Tracy Webb explores how you can guard your practice’s reputation to keep attracting patients…
A good reputation can be one of the strongest assets a business owns. It can be the deciding factor between someone choosing to attend your practice or another.
It’s the same as when you are choosing a hotel or restaurant – all other things being equal, you will probably choose the one that has a better reputation, which you generally gauge from reviews (online or word of mouth).
However, a business’ reputation can take years to build and just seconds to destroy. This is even more the case in these days of online reviews and social media. So it is worthwhile putting some measures, such as those below, in place to protect your practice’s good name:
- Create a shared vision – your unique goal or vision for your practice should be reflected in your reputation. For example, if your vision is to be the highest-end practice in your area, or renowned for quality service, that is what you want to become known as and how you’d want people to talk about you to others.
And that will be much more achievable if your entire team is behind you. With everyone buying into the overall aim for the business, they will be more motivated to build and maintain the reputation you want.
To get your team behind you, it is important to have a collective approach to deciding what that vision is. Hold group sessions and ask for their input into where the business’ strength lies, how you could maximise opportunities, etc. If they’re part of creating the vision then they will be more personally invested in manifesting it in the way they act and behave, which is how your reputation is built.
- Have a clear unique selling point (USP) – you can do this as part of your vision or as a standalone exercise. But it’s important to identify what makes you stand out from your competitors and will help patients to decide whether to choose you or not.
Your USP – not just having one, delivering on it – will help to create your reputation. If your USP is connected to focusing on family and children’s dentistry or specialising in cosmetic services, everything connected to your practice should reflect this. That includes your team, website, external signage, internal décor, your services and social media pages.
Consistency is king when it comes to this.
- Set specific social media guidelines – it can be very easy to damage your reputation by posting a careless remark on Facebook or Instagram. These platforms are a great way to build your brand and reach new patients, so it’s vital to use them appropriately.
You can control and mitigate any potential damage by creating guidelines as to how the practice’s official social media pages should be used, the kinds of things you do – and don’t – want to be posting about. Although, you don’t want to be too rigid – there is meant to be an element of fun involved.
In particular, there should be a clear process for dealing with comments, queries and, especially, complaints. The public nature of such things mean it is worth giving some forethought and planning to how you would manage them.
- Have clear expectations for your team – word of mouth is often central in building your reputation. The way your patients are treated by your team will have a huge impact on how they talk about your practice to their friends, family, or even online. This goes right to the heart of what reputation is – what people say about you to others.
While you can’t control what others say about you, you can be clear on the standards you expect in terms of customer service. You can include guidelines in the staff handbook, and have regular training to reinforce the importance of such things. These guidelines can be as specific as making eye contact with patients when they come into the waiting room, how to address people, answering the phone within a certain number of rings, etc.
With these four tips you can ensure your hard-earned reputation remains strong and contributes to growing your patient numbers.
