Patient satisfaction and ratings are essential to the continued success of a dental practice. They provide potential patients, investors, employees, and colleagues with insight into your practice’s effectiveness and quality of care. Positive feedback, reviews, and ratings help you acquire new patients, receive referrals from other medical professionals, attract and retain top-notch employees, and obtain additional funding to grow your establishment. On the other hand, negative or low ratings have the opposite effect, ruining your reputation and earnings potential.
Whether you’re new to the dental industry or you’ve been practicing for years, maintaining positive ratings is crucial. How can you acquire better reviews? It starts and ends with the patient experience and customer service.
Evaluate Reviews And Surveys Regularly
Although you already have a lot on your plate as a dentist, it is essential to regularly evaluate patient reviews and surveys. What do your existing patients have to say about your products and services? Are they satisfied, or are there things that need improvement?
Check your website and healthcare and dental review sites to see what information is out there. Then, compile a list of questions, concerns, and complaints. Lastly, work with your team to find efficient ways to improve. Below are some suggestions to consider for your dental practice.
Enhance Your Dental Website
Your website is often the first point of contact patients have with your practice. It’s where they can review information about your services, accepted insurance plans, rates, hours of operation, location, contact details, and more. If your dentistry website is poorly designed, difficult to navigate, or contains inaccurate or outdated information, it could lead to negative reviews.
If you haven’t done so, consult a web developer to help you enhance your site. They may make suggestions like changing the colors, fonts, graphics, and layout to make your dentistry website easier to view and navigate. Another tip might be to add features like a mobile application and a patient portal so patients can schedule appointments, review x-rays, request referrals, and stay up-to-date on their oral health.
Invest In The Latest Dental Technology
Modern advancements within the dental industry help streamline processes and provide more efficient patient care. Although these technologies come with a hefty price tag, dentists and patients will reap benefits that offer a substantial return. For example, a dental lab scanner enables you to capture more accurate images of teeth, gums, and oral health issues. It’s also a lot less cumbersome for patients and gets faster reads for quicker appointments. Similarly, partnering with a digital lab allows dental professionals to submit images and place orders to get patients the treatment they need in a shorter timeframe.
Whether it’s CAD/CAM, air-abrasion, laser, or sedation dentistry technologies, investing in tools and resources that save time, improve comfort, and enhance the overall quality of patient care works to your advantage.
Prioritize Employee Appreciation And Development
Some dental practices make the mistake of overlooking the connection between employee satisfaction and patient experience. However, they go hand in hand. If your staff isn’t satisfied, it creates an unhealthy and unproductive work environment, which translates to poor and ineffective patient care. Therefore, dentists are encouraged to prioritize employee appreciation and development.
You must find ways to show appreciation for their efforts while investing in their continued growth and success within the dental industry. Hold periodic meetings with managerial and support staff to discover their needs and interests. Then develop policies and procedures to meet their demands.
Staff appreciation efforts might include pay raises, more time off, flexible work hours, catered lunches, employee functions, and recognition programs. Professional development suggestions include training opportunities, tuition assistance, career planning, promotions, and mentorship programs.
You can be a great dentist with the best intentions to provide quality care to your patients. However, if your patients aren’t satisfied, it leads to negative feedback, reviews, and ratings, damaging your reputation and altering your future success. Luckily, improving your dental practice’s ratings is possible. Use the above suggestions to improve customer service and patient experiences to get the positive feedback you deserve.
