Running your dental practice is a complicated process. While you may do a phenomenal job of caring for your patient’s oral healthcare needs, establishing daily operations as a business leader may not come as quickly to you. The best way to ensure your dental practice is successful is to prioritize the patient experience. By creating strategies that keep patients feeling satisfied with their dental experience, you can have an easier time keeping their business as well as keeping your operations running. Here’s the rundown on how to run a better dental office by prioritizing patient experience.
Make Your Dental Office Unique
Set your dental practice apart from the others by creating unique aspects that encourage your patients to return. You might offer an excellent waiting room area, stocked with coffee and water, as well as light reading, to kick off their experience. There are countless dental offices with dull waiting rooms. You can set things off on a high note by tweaking the waiting room area and consider other things to shift from there to provide a more positive patient experience.
For instance, patients can listen to music or watch television during their appointments. You can set up your dental chair, dappen dishes, and other equipment around these amenities so your practice is not disrupted and your patients have a great time. Some people get very nervous going to the dentist. Supplying your office with pleasant distraction materials can completely change the way they feel about going to their appointments for the better.
Keep Up A Positive Workplace Culture
Beyond playing up the environment of your office, you also want to ensure that the culture at the workplace is ideal- both for employee retention and patient satisfaction.
Your staff wants to feel appreciated. We’ve all dealt with a not-so-lovely dental receptionist. Make it clear that every patient is greeted warmly at your office to allow for a positive experience the entire time they are there.
You can encourage natural positivity across your work staff by encouraging employees with motivating rewards and employee benefits such as employee of the month, raffles, and offering to pay for work lunch once in a while. You can also make a point to compliment everyone’s effort and thank them for their hard work consistently. The more you acknowledge their efforts, the more positively the workday will go, benefiting everyone at your practice.
Integrate New Services
If your dental practice has been primarily traditional, aim to incorporate new dental cosmetic procedures to gain new clients and make your dental office more versatile for today’s dental-related needs. You might include teeth whitening, smile correction, and other cosmetic dental services you haven’t added into your practice yet.
You might also consider hiring a dental office manager to oversee these additional services. Try to balance what you offer and what you do not so that patients can have a consistent idea of what they can get from your practice.
Keep Financing Applicable
Successful dental practices make it convenient for patients to pay based on their individual needs. From insurance to special financing, your office should do what it can to accommodate the unique financial needs of each patient. By showing flexibility here, you’ll notice a difference in appreciation from your patients, who will want to keep coming back to you.
The Bottom Line
Optimally running your dental office takes some willingness to integrate positive changes that focus on patient experience. By doing all you can to improve the experience of your patients and work staff, you can create a positive workplace that encourages employees and patients to stay loyal to your practice.
