As a dental expert, it takes more than just providing your patients quality care and a convenient location. It’s essential to provide an excellent patient experience. If your dental clinic improves patient experience, you’ll find more people availing of your services.
Your clinic will get positive reviews, build engagement and loyalty from your patients, and even refer you to others; thus, your revenue will increase.
However, improvement isn’t easy to achieve as it requires efficient planning that suits the services you’ll provide.
So, this article will provide you with ways to enhance the patient experience in your dental clinic.
Ways To Have Better Patient Experience
There are many ways to make your patients have an excellent experience in your dental clinic. Here are the most effective ones:
Guide The Patients To Your Office
Your patient experience starts as soon as they enter your clinic. This is a perfect opportunity for you to give a positive impression to your patients as they enter the establishment.
You don’t need to wait for them outside to welcome them; however, you must ensure that your signages are clear. When you post your address on your website or in magazines, ensure the information is updated, so they know where they’re going.
If your clinic resides in a building with many other offices, make clear signs or directions where they can find you. You can use simple, colorful, or catchy signages to guide them to your clinic.
Make The Waiting Room Comfortable
Whether they are new or regular patients, making them feel comfortable in the waiting room is essential. They might feel pain in their mouths, or perhaps it’s just a routine checkup. If they feel pain and the waiting area isn’t comfortable, they would feel more stress waiting for their turn.
Install comfortable chairs or couches to sit on, and place some reading materials on the coffee table to keep them occupied and relaxed. Adding magazines or pamphlets about dental care makes it extra unique as you can educate your patients indirectly.
You also need to ensure that there is proper ventilation to keep them warm in cold weather and cool in hot temperatures.
Adequate lighting is also critical, so your clinic would feel more welcoming.
Offer Free WiFi
The internet is an essential tool for many people. They’d probably feel bored if they arrived too early for their appointment. Reading materials may not be for everybody as not all people love reading; others prefer streaming videos online.
When you offer free WiFi, your patients will be entertained while waiting their turn. Make sure they can connect to it in the parking lot so they can use the internet while waiting in their cars, as not all clinics have a large waiting area.
Let Your Patients Know How Long Their Wait Will Be
Have you ever ordered food at a restaurant, and the staff took forever to bring you the food? It’s frustrating! This is the same, perhaps more sensitive, in dental care.
According to a study, 97% of patients don’t want to wait for a long time. Providing entertainment, such as free WiFi, could lessen it by 30%.
However, that doesn’t stop there, as they need to know when their turn will be.
They’d be less frustrated when you let them know when their turn is. A study found that 80% of patients feel less negativity if they know how long they have to wait for their turn.
You can use digital signage where it displays the list of names of patients’ turns.
Doing this will also give them more control over their time. For instance, they might want to grab a snack outside if they are still far in the queue.
Offer Patient Financing
Many people avoid going to dental clinics because of the cost. According to a survey, 59% of the respondents think it’s expensive. If they have a dental-related illness, it could get worse without proper oral care.
As a dental expert, you can provide an excellent dental patient experience to the people by offering a dental patient financing option. Not only will it help them with their dental needs, but it will also boost your reputation in the community.
When people take advantage of your offer, they’d most likely spread the word, making it a perfect marketing strategy for your clinic.
Streamline The Process
One thing many people love is the smoothness of the process. They don’t want to go to your clinic, forgetting to bring something important, such as ID and insurance cards.
You or your receptionist might be able to do it when they set an appointment via phone. You can remind them what they should bring when they should be there, and other information.
If they book an appointment online, create a pop-up text giving them the necessary information. You can also send them an email or text message to remind them about their schedule and what they need to do before going to the clinic.
You can also create a page on your website or a phone system to answer people’s basic questions, such as insurance policies, clinic hours, rescheduling, etc.
Send Patient Experience Surveys
Knowing your patients’ feedback doesn’t only give you pointers on which areas you can improve but also makes them feel you value their opinion. Asking them directly isn’t effective because they’d most likely avoid confrontation in case it’s a negative comment.
Instead, create online surveys where they could access the link or via text message. If it’s online, use your scheduling system and link it to the survey. After their appointment, they will be able to enter their feedback. They can give numbers for the score and provide words for suggestions and comments.
On the other hand, make the text messaging surveys simple. Use numbers to score your service.
Once you receive the feedback, analyze the data and take them all positively or as an area of improvement. You’d be able to adjust your clinic according to your patients’ voices.
Educate Your Patients
One of the most critical parts of leaving a good impression on your patients is before the patient leaves the clinic. After you finish the procedure, you may want to give them advice. They would appreciate it if you put extra effort into their oral hygiene.
If you provide treatment or surgery, you can discuss ways to keep the issue from happening again. The tips on what to do, how to brush their teeth, and what food they should avoid are some of the simple things they can learn from you.
However, it could take time to discuss lengthy processes. Instead, you can promote online materials that they could read or watch.
If you have blogs on your website, it’s a perfect way to market them.
Conclusion
Improving your patients’ experience in your clinic is critical. It gives a positive image to people, trusting your clinic more. This will also increase their satisfaction rating, giving your patients natural reasons to smile.
There are many ways to enhance the patient experience, and the ones on top are proven effective.
So make sure to give the best experience to your patients as it will give you an excellent ROI, making your clinic one of the best in your area.
