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Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

15Practice ManagementApril 23-29, 2012United Kingdom Edition (FoH) team. Not because they’re poor performers necessarily but because they’re the ones who answer telephone calls and meet patients in the reception area. They should, of course, listen politely and try to gather (and note down) as much infor- mation as possible about a pa- tient’s complaint. Should they then, as a matter of procedure, refer the complaint to the prac- tice manager? I say not. If you give your FoH team the scope to resolve complaints and, most importantly, to offer compen- sation when they deem it ap- propriate, you’ll stand the best chance of retaining the patient. There can be no generic rules as to which complaints FoH staff in dental practices should deal with. I suggest you discuss the matter with your team and devise some ground rules particular to your practice that suits the confidence and experience of your FoH staff. You may decide that FoH staff should deal with complaints arising from mistakes they have made (such as mix ups with ap- pointments) and with clerical errors (getting a patient’s name or address wrong, for exam- ple). They should surely not, however, deal with complaints about them – such as alleged rudeness – since these ought to be referred to the practice man- ager. Resolving a complaint or dispute at the reception point doesn’t mean it gets forgot- ten about – they should all be reported to the practice man- ager. From the point of view of running a patient-centred practice, the manager needs to know if mistakes are being made repeatedly and causing complaints or, indeed, if par- ticular patients are ‘always’ dis- puting things. The question of compensa- tion is a tricky one. While you don’t want to be giving products or services away willy-nilly, there’s little doubt in my mind that the lasting impression will be positive if the complainer takes away something tangible. And it’s this positive impression that they’re most likely to con- vey to friends and family. Hopefully, you will have picked up some oral hygiene products cheaply at dental shows or you will have pur- chased some end-of-line stock from your supplier. These are the sorts of items FoH staff can offer as recompense in face- to-face situations. The person complaining receives, say, an electric toothbrush worth £25 yet your financial loss is con- siderably less and will be more than made up for by retaining the patient. For complaints made by tel- ephone, I’ve found that the of- fer of a free appointment with a hygienist (“Which usually costs £xx”) is often regarded as ac- ceptable recompense. If the complaint is of such a nature that it needs to be han- dled by the practice manager, the FoH team still has a vital role to play. Often in this situa- tion, the practice manager will need to do some investigation and maybe confer with the prin- cipal dentist or practice owner. They may need to interview other members of the team. This invariably means the pa- tient will be told that someone will telephone them. Do ask the patient what time would be con- venient and make sure the call takes place at that time. If the matter is still unresolved by the agreed time, make the call any- way. It gives a much more posi- tive impression to telephone at the arranged time and explain that further investigation is re- quired than to leave the patient in the dark. My final tip when dealing with complaints is to never say “No”. Someone making a com- plaint is sure to resent having what they consider a reasonable request flatly denied. DT About the author A proven manager of change and driver of dramatic business growth, Jacqui Goss is the managing partner of Yes!RESULTS. By using Yes!RESULTS dental practices see an increase in treatment plan take-up, improved patient satisfaction and more appoint- ments resulting from general enquir- ies. Yes!RESULTS turns good practices into great practices. Jacqui Goss Managing Partner, Yes!RESULTS Honeydale Barn Wall under Heywood Shropshire SY6 7DU Tel: 08456 448066 Mob: 07795 562617 Email: jacqui@yesresults.co.uk Website: www.yesresults.co.uk Twitter: @Yesresults www.facebook.com/Yesresults http://uk.linkedin.com/in/jacquigoss