People like to engage the services of people they can trust, so to build a loyal patient base it’s essential to get to know more than your patient’s teeth!
To build relationships with your patients you need to make their experience more than transactional. It’s about understanding the motivations of your patients and getting detailed information about their expectations.
How do you get to know your dental practice patients?
Encourage staff to engage with patients
While it’s important for dentists to build rapport with their patients, it’s also important for staff to connect and engage with patients, whether it’s in the waiting room or over the phone. This rapport is key to making patients feel comfortable and building practice loyalty.
If possible, staff should always address patients by their first name when they enter the practice. This familiarity goes a long way to connect with your patients and show them they are important to your practice. Listening is key and staff should always make patients their first priority.
Improve internal communications
It’s essential to have great communication between staff within a dental practice. When practice staff effectively communicate patient information it helps dentists understand the patient’s needs and wants and also shows the patient that staff value their business. Patient information can be shared with practice staff via morning meetings.
Consistent engagement
Ongoing engagement with patients helps to build relationships and better connections. The patient experience begins from the patient’s first interaction with your practice and is ongoing even after they have received treatment.
Sending welcome packs, calling to confirm an appointment and asking if the patient has any other questions or concerns, as well as follow up calls and after-care support helps to create trust and keep your practice at front of mind.
Social media and email marketing are both useful tools if you’d like to continually engage with your patients long after their treatment.
Get more out of examinations
There’s more than just the clinical side to dental examinations. Dentists can take this opportunity to get to know their clients better and discover their needs and wants. Building relationships with your patients helps to build trust and shows your patients you truly care about their dental needs.
Do your patient’s need help paying for their dental treatment?
When you get to know your patients you may discover that affordability is holding them back from getting the treatment they need. Luckily, DentiCare Payment Plans can help patients get the treatment they need. They aren’t like your usual dental loans:
- No credit or finance checks.
- No interest.
- Guaranteed payment for DentiCare Plus plans.
To make it easier for your patients to pay, DentiCare Payment Plans now offer 50% longer payment terms than other buy now, pay later options available.
DentiCare Payment Plan terms:
SmileNow – 12 to 20 weeks*
DentiCare Plus – 2 to 24 months (36 months for orthodontic)*
*Terms dependent on plan value.
It’s easy to sign up for a DentiCare Payment Plan:
- Present your patient’s treatment plan.
- Decide on the payment plan details, confirm affordability and send the payment plan proposal by SMS.
- Patient submits the completed digital form to commence the plan.
- Treatment commences.
To increase patient retention and create a loyal patient base it’s essential to get to know your patients. Once you have a greater understanding of their needs and wants you can increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and ensure you’re giving your patients exactly what they want.
To find more information on DentiCare Payment Plans, visit our website or contact our customer relations team.