There are many types of patients in the world. They range from enthusiastic go-getters that are eagerly awaiting your confirmation that they are cavity-free, to the slightly more apprehensive. Regardless of their disposition, understanding what your patients think of you and your team’s work is incredibly important. Understanding if someone enjoys, or even loves the work you do can give you insight into the likelihood that they’ll recommend your services. When it comes to word of mouth as a way to sell your business, there are few tools more powerful.
Beyond the value of knowing who is likely to spread your gospel, gathering feedback in a constructive or meaningful way will also give you insight into where you can improve across the care experience. People in general can be a little reluctant to provide feedback face-to-face, but when asked to do so, most people are happy to talk about their experience.
Let’s take a moment to talk about the ways feedback could help your business!
Take It Online
There was a time when many companies would reliably keep a pad of paper in front of a suggestion box. Now, reviews and feedback online make and break businesses. As more resources and integrations make their way onto practice management software platforms, feedback services are being made available through automated email. Heart to heart conversations with patients about their experience is always a wonderful way to connect, but if you’re looking for honesty, requesting feedback in an email after their appointment is the way to go.
This route is especially pragmatic because of the variability you can offer. If you believe in a 5-star rating over an in-depth survey, many tools can be customized to accommodate. If you receive a glowing online review, you can just as easily celebrate by asking them to post it themselves. As humans search for social proof online, more and more potential patients are looking for reviews that can paint a picture of what’s in store while in the market for a new dentist.
Getting to the Heart of Your Questions
When it comes time to establish surveys or feedback, there are several ways to solicit a response. Whether it’s asking questions about how they were treated or a simple yes/no to meeting their expectations, the complexity of your questionnaire can have a deep impact on the quality, and quantity, of your results. There are two schools of thought on the matter: While open-ended questions often feel like the best way to bring out people’s opinions, shorter surveys get you more responses, especially when you advertise them.
Simply asking if a patient would recommend you to a friend or family member is often all you need, with the option to explain the answer. This is commonly referred to as NPS, or Net Promoter Score. The other approach is to ask for specific feedback based on how they enjoyed their experience with their hygienist or other care provider. Although this can provide more insight into how your patients perceive the process, these surveys require significantly more tailoring and customization based on services provided. Either way, there is no wrong answer, just what you’re looking to learn about your own practice.
When Every Time Is Not the Right Every Time
It is obvious that every patient is different, but what is worth remembering is that every patient’s schedule is different, too. If you’re ready to gather feedback and hear what people think, asking them after every appointment can become bothersome. When courting feedback from your loyal clientele, think about how often you’re asking for their opinion, especially if they’re trying to get the most out of their insurance or coverage the week before a new year.
Finding a way to randomize, or at the very least set maximum survey frequencies, will keep people feeling like you value their opinion and that they’re not just on the receiving end of a mailing list.
Feedback won’t always be what you want to hear, but receiving it is a great way to find areas of improvement and build on an already successful office. When you solicit people’s experience directly they’re often happy to provide it. And, if you can get that glowing review online, your business is all the better for it!
Primum non nocere, or, do no harm, is perhaps the most important value that a doctor holds. It guides the methodology and informs the course of a patient’s treatment and care. While care providers are passionate about improving lives during every appointment, patients can experience, or believe, harm has been done to them. With dental clinics across Canada structured like businesses, online complaints or grievances against a practice can run the gamut from poor customer experience, all the way up to serious health issues or outcomes. They are usually aired through social media or review sites, sometimes in the pursuit of free goods or services, and it’s been happening for as long as people have been able to comment online.
The timeless question since society was first confronted by the online troll, do you engage to protect your reputation, or simply ignore those with an axe to grind? The answer is frequently hard to put your finger on. An easy yes or no ignores the nuance in people’s grievances, and more importantly, the potential for existing patients who might read your response. If a patient feels as though they were treated poorly, but can easily be identified as disappointed instead of angry, they are worth your time to reach out.
Patients and customers who make valid online complaints require a prompt response. Many businesses see success by responding within an hour to formal complaints or within 24 hours to social media posts. While it can be pretty easy to spot a canned response, preparing a few messages ahead of time can save you plenty of headaches and that ticking clock feeling down the road.
