Three Things You Need To Know About Your Patients

When a patient calls our office to make an appointment, or walks through the door, we all have a way of gathering information from these people. Most of the time it is through a line of questioning over the phone when they first call the office, or handing them a clipboard full of paperwork when they walk through our doors. But what information are we gathering? Why? Is it just the basics, just enough to get their insurance claim paid, and whether they will have an allergic reaction if we prescribe them amoxicillin? While this is enough information for some, but if we get more information from them, we can use that information to make their experience at our office better, we can get to know why they are coming to us in the first place. We can make the information work for us.

What do I mean by that?

Well rather than just collecting demographics from a patient so that you can fill out a claim form to get paid, why not collect some information that could help you understand your patient a little more? That way you could really help them achieve what they really want to achieve in coming to the dentist, and you could tailor their visit to them, giving them an awesome experience while they are at your office so that they can let everyone know that your office is the office to go to in the area if they want a great experience.

Well, what do we need to know about a patient?

Their Why For The Visit?

First, we need to ask them the reason for their visit today, why they are here, and what their expectations are for the visit. This way, you know what they are expecting, and if you have to deliver a different experience than they are expecting, you can start to manage their expectations from the beginning. If they are expecting something that you cannot provide in the experience they are going to have, you need to start educating them from the start of the appointment. Explain to them what is going to happen during the visit, so that there are no surprises, or they are not expecting something that they are not going to receive.

Managing patient expectations goes a long way in delivering great customer service. If you are clear and concise with your patients about what to expect, and what not to expect, then they have a clear understanding of each and every appointment, and mitigating the unexpected is most of delivering a great experience at a dental office.

Their Why For Dentistry In General

How do they think about dentistry? What is their dental knowledge? Do they really know what state of dental health they are in? We need to get to know how much they know about what we do, and how we can help them. By asking a patient to tell you about how they feel about their smile, and their family’s dental history, you can ascertain how much they know about their teeth and the state they are in. You can use this information to then tailor their visit to what they need and how much educating you are going to have to do about their dental health. If there is a large disconnect between how they perceive their dental health, and where they are really at, you are going to have to really work to close that gap.

Their Past Dental Experiences

Has the patient ever had a bad experience at a dental office before? If so, what caused that bad experience? Was it just the patient’s expectations were not met? Did a prior experience cause them pain, so they are still apprehensive about dental treatment? Or have they only had great experiences at the dentist up until now.

You have to ‘take their temperature’ about dentistry so you can see how they feel about dentistry. If they have only had great experiences, you will want to know what made those experiences great, but if they have had a bad experience, you will want to take that into consideration, and ensure that the patient does not have a similar experience at your office.

Customer experience is a hot-button issue today in the world of sales and marketing, and it translates to dentistry as well. Our customers are our patients, and we have to tailor everything we do to ensure that our patients have the best experience when they come into our offices. A great experience leads to a repeat visit, and then another great experience leads to referrals and a promoter of your business.

In today’s landscape, we want to build a stable of as many promoters as we can, and that comes from making our patient experience the best it can be. To do this we have to find out what a great experience means to them, because every patient is different, and if we ask the questions above of all of our patients, we are on our way to creating that experience for them.

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