How to Give Patients Valuable Experience and Make Them Feel Important

Like other dental offices, we here at emergency dentist know that patients are at the very heart of the dental practice. They not only keep the doors open, but odds are great that's why you got into dentistry in the first place - to help patients have healthy mouths so they can live healthy, happy lives. Read on for some tips on giving that V.I.P. a valuable experience every time they walk into your office, and for letting them know just how important they are to you.
Of course, you and the rest of your dental office staff need to strive to provide excellent customer service -- doing all they can to help with a genuinely polite and friendly attitude along the way. You need to keep in mind that, to the patient, a trip to the dentist means many things and most of them are negative: time away from work or school, spending money they may not have, and pain.
Good communication is the cornerstone of making patients feel important. Make an effort to interact with patients. This doesn't mean just saying "hi" and then getting right down to business. Address your patients by name, ask how they are and if they have any special concerns -- and then take the time to listen to what they have to say.
Something to remember about communication, though, is that you can't come on too strong with a patient. For instance, if you think a patient may need braces, what do you think they'd rather hear:

You really need braces.
Have you ever considered getting braces?

Just a slight change. Instead of telling a patient information in a way that comes across as insulting, starting a dialogue about how braces can help them live a better life can mean the difference between a happy patient who wants your help and a patient that is put off by being told what to do. The first statement may mean that the patient goes to someone else for braces, if they bother to get them at all.

3. Something else many dentists overlook is simply giving the office staff the power to correct minor problems on their own without having to ask the dentist about it first. This not only means that the issue will be resolved more quickly, but it also shows the patient that the entire office is dedicated to making sure he is happy. And, he's not kept standing there while a member of the office staff tracks down the dentist to see how to handle the situation!

4. Keep the communication going after they've gotten up from the exam chair. Ask them to complete a survey on their visit to your office before they leave. Or gather feedback from social media or email. If they have a reasonable concern they've shared with you, deal with it directly. Let them know that you hear them, and you are going to take care of the issue personally.
5. The little things your office can do will go a long way toward making the patient feel important. This can be as simple as sending them a postcard to say "happy birthday" to them, or sending out "thank you" postcards to patients you've recently seen.

Giving patients a valuable experience and making them feel important accomplishes a lot. It gets them coming back, and they are only too happy to recommend your office to friends and family. It also starts the process of building trust, so that if the patient does have an issue, they'll trust your advice and in the end, will have better dental health.