One golden rule, regardless of what you read, is to never delete a comment, and never argue with the person posting.
The Difference Between Fact and Opinion
The Internet has done wonders for spreading information about small businesses, creating marketing opportunities that would usually require an expensive team of creative talent. The downside of democratic equality is that personal opinion can be shouted from the rooftops while being treated as fact. RateMDs.com, Google Reviews, and a variety of other rating-based sites offer first-hand experiences that influence curious prospects. These reviews, whether positive or not, are some of the first things that are likely to be searched by prospective patients when choosing a new clinic. Checking up on your online reputation is a healthy habit that businesses of all shapes and sizes must undertake.
When addressing negative comments, it’s worth considering the fine line between fact and fiction. It can be hard to believe, but a post that’s easily debunked as false isn’t worth much of your time. Remember to never argue online. On the other hand, if a patient feels as though they were not treated the way they deserved, through a cancelled appointment or spending too long in your waiting room, responding thoughtfully while outlining ways your practice intends to change sends the signal that your patients and their experiences are being listened to.
Handling online complaints professionally can help maintain your reputation and show prospective patients that you care about their feedback and are committed to continuous improvement.
A Proactive Practice
There is no doubt that you’re putting in hard work. Whether running a business or treating patients, people rely on you. The work that goes into maintaining the many relationships that keep your office afloat can be exhausting. So, why wait for people to create a deficit that you need to work your way out of? Offering discounts, promotions, contests, or just asking politely for satisfied patients to leave a rating online goes a long way. Building up a strong base of four and five-star ratings from customers who find you calm, supportive, and caring will make a handful of complaints, fact or fiction, seem trivial.
Just so long as you’re asking for open and honest feedback on your site or service of choice, people will speak from the heart and create plenty of recognition for your hard work. You’ll have a counterbalance for negativity, and a fantastic resource of quotes and testimonials to re-enforce how great your practice is.
Managing an online profile for your business means tending to both good and bad feedback that comes your way. Handling online complaints with the right tools and approach can soften blows, bring dissatisfied customers back to the table, and provide a large pool of encouragement for patients you haven’t met yet.
85% of people consider online reviews just as trustworthy as a recommendation from someone they know. According to Zendesk, 90% of people are influenced by positive online reviews and 86% by negative reviews. Online research has become a major factor in people’s decision making, and online dental clinic reviews are no exception to this growing trend.
Positive dental clinic reviews are crucial
Patient reviews of dentists, in particular positive ones, will help grow your clinic. Good comments for dentists and clinics are what entice new patients and persuade others to switch dentists. It’s your best form of free advertising – people trust reviews because you can’t pay for them. They’re honest accounts of other people’s experiences.
Positive dental reviews also help your search engine rankings. Search engines like Google are constantly making changes to their algorithms to show the best results. Positive dental reviews tell Google that your clinic is highly recommended, and it will in turn rank you higher.
Considering how impactful they are, a strategy around online dental reviews is important as part of your overall dental marketing plan.
Getting dental clinic reviews
Before you even think about online reviews, you have to make sure you’re providing excellent dental service that would encourage patients to leave a positive review. This includes friendly service, a convenient omnichannel experience, and a well-managed dental schedule.
[Find out how ClearDent helps you provide excellent customer service – book a demo today]
Make sure your dental clinic is listed on the main review sites so that patients can leave dentist reviews if they feel like:
But it’s important to keep in mind that most patients won’t leave dentist reviews unless it requires minimal effort. Below are some ways you can make it easy for patients to leave a review:
Add a link to one of the review sites on your website
Include a link in your email signature
Send an email campaign asking for feedback and reviews
Send a snail-mail request with the link
Send patients a follow-up text two days after the appointment
Always respond to reviews
Getting reviews is only one part of it; you have to actively monitor and respond as well. How you respond to reviews affects your clinic reputation.
If it was a positive dental review, thank your patients. When you respond to reviews it tells both current and prospective patients that by taking the time to craft a response, you care about them. If your team has the bandwidth, you should be responding to all dental clinic reviews.
