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Howard Speaks: Rise to Meet the Challenge of the Dental Patient Experience by Dr. Howard Farran

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Categories: Practice Management, HR and Accounting;
Howard Speaks: Rise to Meet the Challenge of the Dental Patient Experience 

by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine

A couple of weekends ago, I found myself at my neighborhood doughnut shop. Restaurants and bake shops are of course a competitive service business; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2014 showed that 17% of restaurants close within a year of opening, a figure that’s bound to have gone up significantly during the pandemic. Meanwhile, this locally owned and operated chain has opened 30 stores in the Phoenix metro area—with a half-dozen more in the works—so clearly it’s doing something right to be able to stand up next to the Krispy and Dunkin’ goliaths out there.

Service with a/for their smile

Whether you like it or not, dentistry is a service industry, too. We’re sculpting crowns and fillings instead of selling cakes and fries, but patient service is key to success nonetheless.

And nowadays, thanks to the internet, you’re competing with not just the doctor down the block but also every dentist whose practice exists within at least a few square miles of yours. Patients are willing to go out of their way if they know they’re going to receive an exceptional experience that not just accommodates their needs and preferences but caters to them.

In an admittedly extreme example, cosmetic dentist Dr. Michael Apa told Dentaltown that some of his patients flew in from Europe and the Middle East to be treated by him in his New York practice; a few months ago, Dr. Ami Agbabli mentioned that she sees patients who drive four hours each way to her northwest Arkansas practice. Clinical skills alone don’t account for this type of loyalty; patients want to feel special—like they matter to you and your staff. Like they’re being welcomed, not just scheduled.

Going the extra mile—or extra hours

My local doughnut shop is open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week—customer-friendly hours no matter if those customers happen to be construction workers who are on the job site by sunrise or overnight-shift security guards and hospital employees. That’s what competition looks like in the restaurant industry.

Dentistry hasn’t seen such competition to that degree—yet. But patients can now call most of the practices run by publicly traded dental companies in the United States seven days a week to make an appointment. One DSO chain takes appointment calls 6:30 a.m.–11 p.m. weekdays, 7 a.m.–9 p.m. Saturdays and 7 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Sundays. And that’s not emergency calls—that’s regular appointment calls!

Even if the practices themselves are open only weekdays, they’ve expanded their hours to offer appointments in the early mornings and evenings to give patients who work standard office hours the opportunity to be treated without having to take time off from work.

If you’re closing your practice early on Fridays and taking regular three-day weekends, don’t tell me that you’re being competitive in this industry! That’s downright laughable. You’re coasting on the old norms, and are likely to fall behind as hungrier doctors start doing more for their patients than you’ve been willing to.

You’ve got to rise to meet these challenges! Competition isn’t going away; in fact, it’s only going to get stronger. Start thinking about what you can do to improve the patient experience in your practice—and then do it. The rewards will be sweet. 
 

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