Is patients’ satisfaction good enough for your business?

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The power of one consumer is getting stronger than any era

Now we are in Internet-driven world, so customers have more power than ever. Through consumer-generated Media (CGM), blogs, social network video blogging, pod casting and etc, even a single dissatisfied customer can broadcast her or his complaints to millions of audiences. You might think that one disgruntled customer would just tell 3 or 4 people their bad experiences, but we live in an era where this single customer can talk to thousands or tens of thousands of people.

Many dentists are pursuing patients’ satisfaction through new technologies, new equipment, and more staff training but patients do not care any of them. Patients’ satisfaction is a complex mixture of patient’s experience as well as their personal needs and values.

14 factors leading to patient’s dissatisfaction.

1. No feeling that patients are respected by doctors or staffs

2. Unilateral or overbearing push without sufficient explanation. Everybody thinks the same way wants to be respected by anybody else.

3. Having a condescending attitude and voice toward patients. Sometimes they talk to their patients like they talk to children.

4. The feeling of being an invisible person because doctor and staff are using technical terminologies during their treatment

5. Leaving patients waiting more than 10 minutes without any comment

6. The doctor’s presentation lacking enthusiasm and emotion because this may be the hundredth time doctor has presented

7. No emotional exchange and no attempt to create a good relationship, jump into the treatment plan

8. Doctor or staff’s long monologues without considering the patient’s position at all

9. Lack of efforts to understand the patient’s insurance and to make it fully recognized by the patient

10. Lack of effort to pay close attention to the patient’s financial options to provide private space so that the patient's self-esteem doesn't get hurt

11. Patient's opinions and consensus that are not reflected in the patient's treatment plan at all

12. Not taking care of the complaints that the patient said last time

13. Not paying much attention to the patient's anxiety and pain

14. Very quiet treatment without enough explanation for the whole treatment

15. Bad experience at the front desk, not greeted by a warm hello and a smiling face

Patients’ satisfaction is not good enough for your business. Most dentists might be satisfied if their patients are satisfied with their treatment. However, if the goal of the dentist is patients’ satisfaction, there are inevitably dissatisfied patients because patients’ satisfaction is extremely complicated as we have seen above. And the impact of those dissatisfied patients is greater than ever. So now the dentist’s goal should no longer rest on the satisfaction of the patient but must pursue above and beyond the satisfaction of the patient.

Just satisfying patients do not have a big impact, while a few dissatisfied patients have a big impact. However, patients who feel extremely exceptional satisfaction become unbearable without telling thousands or tens of thousands of people about their experiences. Therefore, patients’ satisfaction is not good enough for dentists’ business. Exceptionally satisfactory Experience, so it called Wow-experience, is good enough for dentists’ business.

If dentists are pursuing Wow-experience all the time, their business will be consistently stable thanks to their super satisfied patients.

What’s next

#4 What is Wow-experience in dental office?

Previously

#1 How you can attract new patients?

#2 What do patients really want?

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