Yes, even negative reviews
Unfortunately, negative dental clinic reviews are unavoidable. The good news is that if you only had 5-star reviews, it tends to come across as unrealistic and patients may think that you purchased reviews.
No one is perfect 100% of the time. The important thing is to respond to patients and try to turn the experience into a positive one. Negative dental clinic reviews provide you with invaluable feedback about your clinic; every negative review is a learning experience and an opportunity to improve clinic processes.
When responding to dental clinic reviews, especially negative ones, it’s extremely important to keep all federal and provincial privacy laws in mind. These laws are in place to ensure that you do not violate patient privacy. Dentists are not allowed to respond in a way that exposes patient information or even acknowledge the individual was at their clinic without the patient’s written consent. So while a patient can share details about their appointment and the dentist or clinic, you cannot respond with any information specific to that patient.
While you have to take extra precautions to make sure you’re adhering to privacy laws, it’s crucial to respond. Sometimes you may not be able to change the mind of the patient who wrote the review, but its public nature means that many current and potential patients are watching how you respond. Your responses can influence their decision on whether or not to do, or continue doing, business with you.
You can mitigate negative reviews with these tips:
Exercise empathy: Patients who wrote a negative review are not happy. When you express empathy by showing you understand where they’re coming from, it goes a long way to assuage their frustration.
Show a willingness to address their problem: If and where possible, let them know that you’ll be looking into the issue they brought up.
Don’t take it personally: It can be hard not to feel attacked when reading negative reviews but it’s important to take these as chances to improve your clinic. Wait at least a day before responding to the negative review so that you have a chance to cool down.
Own up to the mistake: If it is a legitimate complaint, avoid acting defensive or pointing fingers. It doesn’t resolve anything and casts your clinic in a bad light. Apologize that they didn’t have a great experience and offer to reach out to the patient personally to address the problem.
Use the right tone: When responding to reviews, avoid using a lecturing or patronizing tone and don’t use technical jargon that your patients may not understand.
Keep it short: Avoid going back and forth in an online argument with the patient. It doesn’t reflect well to have that type of discussion in such a public forum and will likely violate privacy laws. If the response requires further follow up, take it offline and offer to contact the patient directly.
Using online reviews to grow your clinic include asking for and responding to them. Responding to reviews—whether good or bad—could win you new patients and increase patient retention.
See how ClearDent can help you gather reviews through automation – Book a demo today
Following the footsteps of the retail and finance industries, omnichannel healthcare is gaining traction. An omnichannel dental practice results in improved patient retention, increased revenue, and streamlined processes.
What is omnichannel?
Before we delve into what an omnichannel dental practice looks like, let’s talk about what omnichannel is. In Latin, “Omni” means “all.” Essentially, an omnichannel experience is seamless and consistent across all channels. This means whether through a brick and mortar location, by phone, online, or via social media, the quality of service is always the same.
An omnichannel dental practice helps create deeper relationships at all points of the experience, improving patient retention for your dental practice.
Patients expect an omnichannel experience
Patients may not recognize that they want an omnichannel experience, but the experience they’ve come to expect is an omnichannel one.
The dental experience is no longer as straightforward as it once was. Patient touchpoints start even before they step into your practice. Patients start researching their healthcare providers online; 90% of patients will choose another provider entirely if they don’t like what they see through online research. This is why dental marketing for your practice is critical.
Reminders to patients before their appointments are a given to reduce no-shows and late cancellations. However, these days, more and more dental practices are catering to their patients and contacting them through their preferred contact method such as text message or email.
The dental experience doesn’t end when the patient leaves the practice – follow-up calls, social media posts, and email marketing are all ways to keep top-of-mind and create lasting relationships with your patients across multiple channels.
The rise of the omnichannel experience was in response to how people interact with businesses these days. Patients want their dental experience to travel across devices and channels with them. And that’s the heart of omnichannel – a great patient experience that occurs across channels but ultimately feels seamless.
In an overall omnichannel healthcare experience, mobile is becoming increasingly important. Consider this information that was found in regards to hospitals:
In a related field, like dentistry, we can expect that similar figures would be found. What this means is that a mobile-optimized website or a mobile app for your dental practice takes higher priority than ever before.
