Make it simple for your patients.

Currently I’m moving house. Have bought a new one and am selling the old one. All in all it’s a pretty stressful process.

We recently had a meeting with the “staging” person. That is the person who makes your house pretty for sale. After examining the house she came back to us for a meeting. I was hoping for clear, definitive recommendations and a costing.

What we got was a whole lot of ifs, buts and maybes. It was stressful and, quite frankly, annoying.

Over the past 8 or 9 years I’ve watched a lot of dentists present treatment to patients. The most successful ones examine the patient carefully, work everything out then give suggestions that are clear and easy to understand:

“The situation with your teeth is this…

You have two options: Option A has these advantages and disadvantages and the cost is $…

Option B has these advantages and disadvantages and the cost is $…

What would you like to do?”

With such clarity most patients can make a decision.

But, if you say to them: “We might do this, or we could do that, or we could think about that…” they will struggle to decide.

Instead of picking option A or B they’ll say: “I’ll go home and think about it.”

Do your patients regularly struggle to make a decision? If so then you need to look at the clarity of your explanations.