How to accurately measure patient satisfaction and referral probability

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT STOPPING PATIENTS FROM FALLING OUT OF THE BOTTOM OF THE BUCKET!

Measuring dental patient satisfaction and referral probability is essential for dental practice growth, evaluating the quality of dental care your staff delivers and identifying improvement areas.

At Chrisad, we have a simple philosophy watch what consumers do by their actions, not what a handful of dental consumers with a Google account say. Google ads help some people’s decision-making without question. However, it is always treated with some suspicion due to fake positive reviews and unhappy people falsely sabotaging your ranking.

Suppose you cause an existing customer to tell their friends, family and co-workers to visit you. Those people will likely book with you regardless of reviews.

The big question is how do you quantifiably know that an existing or new patient will walk out your door and refer you?

Here are 2 critical dental-specific metrics to look at to discover the truth:

1. How many patients book their NEXT appointment? I am not talking about hygiene recall lists, but rather an actual confirmed booking. If it is less than 90%, you can significantly improve.

2. What is your cancellation rate for a confirmed booking? If it is less than 10%, you are world-class. If it is higher, this is a clear signal for improvement.

In summary, if they make an appointment, show up for it, and rebook again. This is the most unambiguous indication by their action that they are happy with your service and are likely to refer. If you have high cancellation rates, they said yes in person to avoid disappointment but had little intention of showing up. Also, if they don’t make another appointment before leaving the practice, something did not go right.

We have a bulletproof strategy to ensure the vast majority book their next appointment and significantly reduce cancellations, which decreases work for reception, increases morale, and increases the income of your dentists and the business.

To measure satisfaction and the probability of referral in a complex, expensive and inaccurate way, you can look at traditional modes below.

1. Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS is widely used to assess customer satisfaction and referral probability. Ask patients a single question: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our dental practice to a friend or family member?"

2. Review and Feedback Analysis: Monitor online reviews, testimonials, and patient feedback on social media, review websites and other platforms.

3. Follow-up Interviews: Conduct follow-up interviews with patients who have completed treatment or have been coming to the practice for some time.

4. Staff Feedback: Seek feedback from the dental practice staff, including dentists, hygienists, receptionists, and other team members.

5. Track Referral Rates: Keep track of the number of referrals received from existing patients.

6. Benchmarking: Compare patient satisfaction and referral probability data with industry benchmarks.