How are you going to win over New Patients and keep your Existing Patients with so many restrictions placed on your Dental Practice right now?

Now is NOT THE TIME to STOP giving your patients that excellent experience, amazing customer service and going above and beyond for your patients.

We are all living in such challenging times and being able to offer our patients the service and care they need and deserve is one of the many challenges.

What you normally did for your patients changes every day.

We all wake up wondering what we need to do next.

But with some thought, creativity, effort and action I am seeing Dental Practices and Dental Teams all chipping in to make smart and necessary changes to somehow continue giving their patients an excellent patient experience and customer service.

You can successfully provide your patients with excellent customer service even with all of the challenges that seem to be getting in your way every day.

So how do you so this?

What are other dental practices and their teams doing?

What can you offer your patients right now?

  • Treatment and Care if needed immediately.
  • Regular and continuous contact, especially when you are unable to see a patient.
  • Time to listen and understand what your patients are going through.
  • Flexibility with patients. Each patients has an individual situation.
  • Offer the Offer- The Patient Experience can be enhanced, by offering to do something easy for your patients.
  • Hope and Positivity

Treatment and Care:

Dentists have to make some hard decisions right now about what they they can and cannot do for their patients. There are a number of personal, community and ethical reasons for their choices.

But whatever you have chosen you are still carers of people, so make sure every single patient of yours has a clear next step, whether it is an appointment scheduled now or later.

Regular and continuous contact:

The phone is right there on your desk or in your pocket.

Pick it up and make some outgoing calls to your patients. Now is the time to call. Everyone on the team including the dentists can make a few outgoing TLC calls that may have nothing to do with Dental Treatment.

Time to listen and understand:

Keep in mind when you speak to your patients on the phone or at an appointment, you may be the only person that is listening to them, and the only person that understands what they are going through at the moment.

Flexibility:

When you know what is happening in the lives of your patients, you have a bigger picture of how they are responding. Be tolerant of your patients anger, annoyance and confusion.

Show your patients that you are trying your best to help them the best way you can right now.

“Offer the Offer”:

This is my all time favourite feel good, way to deliver an excellent patient experience.

Offer to do something for your patients. Yes an act of kindness.

Offer to drop off some milk or bread to their home if they cannot leave right now. Following all of the regulations and guidelines to keep safe, of course!

Offer to pick up lunch or an amazing cup of coffee for your patient as you head out to get yours.

Offer to drop off a prescription, aligners, floss, pixters or anything they need.

Remember the offer may not be accepted but it stays a lovely kind gesture that your patient will remember for a long time to come!

Make it your mission to offer at least 4 “offer the offers” every day. Now if you have a team of 5 that is 20 “offer the offers” given to your patient every day. You will soon start offering the offer automatically.

Hope and Positivity:

A good dose of positivity and hope at your patient’s dental appointment, is going to be exactly the treatment your patients need right now.

Create a distraction in your practice. Buy some flowers from your local florist and support their business.

I know this is wrong but what about a sneaky friendly chocolate as your patient leaves the practice. I never said this by the way!

Change all of the signs around your practice, thanking your patients rather than ordering them around.

Be the Dental Practice that is there for your patients and prospective New Patients.

Be the Dental Practice that your patients can rely on.

You cannot offer your patients the exact same patient experience you have been able to offer pre COVID Pandemic, but you can still offer them a memorable experience.

And while you are all caring for your patients the best way you can, please do not forget to look after each other, your team.

Health is both physical and mental. Look after both.

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Jayne Bandy is a certified CX Experience coach.
Jayne works with her husband Dr. David Moffet to help SME businesses improve their Customer Service Systems to create memorable World Class experiences for their valued clients and customers. Click here to find out how Jayne and David can help your business