Your office is such a familiar and comfortable place to you and your team that it can be easy to lose sight of something important: A lot of patients feel exposed and vulnerable when it comes to talking out in the open at a dental practice.

That's why I think you need to look at whether you are talking about insurance questions, collection issues, treatment plans, or appointment concerns at the front desk. For you and your team it all seems like routine stuff, but many patients find it uncomfortable to discuss personal financial matters or private treatment concerns in a place where others can overhear.

And if a place makes them feel uncomfortable, their instincts are to find a way out – and that often means saying “yes” or “I'll think about” just so they can quickly end the conversation. Then they end up cancelling or not showing up later.

This is why I think more practices need to make it a habit to make better use of a private consultation area – a place where team members can conduct new patient interviews, discuss fees and financial arrangements, set up treatment schedules and where you can present treatment plans in an environment where patients can feel free to talk without self-consciousness.

Take more of these conversations into a private setting, and I think you'll find that patients respond more openly. Not only that, but you and your team will find it easier and more natural to provide focused, distraction-free, one-on-one attention to the patient. And that is always a good thing.


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