Building an Office Culture of Customer Service Excellence for 5-Star Reviews

<img alt="" style="width: 360px; height: 240px;" data-cke-saved-src="https://dmdtoday.s3.amazonaws.com/_media/_image/happypatient.jpg" src="https://dmdtoday.s3.amazonaws.com/_media/_image/happypatient.jpg"> p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; background-color: #ffffff} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; min-height: 11.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #0433ff; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none} span.s3 {font-kerning: none; color: #000000}

Patient satisfaction can be boiled down to a science, and it all starts with your employees.

Is your dental office culture producing happiness and excitement in engaged and referring patients?

RELATED:

• The 7 Things Patients Want in a Dentist
• Stay Ahead of The Curve by Improving Geriatric Patient Care
• 50 Ways I'd Like to Enjoy Early Retirement

Building an office culture of customer service excellence starts on day one for a new hire, and the first day of employment is the most important day for a service leader. This sets the tone of who either becomes an engaged dental professional or a disengaged, transient employee. As a practice owner and orthodontist, I have identified the key factors to foster those engaged dental professionals and allow your practice to succeed.

• Customer service orientation can be described in your team handbook, where dress code is specified, and smiling is a requirement. Here, your service vision, mission and core values are stated. Expectations are set and understood. From the outset, team members understand what it is expected and that they are employed to work together in the best interest of the patient and for the overall success of the dental practice.

• Dental leaders must communicate customer service goals on a daily basis to continuously foster engagement into the service culture. Review past successes and positive patient experiences regularly. Read your five-star reviews with your team. Keep five-star service a top priority. More importantly, read and respond to anything less than five stars within the business day, and be sure to improve areas less than five stars immediately.

• Giving recognition for outstanding customer service will help your team members achieve even more five-star reviews. Thank team members for customer service jobs well done. An annual customer service award is one special way the entire team can focus on rewarding customer excellence. Have team members vote for whoever they feel deserves a Customer Service Award, and remember every team member's voice is valid and everyone's opinion counts. Make an annual Customer Service Award the highest recognition in your dental office by placing each winner's name in your Team Handbook or on a special plaque.

• What gets rewarded gets repeated. Ask your team, "What can we do to make us even better in the eyes, hearts, and minds of our patients?" Keep track of the responses and implement change. For the best customer service results, make focus, learning, and improvement of your customer experience part of your daily office culture.

Dr. Gorczyca is the author of the books "It All Starts with Marketing," "Beyond the Morning Huddle," and "At Your Service." Books available on Amazon.

Discover more Dentist’s Money Digest® news here

.