When you want to provide excellent customer service to your patients and streamline how your dental office runs, it’s time to look at ways to improve communication. When your dental office team is provided with the right tools for communication, there is less overall resentment. Treatment errors are less likely to occur, and teamwork is improved when communication gets better. Create the professional dental practice atmosphere you want when your employees have clear communication strategies in place.
To improve communication in your dental office, try some of the following practices:
8 Tips For Successful Dental Practice Communication
- Be clear about company goals. Your vision statement and mission statement should be shared in a clear, direct way with your employees. When you have everyone on the same page when it comes to your vision and mission, this will help improve communication as a whole.
- Have a short morning meeting. Take the time each day before work starts to meet with your team. Let everyone know if there is anything unusual scheduled for the day, and make sure that your employees know their assignments for the day.
- Use a strong communication to relay quick information. A quick communication solution, like text messaging, can give you an edge when it comes to employee communication. With most of your employees carrying around a smart phone all day anyway, the ability to text message can improve overall communication in your dental office.
- Make scheduling easier through texting. When you employees can ask for time off through text messaging, it becomes much easier to manage schedules throughout the week. In addition, a text message is a clear, direct form of communication and there will be no reason for employees not to be informed if they receive a text message. You can even automate employee shift scheduling through text messaging software.
- Get to know your team members. When you run a dental practice, it will benefit you to get to know the different members on your team. Create an environment where you are willing to listen to concerns. When your employees feel as though you care about what is going on in their lives, they are more likely to work harder and be honest in their communications with you.
- Utilize cloud-based electronic health records. Keep your records up to date on every patient by using a cloud-based electronic health record system. All employees with access to the system will have up to the minute information on patients seen at your dental office.
- Strategize around handoff communications. Problems can occur when patients are handed off from one employee to another. Look for ways to offer clear communication between each person as the patients moves along from reception, to the hygienist, dentist and then goes to check out. Each patient should know what the next step is in the process from your employee.
- Communication improves with repetition. When you introduce something new to your employees, don’t explain it once and never talk about it again. Repetition helps, even if it is as simple as how the receptionist introduces the patient to the hygienist.
Communication is vital to the success of your dental practice. When you want to create a professional atmosphere, it’s time to look at how your communication with your employees and how internal communication occurs. Look for ways to streamline processes and make communication. Text messaging can be used when last minute information needs to be shared, or there are scheduling changes to deal with. Always look for ways to make communication better and your practice will flourish.