The Importance of Staff Meetings

Regularly scheduled staff meetings are essential to maintaining the effective day to day operations of a dental practice as well provide for the ongoing development of a dental practice. 

Staff meetings provide an important forum for problem solving and correcting day to day operational problems which are impossible to get in the middle of your day.  The ongoing correction of problem areas is essential to:

• Maintaining high standards of patient treatment, service and care.
• Maintaining high standards of teamwork and communication.

Staff meetings also provide the opportunity to work on the development of practice systems free from day to day operating pressures which is key to developing effective systems.   Developing effective systems also requires that teams follow planning, decision making and change management processes in order to effectively incorporate change.

Feedback, Coaching and Support

Achieving quality and excellence requires ongoing feedback, coaching and support from our peers. 

This involves not only being prepared to provide one another with responsible feedback and coaching, it also requires being open to receiving feedback and coaching when provided.

Effective and satisfying coaching relationships require that each and very team member:

• Maintain high expectations of themselves and other team members related to the standards of treatment, service and care provided to patients.
• Bringing to the attention of your teammates (in a responsible and supportive manner) when the team is not performing as well as it could be in serving patients or following systems.
• Supporting other team members to comply with the systems and policies of your practice or proactively and constructively change them.
• Providing other team members with open, honest and responsible communication related to an issue or concern you may have.
• Not participating in gossiping or other communication and behavior that undermines the working environment of your practice and suggesting that other team members do the same.

Power in Numbers

Excellence in the delivery of treatment, service and care to patients can only be achieved through a team effort. 

No matter how effective you are as an individual, your ability to deliver high standards of treatment, service and care is dependent upon a team effort.  This requires an individual commitment to the success of your team and the people you work with.

We can accomplish more as a group than we can as individuals.  Whatever we think is possible in terms of individual accomplishment pales in comparison to what is possible through the committed effort of a focused and aligned team.  What we think is possible cannot take into account the magic that evolves from a competent and committed group of people working together toward a common goal.

"Great people" don't equal "great teams."

                                                         Tom Peters

Solutions to Service Problems

Depending on the type of service issues that surface with your patients, the following customer service strategies can be employed to resolve problem situations and maintain patient loyalty:

Apology / Empathy - Minor service problems or situations where the inconvenience or service problem cannot be corrected.  i.e., Wrong address, wrong billing, being late.

Urgent Effort / Attention - Commit to look into the customer’s complaint or special situation and assure the customer of your intention to resolve the problem.

Problem Resolution - Resolving the problem, offering an acceptable solution to the problem, meeting the customer’s request or requirements, negotiating an acceptable counter offer to the customer’s request, providing the customer with pertinent information.

Compensation - Honoring guarantees and / or similar service commitments.  Correcting the customer’s problem at the expense of the organization. In addition, compensating the customer for any inconvenience by offering a token of appreciation.

Going the Extra Mile - Be sure to follow up with the customer to ensure they are satisfied even once the problem is resolved. Is the customer is satisfied with the final outcome?

Open and Direct Communication

The effectiveness and growth of a team is dependent upon open, direct and responsible communication.  This type of communication involves dealing with problems, issues and concerns as they occur in a direct and responsible manner.  This serves to minimize the escalation of problems, issues and concerns into conflict which can damage working relationships and undermine the operations of a dental practice.

The timely and effective resolution of problems, issues and concerns among team members is essential to maintaining your productivity and ability to service your patients.

It takes time and effort to develop open, direct and responsible communication in a dental practice – it is not an easy task.  In upcoming blogs we will discuss the steps teams can take to achieve these goals.

Team Spirit

In order for a team to be truly successful, it is important for team members to be committed to the success of their team in addition to their own success.  Successful teams understand that individual aspirations for success and team goals are interdependent and not mutually exclusive.

It takes the individual commitment of a group of people towards a common goal to function and accomplish as a team.  It takes the individual commitment to the success of a team superseding ones individual success, to excel as a team.

From this viewpoint, every team member shares the responsibility of either serving patients (external customers) or providing service to someone who is serving patients (internal customers).

“When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.”

