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What is Holding You Back?

Posted on: February 22nd, 2012 by admin No Comments

Are you holding back? Do you know there are changes that you need to be making in your dental office that you just can’t quite get yourself to make? Perhaps, these are personnel changes – the person answering your phone isn’t quite as warm and friendly as you think he or she should be. Perhaps, these are technological – the move to digital and EMR seems daunting and costly. Perhaps, these are physical – you know the furniture in the reception area is looking tired and worn.

Whatever your fears are that are holding you and your dental practice back from being all that it can be, this little video from Red Bull may just be help put conquering those fears in perspective. It is okay to have fears. Running a business takes guts and many tiny leaps of faith all along the way. Thank goodness, however, I’ve never faced anything quite as life threatening as jumping off a cliff – literally.

Tags: dental design, dental experience, dental office, dental office technology, human interaction, office design, practice management
Posted in branding, dental office design, interior branding, interior design, practice management | No Comments »

Does Your Practice Have a Clear Mission?

Posted on: February 20th, 2012 by admin No Comments

Today is President’s Day in the U.S. where we celebrate the birthdays of two of our greatest leaders – George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Both of these were faced with very different challenges during their time as President, but both are considered great leaders by those that have come since them for providing clear vision and direction to the country during its time of need.

As the leader of your dental practice you are charged with providing a clear vision and direction for the business. While this may not be as dramatic or far reaching as leading a nation, the staff that depend upon your dental practice for their livelihood and the patients that depend upon your dental practice for their dental health think it is pretty darn important.

You may think this mission and vision should be self-evident, but in what ways have you communicated your unique vision to the staff and patients? How is your unique vision evident to the patients that visit your dental office? Can they see and feel your vision for your dental practice in the unique patient experience design that you work so hard every day to create and realize? Every business leader, not just dentists, face the challenge of transforming the vision and mission of the business beyond just words on a piece of paper to a way of doing business that the employees feel and believe and is an essential part of the brand.

Why don’t you take today while we are reflecting upon the deeds of two of our greatest leaders and reflect on how well you are doing as a leader of your practice and how you can improve upon this each and every day.

Tags: branding, client experience, customer experience, dental design, dental office branding, dental office design, interior branding, practice management
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Do You Make Patients Wait?

Posted on: February 17th, 2012 by admin No Comments

We live in very busy times. Everyone is rushing about trying to cram more and more into their daily lives. When your patients come to your office for an appointment do you make them wait?

A friend of mine was relating a story to me the other day about a recent visit to his doctor. He had an appointment at 10:00 a.m. He sat in the reception area awaiting his turn to see the doctor until 11:30. He had to wonder why he’d bothered to schedule an appointment. I told him he should charge the doctor for his time or deduct it from the bill.

I took my car in recently to have an oil leak looked at. I was given a 9:30 a.m. appointment. As they couldn’t look at the car right away they gave me a loaner vehicle. The service center didn’t call me until 2:30 p.m. THE NEXT DAY to tell me that they had finally looked at my car and found out what the problem was. Why did they give me an appointment for the day before if they knew they weren’t going to be able to look at it?

Keeping patients waiting or stacking more patients up in the reception area than can readily be seen in a timely manner is not the way to increase volume and revenue. What it does is leave a very poor impression in the minds of the patient and reduces the likelihood that they will return or have the courtesy of calling ahead to reschedule an appointment should a real emergency arise in their lives. Your brand becomes synonymous with slow, poor service. Would you rate a restaurant very high if you had an 8:00 p.m. reservation and when you showed up they said they couldn’t seat you until 9:30 p.m.? NO! So, don’t treat your patients like their time doesn’t matter.

Tags: cancellations, client experience, customer experience, customer service, dental cancellations, dental experience, dental office branding, interior branding, practice management
Posted in branding, interior branding, practice management | No Comments »

Form + Function

Posted on: February 15th, 2012 by admin No Comments

How comfortable is the furniture in the reception area of your dental office? When was the last time you sat on it? One of the big things in creating a warm, comfortable, and inviting dental office design that will reduce anxiety for those visiting the dentist is to have furniture in the reception area that is both attractive and comfortable. The furniture also needs to reflect the overall branding message of the dental practice, as well as communicate quality and success, assuming these are characteristics that you want associated with your dental practice.

