Patients are the lifeblood of any Successful Dental Practice. Learn how to attract and retain them by prioritizing their satisfaction. From personalized care to effective communication, find out what it takes to succeed.
Getting new clients into your dental clinic can feel like pulling teeth.
Nearly 36% of the American population deals with the fear of dental treatment.
The little things can often make a huge difference in determining whether a patient will return to your clinic. Patient satisfaction, excellent service, and loyalty are the common pain points to increase visits to your clinic. Fortunately, there are ways to numb the pain and earn a patient’s confidence in your practice.
People often use profitability to measure a successful dental practice but it’s never as important as patient satisfaction. The general business world is already aware of this.
A total of 201,927 dentists are reported to be professionally active in the U.S. as of 2021, which is predicted to increase.
To run a successful dental practice you need to start viewing the operations from the perspective of a business owner, not just a doctor. This mindset will help you provide high-standard services to meet patient expectations and drive revenue goals.
During dental school, you only learned to focus on treating a particular oral cavity, but very little was invested in patients themselves, learning effective communication skills, or other social skills. How well you know your ideal customers to make a dental practice successful. Deliver top-notch dental care while ensuring the well-being of every patient you see. Patient satisfaction should be your final goal and also the highest reward.
Importance of Dental Practice Management
The profession of dentistry has evolved from being a service to a commodity. Management of your dental practice isn’t easy, it takes work. Every factor, from check-ups to phone etiquette to admin tasks, must be streamlined for optimal patient experience. Fortunately, the latest all-in-one technologies can help dentists to compete with challenges. With the help of a skillful team, an appealing environment, and powerful software, you can set up your dental practice with sustainable growth.
It’s a common misconception that people have that being busy is equivalent to being productive. Whenever you walk into a workplace and see people bustling around, it doesn't necessarily mean they’re being most productive. But you can change that perception for your dental clinic, and start using Picktime to get the best out of time. Picktime is a cloud-based simplified appointment scheduling software for the medical industry. It is tailored to serve every field, including Dentists, Chiropractors, Psychologists, and Physiologist.
Picktime offers a user-friendly platform with 24-hour email support that can be accessed from multiple locations. With Picktime, you can schedule appointments, set reminders, store patient data, and manage staff and services, all with a few clicks on an easily customizable platform to meet your unique business needs. It is a versatile software with countless features, including:
- Automatic Booking Reminders
- Maintain Patients Database
- OneClick Book Now Button for your Dental Website
- Sync with your Favorite External Calendars (Apple/Google/Outlook)
- Booking Page Available in More Than 20 Languages
- Easy Advance Payments via PayPal & Stripe
- Integration with CRMs (Salesforce, ZOHO, Hubspot)
By using Picktime, you can give an engaging experience, manage potential leads, track customer communication, and get powerful insights with reports & dashboard features while giving everyone a convenient, round-the-clock scheduling service.
Key to a Successful Dental Practice
Why are some dental professionals in demand while others struggle to survive?
Well, the answer is a mix of clinical experience and market reputation. The secret behind a successful practice is keeping all the operations in motion like a well-oiled machine. Without strong management, even the most talented professionals will wander. Regard your practice from a business owner's perspective. This mindset will help you serve high-standard patient care while driving your revenue goals.
Master Your Mindset
Whether you accept this or not, your mindset builds your reality. Instead of getting trapped in the rabbit holes of negative thinking, change your focus for a better outcome. It simply implies people with a growth mindset don’t believe in fixed failures. There may come a moment when you think, will establishing a successful dental practice always be this hard? When you notice yourself sinking in self-doubts, it’s time to prime yourself and master your mindset. You need to learn not to cope with failure but to relish it. A growth mindset is something you build with time and experience.
