"Serve at room temperature" is one of those lines in recipes that lead one to wonder…whose room? How hot or cold should it be to keep the food tasty without risking spoilage? How long can the food be left out?
Even though they're not in the same class with edibles, the same questions apply to patients. Unfortunately, there probably isn't a single good answer. And the number of people in your waiting room at any given time further influences the temperature—the more people, the higher the temperature will rise due to body heat being given off.
A temperature one person finds comfortable may feel too cool or too warm for another. However, scientists tell us that most people remain comfortable in a five-degree temperature range when they cannot feel air blowing directly on them. But here's an even more important finding: When people can feel air blowing, their comfort range goes up an additional six degrees! In other words, we tend to be more comfortable in a light breeze than in still air. Under a running ceiling fan, many people can comfortably sleep through a summer night with their thermostat set at 80 degrees.
A temperature range of 68 to 70 degrees will probably keep most patients comfortable, and installing a ceiling fan in your waiting room should make them even more so.
Planning to choose some new music for your patients to hear while they are on hold? Ideally, no one would ever have to wait long enough for music to be necessary, but we all know that just isn't so. Indeed, researchers tell us that the average person spend almost 45 hours per year waiting on hold!
Though music played on hold is meant to soothe, it actually drives people nuts—and some of the music you might think is best may well have scored on the top 10 most annoying "on hold" tunes. One study of 1000 respondents reported that the winner for "most irritating" category went to "Greensleeves." The next four, in order of their irritation factor, were "Nessun Dorma" performed by Pavarotti, Simply The Best, sung by Tina Turner, "Memory"/anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber and "The Entertainer."
The best music choice may be no music at all. "On hold" times provide a wonderful opportunity to market your services. You could write and record your own message, but it's usually best to hire a professional to deliver the information. You could start with a general message about your practice, followed by more specific information about each of the cosmetic dental services you offer.
Music as a soothing strategy has passed its peak. Use the time to do something more productive!
If you've ever bought a gift certificate for someone, you'll remember that you paid for it before the business from which you bought it gave the certificate to you. Gift certificates, then, allow businesses to get their money up front rather than have to wait until the customer comes in to buy.
You can do the exact same thing with your dental practice. Not only will it improve your cash flow, but gift certificate recipients will love having the ability to choose from services that are prepaid!
Popular cosmetic dentistry procedures are great candidates for gift certificates. Maybe your patient Sally Jones wants to have her teeth made whiter, or get a veneer for a tooth that was damaged in an accident. Rather than have to save her own money to pay for these procedures, Sally can drop hints to her parents or boyfriend about how much she'd like to have these things done and include the information that your office give gift certificates.
From Sally's perspective, receiving a gift certificate seems nicer than being handed the cash. And from your perspective…well, Sally could always fall in love with a new outfit in the store window and spend her cash somewhere else. When she gets it in the form of a certiicate, she has to spend it with you!
Hanging pleasing artwork in your dental office adds to the sense of being welcome that patients feel. It also provides them with something to look at, which in turn can give them something to think about other than the dental procedures that triggered their visits.
This last can be especially important for patients coming in for root canal or other dental procedures they secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) dread. The idea of pain is often worse than the actual pain itself, especially since pain has been permanently put out to pasture by today 's pain-free dentistry techniques.
How do you choose artwork that pleases when not everyone shares the same taste in art? The trick is to choose artwork that trigger thoughts about subjects that everyone enjoys thinking about. An Impressionist rendering of a garden in the south of France sets people to thinking about idyllic vacations. A painting of snow-capped mountains can inspire a feeling of awe, one children playing on a warm sandy beach can bring back happy childhood memories.
Whichever kind of artwork you choose, make certain it is colorful and cheerful.
When patients enter your office, they should feel welcome—almost as if they were entering a friend's home. A cold, sterile front desk environment will have exactly the opposite effect. At best, such an environment will make patients feel like they've just entered an unpleasant place. At worst, they won't come back for more.
To judge how welcoming your office is, ask a friend whose judgment and forthrightness you can trust to come in and give you a candid opinion. You may also want to ask an interior design specialist to pay a call as well.
Getting truthful feedback may not be fun, but it will give you the opportunity to improve your office environment by "seeing yourself as others see you."
Your front desk environment should make your patients feel valued as well as welcome. Dental staff members who greet patients by name with a smile, who ask about how their work and families are doing, who evidence in your patients as the people they are outside of their dental appointments can make even a poorly-designed front office seem fine.
If the eyes are the windows into the human soul, electronic communications are the windows for the soul of a business or dental practice. That's why it's so important that when people call your office they get a great "view" into the quality of service your office provides.
There's an old and very true saying that "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." Too often, we think this refers more to meeting and interacting with them in person and forget that first impressions are created during the first contact—which more and more frequently happens over the phone.
Prospective dental patients may have found your name through the phone book, or from a relative or friend. Whatever the initial impetus that leads them to call your dentistry office, until people hear someone answer the phone and interact with that person, they won't have formed a true impression of you. This is why great phone manners, attitudes and voices are so terribly important!
Is your dental staff exhausted from trying to organize and keep track of all the information your patient folders contain? Would you like to be able to access patients' records without handling bulky paper folders that test your patience? How about having an online collaboration with other dentists?
You can do all of this and more with Web-based software that provides 24/7 access to all your files in a secure environment. This kind of computer program also allows you to easily redefine office work flow processes, integrate patient data and interface remotely with business and financial advisors.
Computers free us from the need to limit productivity to one location. Using Web-accessible programs, computers allow you to communicate online with your staff and with your fellow dentists. If your office uses a bookkeeping service, you can make patient billing information available to it over the Internet and save a trip to or from the bookkeeping firm's office.
Using a computer program to track the services you have provided to your patients as well as the services you have discussed providing to them is a great way to get and stay organized. So, come into the 21st century and use a computer–you'll be amazed at how much easier managing your practice will be!
How do you feel when a business acquaintance asks about your family or a social acquaintance asks about your work? If you're like most of us, the answer is, "I feel good…like those people see me and care about me as a person."
Because being seen as an individual is a powerful experience that can strengthen bonds,your patients will feel good about themselves and about you when you remember to ask about their families and careers.
Keeping track of family members' names and patients' careers can be daunting, but you can overcome this challenge by making notes on a separate sheet of paper you include in each patient's chart right after each visit and review just before the next visit.
Think of this as a "tickler file" marketing device designed to grow your practice. It takes only a minute or two to update each person's information–but the dividends this practice pays can hardly be overestimated! Your "tickler file" will allow you to feel much more poised and in control, too, for instead of frantically trying to remember if Sue's husband is named Bob or Bill, you'll go into Sue's next appointment with the right name on the tip of your tongue!
The first priority for a dental office’s front desk reception staff is to greet clients like they are royalty. Without your clients the front desk reception would not have a job, nor would you a dental business. Therefore, your clients are royalty and should be treated as such. A successful dental office makes certain that the front reception desk is staffed at all times with courteous, friendly and cheerful people. A front desk reception staff member should be trained to cheerfully great all clients as they enter the office, ask them to please sign-in, and acknowledge the client by their proper name.
The front reception staff also should be empathetic toward many dental patients’ unease in the dental office and reassure the patients that the dentist or dental technician will be with them shortly and invite them to please have a seat. At times it may be necessary for the front desk reception staff to answer questions from patients that are waiting as well as calm nervous patients. This professional, patient and caring attendance extended toward your clients is an integral component of your overall dental service provided to your patients.
A successful dental office takes every step necessary to ensure that the front desk reception staff greets your clients like they are royalty.