Every day in every dental practice there are pivotal patient touchpoints-key moments that influence the patient's overall perspective of his or her experience in the practice. These conversations and encounters serve as waypoints throughout the patient's journey with the practice and, when executed well and with intention, can help build what the author's firm calls the four pillars of a healthy patient-practice partnership: trust, need, urgency, and value.
"Trust" has to do with patients simply trusting you and your diagnosis and recommendation for treatment. "Need" involves whether or not patients see and feel the necessity to complete the recommended treatment. "Urgency" relates to how soon the patient senses the treatment should be completed-whether to do it immediately or let it wait. Finally, patients must be able to perceive the "value" of the recommended treatment and the care they are receiving; this will be reflected by their keeping appointments and proceeding with the treatment.
Why Buy Midas from Nobel Biocare
Having these four pillars in place in patient relationships can help practices motivate their patients to accept recommended treatment, stay loyal to the practice, and even refer new patients to the practice. Ultimately, it is about creating a consistent experience that helps educate patients, inspire them to make good oral health decisions, and activate them into treatment.
Each and every member of the dental team can make or break a patient experience. Regardless of the practice's specific focus of dentistry, improvements may be needed to elevate communication skills, customer service, and patient experience. An intentional emphasis on developing the following pivotal patient touchpoints will help a practice experience growth in new patients, treatment acceptance, patient referrals, and practice referrals. While specific touchpoints may vary from practice to practice, these pivotal patient touchpoints apply to almost all general practices: initial phone conversation; scheduling and confirmation; new patient information; greeting/check-in; seating; treatment/evaluation; patient education on treatment; case presentation; financial consultation; scheduling of next appointment; patient checkout; follow-up on treatment or consultation; referrals and reviews; practice promotion, marketing, and outreach.
As can be deduced from this list, the pivotal patient touchpoints involve the entire team, and each member is needed to build successful patient relationships. These patient touchpoints entail a combination of systems and processes to help practices maintain consistent and smooth-running patient flow and to help team members elevate their verbal skills to effectively motivate patients regarding treatment and activate them into care. Touchpoints occur in every patient conversation and every time the patient is "handed off" to another team member.
The dental team, therefore, should practice, improve, and intentionally execute patient touchpoints. The following steps can be taken to elevate patient touchpoints and, in turn, the patient experience:
Clarify what "right" looks like.Walk through an ideal patient experience as a team from start to finish, role-playing each touchpoint conversation. This is an opportunity for practice leadership to clarify and exemplify expectations so the entire team understands the process and their roles in the process.
Train and refine. Once everyone is clear on expectations on execution, practice as a team and role-play patient interactions. The team's level of execution should be measured and these important interactions refined and improved. It is through continuous improvement and practice that teams are able to elevate their execution and results.
Document your processes. Once a clear, ideal patient experience process has been established, it should be documented for future training and development. Having standard operating procedures documented and in place ensures that team members can be held accountable, and it strengthens the training and onboarding of new employees so that systems do not unravel through team transition.
Develop a coachable culture.Teams that are open to feedback and coaching within their culture are more likely to improve their practice performance. When individuals are held accountable and support team excellence, it allows for real-time course correction and performance improvement.
Each dental team member must understand just how personal their work with each patient is. Besides educating patients on the care they need, team members need to emphasize the value of the recommended treatment while at the same time easing patients' emotions.
Every day dental practices have the opportunity to create a positive oral care experience for their patients and change each and every patient's overall perspective on what a patient-practice relationship can be. There is a personal side of dentistry, where the pivotal patient touchpoints can be invaluable. In the end, it is a patient's perception that determines the outcome of your efforts.
About the Author
Carrie Webber
Owner and President, The Jameson Group
(jmsn.com), a dental management, marketing, and hygiene coaching firm
