Past the pleasantries, now what?

You have moved past the pleasantries, it is recommended that you now ask the patient specific questions about any concerns or problems they may be experiencing. Empathetic listening at this stage is very important. You want to paraphrase to make sure you understand what the patient is saying, ask clarifying questions to better understand the problem, look them in the eye and nod to show understanding.  

Empathetic listening is the art of hearing what the person is saying and showing that you care through listening. Leaning in towards the patient and nodding your head demonstrates that you care about what they are saying. This is a critical step that is often overlooked by teams because they are busy. However, taking the few extra minutes to do this correctly can increase your relationship with patients.

 Once you and the patient have had the important conversation, relay this information to the doctor in front of the patient. You do not want to isolate the patient at any time. Your dialogue may go something like, “Mrs. Jones is having sensitivity on the left side. She notices it more when she is drinking cold drinks than hot.” Once you have informed the doctor of the situation, ask the patient if there is anything else they want the doctor to know.  

Great communication is not built over night. Practice this simple technique to improve. 

Great communication takes time and great teams. For more information contact Salt.

Salt Dental Practice Management

Article was first published by Tri-County Dental Society

Your Conversation Matters

When a patient first comes in the room and sits down in the chair, conversation matters. Ask the patient in a caring voice how their day is going. Sit directly in front of them and look them in the eye, knee-to-knee, eye-to-eye. This gives a sense they are important and that you are focused on them. Be aware of how you sound. Zone in on your tone to make sure you are using a calm and supportive pitch. Your non-verbals will speak louder than the words you use.

Often times when a patient first enters the room, you may be busy continuing to set up the tray or get ready to take x-rays. However, it is beneficial to the relationship to take time to focus on the patient only. Leave the other for later.  A patient needs to feel in that moment that they are the most important person in the room.  This few minutes will also give you the time to discuss any concerns the patient has before the doctor enters the room.  

Great communication takes time and great teams. For more information contact Salt.

Salt Dental Practice Management

Article was first published by Tri-County Dental Society

I Can Help You vs. How May I Help You?

           

Many individuals answer the telephone with “Hi my name is Austine. May I help you?” This statement indicates that you may or may not be able to help. It provides a says that their needs may be too great for you to handle. Try changing your dialogue to be, “Hi, my name is Austine. I can help you today.” This let’s patients know that no matter what the problem is you’re going to resolve it. Or whatever it is they need you are going to make sure you help them. This method is simple and can be used any time you have an initial dialogue with a patient.

Great Communication takes a great team.

Salt Dental Practice Management

Article was first published by Tri-County Dental Society

Communicate Change: What time should it be done?

There is a right and a wrong way to communicate upcoming change in your office. It doesn’t matter if you are changing something small or it is a drastic change. The way in which you deliver the message will make a difference in how it is received from the team. Change is the only thing that we can count on, yet most individuals who say they like change, can become the biggest resisters to change.

            You will want to set-up an uninterrupted time to communicate the change that is going to occur. You want to give employees time to digest the news but also have time to ask any questions that they may have. You don’t want to rush the staff to the next patient in the middle of delivering something new to them.  However, you also do not want them to have too much time that becomes a complaint session.

            Plan the time of day you are going to deliver the news carefully. If it is something that is going to take awhile to digest and adjust you may want to do it on a Thursday afternoon. This gives them time to think about it, come back the next day and ask questions but does not send them home for the weekend to stew on it.

The morning huddle maybe appropriate to communicate certain types of change.  For example, scheduling changes, mission statement changes or policies on how to handle insurance are appropriate for morning huddle.  A morning huddle is the perfect time to give new information to the team that are going to impact their immediate future.

Avoid lunch-time change meetings, this does not give teams enough time to accept the change and move on from it. It may end up impacting your afternoon. You do not want that.

