Creating Exceptional Trust with Patients

How important is it to your practice that patients trust you?

Perhaps it’s best to think about this by asking, “What’s the impact on your practice when patients don’t trust you?”

Perhaps it’s best to think about this by asking, “What’s the impact on your practice when patients don’t trust you?”

Obviously, patients who don’t trust you are: 

• Not going to accept large treatment plans, or possibly any treatment plan
• Unlikely to rush into your practice when they sense they have a dental issue
• Going to put off visiting your practice until they have no choice
• Likely to look for another dentist

So … you want patient trust. How do you get it?

• Assuming everyone knows of your startling reputation and will trust you automatically?
• Expecting your staff to do such a great job of selling your stellar talents that patients accept your every word unquestioningly?
• Minimizing your contact with your patients so they don’t get to see how quirky you are?
• Dazzling patients with your technical know-how and latest gadgets?

Clearly not!

While some dentists radiate confidence and patient-calming assurance, and appear to gain their patients’ trust effortlessly, most have to be more deliberate in adopting strategies that help patients see that their dentist is a real person who has their best interest at heart and has the skills to deliver the best treatments.

Our friends at BiteFX, Dr. Don Reid and Doug Brown, recognized that their occlusion-focused patient education tool, BiteFX, had wildly differing results depending on the relational skills of the dentist using the software.

Some dentists were reporting amazing incremental leaps in their practice revenues (from $10K to $50K additional income per month) because of using BiteFX, while others were saying it just wasn’t making much difference. They consulted their most successful customers, combined the feedback with Don’s years of experience and mentorship by some of dentistry’s most insightful leaders, to come up with 9 secrets for creating exceptional trust.

They’ve just published these secrets in their new book, Becoming Your Patients’ Hero – 9 Secrets for Creating Exceptional Trust and New Income for Your Dental Practice. Each secret is amplified by an anecdote from a leading dentist describing how they applied the secret with one of their patients.

Dr. Dawson wrote the foreword in which he says:

“There is no doubt that the ‘secrets’ Doug and Don talk about are some of the most important requirements dentists need to know to practice predictable dentistry. The authors are correct in calling them ‘secrets’ because, in spite of their importance, most dentists are not even aware they need to understand these essential principles. The combination of knowing how to solve patients’ problems plus knowing how to explain treatment is a sure bet for success in any dental practice.”

Don and Doug have kindly given us one of the anecdotes from the book to include in this post, told by Dr. Ian Buckle, Director of The Dawson Academy UK, to illustrate secret #8, “Equip Patients to Explain What You Offer to Their Friends”:

Every Dawson-trained dentist can benefit from reading Becoming Your Patients’ Hero whether to pick up new skills, sharpen old skills or just enjoy a quick read that confirms you’re applying the same secrets as the best of your like-minded colleagues!

“Becoming Your Patients’ Hero” is available in print and Kindle versions from Amazon.com, or you can get signed copies and/or an audio version and more information directly from BiteFX.