10 Opportunities To Impress Your Patient Before Treatment

Did you know that there are at least ten potential opportunities that your office has to impress a client before treatment happens? What an awesome opportunity to make an impact on the patient, to gain trust, to build excitement about achieving optimal dental health.

1. The phone call – Place your best team members on the phone! When the phone rings, you want to have your best players ready for action. You only get one shot to make a good impression.
2. The new patient packet – Sending out a personalized new patient packet with information pertaining to the patients specific phone call desires and needs.
3. Verifying the appointment – Take this opportunity to ensure that the patient received the personalized packet of information, viewed the website, if there are any questions about directions and verifying the time of the appointment.
4. The greeting – The patient’s entrance into the practice; personalized greeting; patient identification and acknowledgement of any guest that arrived with them.
5. The consultation– The time spent with the doctor and the team to identify their time and concerns for their dental goals.
6. The follow-up call – This would be an opportunity to follow-up with a personalized call after their visit to the practice.
7. The examination– The time that is spent exploring options that will achieve their goals for the dental health that the patient is seeking. Take time to communicate at this appointment rather than focusing all of your appointment time on getting the data that is necessary. Speak the patient’s language. Talking over their head and using words that are technical is a trust buster.Yes, there are comprehensive x-rays, digital photos, study models, periodontal charting and CT scans, but if you only focus on getting the task completed and you fail to communicate during the appointment with the patient then you may miss out on some very important details that the patient is trying to communicate to you.
8. The follow-up call– A personalized call about the examination and an opportunity to answer questions and address any concerns.
9. The treatment plan – The team members can personalize this time, use only the team member here that feels the most comfortable presenting fees. If you have someone in the office that is uncomfortable speaking about fees with patients, they may not be the right person discussing treatment and finalizing fees.
10. Appointing Treatment– Do not lose trust here. If you tell the patient that you can do something, then you have to follow through with it. This is such a critical piece to the overall success of treatment. Following through is important. You may have their money, but you do not have success yet.

These are ten opportunities to impress the patient and to build trust. Take a step back and take this time to make the greatest impact. This process can be done on a patient of record or a new client. Build trust and refuse to break it.