People buy things they want — not what they need! So, how do you make patients want your dentistry? One way is with a fantastic patient experience. To help you “wow” your new, existing, and future patients, Kirk Behrendt brings back Heather Crockett, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, with three steps to make your patients feel heard, valued, and understood. To learn how to make your practice the best dental home, listen to Episode 830 of The Best Practices Show!
Learn More About Heather:
Learn More About ACT Dental:
More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:
Main Takeaways:
Quotes:
“In this world of dentistry today, anybody can go to any dentist. You want them to come to your practice. You want to differentiate yourself and stand out from the rest. Part of that is by making these patients feel like they're heard and feel like they're valued in your practice. Understanding their goals for what they want for their oral health is essential to building that trust. It will help to foster the long-term relationships that you're really looking for with patients, and it will really ensure that high-level, personalized care. Knowing what truly motivates a patient will help to drive behavior change. It will help you to know what words to say and what words not to say. It will improve the case acceptance of the treatment that you're recommending because you know it's what's best for them. It's going to create a collaborative partnership where the patient really, truly feels like you care about them. That's why it's important.” (1:35—2:36) -Heather
“You have to create and document a system for identifying the patient's goals and their values. Some practices do this in a verbal way very intentionally, specifically, with new patient appointments. Every single comprehensive exam should include asking patients and digging deeper into what they value and what their goals are for their oral health. Other practices choose to do it in the way of a document, to have a little questionnaire that they give to all their new patients and patients that are going through this comprehensive exam. So, this is us finding a way that works for us and our practice. So, going off of your vision, your core purpose, your core values, to really get that information from the patient, we really want to make sure that we're very clear as a team, how do we get that information? Where does the information go once we get that information from the patient? What things do we say to the patient after they share a goal or a value with us? Those things are crucial to documenting that system so that everybody is on the same page. It's done consistently, in the same way, from every single team member, every single time the conversation is had.” (3:34—4:51) -Heather
“Two of my favorite questions that aren't asked a lot in this first step is, why us? Why now? ‘Why did you choose us?’ is a very specific question. And they might tell you you're on a list. ‘It was easy. I saw your building.’ That tells you a lot. ‘Why now?’ No one ever asked that one. That gives you so much perspective. Sometimes, people say, ‘I just inherited a whole bunch of money, and I want to get my teeth done.’ Is that important to know? Absolutely. ‘My 20th reunion is right around the corner.’ Is that important to know? Yes. ‘I heard you guys do this, and I'm ready to do it.’ Is that important? Yes. You’ve got to ask, ‘Why now?’ because people aren't just sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, I've got some free time. Let me schedule a dental appointment.’ Something prompted them to call today. You’ve got to figure out what that is.” (7:54—8:45) -Kirk
“You have to practice, rely on, and be confident in your verbal skills. A lot of our clients want to differentiate themselves from the guy down the street. You talk about this all the time, Kirk, there are DSOs like crazy. They're building massive things. What sets you apart from that practice? I've got a client that I can think of in Ohio where the private dental practice closest to them just sold out to a DSO. So, they're like, it. Private practice wise, I think they're it for 10, 15 miles. But what truly sets them apart? Because I could just as easily go to this DSO, or I could go to this private practice. Like, why? Why us? Why now?” (8:53—9:33) -Heather
“We have to be super confident in our verbal skills. We have to be confident first in what we do and know that we are providing value to our patients, because then it will make your verbal skills that much stronger. But here's what I would do. I would definitely lean into clarifying what specifically it is that we're trying to get from the patient. Then, you could jot down a couple of different questions to ask the patient. We like open-ended questions here at ACT. So, any question that's going to end in a yes or a no is not a good question to ask. Things like, ‘We want to ensure that we're always serving you best. What are your goals for your oral health?’ The patient is going to be floored. They're going to go, ‘Whoa. Nobody has ever asked me that question before.’ Then, once they answer, if they say that they just want to be healthy, that could be such a wide variety of definitions. Then, your follow-up question is, ‘Tell me what healthy looks like to you. What does that mean to you?’” (9:35—10:32) -Heather
“I've gone to so many doctor appointments in the last couple of weeks with my son. I think we're finally to a point where we've discovered what's going on. But it's a different experience at each doctor's office. You know the ones that you're like, I am not a number on their schedule. I am not just part of, I've got to go here. I've got to go into room two. I've got to go here. I am a person. I am a human being, and I know that they care because of the way that they said what they said, how they mentioned what they said, the way that they ask those follow-up questions. I know, and I can tell that they're listening to me. That human connection piece is something that's missing more and more. Everybody is just on their phone all the time. We really need to elevate the patient experience. It's going to floor your patients. They're going to tell their friends and family about it because it's so different from anything else they've experienced in any healthcare practice that they've been into.” (13:43—14:42) -Heather