In the age of instant gratification, convenience and speed will be rewarded. Patients want their healthcare interactions to be fast and easy.
Answer the phone within three rings or returning a patient’s missed call immediately
Accommodate patients’ busy schedules by opening earlier or staying open later or on weekends
Value of an omnichannel dental practice
With an integrated dental software, you can significantly improve patient experiences at your practice and by extension, increase your revenue.
Consider this new patient experience at an omnichannel dental practice:
Booking: A patient books their appointment online
Pre-appointment: Patient receives a text message reminding them of their appointment
Check-in: They get to the office and fill out their patient information on a kiosk tablet at the front desk
X-rays: The dental assistant takes the patient’s x-rays with digital imaging technology, and the images are immediately transferred and appear on the dentist’s screen
Treatment plan: Using the x-rays, the dentist explains to the patient the proposed treatment plan
Payment: Up at the front, the office manager pulls up the treatment plan the dentist entered and lets the patient know how much the treatment will cost and how much their insurance will cover
Follow-up: Post-appointment, the patient receives an email, thanking them for their business
The experience occurs across multiple devices and involves the integration of imaging and dental practice management softwares – but all the patient experiences is a smooth appointment.
Integrated dental software can enable omnichannel experiences
To be able to offer your patients an omnichannel experience, you need an integrated dental system that has all of your patient information and dental technology in the same place.
ClearDent has everything you need working together in one convenient place:
Patient notes: Clinical notes are easily created and stored securely after signing on patient files
Documentation: Kiosks allow you to conveniently gather important patient documentation. Documents such as consent forms are generated in just a few clicks and stored securely
Insurance: Accurate statement of coverage is received from the patient’s insurance company and updated in ClearDent in seconds
Patient communication: ClearConnect is a patient communication system built directly into ClearDent for appointment confirmation, recall reminders, new patient welcome packages, real-time conversations with patients via 2-way text messaging, and more
Payments: Recurring payments for large or ongoing procedures can be set up easily
An omnichannel dental practice provides a connected experience across the entire patient journey. An integrated dental software can help you provide exceptional, omnichannel patient care, setting you apart from the competition.
ClearDent can help you offer an omnichannel patient experience
When it comes to growing dental clinics, new patient acquisition is often what comes to mind but improving patient retention rates is just as important and crucial to the success of any dental clinic. Returning patients provide a greater return on investment. It costs 5 times more to obtain a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Happy patients also improve your bottom line as they are your best advocates, bringing you more business by referring family and friends.
On average, dental clinics have an attrition rate of 10-20%. While some factors like people relocating may be out of your control, there are certain patient retention strategies to help ensure they’re happy and continue to come back to your clinic – because at its core, improving patient retention is about keeping them happy.
Make it easy
Patients these days lead fast-paced lives and are used to ease and speed in everything they do. This means you have to ensure their dental experience is as convenient as possible for them. You can do this by:
1) Extending your office hours
It can be difficult for patients to make appointments during normal working hours. Consider opening your clinic earlier in the mornings or keeping it open later in the evenings to better accommodate their busy schedules.
2) Sending appointment reminders
Appointment reminders are often expected and appreciated by patients. It also helps you reduce late cancellations and no-shows. Many dental software systems allow you to send appointment reminders automatically.
[Set your clinic up with ClearDent to take advantage of ClearConnect, our patient messaging system. Book a ClearDent demo today]
3) Scheduling enough time
Research shows that longer wait times are negatively correlated with patient satisfaction, perception of the provider, and confidence in the quality of care. Be sure to properly optimize your dental schedule to allow sufficient time for each patient.
Build trust and create value
Part of improving patient retention is ensuring that they understand the value of your dental services and to do that, you need to build trust. Trust and value are gained when you take the time to explain everything very thoroughly and clearly, whether it’s the next steps in their treatment, why they need the treatment, or even explaining the procedure itself.
Some patients may think that they don’t need dental services because their teeth feel fine, it’s too expensive, or they’re scared. You can combat this by talking them through the x-rays and explaining why they need certain procedures, the proposed treatment plan, and the dangers if they don’t take action.
Or, if the patient is known to be uneasy about dental procedures, take extra care to reassure them, let them know what to expect, and guide them through the process to help settle their concerns.
