Beth and I presented at the Saskatchewan Dental Hygienists' Association Conference this past weekend and it was such a positive experience that I wanted to share. I am thinking you may take away a few ideas to implement into your practice!
If you know me, you know how important the client experience is in offering a world-class experience.
The experience started prior to the conference (the Before Experience), we met on Zoom to have a face to face meeting so by the time we arrived we already felt like we knew Alyssa, the Deputy Registrar. Seeing her in person was a welcoming experience because of that initial Zoom meeting, as well as the correspondence via email.
The staff at the hotel conference were very welcoming and helpful. They even left a small bottle of wine and some goodies so when we returned to our room, the surprise was waiting for us on the first night.
We also had a table exhibit for the exhibitors floor where Lorraine Gambacourt minded the booth. There was a nice bag there waiting for Lorraine with some essentials for the day which included water bottles and snacks.
The food was very good and they even had popcorn for an afternoon snack, which takes us all back to childhood memories with the smell of popcorn!
For the lanyard (which holds our name badge), they had an Indigenous artist Honey Willow create beautiful lanyards through beadwork for the presenters. Ours were purple, of course! Along with the lanyard there was a note from Honey Willow, sharing how She/They are an Intergenerational Residential School survivor and found healing through beadwork. Along with this, was a Thank You card from the SDHA to celebrate us and hope that we wear this gift at future conferences and when we do, will think of them! #itsthelittlethings
They had volunteers ready to help out whenever we needed (which we did as we had shipped 500 gift bags for 250 attendees for both sessions)! You know, the rdhu way! We love our gifts!
The attention to detail, doesn’t go unnoticed. It truly was a Dream Come True Experience as a presenter at a conference.
Whether it is at a conference, in the dental practice, a hair salon or a 5-Star hotel, looking at the experience through your client's eyes is a great exercise to go through.
There is so much we can do in the dental practice to get your clients and patients doing what I am doing right now! Sharing this wonderful experience with over 19,000 people! Can you imagine if your clients and patients were so wowed by you that they felt compelled to write about and share their experience with their family and friends? How many new clients would that bring to your practice and possibly re-engage some that are standing on the sidelines and haven’t quite come back when they should!
Let’s just think of a few possibilities here today:
For the Before Experience
- Could you send a quick 30 second video to a new client sharing that you look forward to meeting them? How about someone who hasn’t been in? You could send a quick “We miss you and know how important your oral health is to your overall health”. This could also help prevent cancellations and No Shows.
- Could you send them to your website “Meet our Team”?! Just like how we knew what Alyssa looked like prior to us meeting her. There is something comforting, meeting prior to an event and or an appointment.
- Could you send them a video of your office to familiarize themselves with your office? This could be super easy to do. One video and attach it to your Welcome to our Office email. Meet our Team, Here is a Tour!
How about for the During Experience (the actual appointment)
- A welcoming smiling face
- Saying their name as they come in rather than “and your name?” This is where keeping a clients pic on file is helpful.
- A thorough head and neck examination and explaining what and why you are performing an Oral Cancer Screening.
- Ensuring that you are using sharp instruments and Inserts that are not worn. Too many dental hygienists use worn out and dull tools. This is not okay for many reasons and I offer a whole course on this (the next one is Friday, May 26th online with a few joining me in-person at rdhu). Your instruments and inserts, if you are using them appropriately for their intended use, typically should last no longer than 2 years. As far as the client experience is concerned, this is a game changer when using optimal instruments versus dull worn out ones and can make or break the experience.
- Using an air polisher is a great experience, if you know how to correctly do this!
- Depending on where you are registered, some dental hygienists can incorporate the Soft-Tissue Diode Laser Treatment as an adjunct to Perio therapy or help a client with a painful herpetic lesion or add to whitening treatment or help improve sensitivity! This heightens the experience and end results for your clients! They will be your raving fans, no doubt! To be successful with incorporating lasers into your practice, you need to have one per operatory so you can utilize it when you need to! We often hear of practices having one laser per practice and guess what? It is never successfully incorporated! It would be like sharing an ultrasonic unit between ops!
- Provide a hot towel after the appointment to make your client feel great. A must!
And what about the After Experience?
- Send them home with the Oral Health Essentials kit (Oral B iO, Stannous paste, CPC rinse and more!). Set your clients up with the Oral B App so they can track your personalized home recommendations. This is a game changer to getting our clients healthy. Helping them with their halitosis, sensitivity, bad taste in their mouth. We hear such positive feedback from clients once on the system. Where's that cape again?!
Anyhow, as you can see I am passionate about the experience and I love sharing this with dental teams and companies.
If you would like to schedule me for your team or event, please always feel free to reach out. We would love to have you and your team at rdhu as well!
Thank you for reading! Please see below for what is coming up and have a great week ahead!
Kindest regards,
Kathleen
