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42 Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition | May-June 2015practice management The first impression is the final impression, but…? How are we doing? Getting the best from your staff By Dr. Ehab Heikal F rom a fancy looking clinic to a friendly smile, first impressions are no doubt the most vital impression you will ever make in business so it is important to get it right first time. But no, this does not just mean making sure that your feet aren’t on the desk when serving a cus- tomer or making sure there is a permanent smile imprinted on your face at all times. It is more about the other details. First impressions are really im- portant in any industry, but in the current economic climate they are more important than ever before. Our patients are continually faced with making so many decisions, that we have to make the right impressions in their minds to make it easier for them to choose us. This is a vital part of any dentist practice man- agement program. Shifting away from an obsession with first impressions is vital as it can be all encompassing, so shift well clear of only treating your patients extremely well on your first ever contact with them. We all know that in the current eco- nomic situation it can be very easy to lose some of your most valued customers, so be sure not to count your chickens before By Fiona Stuart-Wilson I f we lived in an ideal world where nothing ever went wrong, patients always took up treatment plans and arrived for their appointments on time and staff never went sick we probably wouldn’t need to talk about managing performance. Although we might want to be- lieve that staff know what they need to do and will get on with it to the best of their ability at all times, we all know this is unlike- ly to happen. The success of your practice is in the hands of everyone within it and depends on their delivering a good service. Any weak link in the chain will have a negative ef- fect on your practice and on your ability to deliver a world-class service to patients and run a successful dental business. The point of managing performance is to make sure that the perfor- mance of your team contributes to the goals of the practice, and taking action to improve things when this does not happen. If you manage performance ef- fectively it will mean that eve- ryone in your practice under- stands • what the practice is trying to achieve • their role in helping the prac- tice achieve its objectives even the eggs have hatched! To prevent any loss of patient reassurance it is important to make sure that your story and message of who you are and what you do is in harmony with each other. There is no room for discrepancies. All the expenditure we do to stay in business is dependent upon patients going ahead with our diagnosed treatment recom- mendations. Our clinical skill is of no consequence if we do not get the opportunity to benefit our patients with it. So, to grow our businesses we need our sto- ries to comply with patient per- ceptions. Once created, first impressions are very difficult to change or eliminate. These mindsets then affect every subsequent decision that patient makes. It will either make your future dealings with the patient easy or difficult; this is why any comprehensive den- tal practice management strat- egy should consider this. It is vital not to take any chances. Everything your patients expe- rience as a result of doing busi- ness with you must be excep- tional. Everything you and your team, say and do must match up and be the same thing. For ex- ample, if your sign and exterior of your practice looks good and • what they need to know and what they need to be able to do to fulfil their role • the standards of performance required • how they can develop their own performance and contrib- ute to development of the prac- tice •howtheyaredoing,andifthere are performance problems what can be done about them. However, good performance management looks at how peo- ple do their job as well as what they get done. So, how a person approaches their job, or the way they behave as part of a team or communicate with patients and the rest of the team is just as important as what tasks they ac- you are based in a good location but your team and your services are not up to that limit of quality, then you will always reach be- low patient expectation. It is important to note that your patient’s expectations are cre- ated primarily by several attrib- utes, from past experience, to word of mouth, to the effective- ness of your marketing cam- paigns. If you do not at the very least meet those expectations, you will always disappoint your patients. For this reason, it is vi- tal to deliver what you promise in your marketing. If you exceed the expectations your patients walk into your practice with, then you will have developed a fan for life! Incorporating a “WOW” cus- tomer service experience whilst your patients are with you often exceeds the good impression process. Taking positive steps to developing a good solid reputa- tion is the way to gain customer confidence and this can be built by using a series of techniques. Create A Good First Impres- sion At Your Clinic: - Make sure you know how you are portraying yourself to your patients. What is the message you are sending to your market. - If you do not know your mes- sage, create one and define it. complish. For example your re- ceptionist might make appoint- ments with unfailing accuracy. Their performance might be described as good. However this receptionist might be routinely unfriendly to patients. In the lat- ter case we are highly unlikely to describe their performance as ‘good’, as we are measuring it on how they do their job (their be- haviour) and not solely on what they do (their activity). Performancemanagementhow- ever is more than simply trying to get staff to do things which will help the practice achieve its objectives. Handled well it can encourage both the giving and receiving of feedback, and un- lock ideas for improvement and innovation, clarify standards, and foster greater communica- tion. Clarify and communicate the aims of the practice You want people to deliver the objectives you have set for your practice. Your staff’s perfor- mance can only be measured in terms of the practice’s perfor- mance. Things often fall down and business performance can falter because the objectives of the practice have not been clari- fied and established by the prac- tice owners. Everyone needs to know what the practice objec- tives are, and you need to re- The foundation of this usually involves creating a unique sell- ing advantage. - Then create a good market- ing strategy, which will attract the right type of patients to your practice. The kind of patients who are more likely to be in- terested in your specific type of dentistry or service. - You need to get your entire team in on the action of what you are trying to do. - Create systems within the clin- ic on accomplishing the unique experience for your patients, which complies with your mar- keting message. - Customer service is a key ele- ment to excellent provision of your dentistry. mind people of them frequently to keep them focused. As you achieve certain milestones, don’t forget to tell your staff about what they have achieved! Clarify people’s roles Make sure that you have clear and detailed job descriptions and person specifications and update them when working practices change. Job descrip- tions describe what you expect people to do. Person specifica- tions should outline the qualities and qualifications that your staff need to have in order to fulfil their roles effectively and focus on the ‘how’ people carry out their role. Make sure that you have clear policies Your policies are your ‘book of rules’, clear statements about the way your practice should operate. If you do not tell people what they should be doing you cannot complain if they don’t do it. Know how to get good perfor- mance Make sure that you know how to help people improve through training, coaching and develop- ment opportunities to get them to the standard you want. Provide honest and construc- tive feedback - Educate your patients on their conditions so that they are more involved in the process of co-dis- covery. This will make it easier for you to give options and ad- vise. - Make it easier for your patients to be able to afford the dentistry. Consider all options. - Make sure you have a process in your clinic, which continues to provide a consistent experi- ence for your patients. (Check my book, Quality & Standardiza- tion section) Give open, honest and direct feedback regularly so that peo- ple know what they are doing well just as much as what they are not doing well, and establish a performance review system which allows for two way dis- cussion. We all want staff who are en- gaged, take pride in their job and show loyalty towards the practice. If your team can see the bigger picture and how their role contributes to the success of the practice they are more likely to do their best for you. Perfor- mance management is about continuously improving the performance of individuals and in so doing improving practice performance. And that’s not just good for the practice – it’s good for patients too. Dr. Ehab Heikal BDS.MBA.DBA Practice Management consultant eheikal@eheikal.com Contact Information Fiona will be presenting a great seminar on the Dental Business Management Conference in Dubai – 12th June, 2015 For more information please email to info@dbmc.ae Fiona Stuart-Wilson, Director, UMD Professional Ltd fiona@umdprofessional.co.uk Contact Information