10 Tips to Help Have a Successful Dental Practice

There are 199,486 dentists working in America.

Competition in dentistry is fierce.

Finding a way to run a successful dental practice that stands apart from the competition can be tough. But with a few simple solutions, you can improve the number of new leads you’re generating and retain the clients you do have.

Here’s how.

Improve In-Person and Virtual Customer Service

While you can’t blow-up your operations every time a customer complains, you can’t ignore them either. Every person wants to feel important and heard, and practices with superb customer service excel in business.

Showing that you care about the happiness of your customers will result in repeat business. It will also help spread of positive word-of-mouth about your dentistry.

Start with having a customer complaint policy, ensure that it is communicated and followed by your entire staff. Offer surveys and forms for clients to fill out, which can help keep them off public forums with complaints.

Make sure you designate a person who is responsible for handling customer complaints. This will ensure that nothing slips through the cracks. This will keep the staff accountable.

Make sure they are responsive to emails, even if the problem can’t be fixed instantly, keeping customers updated on milestones. Many practices forget about customer service when developing their dental practice marketing strategies. Don’t forget to have a customer service plan as part of your cross channel marketing plan. Be responsive, positive and not combative on social media and review sites like Yelp.

Remember that great customer service starts with happy employees. Conduct one-on-one meetings, and meet with staff as a whole to voice ideas and complaints. It might require extra time, but this can greatly improve your business. Treat staff well, make sure time-off policies are clear. Offer amenities, incentives, and bonus structures. Create a physical space that reflects a strong culture for your staff and patients. Make sure everyone is on the same page.

Boost Your Technology and Marketing

Technology will help improve operational efficiencies, and customer and staff experience. Automation eliminates common human-caused errors and frustrations. Supply your staff with modern tablets and laptops. This will make your dental practice run more efficiency for customers and employees.

Patient data can be updated in real-time, no more paper forms will be needed, which reduces the time the staff has to spend on filing information. This also means fewer errors and a more secure system.

Automation also makes the billing and claims process more accurate. It also means that fewer claims will be missed, resulting in more money for your business.

Using modern technology can also improve internal communications within your practice. Software programs made for scheduling and customer service will ensure workflow is fluid.

Investing in tools and personnel to help manage your digital marketing efforts like social media will generate leads and improve local authority. Businesses that lack social media profiles, and poorly manage their content do not seem transparent or well-managed.

When you take control of your in-house technology solutions and digital marketing effort. You instantly appear to be more progressive and serious about your business.

Increase Staff Knowledge

Training your staff will not only improve their skill set, but it will also show you value the people you have. This gesture will make employees feel secure and happy in their positions, resulting in a more productive workplace.

First, make sure your staff is trained on the technology you use in your practice. Make sure that when it comes to workflow and filing information that there is no confusion regarding processes.

Train your employees on sales and customer service, even if their roles don’t seem to directly relate to these. Understanding these types of skills will improve their overall value, and ensure they will understand how to act in every situation.

Host workshops regularly, and integrate training as an ongoing process, not a one-time event.

Same Day Treatments Equal a Successful Dental Practice

In America, the average dentistry has only a 65 percent patient retention rate. While a handful of reasons patients do not return varies, scheduling is one of the top three reasons people go to a dentist once and never return.

Most people only visit the dentist twice per year, so having to commit to a date six months down the road can feel daunting. Add that too outrageous appointment policies that some practices have, leads to many people being too afraid to make another appointment. Offering same day treatments instead of requiring a client to schedule a time to come back will ensure that they refer to you.

Decrease Patient Waiting Time

No one likes waiting, patients become especially anxious and will not return to your practice if wait times are too long. Implementing modern technology and educating your staff will help improve office efficiency and wait times.

Make sure the entire staff understands the time it takes to perform each procedure. Always have a hygienist on hand who is available to check patients while they wait for the dentist. Clearly, define all staff roles and responsibilities in your processes.

If you are running behind, let clients no. When it comes to scheduling, do not organize everything so tightly that one hiccup ruins the workflow of the day.

Plan For Dentistry Success

Following the tips in this blog post and implementing them on a consistent and long-term basis will lead to a successful dental practice.

For more business tips, check out more articles!