Seven Perspectives

At this month’s BDIA exhibition, DentaltownUK met up with Kevin Rose, who was on the A-Dec stand, launching a joint initiative that’s designed to help dentists develop and grow their practices

Mike Gow: Can you give me an overview of what this new project is about?

Kevin Rose: Most people recognise that in any business, it’s important from time to time to experience it as your customers do. This is commonplace nowadays, with the ability to ask for online reviews, for example. This then allows business owners to make improvements to the service that their customers receive by providing essential insights into their world—your business as your customers see it.

Beyond asking for the feedback, though, this can sometimes be difficult particularly for a busy dental practice owner, who is hopefully spending most of his or her time dealing with patients. Recognising this, we are offering dental practice owners a thorough review of their patients’ experiences and thereafter a chance to discuss what we have seen, as well as to offer some practical advice to make improvements.

MG: How will you do that?

KR: Over the next few months, we will be visiting the practices of those taking part and looking at how they interact with their patients, both online and face to face. We will also take a close look at their marketing activities both to existing and new patients.

MG: Can you break that down a bit more?

KR: There are seven perspectives that we will look at:

• The physical premises, including patient facilities and surgery layout.

• The processes involved in becoming a patient and how easy it is to do so.

• Ongoing communication to establish how effective the practice is at retaining its patients.

• Their website—its functionality, accessibility and visibility online, as well as their other online presence, including their blog and social media activities.

• Other marketing activities including patient information and traditional media.

MG: What do you expect to see?

KR: In my experience, and having undertaken similar exercises in the past, we are likely to uncover something that the principal may not be aware of. We are not trying to catch anybody out, but we don’t intend to hold back, either, and if we see something that we think could be improved, then we will highlight it and provide some ideas that will fix it.

MG: What general advice can you offer readers with regard to the seven perspectives?

KR: It surprises me how readily practice owners will invest in new surgery equipment and patient facilities. and then allow posters and notices to be daubed across their walls without giving it any thought. Everything that is visible to patients should be consistent with the practice’s brand and reinforce the message that you want your patients to receive.

Small things matter—for example, let’s have anything that needs to be put on the wall to be framed, and not just stuck with blue-tac! I’m also frequently seeing lots of effort made and money spent to make the telephone ring by having a website, paying for Adwords, etc., but without recognising that there is normally a very active business prevention unit.

MG: “Business prevention unit”?

KR: Yes—the processes, environment, lack of training and support that, when combined, give a damaging first impression to new patients. I am seeing a trend in dentistry, just like outside dentistry, to move the phones off the desk, and I think this helps.

It means that a new patient is likely to be given a more professional first impression and that the front-of-house team can focus on the patients in front of them. I think it won’t be long before we look back at the days of the huge reception desk and realise that it was a barrier to communication. We are likely to see a shift toward a more open design that encourages interaction with patients.

We will also see that technology has continued to enhance what patients feel about their dentist, and the whole process of recalls and making appointments often needs looking at in more detail. It is always worth looking at how effective a practice is at keeping in the mind’s eye of their patients so that unbooked treatment plans don’t get lost or left undiscussed. It’s sad, but too often I hear stories about a patient who went somewhere else for a service, not knowing that their own dentist offered it.

MG: And what about the online presence?

KR: It is generally going to be necessary to have some kind of website optimisation nowadays. Make sure that you know what your money is being spent on and that your SEO provider is accountable to you for results.

Nobody can really guarantee ‘Page 1, Rank 1,’ though—it’s so competitive out there—but it is realistic to expect consistent results and search placings for key terms that you have both identified are appropriate to your market and new patients.

Writing a regular blog is a great way of supporting your SEO activities ,and we have been seeing some amazing results by writing about real patients with real photographs. (Non-clinical, and no gum retractors, please!)A well-written blog can then be linked to your other social media channels, so that overall you present some key messages.

I think a balance amid education, professionalism and promotion can be achieved with some planning and thought. This ideally should be planned about three months ahead. Boosting your social media presence is a relatively low-cost but highly effective way of attracting new patients and educating existing ones.

MG: Finally, what one piece of advice do you have for anybody who can’t take part in the programme?

KR: Be clear about what you are trying to achieve and what is the real purpose of your dental practice. Think about what your patients want and what they will value…building trust is a great place to start. Then regularly take time out as a team to make sure that you all operating in a way that is consistent with this.

Celebrate when you get it right, discuss how decisions have been made and learn from any mistakes.