December 2005

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How to Create Value
For Your Patients

You’ve worked hard to build a great Practice. To put an awesome team together that will not only have fun, but that will also help you achieve your dreams. How’s it coming? What is it that makes the difference between an ordinary Practice and an extraordinary Practice… one where the patients are absolutely delighted with the value they receive?

Value is a judgment made by your patients about the association between the price paid and the service received. The perceived value is based on their expectations, wants and needs, and perhaps at times unrealistic ideas about how things ought to be. The difference between their wants and needs is your value-added. The more you differentiate your services by increasing your value-added, the better your patients will feel about the service you provide and the more loyal they will become.

It’s important to understand the subtle distinction between the value of a service and the benefits of a service. The benefits of your service are the results your patients receive. The value of your service is the long-term or big picture way your service enhances their life. The benefits are shorter-term; they describe the immediate things your patients experience. For example, the benefits of regular bodywork are better circulation, stronger immune response, and less stress. The value of regular bodywork is better health, a more responsive body, and a greater flow of energy.

The Perception of Value

Your patients don’t know if the restorations you placed in their mouth have perfect margins or if all of their sub-gingival calculus has been meticulously removed. What they do know is how you treated them and how it made them feel. It’s all about their perception. Here are a few simple but important ways to increase your patients’ perception of value:

• Greet patients with a smile and by name as soon as they enter your office
  
  
• Make sure callers do not remain on hold
  
  
• Offer waiting patients’ coffee, tea or juice
  
  
• Answer questions patiently and thoughtfully
  
  
• Consistently provide a seamless experience
  
  
• Practice the platinum rule – ‘do unto others as they would have you do unto them’
  
  
• Say thank you

Your Intangible Assets

Practice value grows when you focus on the little extras – it’s the intangible niceties that patients remember. Likewise, they also remember any bad experiences they encounter – and they’ll talk about the bad experiences an average of nine times more than they talk about the good experiences. If you can make the leap from good to great service, totally exceeding your patients’ expectations, you’ve greatly increased the likelihood that they will tell others about how great your office is.

Addressing the intangibles is more difficult and sometimes more painful than managing the numbers. But goodwill is the most valuable component of your Practice. Why did your patients choose you to do their dentistry? It may be due to the physical proximity they have to your office, but hopefully it has more to do with the way you satisfy their emotional needs as well as their oral health care needs.

Be careful to not believe in the if it isn’t broken don’t fix it theory; it can drive you into deadly complacency. In today's client-centric market, you need forward-thinking team members that are constantly striving to improve the patient experience. By doing the little extras, you are building your intangible assets. Great intangible assets include:

• Loyal and profitable patient relationships
  
  
• Happy, supportive and collaborative team members
  
  
• Reliable relationships with specialists, suppliers and labs
  
  
• High quality, consistent systems and processes
  
  
• Brand recognition with compelling market presence
  
  
• A dynamic referral based Practice
  

Ask the Questions

Survey your patients and your team members periodically. Use their feedback. This is where you will get some of your best ideas. Act quickly on good ideas. And pay attention to the complaints, if there are more than a couple of complaints regarding an ‘issue’ it’s because it needs to be addressed.

When we cross the counter and become clients we certainly appreciate the person who goes the extra mile for us so it only makes good sense to extend that same appreciated courtesy to our patients.

Points to Ponder:

• When was the last time you thought about how you’ll increase the inherent value of your Practice?
  
  
• Have you taken steps to increase the value your patients experience on a consistent basis? What else could be done?
  
  
• What is your patient attrition rate like? Do you have patients walking out the back door? If your answer is yes, why are they leaving? What can you do to turn this situation around?
  

Best wishes as you and your team go the extra mile to deliver exceptional value; it will get you closer to having the Practice of your dreams!

Wishing you and your loved ones a New Year filled with
health, happiness and prosperity!

About the Author

CoraMarie Clark, MBA is recognized as a highly effective dental practice strategist. She works with dentists that want to optimize their potential both personally and professionally. Her collaborative approach has helped teams develop dynamic competitive strategies and achieve high impact sustainable results.

If you would like to explore the possibility of having CoraMarie work with your Dental Practice or speak for your Association or Group, contact us today.

CoraMarie Clark
phone 403.686.6136
email coramarie@strategix-ltd.com
web strategix-ltd.com

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