One of the many things I did in my practice to increase customer retention and create a point of difference was to employ someone at the practice into the role of concierge.
Or really a role titled: HEAD SCHMOOZER.
The role of concierge was one that I knew was needed at my practice and is a role that is really needed at every dental practice..
But 99.9% of dental practices do not see the value of paying someone to schmooze.
And yet the money invested in paying a schmoozer is returned back to the dental practice in spades… if only dental practice owners could see past their own noses and blinkers to see the value.
Why does a dental practice need a concierge?
Most dental patients are greeted on arrival by a dental receptionist with the standard arrival greeting… and that greeting is [blandly]:
“Won’t be too long. Just take a seat.”
And then the arriving patient is parked.
And I didn’t realize how prolific this bland greeting was until I was at my hairdresser’s and I heard him greet an arriving client to his business with that exact same greeting, word for word, while still cutting my hair.
He said:
“Won’t be too long. Just take a seat.”
And they did.
But the language, and the phraseology used, is so dismissive of the arriving client.
The language shows no care.
It shows no concern.
It just tells them to sit themselves down and don’t move until they are called.
And I thought, and I knew, that there had to be something better to say than this.
And that’s because saying:
“Won’t be too long. Just take a seat”
is really a poor display by your business, showing that your business can’t even be bothered to come up with something more original, more connected, and more respectful of our arriving practice guest, and the day that this patient has had, and the effort that they have made to get to your dental practice on time….
I know that….
I know that if I were the patient, and if I’d been busy dropping everything that I’d been doing at work, and raced across town and through traffic and through school zones to be there on time for my dental appointment, and I was greeted with a thoughtless vanilla reception greeting [or lack of thought greeting] like:
“Won’t be too long. Just take a seat.”
and without a “welcome”, or a “thank you” in sight, I’d be pretty well ropable because to me it would feel as though I was being taken for granted, big time.
Every patient’s arrival should be celebrated. And not brushed aside as a “norm”.
Because at the dentist, everyone who is arriving has some degree of trepidation, no matter how small that trepidation is, and how big [or small] that person is.
Most importantly, a good concierge does more than greet patients.
A good concierge entertains patients who previously used to wait in the room that is for waiting, but is not a waiting room, and who previously were purposefully ignored by front office staff hiding behind oversized computer monitors hidden by upstand front desks repurposed from a bygone era….
A good concierge prevents an upbeat patient from falling into the chasm of mental despair while they wait unattended for a morsel of attention, before being called…
You see….
When you improve the way that you greet patients, and when you up your team’s attention to exactly what they are and are not doing, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to see the light…
The results that a great concierge and the incorporation of great concierge-style language and behaviour will bring to your dental practice are positively game changing.
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Dr. David Moffet BDS FPFA CSP is a certified CX Experience coach. David works with his wife Jayne Bandy 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 David and Jayne can help your business