Here is a snap shot of bench seating in a reception area that is not at all comfortable.

This reception area bench may fit the design scheme but it lacks comfort.

While the choice of materials and style of the bench reflects the overall design of the dental office, there is nothing about this that is comfortable. In order to be successful in crafting an environment for your patients you might just want to make sure it is comfortable as well as pretty.

Tags: client experience, dental design, dental experience, dental interior design, dental office branding, dental office interior design, ergonomics
Posted in dental design, dental office design, ergonomics, interior design | No Comments »

Building Occupants Do the Darnedest Things

Posted on: February 13th, 2012 by admin No Comments

The revolving door was first patented in the U.S. on 7 August 1888 by Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia. One of the purposes as listed in the original patent application was to, “…effectively prevent the entrance of wind, snow, rain, or dust.” Over time the energy efficiency of revolving doors has been studied and proven that they are an effective means of preventing drafts and increasing the heating and cooling efficiency of buildings. In fact, in high rise buildings revolving doors are almost a necessity as a draft block is required to prevent the chimney effect from occurring whereby air is sucked in at high speed at the base and ejected through vents in the roof while trying to heat the building or reversing this effect while the building is being cooled.

Typical Revolving Door Locked Against Use

Why then do building occupants like to keep these doors locked? So often I find buildings that have revolving doors that are kept locked and people are directed to use the hinged doors that often flank the revolving door instead. These flanking hinged doors became a standard safety issue following the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston where 492 people were killed. While these flanking hinged doors provide greater safety and increased traffic flow out of the building in case of emergency, they certainly are not as energy efficient as the revolving door. When temperatures plunge outside during winter months the propensity of building occupants to lock their revolving doors seems to even increase, which makes no sense as the flanking doors let far more cold air into and warm air out of the building than do the revolving ones.

Typical Revolving Door is Locked Sign

Architects and designers can build all kinds of energy efficiencies and features into their plans but if the building occupants chose not to use them there is nothing that they can do about it once the building is built. I just have to wonder if the occupants don’t understand the features of they have or they just like being blasted by cold air anytime someone enters or leaves a building by the flanking doors on brutally cold winter days.

Tags: green design, LEED, office design
Posted in interior design | No Comments »

Why Patients Fear Their Dentist

Posted on: February 10th, 2012 by admin No Comments

Patients have a lot of anxiety surrounding trips to the dentist office. The goal in dental office design is to craft a patient experience that is welcoming, friendly, and inviting so this natural anxiety is reduced or eliminated and patients will have a positive feeling following their trip to the dentist. This doesn’t matter whether the trip is to a general dentist, orthodontist, periodontist, oral surgeon, or another dental specialist. That positive feeling the patient gets when they think about their time at the dentist is what defines that dental practices’ brand and is what motivates patients to refer their family and friends.

Now, this clip from “Little Shop of Horrors” with Steve Martin as a dentist makes it plain why so many people have such anxiety over going to visit the dentist. Unfortunately, no amount of great interior design is going to help this guy’s patients have a warm and fuzzy feeling when they leave his practice. This is one practice that needs a full-on patient experience redesign, starting with the doctor’s chair side manner! Let’s hope no one ever has to endure a dental experience like this!

Tags: client experience, dental cancellation rates, dental cancellations, dental design, dental experience, dental interior design, dental office design, practice management
Posted in dental design, dental office design, interior branding | No Comments »

Hats Off for Sustainable Dental Office Design!

Posted on: February 8th, 2012 by admin No Comments

Here at Küster Dental Office Design we’re big believers in promoting sustainable design and interweaving sustainability into the entire patient experience. When we find dental offices that are doing this we feel compelled to congratulate them and to help spread their story to others. Consequently, we’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate ORA Dental Studio for being awarded LEED Gold for their Wicker Park location in Chicago.

They have taken sustainability to heart and made it a driving force in their branding and corporate mission, and this commitment to healthier buildings, healthier dentistry, and a healthier environment just has to spill over to helping make for healthier patients. Way to go!

