- Confidence in you and your team is more than trust
- Reputation matters and involves more than you think
We have all been there. Whether you’ve been practicing for 30 years or are building your own practice as an associate or partner. You thought an exam went great and you are shocked to find out that your patient did not schedule. What happened when you left the room? As we discussed in our Do You Want to be a Patient in Your Own Practice article, your patient’s experience with your office starts before they walk through the door and before you want in the op to see them.
Could you actually be the problem?
As tough as it is to ask yourself that question, you are almost always the problem. But the problem is not what you think. It is not just about your patients’ liking you. Does your patient have the confidence that YOU and your team are going to give them their desired results? What are a patient’s desired results? Yes, we all ask if a patient wants to improve their smile. What are patients looking for beyond that? Most patients just want an experience that is better than they expected and one that is:
- Efficient
- Less Costly
- Delivers the right dental outcome
- As comfortable as possible
Your office and your personal reputation matters and is part of a patient’s experience before they walk through the door. This starts the second they hear about you and your office. Most patients are going to immediately Google you online. Can they easily find out information about you? What do your reviews say? And more importantly, what do your bad reviews say? How does your office respond to the inevitable Yelp rant and address those patient concerns accordingly?
How about your social media? Not just your office pages but do you have personal pages that are public? Do they show inappropriate content or lavish vacations that again patients wonder if your fees are set so they can fund your travel itinerary. We strongly encourage all of our doctors and clients to have public professional pages and private personal pages, not just from a reputation standpoint but to also help set boundary lines between work and home life. No one wants a DM from a patient on Saturday night asking for you to schedule them for an appointment.
This does not mean that all patients are searching for the loudest marketer or the doctor who is president of every dental organization. It is quite the opposite actually. Nearly all patients do not care about those things or how that can improve their experience. What they do realize is that being a lecturer or a member of XYZ Association does not mean that they will get what they want. It also often means that their doctor will not be available in the office to attend to their needs. A lot of patients actually think that this means your fees are more expensive and that they are supporting your other affiliations.
Your reputation is strengthened or hurt by your practice operations and your team once a patient makes their way to the office, and we believe that it is everyone’s job to look for these issues and work towards solutions…..owners, partners, associates, team members……everyone.
Do you have any barriers to entry for them that you can improve upon? Some features of your communication system to consider:
- Is your online scheduling easy to use so patients can schedule when it is convenient for them?
- Do you have other forms of communication, like emailing and texting?
- How does your front office answer your phones? Have you ever called your office to hear?
- How long do your patients have to wait for an appointment with you?
The make it or break it moment finally happens during your exam. Do you have consistency in how you approach your exams or does this change based on the treatment a patient needs and whether or not you “have a feeling” if they will or will not schedule treatment? Do you have a way to ensure that the information about a patient’s chief complaint that may be shared with the front office or your assistants is relayed to you? A patient does not want to repeat themselves multiple times or seek care from an office that is not able to maintain with each other. Can you efficiently address their concern, give them a clear path to a solution that they understand, and instill confidence that you are the right person for the job? It’s a lot easier to accidentally talk a patient out of the treatment they need than we think.
We often become lost in the trap of thinking that a lengthy exam means we are building patient rapport, that patients will see the time that we invested in them, and that will result in more patients moving forward with needed treatment. Efficiency does not mean how quickly you can complete the exam, it means how skilled you are at building rapport and delivering a consistent message with impact that a patient can understand. Patients are not coming to you to spend social time in your office, including your “friends”. Most patients want to get in and get out so they can get on with their day. Showing patients you respect their time means yours in turn will be respected and you can continue to build trust in your professional relationship with your patients.
These concepts are simple to grasp in theory, but not in practice. Nearly all dentists, owners, partners, associates alike, want to focus on their clinical skills and efficiency. We go to countless CE courses to learn how to do XYZ better, faster, fancier. How much time do you actually spend on getting better on your communication to your team members and your patients during your exams? Most of us try to improve when we notice a bad trend, but this leads to improvements by coincidence, not intentionally, and it’s often late. If you want to hit your goals, now is the time to make the needed adjustments to correct mistakes before they become a habit.
