Building Credibility in Your Dental Office
Credibility is essential for any business, but it’s particularly important for dental practitioners. If patients trust your judgment, respect your opinions, and view you as a credible dental professional, your business will flourish all the more quickly.
However, building credibility, especially among new practices can be a challenge. It’s essential to build a solid and credible reputation from the moment you first open the doors of your practice. How can this be achieved? There are a few ways dentists can quickly build up credibility in their practice, putting them on the path to running a successful business quickly.
Encourage Reviews and Referrals
Word of mouth can be one of the most powerful marketing tools for a business, especially one as patient centered as a dental clinic. People trust the words of others, definitely more so than they trust the words of the person running the business. That’s why it’s important to invite your current customers to “go to bat” for you and your practice. But simply asking for referrals and reviews on Google, Facebook, etc. can seem patronizing, so there are several ways you can invite good reviews from the patients you already serve:
- Offer incentives for reviews (gift cards, etc.)
- Offer family/friends discounts for referrals
- Offer incredible service that makes people want to tell their family and friends
Continue Learning
Continuing education courses are not just for maintaining your dental certification, so don’t breeze through them just to get them over with. There’s a lot to learn (new technology, techniques, etc.) that can help you increase your skillset and better serve your customers. The more diversified you are in your practice, the more you will be viewed as a credible expert that patients want to visit.
Maintain a Great Office Setting
Everything in your office, from your waiting room furniture to the equipment in your treatment room, reflects on your business and on you as a dentist. The more professional and clean your office appears, the more people will view your clinic as a credible practice. Appearance isn’t everything, but what people see when they walk through the front door of your business has a substantial impact on how they view your practice.
Treat every patient to a comfortable experience from the moment they enter your clinic to the time that they leave. You can accomplish this by investing in key areas of your dental office, particularly your waiting room and your treatment area. Treating patients doesn’t have to be an uncomfortable experience, you can create a better treatment area by enhancing it with dental chair accessories like headrests, backrests, and knee supports.