Whether patients are feeling weary about the cost, process, or need, they’ll appreciate you addressing their concerns directly.
Ensure patients feel at ease
How patients feel while they’re at your clinic contributes a great deal to improving patient retention. When they feel at ease and comfortable, they’re less likely to go to another dental clinic.
1) Create a welcoming waiting room
While you should try to reduce the time patients spend waiting, you can at least ensure they’re comfortable. Some things to consider having in your waiting room include:
A TV
Comfy seating
Magazines
Water
Kids play area
2) Be friendly
Patients often don’t jump at the chance to go to the dentist; procedures like root canals or wisdom teeth extractions are not appointments that they look forward to. To cancel out potential negative connotations, make sure every patient feels welcome and that they’re more than just a number to you. Below are some tips to create a friendly environment:
Greet patients
Smile
Build rapport and make light conversation
Use the patient’s name in emails, by phone, or in person
Ask if they need to use the washroom before getting started
Introduce new team members they haven’t met yet
Ensure there is privacy if patients need to discuss sensitive or financial items
Say thanks and tell patients you look forward to seeing them next time
3) Empower them
Help empower patients to take responsibility for their dental health:
Give patients useful information such as proposed treatment plans and post-procedure instructions
Discuss the importance of getting regular checkups
Give patients a goodie bag of a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and other tools so they can continue their oral care at home
Stay in touch
Of course, you always want to ensure that patients leave feeling happy and tended to but the patient experience doesn’t just end when they leave. Staying in touch and engaging with patients is another patient retention strategy.
1) Follow up
A quick phone call to check how a patient is feeling after a procedure can go a long way in improving patients’ perception of your clinic. This also gives you the chance to turn any bad experiences around, reducing the chance your patients will take their business elsewhere.
2) Monitor reviews
These days, if patients are not happy, there’s a high possibility they’ll write a review online. When you monitor reviews on your clinic, you have the opportunity to address negative comments and make it right. And since the communication is public, it also shows potential patients that you care about providing great service.
3) Send a newsletter
The healthcare industry has an average email open rate of 33%. This means it’s a prime opportunity to send patients useful content such as promos, clinic updates, or educational information about oral health.
4) Send seasonal greetings
Birthdays and holidays provide a chance to stay top of your patients’ mind. Send patients a birthday email or remind them to use their remaining insurance before the end of the year.
5) Patient surveys
Sending patient satisfaction surveys is a great way to gain valuable feedback that can improve your clinic. The results will uncover what’s working and what’s not, which you can then use to take action.
There isn’t one thing that you can do to improve patient retention overnight; it’s a combination of several patient retention strategies that everyone in your clinic can contribute towards
For decades, the norm in dentistry has been calling patients with appointments and recall reminders. But is that the most efficient way of doing things?
No, it isn’t.
Communication has become faster and more personal with the advent of smartphones. As such, the way businesses need to communicate must adapt as well.
Where newspapers, mail and phone calls used to be the norm for communication, Twitter, email and text messaging have now all but taken their place. For many, the phone app is becoming the least important app on their device. Instead, a click-to-confirm message from your dental practice via email or text message allows your patients to communicate with you using the medium that they are most comfortable with, as compared to calling patients.
Is phoning still effective? Not really…
The caveat here is that if you manage to get someone on the phone, at a time that is convenient for them, when they have the ability to take note of what you’re saying, yes… phoning can be effective. However, the vast majority of calls don’t manage to meet those criteria. In fact, most will go unanswered.
Using an email or text messaging system of communication allows your patients to check and record the reminder at the best time for them, whether that’s immediately, or later that day. On top of that, phone confirmations can not be scaled unless you commit more time and more people. Email and text communications, on the other hand, are instant and completely scalable.
This is how ClearConnect can greatly benefit your practice immediately. With a few clicks of a button, you can quickly see a list of patients with unscheduled recalls or treatments, and send a message to them to get an affirmative response to fill vacancies much more effectively.
Combine this powerful ability with a revolutionary system like ClearMessaging, which has the ability to chat with single patients or groups of patients via text messages from within ClearDent, and your communication efficiency and effectiveness will skyrocket.
