Simple way to build trust

I was invited to visit a dental practice recently in Germany.

It was a single dentist practice with an on-site laboratory and a full-time technician. All in all, it was vey impressive.

When I visit a practice I always think to myself: “Would I be happy having my dental work done in this office?”

The answer for this practice was a definite “Yes” but for some offices I visit the answer is a very strong “No”.

Why?

For me the two things that I look for prior to even seeing anything about the dentistry are cleanliness and organisation.

Cleanliness and organisation

If there are dust bunnies or dog-eared magazines in the waiting room or weeds around the front door or spider webs in the corners or piles of papers lying around that tells me two things about the dentist and their staff — they are unobservant and careless.

Basically they don’t give a s#*t.

Regardless of whether you think it is fair or not, consumers of your dental services extrapolate from your environment to the quality of your dentistry.

Bad environment equals bad dentistry in the minds of consumers.

What to do about it?

At least once a week you should walk into your practice through the patient entrance and observe what you see around you.

Is your office immaculately clean and organised? Is it creating the right impression about you?

I have seen a formerly excellent practice run into the ground by a careless, unobservant dentist who allowed standards to slip.

The patients arrived expecting the office to be like a five star hotel and instead found the office to be be like a two star country motel.

Disastrous.