Are you really speaking your patient’s language?

 

Remember your last dental visit, you know, the one with the aching tooth?  Did you notice that nobody cared that you were a person, just as a right upper incisor, canine or pre-molar?  You feel like the only part of you that matters is that particular tooth.  They treat you in a cordial, professional manner, rather than a personal compassion.  They only dare to touch you armed with a mask and gloves.

 What’s wrong with this picture?

 Sometimes we as DCs are way too technical for our own good.  We want to impress and okay… show off our intelligence, which does something it’s not intended to.

It turns people off.

It groups you into being a doctor they want to get rid of rather quickly.  Think of our dental patient.  Let’s get it over with as quickly as possible.

How much fun would it be working in an office where people didn’t dread to come in?

With so many DCs the battle cry is new patients, but when you really get down to it, its retention…NOT NEW PATIENTS!

If you remind them of doctors who have very low retention levels, they will only come in for pain relief only for a few forced visits.  No matter how much you talk about VSC, phases of degeneration, wellness, kids, patient education, etc, they are not interested.

Once you make this impression with people, it’s almost impossible to take it back.  Initial impressions are almost impossible to change.

If you are reminding your patients of other doctors, you are not unique and you will be treated like a generalist instead of the specialist you really are.

You want to have a complete system in place that communicates to the patient in their own language, not the language of the doctor.

If you’re looking to upgrade you patient ‘chops’ check out my free e-book Speaking the Language of the Patient.

Instead of ‘thinking’ that patients understand you and drop out of care like flies, know that patients really understand you and want to participate in your office, inside or outside of insurance.