Have you read reviews on dental offices lately? If you have not, then stop reading right now and go on the internet to read a handful of dental reviews. Then ask yourself: what was a common theme in the reviews I saw? For me, no matter what a dentist’s specialty is or where they are located, there tends to be one thing in common among all of their online reviews: patients typically do not leave reviews about the quality of the dentistry itself, instead describing the positive or negative aspects of their experience in the office. What I see in reviews are details like this:
- How they felt when they were there.
- How the team treated them.
- How easy it was to schedule an appointment.
- The ambiance of the office or how it was decorated.
- The type of coffee that was served in the waiting area.
- How they were greeted (or ignored) by reception as they walked in.
As dental professionals, this can feel frustrating. Why in the world are patients so focused on these little details that could be happening anywhere they go, from getting a massage to getting an oil change for their car, instead of reviewing what dentists actually spend time and money getting specialty training in? The answer is very simple: the average person does not know how to judge dentistry. They have absolutely no idea whether you are a good dentist or not, in clinical terms, so they decide how to review your services based on how they feel about the office.
As a dentist, your name is on the wall of your office and you know that ultimately the patient’s entire experience in the office is your responsibility… yet it makes sense if you wonder how much impact you actually have on what a patient experiences in non-clinical aspects of their visit. However, you may be surprised to find that you can identify and adjust small elements of the patient experience throughout the office in order to eventually get better online reviews. Let’s flow through the patient experience to see what I mean.
When the patient first arrives at the office for their appointment, the front office team handles that process. It’s very rare for the patient to be greeted by the dentist at this point unless you are passing by to use the facilities or grab a coffee. Then the patient is seated in the operatory by either the hygienist or the assistant. They spend time with one of these team members preparing them for their appointment, discussing the details, and getting the patient ready for the doctor. In some cases, the hygienist actually is doing some or most of the procedure.
So let’s pause to see where we are in terms of the patient experience. At this point, the patient could have been in the office for 5 to 30 minutes without ever having once laid eyes on the dentist. Let’s consider how the patient is feeling now based on how they were welcomed to (or welcomed back to) the practice. How did the check in go for them? How were they greeted? Or were they greeted at all? When they did their paperwork, was it clear to them what was needed? When they finished, did they feel that they knew what was next or where to wait? What conversations between employees did they overhear? The next step was taking them back to the clinical area. How did they get called from the reception area by the clinical team member? Did your team seat them on time? When they were seated in the operatory, were they told where to place their belongings and informed what would happen next? Did the assistant or hygienist make them feel comfortable? Remember, most patients get nervous at this part of the process even if they were not already inclined to feel anxious about their visit in general. Being seated and then having to wait for the main action to start is the most nerve-wracking part of a typical visit for most patients.
All of the things listed above will make an impact on how the patient feels by the time the doctor walks in, but it’s important to keep in mind that all of these also play a huge role in case acceptance. If the patient has not had the best experience thus far, or the team has just been average, they are already making decisions in their mind about your quality of dentistry and what they are willing to accept in terms of treatment. Notice I am not saying that effective case presentation by the doctor is not important, and there is definitely always room for improvement in this area, but getting the patient in the right mental state helps with the acceptance part of the equation. This means that half of case acceptance happens not only before the doctor has presented the recommendation for treatment, but actually all along the way from the front door of your office to being seated in the chair and everything in between.
This is bad news for the doctor. It can be discouraging to think that no matter how clinically trained you are, how skilled you are at presenting treatment recommendations, and how much you believe that the patient needs the treatment, the patient is not going to accept unless they also feel that your team has given them the service that they deserve. Of course there are the cases in which they are in pain or the insurance will cover it and they will accept on that basis, which is okay but not optimal because then the patient is really only conditionally accepting on the basis of one part of your treatment plan, not the big picture of what you are suggesting for dental health. If they are focused only on getting rid of the pain or getting just the part of the treatment that insurance will cover, they will not see a value, reason or trust in your team to do any more than that.
Luckily, there is also good news. Your team is made of smart individuals that can be trained and taught how to easily implement specific changes that have a positive influence on whether patients are happy with your practice. If you have the right team and you are willing to invest in them, you can make changes to this paradigm as soon as tomorrow. Taking the time to train your team and teach them how they impact the patient experience will make all the difference in the world. The final piece of the puzzle is partnering with the right training platform to make sure that what your team learns will truly impacts their customer service, verbal skills and knowledge they need to fill the gap.
Too many times it is assumed that people “just know” what good customer service looks like and how to provide it. However, the truth is that unless they have been effectively trained in the past or in a role where they were required to provide excellent customer service, they don’t know what that looks like. If you are looking for an outcome in which patients feel valued, understood, and cared for so that ultimately, they will express trust in your and your team, then you need to provide the same thing for your team.
So, let’s finish walking through the appointment to show that a great patient experience is not just about when they arrive but also what happens as they leave. The patient might decide to want to do the treatment when you are in the room presenting to them, but there is still a chance that they team can drop the ball after this part is over. The hand-off and communication after presenting the treatment plan matters, too. Many times, once the doctor has left the room, the patient turns to one of the team members and asks if they really need this treatment. What your team member says at that moment makes a huge impact on whether they stick with their positive decision to do the dentistry. The next part is when the front office team member discusses money and scheduling. This part is badly handled on a regular basis in a lot of dental offices, and patients ends up leaving without an appointment, or they schedule but with no intention to actually show up to get the work done.
It really takes the entire team, including the front office, to have a positive impact on case acceptance, because everyone has an important part in making patients feel good and want to return to the office. Many times, team members spend more time with the patient than the dentist possibly can. It makes sense, then, that training your team effectively in systems, verbal skills, and customer service will set a high-producing office apart from the rest. Investing in your team and training them is the best business decision that you can make as a dentist.