                                                                                         Joe Paterno

The Benefits of Patient Complaints

All organizations experience service problems and have areas in which they can improve. Successful service organizations:

• Understand where they experience problems in their service delivery.
• Consistently look to improve the service provided to their customers.
• Pro-actively seek complaints and feedback from customers.
• Train staff to effectively deal with service problems.

In order to encourage feedback from your patients, staff must be prepared to confidentiality deal with day to day service problems.  Most service staff are concerned about not being able to deal with particular types of service problems  or the possibility of a situation with a patient getting out of control (see my Complaint Handling Blog for tips). 

Complaints represent opportunities and signals from your patients that they are not happy and at the same time woo-able.  Only 4% of unhappy customers complain which means for every complaint you receive, 26 other patients experienced a similar problem without saying a thing.  Complaining patients give your practice an opportunity to put in a correction and keep their business.  95% of customers whose service complaints are dealt with quickly will purchase again.  Patients that do not complain typically vote with their feet.

Encourage complaining from your patients and support staff to actively seek out complaints without having to be concerned about being the bearers of bad news.

Taking Responsibility to Solve Problems

Problems and conflict occur as a natural part of day to day work life and represent opportunities for learning and growth.  Successful teams understand that problems and conflict occur in the workplace and they do not allow problems or conflict to undermine their commitment to their goals or other team members.

The success of a dental practice is dependent upon the ability to solve operational problems.  Problem solving requires that team members demonstrate composure and initiative related to correcting problem situations.  The lack of team member commitment or initiative towards problem solving results in creating a work environment where team members complain about how things could be or should be while waiting for others to fix problems or implement positive change. 

The resolution of problems and conflict through open, direct and responsible communication can serve as valuable learning opportunities as well as contribute to the development of positive working relationships.

 “Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.”

                                              Henry J. Kaiser

Supporting Patients to Make Informed Treatment Decisions

Supporting patients to make informed treatment decisions is one of the most important factors leading to the satisfaction of patients and optimal dental health.

Supporting patients to make informed treatment decisions involves effectively communicating findings and recommendations to patients, including comprehensive treatment options.  This process enables patients to take more responsibility for their treatment decisions as well as their overall dental health.

Supporting patients to make informed treatment decisions also plays an important role in the success a dental practice and satisfaction as a dental team working together.  Given choice and financial means, a significant portion of  patients choose comprehensive over other treatment options.  Supporting and educating patients in making informed treatment decisions is also emotionally rewarding for team members.

7 Steps of Complaint Handling

1. Maintain Composure

• Notice your emotional temperatiure - upset / defensiveness / negative assumptions and self talk.
• Breathe / exercise constraint / depersonalize the situation.
• Focus on the matters at hand / ask yourself good questions / begin to frame the problem.

2. Listen

• Do not interrupt – let the patient state the complaint.
• Listen for the central problem, issue, need or want vs. listening to the story, upset, or make wrong.

3. Acknowledge the situation and feelings.

• Thank the patient for voicing their complaint.
• Authentically apologize for the situation if appropriate – inconvenience, etc.
• Listening and acknowledging a patients issues is the first and most important step in resolving any problem situation.
• Empathize vs. Sympathize related to a patient's upset or feelings - I understand how you feel - does not mean you agree with how someone is feeling.

4. Restate the Problem / Probe For More Information

• Restating the problem insures you clarify what the problem is before proceeding to find a solution.
• Let me see if I understand your concern.  As I understand it________( restate the problem and what you perceive the patient needs or wants.)
• If you are unable to determine what the problem or issue may be, ask questions to better understand the situation (what happened?).

5. Propose A Solution / Commit to Getting Back to The Patient

• Propose a solution to the problem.
• Provide patients with information that would enable them to better understand or deal with a situation – policy or procedure guidelines.
• Commit to getting back to the patient if you require input from others – specific time.

6. Ask For Feedback Or Alternatives

• Would that work for you?
• How would you prefer to have the situation handled?
• What would you need to have happen in order to resolve the problem for you?

7. Restate Solution and Agreements

• Summarize the agreed solution to the situation and confirm any agreements reached related to time lines for solving the problem – I’ll do X by Y time..