How to WOW dental patients with amazing customer service!
Have you ever taken the time to see how differently your team members define ‘good’ customer service?
This happens all too often with dental teams and we see the effects these differing views can have on a dental practice and the overall success of your business.
Having ‘good’ customer service can mean different things to your team!
The doctor and the office manager want to ensure their patients receive amazing customer service, but what exactly does that mean? Does your team know?
Your employees can have very different ideas of what customer service truly means. It is extremely important to define customer service for your teams and have that definition of what it really means for your individual practice. Then, your team can be taught the basic parts, the basic expectations and the level of customer service that you expect patients to receive in your practice.
Consider these 6 steps in order to WOW your dental patients with great customer service!
My first suggestion is, as a team, define what ‘good’ customer service really means at your practice and what is expected.
The following examples are what I expected of my team each time a patient walked through the doors:
1. When greeting patients – stand up, greet them, shake their hand! This is your opportunity to welcome the patient to your practice.
2. Always make the patient feel comfortable. Do what you can to offer them a magazine or a cup of coffee or a blanket, do whatever you can to make the patient feel comfortable.
3. Smile! This is huge, a smile goes a long way. Smile and introduce yourself to the patient. So many times we tend to just ignore a person not directly in front of us and your patients can feel that.
4. Be responsible for the patient when they are in your area. If they are waiting in the reception area, the receptionist needs to be responsible for them, make sure that they’re doing okay. When they’re in the operatory, TALK to them, don’t just leave them alone.
5. Avoid making patients wait. If it’s unavoidable, make small talk with them to help make the time go by quicker.
6. Focus on your patients. Too many times, we put work as a priority over our patients but at the end of the day, it is our patients that make our practice. They are the reason we are here! One basic guideline I always had my team abide by was…
We need to treat our patients like we would our family!
If you ever begin to question whether or not you should do something for a patient, just remember, if you would do it for your family member, do it for the patient.
This should be the basis for everything we do in the dental office!
Having ‘good’ customer service is vague and it really needs to be defined for your individual practice and team. Taking the time to outline this definition now will not only benefit your team, but also your patients and ultimately, your practice.
Then, this list can be given to not only your existing team but also to any new staff that join the team in the future.
At the end of the day, patients judge us on how they feel when they are in the office and your team needs to know how to offer that amazing level of customer service you expect your dental patients to receive!
