The Secret to Loyalty Revealed

What is the most valuable component of any dental practice?  The answer that flashed through your mind will tell a lot about how you think how you orient your practice.  The answer is also indicative of where the priorities of the practice are placed.  

If you said that the doctor is the most valuable part of the practice, then you are likely to center the practice around the needs and wants of the doctor.  That might even be an effective strategy for you in some regards, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a practice around the doctor.

If your answer was your staff, that is again the direction that the practices is most likely headed.  Staff is very important and not much will happen without them - so there is nothing here that you want to discount.  There is also great value in having a staff that is excited and happy - sharing the happiness they have with all they come in contact with.

If your answer to the initial question was your patients, you win the prize!  Certainly, there is no sustained practice without patients.  Some have learned the hard way that you can buy a chair, hire staff, publish a phone number, and have your instruments sterilized and ready to go, but if no one is sitting in the chair there is no practice to speak of.  

No doubt you have been approached by countless people who will help you get people in the door.  Have you noticed a trend in dentistry lately - one that is relatively new?  The trend is that other dentists have no problem working on YOUR patients - and even getting paid for it.  In other words, people that you did good work on are now getting work done in other places.  Dentistry is becoming increasingly competitive.  The luxury of having a patient for life is more earned now than ever.

Building loyalty takes a dedicated effort.  It takes incredible and consistent focus to make things happen.  You can do great work clinically, and that is a part of the equation, but it is not most of the equation.  

Look, when is the last time that you took your car to the shop to have a gasket repaired - and when you got it home you got under the hood and took the thing apart to determine the quality of workmanship.  Unless you have way too much time on your hands, that is not what you did.  What you did is checked the garage floor to see if the car stopped leaking.

It is the same in dentistry.  The majority of your patients have no idea if you did quality work.  They only evaluation they are able to make is based upon whether the symptoms which brought them in are still there or not.  Most couldn't judge your work even is you invited or asked them too.  Dentistry is not like getting a haircut.  The ironic thing is that you are still judged!

The biggest judgement being made is on one thing - the answer to the secret of Loyalty - SERVICE.  It is exceptional quality service that will make or break a practice in today's highly competitive world.  There are often growing pains in providing service within any practice, and little to let you  know if you really are doing well.  

If you are thinking right now that your practice serves people well, and that what you are doing is adequate - even meeting customer satisfaction - you may be misinformed.

We spent more than a year doing research, gathering data, and conduting focus groups to determine what people want from service when they go to the dentist.  We also found out what creates loyalty and what can break it down.  Our results may surprise you.

Did you know:

• patients can say that you did everything just fine - even rate you as good on a survey - and still leave you because someone elses crown was $50 less
• the average person will tell five people of their experience with you if it was good, but 13 if it was bad
• that many patients will schedule an appointment and no show because of the phone service
• 98% of patients that leave your practice will never tell you that they are leaving or why
• one person in your practice can actually be blocking people from even scheduling an appointment
• many people you might ask how your staff did with service will tell you what you want to hear

I could go on and on, but the point is that you don't have any idea what is going on in your practice relating to service until you measure it, and it is not as reliable if you measure it.  

Service is at the core of everything we do, from the Magic of Service seminar we offer to the many programs and certifications available through our company.  Our job is to help you get results.  If you really want to find out how your practice is doing on service, we are ready to assist.  How long can you afford to not know?  Please look over our programs today.