7 Ideas to Improve Your Dental Practice
As the competition grows, customers’ expectations towards the service being provided increases and hence there arises the demand for improvement. Like any other business, the dental practice also needs continuous improvement towards perfection. To provide your clients with advanced oral health care, there are seven fundamental points you need to focus on to improve your dental practice.
- Implement Good Business Practices/ Office Culture
For a dental practice, the culture includes how you treat your clients, your work ethics, values, which includes the guidelines to achieve the set values, and people who have the ability and willingness to practice these values.
Action Steps:
Set your standards high, design the organization the way you want it, and make your team follow the rules and policies of your dental practice.
- Improved Customer Service
To build an ideal practice, you need to give the highest priority to your clients and for this, you should ensure an excellent customer service for everyone from potential clients over the phone to patients during the treatment in your premises. This includes having an integrated customer management software.
Action Steps:
Greet everyone, interact with patients politely, make sure a person is available for answering the phone or have an alternative solution for 24 hours availability to book appointments. Moreover, you should involve your team and employees during staff meetings for their feedback and ideas to improve customer service.
- Marketing
Marketing your practice with a plan is the key to success. The best way of marketing is through results e.g. whiter teeth, beautiful smile instead of marketing through the procedure you perform i.e. filling cavities etc.
Action Steps:
Have an online presence and advertise your services through social media, offer free or discounted cleaning or consulting, identify your potential clients and target them, send an e-newsletter regularly.
- Motivate/encourage and train your staff
Only a highly motivated and competent team can provide quality dental services. Follow ‘if and then’ rule to have good motivational incentives for your team.
Action Steps:
Money is no doubt a good motivator; however you can give your employees bonuses, or have best team member reward and an announcement of this high achiever during monthly or weekly meetings.
- Flexible payment terms/methods
Offer flexible payment terms to make it affordable for your clients to avail your services.
Action Steps:
To cover all the patients, have maximum credit cards accepted and maximum health insurance plans welcomed. You can have an option for your regular customers to have special financing terms if they don’t have cash at hand at the time of payment, for example, low down payment or no interest etc.
- Always Engage
It is always less costly to retain a client than to advertise and make a new one come to your practice. Therefore, engage with your patients and make them feel that you care and listen.
Action Steps:
Keep the conversation with patients going and listen to them with a smile, tell your patients what is the next step or procedure or what they can/should do now.
- Stay competent
To stay competent, it is necessary to keep learning. Like any other medical profession, it is necessary for the dentist to keep up with the latest advancements in their field.
Action Steps:
As the field is competitive, people are always looking for someone who is the most competent, thus it is vital for you to have continuous education and renew your certificates or registration as per the local regulatory authorities.