Professional Courtesy: Your Comments Needed by Dr. Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD

This month I'm making a special effort to collect your feedback and open the floor to any questions you have about the magazine.

This month I'm celebrating 14 years as editorial director of Dentaltown magazine. Milestones in our lives like birthdays and anniversaries provide opportunity for reflection. A work anniversary, like a new calendar year, brings reflections on the past months and looks ahead toward future resolutions.

One of my goals for the magazine this year is to complete a comprehensive readership survey. Typically a readership survey is sent to a large sample of the subscriber base, and asks detailed questions about the magazine to drive changes and improvements for the future as well as identify the things that are already working well.

Just like many of you, when I finish a procedure with patients I give them some specific instructions and expectations, and then I close the conversation by saying something like this: "If you have any problems, please give me a call." When I finish a hygiene exam, I will say: "Do you have any questions?"

I think it's critical to invite patients to give feedback or ask a question about something they don't understand. This month I'm making a special effort to collect your feedback and open the floor to any questions you have about the magazine that we work so hard to produce each month.

In a sense, I want to conduct my own readership survey, before the professional version is sent later this year. I am doing this for a couple of reasons. First, I can't wait for the time it will take us to put together a comprehensive survey, identify a statistically representative sample, send surveys and compile the results. Second, your informal feedback will influence the construction of the readership survey and you will provide action items that can be considered immediately.

I will provide a list of open-ended questions and you can choose to answer one, a few, all, or just send a note with your feedback. I hope you will take a moment to send me an email: tom@dentaltown.com.

1. Which topics would you like to see in a future issue of the magazine?
2. Do you have any suggestions for a new, regularly appearing feature in the magazine?
3. Can you suggest an author that you'd like to see published in the magazine?
4. Name your three favorite sections of the magazine.
5. Name one section you find yourself skipping regularly.
6. What would you like to see more often in the magazine?
7. Do you page through the magazine, or go to the table of contents to pick an article?
8. Do you visit Dentaltown.com after reading the print edition of the magazine? If not, what if anything would inspire you to do so?
9. Do we cover any specialties too much — or not frequently enough?
10. If an article really connected with you, whom do you tell about it — and how?

The greatest common denominator of the Dentaltown community is a shared desire to help others, even when that other person is a stranger. Thank you in advance for taking the time to tell me what you love, and what you would love to see more of, and for sharing your great ideas. Stay tuned as we continue to improve your experience.

Talk to Tom via email or Twitter
Get in touch with Dentaltown editorial director Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, through email at tom@dentaltown.com or via his Twitter account: @ddstom.

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