Build a Welcoming Environment
Business worlds place a high value on first impressions. Especially in the medical industry. From new clients to long-term patients your doors always revolve around people looking for professional and premium care. Your waiting room is going to be the introduction of your business. Observe closely, does it look warm and welcoming? Or generic and bland? The main goal is to make the entire experience pleasant, from when a patient enters your door until they leave. It’s not always necessary to redesign the space to give it a special touch. A few simple changes you can implement that your patients will love are
- Practice friendly greetings
- Invest in comfortable furniture
- Eliminate potent fragrances
- Offer recent magazines and novels to read
- Try to set up a separate play area for kids
- Offer free internet access
Modernize with Automation
Your team may believe that they can handle all administrative tasks, from handling clients to other operational tasks. However, can they? Maximizing patient satisfaction requires streamlining your operations with automation, making the use of the latest technology the ultimate key to increasing your profits. Outdated software can frustrate existing clients and deter new patients from booking appointments. Simple tools like Picktime offer endless features with a user-friendly interface to make a booking, payment, sales, and customer and team management a well-organized process.
Create Customer Service Protocols
There’s a popular idea floating around that all dentists are the same, and all services are the same no matter where you go. So, if the services are similar across the board, then what are the qualities of a superior dental practice? Attentive, friendly, and empathetic customer service can keep your patients returning. Too long waiting hours, not feeling welcomed, or being rushed around can impact badly, leading to negative feedback and reviews. Excellent customer service can make your clients feel valued and cared for, a vital ingredient in the recipe for patient retention. Always remember, your clients are the most important things, have good manners, be observant, have a clean and organized office, and keep your patients informed about the whole process.
Financial Insights
The dental industry deals with huge sums of money every year. It’s not the treatment they charge for, it’s their experience and their sleight of hands. To build a successful dental practice and achieve better revenue, you must set milestones and better-related goals. It’s not unusual for dentists to neglect their financial records due to insufficient knowledge and time. But gaining visibility into your financial data is essential to understand the cash flow and making efficient business decisions.
Offer Flexible Payment Options
It’s no secret that dental procedures are expensive treatments. When patients have flexible financing options, they’re more inclined to accept the treatment recommendations you’re suggesting and return for follow-up care. In addition to cash, consider accepting insurance and credit cards. When you accept numerous types of payments you’ll be able to reach a wider range of clientele. Being flexible in payments means creating a more trusting relationship. Also, make sure to have policies in place for overdue bills. So how can you improve your billing process? One way is to use a deviceful cloud-based software, Picktime. An appointment scheduling software designed to manage your overall dental practice well and take pressure off other employees. Picktime also supports online card payments and keeps track of all your bookings, invoices, and refunds.
Foster Teamwork
Happy team members are more productive and work harder. In a dental practice, teamwork is much more than people working together. It’s based on mutual respect and focuses on one common goal. This requires setting aside individual differences and aligning your priorities to serve your patients best. Activities that can help you build an enhanced company culture include
- Put up a list of values
- Conduct regular staff meetings
- Share constructive feedback
- Use humor and fun to make the workplace more enjoyable
Work will be more gratifying and unifying when the team finally discovers how to work together as a fully functioning team.
Create a Wow Factor
Promotional ads, the interior of your office, or personalized services are all the basic elements that can leave a significant impact. Patients can be amazed by the service they receive, courtesy of your team, easy appointment scheduling, the beauty of the decor, or even being attentive to their needs. To get that WOW expression from your patients at the time of departure, bring Picktime into play. An appointment scheduling software from medical to beauty & wellness to sports, and personal events, Picktime is tailored to serve every business needs. Enhanced interactions, streamlined patient intake procedure, automated billing, reduced waiting time, and perfectly designed platform to enhance efficiency and maximize patient satisfaction.
Customer Retention, Service, and Satisfaction
Whether opening your dental practice or expanding the existing one, to run a profitable business ensure high-quality services to support your patient’s well-being. Consistent customer service leads to higher satisfaction, which drives retention. A high retention rate will help keep marketing costs low because long-term committed patients will not come year after year but will also suggest you to their connections. As discussed already, customer satisfaction depends not only on the quality of service but also on positive interaction, easy record access, and convenient scheduling.
Sure, people will always need help to take care of their teeth. But do they need it from you? All in all, starting a dental clinic isn’t easy. Whether you’re managing everything by yourself or have some extra help you’ll need to be organized, efficient, and know how to out.