Dr Phillip Palmer, August 2015 -  

The oversupply of dentists in Australia means that dentists need to work harder than ever to be busy.

Unfortunately, practice owners feel that the only way to stay busy is to focus on getting new patients. There seems to be no shortage of avenues for a dentist to spend a marketing budget, from signage, shopper dockets, google adwords, website upgrades and social networking (like Facebook), to marketing seminars. However, focussing solely on new patient acquisition, without spending time, effort and money giving your patients reasons to stay, is akin to spending a lot of money on water to fill a leaking bucket.

Opening your practice and advertising to get patients in the front door is useless if everyone just goes straight out the open back door. So how does a practice “shut the back door” or in common business vernacular… how do you make your service “sticky”?

“Stickiness” as a business term is fairly new. It refers to how long someone will spend on a website, or their likelihood to return. As a business concept though, it has been out there for years, under different terms - "customer retention" and "loyalty" among them. For dental practice owners, it should refer to the extent to which their practice is based upon return business, as opposed to single treatment (or single transaction) dentistry and as a concept it still doesn't obsess practice owners nearly enough.

Customer loyalty, or stickiness, rarely just happens - it is the usually the result of a commitment to excellence in customer experience. It is worth every practice owner’s time examining why patients are staying in their business, and how to make their practice “sticky”:

Aesthetics.  The aesthetic of the practice premises reflects on the practice as a whole. A tired-looking, run-down practice sends a message that you don’t care about your patient’s comfort levels. Investing in up to date fit-out, furniture, even the latest magazines, will show your patients that you take pride in your practice, care about your patients and want to provide them with the best experience, every step of the way.

Equipment. While most patients won’t know the quality of the dentistry provided, they will make assumptions (fair or unfair) based on their perception of the equipment and decor. A practice that has an old chair, old xray units and old magazines, tells the patient and public that the practice is probably not keeping up with the times or delivering the best possible treatment.

Run on time. Show that you respect your patients’ time by being as punctual as possible. Even the most loyal patients will eventually go looking for another dentist if your practice is always running late. Making your patients feel that their time isn’t valuable will leave them feeling frustrated and stressed by the time they finally see you. It will also make them reconsider booking their next appointment as they envision another long wait and more wasted time.

Have a polite, well-trained team. One of the most important elements in retaining patients – and creating a strong sense of loyalty - is the level of your and your staff’s communication skills. From the first phone call, when a patient is inquiring about an appointment, through to their paying for their treatment, every person who the patients comes into contact with should be able to communicate in a clear, positive manner, delivering a high level of service. Investing in service and communication skills will not only increase your patient satisfaction, but will have a flow-on effect to staff satisfaction, pride in their work, and staff retention levels. Remember, one bad interaction with a member of your staff can be enough to put a patient off ever returning.

Have a stable team. It takes time and energy to build a rapport and sense of familiarity. Patients feel loyal to a practice where the team remembers them - this makes them feel cared about, beyond the clinical. Having a meeting at the beginning of each day where you discuss that day’s patients - who they are, who their family members are, what they are going through at the time ( house renovations, etc) - will increase patient loyalty.