Customer Experience is a new method of branding. And if you give the customer experience to your patients then you will never lose customers. And the things which I am going to tell you today will be applied to all dental clinics either you have one chair clinic or you have a dental chain.
First of all, you need to know that costly is it to lose one customer. However, we spend at least Rs 1000 in calling new patients but we do nothing to recall our old patients. It takes seven times less money to recall old patients. For example:- if you play an advertisement on the internet and if one patient steps in your clinic then you will have to spend at least Rs 100 for your advertisement but if you spend Rs. 100 on an old patient then he will become a fan of yours. He will do mouth publicity of yours and he will come to you every time. That’s why retaining old patients is cheap and important too. Just think for a minute that if all your patients give your referral then how big your business will be.
If it is a dental clinic or any other business, people lose 20-70% of their customers in the first 100 days. The only reason that patients feel neglected once the treatment is over. And this happens because we design our dental clinic in that way. Our whole focus used to be on our new patients but we don’t pay much attention to our old patients that where will he go now. And there are three main reasons:-
1. Most of the dental clinics spend their money on calling new patients and as soon as those patients start taking treatment we used to think that they are our usual customer and we don’t do anything special for them.
2. The dental clinic appreciates those employees who come with new patients and forgets him who converts customer service into the customer experience.
3. If there are patients in the dental clinic then our whole focus remains on treatment gets over as soon as possible and we think that delivering treatment is everything.
So, we should understand that customer experience is not equal to customer service.
Customer service is reactive which means we provide treatment to the patients according to their nerd.
Customer experience is a practice which means what patients feel in your clinic or how was his overall treatment experience? And you have just first 100 days to take the patient experience from good to awesome.
I am saying 100 days because it is easy to remember 100 days and you get more time to build your experience. You have to change your patient’s perception and you can do this world by keeping a consistent approach. You have to do this work continuously for 100 days so that patient can make good trust.
So let’s see how we can do this…….
One patient goes through five phases in our clinic.
The FIRST PHASE IS TO ASSIST
This phase is before the patient meets you. The patient is deciding whether he should take treatment in your clinic or not. The patient wants to know that you can solve his problems in a good way or not. It means the patient is checking about you on your website, seeing your clinic from outside, asking about any queries on reception or talking on the phone on reception.
You are getting it right. The patient can decide before meeting you that he doesn’t want to take treatment from you. And on this stage showing the patients that treatment is good or not is more important than showing them that their experience is going to be very good. Suppose patient calls on reception and asks that he is suffering from pain in his teeth but most probably at that time you or your receptionist will tell him that he has to get RCT and what are the charges of that. But we forget to tell him how his experience going to be. They want to feel with their question that they are very important for you. So that’s why to tell them on the phone also that your experience is going to be awesome here.
We can give them some unexpected gifts on this stage and we call it pre-framing too. We can give them educational material and for this, we have to do our homework that we should know what things for toothache patients want to study or see. If we know the background of our patients it is better as if he is educated or not, where does he live, what are his interests likes and dislikes etc?
You don’t have to focus on making immediate patients instead you have to focus on keeping long term relationship with patients.
The SECOND PHASE IS TO ADMIT
This phase starts when the customer understands what are his problems and what is the treatment of that problem. And he tells you to start the treatment.
And at this stage, we can improve our buyer experience by giving them some types of momentum from which patients do not forget you and give you the chance to treat them. Like you can give them a brush and you can tell the right way to use it.
On this time patients used to be in a transition phase. Firstly he doubts you and secondly his heart used to be excited for getting treated by you.
Now the patient has found his solution and he is excited by taking his choice and we are also excited because we have joined a new patient with us in our clinic.
And you have to take advantage of this situation like you can send them face book request or a thank you video on what’s app.
It means you have to create an illusion that he has joined a very big organization.
In this phase, you have to be very creative and should do something unexpected so that patient can make a remarkable experience.
The THIRD PHASE IS TO AFFIRM
This phase comes when the patient stands up from your chair and thinks that the decision which he had taken to be treated by you is right or wrong. We call it buyer remark. The patient is afraid of two things at this stage.
First, one has he taken the right decision?
Second, will he get the result he has thought or what if it doesn’t?
Then you work is to aware the patient once again that he has taken the correct decision. You should give 3-4 different ways of payment to the patient like cash, card, wallet, check, EMI etc.
Suppose you have taken the decision of marrying someone after many years and at the moment of the wedding you get married to someone else then how would you feel?
Just in the same way patients are also afraid that will his problem be solved permanently. Won’t this problem happen again and again? If my problem is not over, will I get a refund? Or any question which can strike to patient’s mind. Here you should give a guarantee/warranty. You should reassure him that his decision is perfect. Give him the receipt of his money, write the treatment plan, if you can testimonials or photographs of the patient then show him and do this thing then also when you believe that this patient is not going anywhere.
The FOURTH PHASE IS TO ACTIVATE
This phase comes when the patient takes his sitting of treatment and goes home. We should make sure that the patient should feel better than before. Let’s take an example:-
Apple was the first company who let his products to be fully charged, before that everyone used to buy the new gadget, charge it and then use it. It used to spoil all excitement and waiting. And now you all know that every company used to charge their products before selling them. In that way, only the method of treatment should be smooth and comfortable. If you have done occ / usual relieve during RCT then make sure that you have not left any sharp point. Make sure that you have done polishing after scaling. Even you send the patient after rinsing their mouth from mouthwash so that they could feel fresh.
The FIFTH PHASE IS TO ACCLIMATE
This phase comes when the treatment of the patient gets over. This time you have to describe a patient’s stress point. Suppose you are delivering retainer after orthodontic treatment. Then you have to tell the importance of retainer. He will have a question in his mind that his teeth will not become the same again. He was this much disturbed from his braces that he doesn’t want to wear a retainer. But your work is to answer the questions of the patient and to tell him about problems which will occur in future.
And this is the time when you tell your patient that if he feels any problem he can come to you again for that or call him for check up again.
The SIXTH PHASE IS ACCOMPLISHMENT
This phase comes the treatment of the patient gets over and he enjoys his food. We think about the patient till the last phase but there are three more stages of the patient.
In this stage, you should do a follow-up call with your patient. You should take feedback from the patient. And this feedback is very valuable for you which you can’t buy from money. If your patient is better than before then it the right time to do the upsell. You can call him for cleaning or filling. You can surprise them by sending some cards too.
The SEVENTH PHASE IS TO ADOPT
This phase comes when the treatment of a patient is over a month. He is happy from your treatment and wants to make you his family dentist but he doesn’t need any treatment now. Now you make him a loyal customer from the good customer by offering some exclusive benefits or any loyalty membership card.
For example:- if he is referring to any new patient then he will have 20% discount etc. At this stage the emotional level of customer is different. You have to make him loyal at this stage only.
The EIGHTH PHASE IS TO ADVOCATE
Now our patient is not a normal customer, he is our fan and he is our referral agent. But we forget to give credit to our referral agent. Suppose someone refers you a patient and you make the consultation fee-free for him then this discount will not matter for him. But if you offer him teeth cleaning in free then it will matter to him. So if you want to give some gift to your loyal customer then gift him something which matters to him which motivates him to give more referrals.
Or you can say it like that when you get any referral patient, your marketing cost will become zero and your patient will also be quality. He trusts you from before only. So, you can use the remaining money in the right place.