Tags: dental design, dental interior design, dental office design, green design, LEED
Posted in dental design, dental office design, green dentistry | No Comments »

Looking for new space? Take your designer with you!

Posted on: February 6th, 2012 by admin No Comments

Should I take my designer with me when looking at new office space?

So, you’re looking at relocating your dental practice and have started to search for new office space. Are you taking your dental office designer with you and your leasing broker when you go to look at that new office space? “What?” you say! “Why would I take my dental office designer with me to look at space before I’ve settled on one or signed a lease?”

A dental designer can help you in evaluating the office space that you’re investigating and see things about the shape and configuration of the space that you may not notice. With the experience of designing many dental offices, a designer has an eye for how much space is needed to fit the operatories, lab, sterilization, reception, and other components into a workable traffic pattern. Don’t forget that there are also regulatory compliance issues such as HIPAA, OSHA, and ADA (accessibility) that need to be taken into account.

Now, your broker is going to help you find a great space and negotiate a great deal on your lease or purchase terms, but your broker typically isn’t versed on the intricacies of designing a great dental office and so won’t be able to offer the best advice in how well the space will work in these regards. This is just one more reason building a great team of professional advisors is critical to the success of a dental practice.

Tags: ADA, dental design, dental interior design, dental office design, dental office interior design, HIPAA, interior dental design, office design, OSHA
Posted in dental design, dental office design, interior design | No Comments »

How Does Your Dental Office Patient Experience Compare With Buying A Car?

Posted on: February 3rd, 2012 by admin No Comments

Yesterday I picked up my new car. I purchased a 2005 Mini Cooper S from CarMax in Indianapolis. Over the past week in shopping for, financing, having the car serviced and prepped for delivery, I have been consistently amazed by the friendly, helpful, and courteous service I’ve received from the staff at CarMax.

My new 2005 Mini Cooper S from CarMax! Isn't it cute?

Providing a good, if not excellent client experience is critical in the highly competitive economic world in which we live. This is especially true for dental offices where the purpose of visiting and hiring the service is not always of one’s own choice and is frequently accompanied by fear and anxiety. Unlike shopping for a car dental care is viewed as a commodity and the only thing that separates one dentist from another is the quality of the experience that the patient receives.

From the first moment I visited CarMax’s website I was able to search for and find the information I was looking for. A sales representative immediately responded to my inquiry, answered my questions, and scheduled a time for me to visit that worked within my schedule rather than just what was convenient for him. He took time to show me the car I was interested in, explain the current conditions (it is a used car), test drive it, walk through the financing process, and again, schedule the repairs and delivery on a schedule that worked within my travel and appointment schedule. All of this made me feel that I was the most important person and making sure I was happy was the most important thing he had to do. Even though I really like my dentist I will admit that he and his staff give me the feeling that they have a schedule to keep and that me and my dental care are not always the most important thing in their day during my time with them.

Achieving this level of focused attention on a singular task takes concentration and practice and is something that most are
not used to doing in this hectic, multi-tasking environment of today. Designing what the client experience should feel like from the first contact through the completion of the visit and practicing this over and over again until it becomes second nature certainly pays dividends in increased patient retention, satisfaction, and referrals. Just ask CarMax!

Tags: client experience, customer experience, dental cancellation rates, dental experience, dental office design, office design
Posted in dental design, practice management | No Comments »

Chatting About The Patient Experience with Lorraine Ball

Posted on: February 1st, 2012 by admin No Comments

To kick off 2012 I had the pleasure of joining Lorraine Ball of Roundpeg on her weekly radio show, “More Than A Few Words” to talk about the importance of branding and how this extends to one’s entire interior space and not just the logo. (Here at Küster Dental Office Design we call this interior branding.) There is so much more involved in creating a distinct client experience than just having a logo designed. What your patients (clients) remember about you after they leave your dental office is what defines your brand, so you want to make sure they remember exactly what you want them to and that these are positive thoughts! By doing so your patients (clients) will be much more likely to tell their friends and family about their positive experience and refer them to your practice. You can hear the entire discussion that Lorraine and I had here.

Tags: branding, client experience, customer experience, dental experience, dental office branding, dental office design, interior branding
Posted in branding, dental office design, interior branding | No Comments »

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