The following is a guest post by Debbie Seidel-Bittke. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.
As a dental consultant/coach, I have the opportunity to talk with dental practice owners every day. I also review and analyze dental practices on a weekly basis using my extensive dental knowledge to educate practitioners on how they can improve their practice bottom line.
What I hear consistently are dental practices which on average, see 30 new patients each month. Most dental practices have an average of 2,500 active patients. Most of our clients have been in practice for a minimum of 12 years and examine about 30 new patients every month. You may wonder why most of these practices have a mere active patient base of only 2,500 patients.
If all of these patients continued to return to the office the dental practice should have an active patient base of at approximately 3,500 patients. I am accounting for some attrition and being very forgiving with the accounting of these patient numbers.
In the United States, 78% of general dentists are solo practitioners. Why is there only enough work to keep one dentist busy? The answer is simple, dentists are losing more patients out the back door than are coming in the front door. Most practices I review have only 6 days of hygiene patients each week. With this point arises the question: why are these practices only seeing 6 days of hygiene patients each week?
First of all, I want to address the reason behind why patients may not be coming back to your office. The lack of a “personal relationship” with your patients could be to blame. By building a personal relationship with each patient, you will establish trust and give them a reason to choose your office over another one down the street.
One of the most common questions that I hear on a daily basis is, “why do we need to change? We have always done things this way.” This statement signals a major breakdown and is a silent killer for any dental practice. Dental practitioners should also keep in mind that the field of dentistry changes constantly and dental management skills that worked five to ten years ago probably do not work in today’s world.
There are many reasons why a practice might lose patients.
The “New Patient”
Your first impression is a lasting impression. I always ask doctors to periodically call their own office so they will understand how the phone is being answered. The dental practice owner and all team members need to be aware of how a client may feel when calling in to make an appointment. Do you get the feeling that the phone is answered with someone who has a smile on their face?
Offer good “Customer Service”
How long does your new patient need to wait until they are able to get an appointment in your office? If you have blocked times for new patients you are more likely to successfully accommodate them in a timely manner. If you heard something good about someone and are anxious to meet them, do you want to wait a month to meet them? Neither do your patients!
I have called many offices and an answer machine let me know the office staff was busy with another patient and was not able to answer my call. If I were a new patient calling to schedule my first appointment and I was greeted by a recorded message. I would be discouraged by this not so warm welcome.
What types of information do you send your patients home with? Do they have written oral hygiene instructions or post op instructions? Do you send out a new patient package prior to the first appointment? This can easily be done if you have a website that patients can download information from. If it is not possible to distribute the information through your website, think about emailing a package of information to save the cost of postage.
Do you make post – op calls? Do you call even after the scaling and root planning appointments? If you have a difficult or a fearful patient, think about the impact you would make if you called after hours to make certain they were feeling okay about their dental appointment that day. My niece just had her 3rd molars extracted and it was so comforting when the oral surgeon called to check on her much later that night.
How long does it take you to return patient calls? Do your patients leave with a written treatment plan for any future treatment? Are they able to send emails to confirm their appointments? What type of payment plans do you offer? These are only a few questions you should take into consideration when trying to improve upon your dental practice.
Team Hiring and Training
How do you know what type of personality fits into your practice? There are various models for testing temperaments. You need to know what type of personality fits each job description in your dental practice. You need to know if hiring another person with a strong personality will interfere with any other strong personalities that currently work in the office now.
Your Thoughts
Are you already implementing some of Debbie’s suggestions in your practice? What have been your results?
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Reader Comments
dental January 28th
might be patients are brushing and flossing.Well if you ask me many patients do fear from going to a dentist specially the aged ones they think that dentist might clean the teeth but it can damage their teeth gums.or they might don’t feel okay to visit a dentist due to hesitation
Plymouth Dentistry March 2nd
i suggest if you are new patient and have some fear what will be next with your tooth so one think all can understand dental care clinics never use the wrong way they always diagnose the dental problem either your need gum treatment or teeth replacement require.
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