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Does size matter when it comes to patient care?
23rd Mar 2010
At Sparkle Dental Boutique, our team comprises five members, with their unique personalities, skills and experience. As a small team, you may think that it easier to manage but, in reality, we all have to ‘punch way above our weight' and multi-task to cover all roles effectively. So does size of team matter in delivery great patient care? Well no, as winning Best Team London and Best Team UK in 2008 proves.
We are a team who are positive, patient focused and team orientated and we go the extra mile for our patients, each other and our practice. But becoming such a team just doesn't happen overnight. Each aspect of our service delivery has been thought through and rehearsed many times – from telephone responses to new patient procedures to fee collection.
I remember reading an article once saying that you should treat your patients as if they have a `Post it note' stuck on their forehead which says 'make me feel special'. And that's exactly what we did. In one of our practice meetings, I asked each team member to imagine a place where they had been made to feel special, whether the experience was in a beauty spa, from an airline or hotel, in fact any industry. What transpired was very interesting!
What we all had in common was the fact that we all make judgements about our experiences of a business based on the business's efficiency, reliability, professionalism, friendliness and expertise of their staff. My own great experience comes from a visit to Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir a, beautiful restaurant/hotel in Thame, Oxford. From the minute you arrive, you certainly get the feeling that this experience is going to be special.
From the eye-catching vegetable and herb gardens that provide the kitchens with fresh produce, to the restaurant, everything seems to be just perfect! What most impressed me was how they took our order and didn't write anything down while we were outside in the garden enjoying drinks – and then somehow our food arrived in the restaurant and they knew who had ordered what. It was a fabulous dance between the staff and our transition from garden to lounge area to restaurant to lounge was seamless. The staff were caring and knowledgeable and the best thing about it, was at a second visit to Le Manoir, the service was just as impressive.
So, what can we learn from the great customer service that we have experienced in our day-to-day lives and how can we incorporate it into our dental world? Clearly, customer/patient care is hugely important to every dental practice and perhaps more important in some roles than others. An obvious mistake to make however, is to assume that it is the receptionist responsibility (who is in a customer-facing role) to make your patients visit great.
Within a dental practice, whether you are a clinician, hygienist, receptionist, treatment co-ordinator, manager or anything else, providing fantastic, memorable patient care is a shared responsibility, one that if done correctly goes a long way in building your practice.
One way to start making your practice more patient focused, is to make it a core element of each team members' job description. This needs to be followed up with regular training so that patient care remains at the top of your practice agenda.
In my next blog discover ways in which you can make your patients feels special…
Author
Kavita Verma
Kavita Verma is practice manager at her sister Sunita's practice in west London – Sparkle Dental Boutique, which won Best UK Team in the Dentistry awards 2008. Visit the practice at www.sparkledental.co.uk.
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