North Texas Dentistry Volume 8 Issue 3 2018 ISSUE 3 DE | Page 30
practice management
FOUR WAYS TO
Create Knockout
Customer Service
by Roger P. Levin, DDS
You may not realize it but when it
comes to building a successful dental
practice, customer service is without
question one of the most powerful
ways to do it. Of course patients want
and need great treatment but I can
tell you that hands down, patients will
remember a warm greeting or a great
conversation much more than then
they will remember the filling you
gave them. Patients place premium
value on the relationships that they
have with their doctor and the dental
team. And if you place premium value
on keeping those relationships strong
with customer service — the kind that
will knock their socks off — your prac-
tice will be successful.
Four Ways to WOW
Your Patients
If you ask most practices if they have
excellent customer service the answer
will be “yes” without any information,
feedback or data to back it up. However,
customer service studies of dental prac-
tices show that practices rank at approx-
imately 7.2 out of 10. If you want to
“WOW” patients, your practice needs to
rank at 9.0 or higher out of 10. Follow
these strategies to create knockout cus-
tomer service in your practice:
Give every patient a
powerful greeting.
In most service businesses, people
greet politely but nonchalantly.
There’s no real interest in greeting a
patient or a customer warmly, learn-
ing something about them, or adding
to the relationship. The greeting is
merely a starting point to get the job
done rather than a customer service
oriented and caring welcome. If
you’re looking to WOW your
patients, the standard “How are
you?” just won’t cut it. For a warm
and sincere greeting that makes a
powerful impression, scripting could
be as simple as, “Mrs. Jones, it’s
wonderful to see you today. Tell me
something new about yourself.”
Patients should not only hear this
greeting from front desk staff, but
also from assistants, hygienists, and
doctors. Greeting patients using a
modification of this simple script will
create a much warmer and energized
environment.
30 NORTH TEXAS DENTISTRY | www.northtexasdentistry.com
Checking in with the
patient during their
appointment.
We teach a concept called “the five-
minute rule” for dental assistants. It’s
simply a requirement that for every
five minutes or so that the assistant
or hygienist asks the patient how
they’re doing while they are waiting.
It is done with feeling and should cre-
ate the impression that you really
want the patient to have a great expe-
rience. Asking questions such as “Is
there anything else I can do to make
you comfortable?” or “Is there any-
thing we can do to make your experi-
ence more pleasant today?” goes a
long way toward creating an
extremely positive customer service-
based visit.
Summarize and discuss
the appointment.
Briefly wrap up each patient visit with
information about the patients’ good
health and ask for questions or feed-
back. It helps demonstrate that you
truly care and aren’t in a rush to get
to the next appointment. A simple
wrap-up discussion doesn’t take
more than a minute or two and can
make all the difference in the
patient’s experience.