“You brought in a really key verbal skill piece, that “feel, felt, found”, which you can listen to other podcasts and really get the nitty-gritty details on what the “feel, felt, found” is all about. But it makes it relatable because that's that herd human mentality. If I hear that somebody else has been through the same thing and you were able to help them and change their life, then you could help me too. It helps to open that up. It's literally just a mind shift. It's a mindset change for your patients, as well as for yourself and your team.” (16:43—17:14) -Heather
“Your core values should really bleed through this exceptional patient experience. I could think of a couple clients that I have. One in particular, I've got to call out North Point Dental Group in Oregon. Mark and Ben, one of their core values is “Humans, not teeth”. I love it so much. It's so powerful. You know exactly what it means. And this is what it's all about. It's eye contact. When was the last time you went to the store or somewhere else — I was just at the airport last week. Next time you go to the airport, notice none of the TSA people look you in the eye. It's the craziest thing. But when you do finally get them to connect, and you say, ‘Thank you so much for helping me today. I hope you have a great day,’ they light up. Again, it's that human piece. I know that we're having an interaction, wherever it is that we are. But at the end of the day, we're all humans, and our core values should bleed through all of this too.” (17:20—18:12) -Heather
“Talk less, listen more. That's that key communication piece that you were talking about with these young dentists. They think that they have this wealth of knowledge to gift to their patients. And yes, you have a wealth of knowledge. But the wealth of knowledge really, truly lies with your patient — and you're never going to get that wealth of knowledge if you're the one talking.” (20:41—21:02) -Heather
“There's a difference between responding and waiting for the time for you to talk. You know what I mean? There's a time where you should just be quiet and let them talk because they're dying to tell you what's going on. We're in a world where we're starving for significant relationships. We're starving for somebody to listen to us. I know this is heavy and this is deep, but your patients come into your office, and they have had a roundabout way of getting to your office, and a lot of people have vomited all this dental information on them forever. What a great opportunity to truly differentiate who you are.” (23:07—23:43) -Kirk
“While you're the expert on their dental condition, don't ever violate the number one rule, which is, the patient is always the expert on themselves. So, you’ve got to start with, ‘Who are you? Why are you here? Let me help.’ If you can understand why they're there, they'll do the dentistry, ultimately, if you go slow enough with this.” (23:47—24:09) -Kirk
“I don't know who originally said it, but you're going to sell more dentistry with your ears than with your mouth. Really listen for some key cues that the patient says, like, ‘I really should. I wish I could. I want to.’ Then, perk up your ears and really lean into that. Ask those follow-up questions to see, ‘Okay, let's dig a little bit deeper. What is that? What does that look like?’ Oftentimes, we'll use the term, “if you could wave a magic wand” because that magic wand might be your ideal or your “perfect”. Will we ever get to perfect? Maybe not. But that will tell you a lot about what the patient is hoping for out of the relationship. Going through that co-discovery of the patient's values, that's when you really learn what's internally motivating them. It's going to give you that opportunity to go into their world and what's really, truly important. If you can build up the value of your recommended treatment and the purpose is around their value, their goal, what's important to them, then the rate of your case acceptance is going to increase like crazy.” (24:23—25:36) -Heather
“That time [you give to patients] will really, truly pay back to the practice over time. You're going to get some crazy loyal patients that refer patients like them, your avatar patients, the people that you love to have in your practice. It's going to take your communication to the next level — not just yours, but the entire team, because you're going to take some of these gems, you're going to listen to some verbal skills podcasts, and you're going to say, ‘What should we say? What should we ask? What should we do?’ Your team is going to be consistent. They're going to be aligned. We're going to make our patients, as humans, the focal point. Then, you're going to be different from every single dentist around you. Your patients are going to go, ‘That is my dental home forever.’” (34:28—35:07) -Heather
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
1:28 Why this is an important topic.
3:28 Identify your patients’ goals and values.
8:48 Practice your verbal skills.
15:21 Practice your storytelling skills.
17:15 Learn how to connect.
20:24 Talk less, listen more.
31:12 Slow things down.
36:02 Final takeaways.
Heather Crockett Bio:
Heather Crockett is a Lead Practice Coach who finds joy in not only improving practices but improving the lives of those she coaches as well. With over 20 years of combined experience in assisting, office management, and clinical dental hygiene, her awareness supports many aspects of the practice setting.
Heather received her dental hygiene degree from the Utah College of Dental Hygiene in 2008. Networking in the dental community comes easy to her, and she loves to connect with like-minded colleagues on social media. Heather enjoys both attending and presenting continuing education to expand her knowledge and learn from her friends and colleagues.
She enjoys hanging out with her husband, three sons, and their dog, Moki, scrolling through social media, watching football, and traveling.