Dentistry is a service industry and to succeed, we must change from the authoritative figures filled with answers to one of open-minded servitude. In the sales process, this is an essential ingredient to forming a relationship. Your guests must believe you are really listening to their dreams and their concerns.

Everything you think, say and actions must be oriented towards your guests. What is the protocol in your office to welcome a new friend at their initial phone conversation? Shake up your standard list of questions (it is too routine to sound sincere) and manners to demonstrate “it is all about you.” How can they know you are different in your commitment to a relationship? Is everyone on your team skilled for a meaningful phone conversation? Record your greeting and conversation. Does it sound fresh and enthusiastic? Do you have a tag line when announcing your office which causes your guest to pause and comment? Are you speaking so fast, people have to ask you to repeat your name?

Because it is all about them and not about you, sending medical forms and four color office brochures about your financial policies is passé. We are trying to create a smooth entry for your guest. Completing forms at home and then forgetting them is a bumpy road. We are not operating on your guests at their first appointment so a lengthy health history is not necessary at this point. Eliminate the barriers to entry. Establish a new protocol which allows them to enter your lives as a person and their teeth are secondary.

Be prepared upon their arrival to greet them personally. At Nordstom, the associates always step away from their desks to greet you and upon completion, bring your purchases to you from around the desk. It is the little things that count.

A warm welcome area needs to be well-designed for relationships. A few comfortable chairs says “we aim to please a few, not the masses.” Reading material should elevate their mood and learning. Warm colors, recently refreshed, serve as welcome backgrounds for handsomely framed after pictures of guests of all ages, gender, and ethnicity. There should be no treatment “things” present like skulls, bridge models, during treatment pictures or retractor smiles.

New patients are evaluating you at all times during this first visit. They are watching you to see if your actions match your advertising or the friendly voice on the phone. Does your office look like you could deliver what your marketing is touting?

Have a full complement at your juice bar. Trust your guests with real cups, real lemons, fancy tea bags, coffees. Find out how they like their refreshments and make a note later in the computer so you are prepared upon their next arrival.

Your patient restroom is another area where everything counts. It is all about them. What amenities would you like? What would impress you? Establish a system for checking on cleanliness and supplies. A burp or bump is when a new guest has to tell you with a wrinkled nose, “things are not so good there.”

I am not a fan of giving your new clients a tour at their first visit. If the reception area is welcoming, the bathroom impeccable and the consult room inviting, showing them the lab or treatment areas is not necessary, unless they ask.

Your purpose at the first visit is to make them comfortable in the consult area and find out about them, not just their teeth. Why did they select you and why now? Many team members will busy themselves with other tasks while the guest cools their heels doing forms and hearing all about the Doctor. Shift your paradigm from “they really want to hear about how great we are” to “it is all about you.”

Ask the questions with your own positioning statement of how and why you are different in discovering your patient’s dreams. Be bold. Ask the full questions with confidence and demonstrate your maturity and interest by LISTENING. Play with them. Give them lots of openings to express themselves.

Everything counts means your parking lot, the smells, the changing pictures, your Doctor’s clean glasses and white lab coat which fits are all noticed. What an opportunity to revisit your whole new patient protocol and choreograph a fresh picture of who you are and what values and standards are important. Videotape your present sequence from initial phone conversation, through the patient entry (both physical and psychological) to treatment acceptance.

There is always room for improvement and change when the major theme is “it is all about them.”

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