I
have a three-tier customer service process in our periodontal office:
recognition, personal conversation, and little acts of kindness.
I have a philosophy that there are
different stages of patient contact. The
first is recognition. I think it is very
important that we know people’s name as soon as possible and when they come in
the door. We can do the equivalent of
saying “Hey, Norm” when he walks into the Cheers’ bar. The recognition is important, because it sets
the tone for a personal touch.
The second level is to recognize
them as a person, to be able to ask something like:
“How is your dog?”
“I knew your husband was in the
hospital the last time we saw you. How’s
he doing now?”
“How was your vacation?”
We want patients to know that we
really do remember them as individual people.
The third level that I think is the
most fun and exciting is to make sure they know that they are special; to let them
know that they are not only somebody that we know and recognize but they are
somebody that we value. We can do that
in a wide variety of ways, the basic one is to listen to them and see
if there is anything that they would like or need that we can fulfill for
them.
As an example, we have a patient
that travels a long way to get here and he has a bad back. He was talking about that one time he was
here, and we went out a got one of those little back braces that you put behind
your seat to make you more comfortable for his ride home.
Our goal is just to be able to
listen and be able to treat the patient not only as somebody who has dental
needs but as an individual who is welcome and someone whom we value highly.
John, Patient Care Coordinator
Metropolitan Periodontists
Minneapolis, MN
New Patients Welcome
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