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Strategies For Enhancing The Dental Patient Experience

Strategies For Enhancing The Dental Patient Experience
by Micah Dickerson

How can you use practice management to enhance the patient experience? Follow the guiding principle that what’s good for the patients is good for you. By keeping this in mind, you'll automatically put patients first and create a satisfying patient experience that builds loyalty and helps you get referrals.

Let the principle of putting patients first inform the products and services you use to manage your practice. Keep in mind that systems and solutions to help your practice be more efficient also contribute to a better patient experience. When your front desk employees spend less time on rote tasks, for example, they have more time to focus on patients, helping to build strong relationships.

When evaluating new technology, software, or procedures, assess them from a patient-first perspective. Will this change help your front desk be more responsive to patient requests? Will it reduce wait time for appointments or time spent on hold? Will it improve case acceptance rate so more of your patients complete recommended treatments, improving their oral health?

For instance, automating your recall system so patients are automatically contacted when they are due for a cleaning not only saves your front desk staff time, but also helps patients maintain good dental hygiene.

Patient-First Communication Is Key

Communication is key to building strong relationships with patients. How can your communications with patients reflect and enhance a positive patient experience? Here are some tips to help.

• Use patient communication systems that allow for nuanced messaging: While automation has many benefits, your patients don’t want to feel as if they’re talking to a machine. Consumers today have come to expect personalization in all their interactions with businesses, including their dentists. Make sure any technology you use to communicate with patients allows you to personalize and individualize texts, emails, and other communications so they sound friendly and real, not cold and robotic.
• Time it right: Timing is everything when it comes to proper dental care, and also when it comes to patient communications. Your patients have busy lives. Properly timed communications help ensure they don’t miss important dental treatments. Remind patients well in advance when they are due for a hygiene appointment so they can schedule a time. Once the appointment is set, send reminders a few weeks ahead of the appointment so they can reschedule if needed. Finally, send automated reminders, such as texts, at convenient times during business hours, not in the middle of the night.
• Respect your patients’ time: In addition to scheduling appointments to minimize wait times in the office, you should consider your patients’ time when communicating with them. For example, if one of your patients has 3 children due for hygiene appointments, don’t send her 3 separate voicemails or texts about the appointments. Consolidate family communications into one convenient message regarding all the family members who are due for treatment.

Read full article on Dentistry Today.