DentaltownUK September 2017 - 41

With their other KPI being focused on
staff satisfaction, I was keen to know how
they achieved this. Especially with them only
being open for two months, when starting
up it must have been difficult to get team
members on board? Not surprisingly Michelle
told me that listening to and acting on the
desires of the staff is a key aspect of her team
being so settled:
"When you're starting up a practice and
recruiting a dental team you have to be really
transparent with them, it's going to be a long
process, it's all about getting them involved.
You don't know how fast the patient list will
evolve and you have to let them know that.
It's about showing them that you will do
absolutely everything to get the practice to
bounce; we will do everything to get patients
in the door. We want them to know that
we are different. We want all the bases to
be covered for patients no matter what they
need. We want to play to people's strengths
and we want them to take pride in it and
have great relationships with the people that
come in. We want to progress and retain
our staff, even if they come in as trainees.
When we're getting another site, we want to
people able to say, do you want to join the
head office team? What do you want to do?
We just want to build a team and for them
to be happy in what they're doing and that
they know that they'll be listened to."
With their current skyrocketing success
it's not a shock to find out the team at Love
Dental are looking to expand. They are
currently looking to launch a second practice
that will attract its own unique group of
patients and, once again, the team will narrow
down exactly what those patients need.
Michelle claims it's 'up to the team to look
ahead and plan ahead to suit the patients'.
With the patient focus being the aspect of
Love Dental that she is most proud of, she

says she wants to continue giving people new
experiences and changing the mindset of
patients who haven't been attending regularly:
"When a patient comes in and they're
absolutely phobic and you get them in, go
through the process, spend time with them,
it could be months or weeks, but it's a case of
just spending that time and then it makes me
proud when they go out and they're over the
moon that they've done it or that they can
smile again. It's just about bringing a patient
in and giving them a great experience, even
just them thanking you is enough. Then it's
sharing that with everyone and saying 'this
is the feedback we're getting'."
To conclude our chat, I asked Michelle
what advice she would give to practices who
maybe feel they need a little inspiration when
it comes to making their practice a little more
comfortable for their patients:
"Take a step back and look at the practice
from a patients perspective. How does it
look? Does it look well kept and welcoming?
Does it look over run? Does it have weeds?
Simple things, if it doesn't look like you
maintain your practice patients might wonder
'how are they going to look after me?' Have
a walk through of the practice and get
the staff, or even people anonymously, to
pop some suggestions in a box of what
needs to be improved and why that would
put someone off.
When you're in that environment a lot
you might not notice. Are you speaking to
people right? Are your letters written nicely?
Even emails are important. Try and be sure
that you're treating your patients the way
they want to be treated. What would wow
you and what would put you off? Maybe you
could let the patients choose some things.
Change doesn't happen overnight but little
things can be changed easily and make a
big difference!" ■

dentaltownuk.com \\ SEPTEMBER 2017

41
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DentaltownUK September 2017
