For dentists, factors like training, education, and advanced technology only go so far. Unless you can offer a personalized patient experience at your practice, you’ll have difficulty building and retaining a loyal patient base. As many people experience dental anxiety, or fear going to the dentist, finding ways to create positive patient journeys and a personalized care experience are essential.

How Can You Personalize the Patient Experience at Your Dental Office?

Your patients' experience with your dental practice starts from the phone call to book their first appointment and lasts for as long as they're your patient. The following best practices go a long way to ensuring your patients stay happy and loyal to your practice.

1. Start a Patient Reward Program

One unique and fun way to offer a more personalized patient experience at your dental practice is with a reward program. Patients can earn loyalty points by completing tasks like paying their balances on time and referring new patients. Once they accrue enough loyalty points, they can redeem them for rewards. Patients will look forward to their appointments because you’ll have created a friendlier, more personal atmosphere at your dental office.

You don't have to create a high-quality reward program from scratch and implement it on your own. With the Patient Loyalty Program, we do all the work!  You choose the rewards, giving you an opportunity to increase the ROI (return on your investment) with incentives like 10% off a cosmetic dental procedure.

2. Create a Comfortable, Relaxing Waiting Room

Nobody wants to show up at their appointment and spend time waiting in a stark, bare waiting room. Instead, upgrade your waiting room and invest in comfortable seating, modern interior design, and extra perks like free Wi-Fi, a TV, or even a coffee bar. Making your waiting room more inviting and relaxing prevents patients from feeling tense or anxious.

3. Use Social Media to Engage with Patients

In today’s digital age, using technology like social media to interact with patients is an excellent way to create a more personalized experience. If you’re too busy to post or update your pages, hire a social media intern or content creator to handle it. With our Dental Marketing tools, you can have access to an entire library of content ready to be used in your social media campaigns. When you engage with patients online, you create a stronger sense of familiarity that will cross over into the dental chair.

4. Get to Know Your Patients

Some days, you may not feel like engaging in small talk with patients while you’re trying to discuss their treatment plans or upcoming appointment. However, listening to your patients and making friendly conversation is very important.

By learning more about your patients and their lives, you show how much you genuinely care about them. You can have your front desk staff make small notes in each patient file, which you can use as a quick refresher before their appointments. In addition, you can make small gestures like sending them a card on their birthday or around the holidays, which is a nice touch and adds to a more personalized patient experience. Using our patient communication tools, you can also send them a friendly message over text or email.

5. Ask for Post-Appointment Feedback

Asking for feedback is an excellent way to show your patients that you genuinely care about their opinion and value what they have to say. In fact, this is important for all types of healthcare organizations, from dental practices to doctors' offices. Furthermore, asking for feedback allows you to address potential issues and fix them or improve the quality of care you provide.

Online Reviews lets you send every patient an automatic feedback request after their appointment. You can send emails, texts, or push notifications, asking patients to “tell you how you can improve.” Their reviews can be posted to popular sites such as Google and Yelp. By asking for feedback, you ensure patients can air grievances, share their positive health outcomes, and feel as though they’re an important and valuable part of your dental practice.

Connect with Your Patients and Personalize Their Experience at Your Dental Office

Taking action to create a personalized patient experience and positive dental office environment is more important than ever before. At Dental Intelligence, we offer a wide range of solutions to streamline your business, improve quality of care, and increase patient satisfaction.

Schedule a demo today and learn more about how we can help your dental practice succeed.

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