The “health” of your dental practice – no, it’s long-term success – depends on the quality of communication between the practice and its patients. In the most successful practices, the team is valued by patients in three ways:

  1. the business and clinical skills used to perform their duties
  2. the attitudes of the team to help patients and grow the practice
  3. their ability to communicate effectively with patients and other teammates which enhances trust and increases case acceptance

What is the “quality” of your communications? Do your office guidelines and policies send a message about who you are and how you practice? Does the appearance of your team (uniforms, name tags, etc) communicate the neatness and professionalism of the practice? Do you demand patients arrive on-time while you normally keep patients waiting ten/fifteen minutes past their scheduled appointment time?

If I had to sum-up the purpose of this blog on communications, it would be this: every moment of every day, verbally and non-verbally, you have an opportunity to use communication as a practice-building tool.

Are you taking full advantage of this?