5 Ways to Inspire Staff

Your employees are a reflection of you and how they feel everyday in the work place impacts your business. Don’t take chances with your company.  Individuals who are inspired by their jobs will complete tasks with passion. Their smile is infectious and employees will want to come to work because it is fun. Here are five quick ways that you can inspire your teams.

Make work fun

            As adults we run through are busy hectic lives.  We often forget to stop and have fun in everything that we do. More fun equals higher productivity. More fun really means happier teams. When our teams are happy they will then attract patients that are the type of patients you want in your offices.  While you are having fun at work, you forget that it is actually work.

Respect everyone

Respecting your fellow team should not go down hill when you are tired, have patients backed up and a patient yelling at your front office. Model respect to everyone at all times. Clicks are not acceptable at work and the negativity needs to be left at the door in order to create the strongest team you can. As you respect your staff they will model this same behavior or they will naturally find another place to work because it will become uncomfortable for them to stay.

Communicate

Communication between you and your team should be completed with a smile, respect and often. Sometimes, we forget that our team may not know that we scheduled an important meeting at 12:00 because something has come up. Tell your teams what they need to know in order to be successful. The more you communicate with them the more they will talk to you.

Be transparent

Everyone doesn’t need to know everything about you, however, be transparent in the decisions that you are making that impacts them and why. If you want everyone to trust and respect you they have to understand you. Sometimes, we forget to explain why something needs to be a certain way. Or you think it is not necessary to justify why you are doing what you are doing, however, for people to complete tasks sometimes they need to know the why behind them.

Know your vision and mission

To inspire those around you, you have to know where it is that you are going with them. The vision and mission is your path and your future. If you blindly make decisions that do not align it can begin to feel to your employees that you are making willy nilly decisions because your team doesn’t know what your goals are. 

Asking the right questions to teach your employees to be independent

Are you an employer that always supplies the answers? Do you often wonder why your employees don’t take time to think for themselves, yet come running to you with every problem? At times it may be scary to hand over the reins and trust your employees are in fact able to handle situations in the office without you. However, how do you get them ready if they are not now?

There is a coaching technique called cognitive coaching. It is the belief that everyone knows the right answers they just need to be asked the right questions in order for them to think and be able to come up with the answers. Sometimes, as employers we are quick to supply the answers to every little thing. But then pretty soon our employees begin to rely so heavily on us that they do not take care of situations that they once felt comfortable making.

Individuals have to be able to have practice in problem solving. You might want to start slow and conduct some role-playing activities during your morning huddle. For example, what do you say when a patient becomes angry at billing or how do you handle a patient that isn’t accepting treatment options? Asking your employees to practice handling the situations can help increase functionality in the workplace.

Command it-Don't demand it!

Anyone can walk into an office and demand respect from his or her co-workers. You can cause fear in your employees in order to get them to cooperate. However, at the end of the day if you want employees that complete the fine dance of dentist and assistant then you are going to have to work on tactics that command respect not demand it. Building a relationship with your staff can help improve the overall culture of the office and improve on your relationships with staff.

In order to build a relationship of respect how you talk to your employees is as important as what you say. For example, if the tone of your voice is impatient and demanding then the individuals around you will begin to resent you. Most of what an individual hears and interprets is your non-verbal’s not the actual words you say.

Everyone makes mistakes. We all have days where we even miss up a procedure we’ve done half a dozen times. How you handle the mistake is what is going to support or damage the relationship. In order to correct the situation, you may first want to determine what the problem was. Was it a simple mistake? Or was it something major? Does the individual who made the mistake know that they need to fix it or are they in denial? All of these determine the language and how you approach the situation.

            Use a calm, supportive tone in order to demonstrate respect of the individual. You might want to ask probing questions in order to determine if your employee is aware of the mistake they have made. Once you determine that the employee is aware, correct as necessary. For example, your employee may need to write down the procedure and have it posted. Or it may be a very simple correction.

            How you handle your employees will determine their success in the office. Success on their part equals a higher success rate with patients.