A Journey Built On Smoke And Mirrors Will Always End Badly…
Dr. David Moffet BDS FPFA CSP
Dental Practice Management Specialist > Dental Practice Profitability Expert > Dental Operations Consultant and Coach.
Every procedure and protocol in your office needs to operate with 100% crystal clear clarity.
When your dental practice skips essential steps, you create liabilities and time bombs that come back to haunt you at a significant multiple of devastation that massively outweighs the cost or imposition of simply doing things correctly in the first instance.
Recently one of my clients found this out the hard way.
Let me explain…
I’ve always said:
I’ve always said, both as a dental practice owner, and also as a dental practice coach, that when a new patient phones your office for an appointment for a check-up examination and a dental cleaning, the dental office needs to clarify politely to the caller, that there may be a possibility that their teeth may need two [or sometimes more] appointments to completely clean their teeth ?properly.
This is because if we do not frame this “variation” up from the get-go, then we can end up with a very irate customer inside our practice who says:
“Why can’t you clean my teeth in one visit?”
Or
“Do I have to pay for another visit so you can finish the job?”
Or
“You mean I have to come back? Why can’t you finish it all now?”
It is unreasonable…
It is unreasonable for any logical or sane person to believe that a dirty mouth and a cleaner mouth having a professional dental cleaning should take the same amount of time, and also should incur the same fee.
Why would that be so?
Would an unruly tenant expect to pay a house cleaner a fee for an end of lease clean of the property that they have rented for two years [and trashed] that was equal to what a homeowner pays their weekly cleaning lady who visits every week?
Of course not… so why should mouths be different to houses?
You’re absolutely correct…
You’re right.
They should not be charged the same fee.
Because one requires far more work than the other.
We developed a perfect script…
At Active Dental, we developed a perfect script for our receptionists to use to inform every patient [new or existing] who was well and truly overdue for a dental cleaning, that there may be a chance that a second visit could possibly be required.
This script worked well every time with no exceptions.
And that’s what your dental practice needs.
Imagine telling a new patient on the phone that the fee for their cleaning was $150.00 and then finding out when you meet them that they are a chronic smoker with advanced periodontitis in a mouth that hasn’t seen the inside of a dental office for forty years…
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As my client said today:
When we don’t pre-qualify the patient [on the phone] that because it has been a while between visits for them, that they may need extra visits to complete their cleaning, then one of the following three scenarios will occur:
And all of these scenarios are unsatisfactory and unprofessional results for our valued patients.
It is our role and duty…
It is our role and duty as healthcare professionals first and foremost to be looking after the health of our patients thoroughly and completely.
Cutting corners now as an attempt to build unearned popularity is a sham and a house of cards.
Your patients will respect you more for your honesty.
Any deception displayed towards your patients will return ten-fold and bite you where it hurts.
A reputation built on smoke and mirrors will always end badly…
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*****
Have you read?my book ,?How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.
You can order your copy here:?Click Link To Order
*****
The?Ultimate Patient Experience?is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about?my free special report.
Email me at?[email protected]
Chief Experience Officer at billquiseng.com. Award-winning Customer CARE Expert, Keynote Speaker, and Blogger
2 个月QUI TAKEAWAY: Patients pay for their experience, not your product or service. They buy with emotionally justified their decision with reason. Patients seek the best emotional value in their experience, not your logically reasonable price product, or service. The best emotional value in your patient's experience is one that, in the dental appointment situation, is quick, clean, and painless. To future-proof the patient experience, ask each patient ?the Rule of Three questions (Why only three? Because nobody can remember Number Four): "How long was your last appointment?" "Why do you feel you need a cleaning or dental treatment? "What if ...?" When you ask, listen actively, respond empathetically, and act promptly to take appropriate corrective action, your patients feel respected, appreciated, and valued. They are WOWED and happy, intent on returning repeatedly, spending more money, and raving to others on social media.? --- Dr. Moffet, as a patient care advocate, I ?? your post to express my appreciation and kudos for sharing your insight into future-proofing the patient experience. In appreciation, in collaboration, and in the spirit of paying it forward, I offer this: ? But wait. There's more. ?? Page 2 of 2.