There is a multitude of ways to boost your dental practice’s growth. Whether you launch a new social media campaign or add a specialized dental membership plan, you can grow your practice with other low-cost ideas like patient reviews. Patient feedback is vital to the health and growth of your practice. Therefore, our dental practice coaches at Bryant Consultants share on the blog today why patient feedback is a cornerstone to your practice’s success and how to foster patient relationships with the comments and remarks you receive.
Request Feedback
Patients can provide crucial insight regarding their experience and highlight areas where adjustments to policies or procedures could make their experience more enjoyable. While some patients will freely provide feedback whether you request it or not, many patients may not. Unfortunately, many patients with a bad experience are more inclined to share it with others through social media or an online review platform. Therefore, a proactive approach to feedback can improve patient relationships and provide the opportunity to encourage the patient to come back or stay.
Our dental office consultants explain that gathering patient feedback requires encouragement from staff members and an effective and easy method for the patient to provide comments. For example, creating a free online Google form and adding the link to appointment reminder cards or emails provides a “digital suggestion box” available any time. The patient isn’t required to be in your office to complete the form, and it can help reduce negative reviews from appearing on major online channels, like social media.
Review and Respond to Feedback
When you ask for patient feedback, quickly reviewing and responding is crucial. Allowing feedback to sit with no response for months, especially when it’s negative feedback, can be detrimental to your practice. If patients notice that you failed to respond to their comments, suggestions, or concerns, they may no longer provide commentary or stop visiting your practice altogether. Our dental office coaches explain that establishing a cycle to review and respond to feedback is necessary for effective feedback management, especially as your practice grows. When responding to feedback, it’s important to remember applicable privacy laws according to HIPAA.
How to View Feedback
After determining how often you will review patient feedback, it’s time to gather every patient comment or remark and take an honest look at them. In most cases, it’s easy to tell who’s providing an honest review of their visit because they talk about what they liked or didn’t like and may provide improvement suggestions. The constructive feedback should receive an immediate HIPAA-compliant response, and the suggestions should be considered when implementing changes into established business practices. However, not every suggestion or comment can instigate practice change as it may not be feasible at the time.
On the other hand, unconstructive or negative feedback demands an immediate HIPAA-compliant response. Comments or remarks that include name-calling, personal attacks, profanity, or slander can dramatically impact your dental practice reputation. Therefore, our dental practice consultants recommend politely responding to the feedback and offering a constructive method to correct the issue. Perhaps a response might sound like this:
We apologize that you had an unfavorable experience with our practice. We strive to provide the best experience possible and welcome feedback on ways to improve our office. Please call us at (provide phone number) to discuss your experience with us in more detail and allow us an opportunity to make things right with you. This way, it puts it back on the patient. If they don’t call, let it go! If they do, be open to listening to their concerns and avoid defensive language or tone.
Prioritize Action
Returning patients are keen to notice their feedback or suggestions aren’t taken seriously when they see a lack of implementation. Therefore, it’s crucial to acknowledge every patient suggestion, even if it’s not possible to implement it immediately. Unfortunately, making multiple changes at once may confuse staff members and patients, so prioritizing a list of suggestions based on feedback is best.
A few factors our small business consultants advise clients to consider during the prioritization process are listed below
- What realistic changes can you make in a specific time frame?
- What feedback or changes could impact the largest number of patients?
- Which team members have the time and skill set to execute and maintain the changes?
After you prioritize your actions based on feedback, you can create a more enjoyable environment and experience for patients.
Bryant Consultants
Requesting, reviewing, and responding to patient feedback can help you grow your patient list. Showing patients that you truly care about their oral health and what they have to say about their experience in your office fosters the dentist-patient relationship, creating a more pleasant experience for everyone. If your dental practice needs help capitalizing on patient feedback or needs to create a feedback method, feel free to contact our small business coaches at Bryant Consultants. Please call (877) 768-4799 or contact us online to schedule a consultation today!
