sure you leave a good impression on people. First impressions are key and a greeting should be enthusiastic and communicated quickly when a patient arrives. In some cases it may even be appropriate to shake hands with a patient.
3. Listen to the patient
While a dental patient may have scheduled a routine cleaning or a filling appointment, they may have other concerns they would like to discuss. This could lead to follow up appointments. Sometimes patients may feel like dental staff is just checking boxes on a form to make sure they ask all the questions needed. It it important to really listen to the patient to make sure you hear what they are saying. To help with this you can pay attention to how you position the patient. Eye contact and making the patient comfortable can help them express their concerns.
4. Provide Excellent Communication to Patients Before They Arrive
Many patients these days expect to be able to read about their dental office and procedures or treatments through a website. It is important to have a clean professional looking website that answers questions such as “where did the dentist(s) receive their education?” and “what credentials does the dentist(s) have”. Having before and after photos of happy patients in the past is always a nice touch for a website.
Some patients may be new to the practice. It is important that directions to the office are clear and provided on the website or the patient receives an email with such directions prior to arriving. Information about what to expect out of the appointment is always appreciated by patients. It is therefore important to remember that achieving a positive customer experience begins before the patient even arrives at the dental office.
Summary
Dental patients are customers to a dental practice. Dental practices that focus on customer success will make it so that patients keep coming back leading to a thriving dental practice into the future.
It’s easy to get caught up in managing and running a dental business and forget about the core values of customer & patient service. It’s a nice reminder reading the article to always be courteous and listen the each patient when the come in for any service including wisdom teeth removal or anything dental related.
Great article!