*Content updated January 2018
Dental Business Consultant, Sheila Scott, shares her eight sure-start ways to ensure your patients are receiving the treatment journey they expect.
Changing your practice to become more patient focused only happens when you start looking at your practice journey as though you’re in the shoes of your patient – that way you’re able to tailor your service to ensure that they have the best experience possible.
It’s a daunting task for many dental professionals, but by changing your viewpoint, you will be able to communicate better with your patients and ensure that they feel comfortable and confident with their treatment.
After all, the only thing that really matters to practice success is how patients feel about the practice service. If patients are unhappy, or worse, indifferent about how a practice looks after them, there is no chance of practice growth, success or profit in the future. Everything has to be built around the patient.
Putting your patients at the core of your practice journey creates a win-win situation where the patients are happy and will return to your practice. They will also tell friends about their positive experiences, bringing more business your way!
These eight simple steps will help you kick off your campaign to becoming a more patient-centred practice!
- Identify – Go through the patient journey and identify any problems that may arise. Try to think about ways that problems can be avoided before they even happen.
- What do patients expect? – Manage your patients’ expectations at every step, including a post-treatment follow-up to check they are happy with the care they received. Who knows they may even agree to leave you a positive review online or on social media!.
- Get personal! – Whilst the patient has come to you for dentistry, it’s the little personal touches that will enrich their experience. Get to know them – not just their teeth!
- Engage with them – Make sure that the patient is involved at all stages of the treatment process to ensure that you are providing them with the service and treatment they want.
- Make things enjoyable – This will not just make the patient happier, but will increase motivation across your entire practice team.
- Own up! – Mistakes happen, but by facing up to them and managing them properly, honesty can help to increase loyalty from your patients.
- Evaluate and evolve – Ensure that you are constantly evaluating your service and changing things to meet new challenges.
- Go team! – The whole practice team needs to change their focus. Communication and coordination between all the team is essential to ensure that patients receive the best service throughout their journey.