Have a Good Day
A highly successful Seattle restaurateur named Timothy Firnstahl has a basic rule: Always deal with complaints before they're made." A corollary is: "Every customer must have a good experience." It is a given for Firnstahl that the customer is always right, even when the customer is wrong. His employees don't quarrel about whether the steak is medium or medium rare. If it isn't cooked the way the customer wants it, it goes back to the kitchen and they try again. If customers are unhappy about too long a wait for service, they get free drinks. If they are unhappy with what they ordered, it is replaced or they get free dessert.
Firnstahl keeps track of customers' telephone numbers and has his staff make hundreds of calls to inquire about the customers' perception of the quality of their experiences at the restaurant. Was it bad? OK? good? very good? excellent? If it was merely OK, it was bad. If it was bad, a gift certificate is sent to the customer, with a pledge to do better.
Orthodontists cannot guarantee treatment results, but we can guarantee our service, and we can emulate Timothy Firnstahl in trying to reduce system failures and increase customer satisfaction. If customer satisfaction is the secret of Firnstahl's success, patient satisfaction is the key to an orthodontist's success.
System failures in orthodontics include:
Non-starts. It has been variously estimated that the average orthodontist treats only 53 to 65 percent of patients referred for consultation. Every referral is an opportunity; every non-start is an opportunity lost. More than that, it is a loss of income. The most fertile field for improving profitability is already in the practice, in the form of referrals not converted to starts. Every practice should know what happens to every referral from first call to start or non-start, should find out why people do or do not start treatment--by asking them--and should make a greater effort to improve the percentage of case acceptance. Patients' satisfaction begins when they make their first phone call to the office. Keeping people waiting. The No. 1 or 2 complaint on the list of every patient and parent is: "You kept me waiting." Orthodontists can monitor waiting time and try to set up an appointment system that permits the office to stay on schedule. If the office is unavoidably running behind, people in the reception room should be informed about just how long the wait will be and offered a refreshment or the opportunity to reschedule. Failure to communicate. Also high on the list of complaints of orthodontic patients is: You didn't tell me what was going to happen to me and why." A corollary to this one is: "You didn't inform me about my child's progress." Patients appreciate explanation of each procedure before it is performed. Patients and parents want to know how they are doing. Regularly scheduled progress reports not only fulfill this need, but also identify cases that are lagging in treatment. Not finishing treatment within the time estimate. This may be one of the most costly system failures, because it both causes dissatisfaction and results in a pile-up of patients that are fully paid but still require treatment. Early attention to cases beyond estimate pays off in greater profit margins and in greater patient satisfaction. Too many broken and canceled appointments. This, too, is a costly failure. It puts a delay into treatment that can be anywhere from one to six weeks or longer. Possible causes of broken and canceled appointments include too rigid an appointment system, which forces patients to take appointments they can't keep, and too full a schedule, with no allowance for reappointing patients quickly. Too many emergency appointments. Some practices have many more emergency appointments than others. Emergencies can disrupt a schedule, add to treatment time, and diminish patients' confidence in the practice. It is important to keep track of emergencies and take steps to reduce their number. Lack of cooperation. Many orthodontists consider this to be a patient failure, but is really a system failure. In some cases it is a failure to identify non-cooperative patients in advance and to refuse them treatment in the first place. Admittedly, this is not always so easy, but to the extent that patients really don't want orthodontic treatment, they should either be rejected or accepted on a trial basis. In any event, it should be possible to identify lack of cooperation early in treatment and to deal with it by counseling, changing the treatment plan, or terminating treatment--even if it means refunding some money. It is important to recognize that lack of cooperation is not always due to a character defect or to an unwillingness to cooperate. Inadequate staff. Many orthodontists believe that there just aren't any good employees to be had in their communities. Occasionally that may be true. The problem may also be due to a lack of adequate training or to a reluctance to reward employees adequately. Offering a service that the orthodontist believes to be appropriate, rather than the service the patient desires. It is a simple procedure to ask patients what they want and what their opinion is of what they are getting. One can then decide whether the service can be modified to satisfy the patients, or whether the patients' expectations can be modified to suit the service. Failure to empathize with patients' discomfort. Orthodontists must appreciate that people have varying thresholds of pain. Blaming. It does no good to blame patients, blame parents, blame employees, blame the lab. You have to believe that there are no people failures, only system failures. In a recent issue of Boardroom Reports, Karl Hellman reminded us that meeting customer needs is only part of customer (patient) satisfaction. We cannot assume that people are aware of the benefits they get from our service. Hellman says," Tell customers what benefits they can expect from the company's product or service. Explain how the company works, so customers appreciate what is done for them. Educate customers about what they should do to get the most benefit from the company's product or service.
