How do you know what your patients want?
We’ve all been overwhelmed with the marketing about "cosmetic” dentistry, extreme makeovers, all-porcelain bridges, “painless” this-n-that, and a host of other products, services, and procedures. We’re told over and over that we should look no further – this is what our patients want! We don’t even need to ask them, right? Wrong! Of course we do, especially if we’re in the business of caring for people.
If you want to know what your patients want, the easiest thing for me to do would be to give you a list of questions to ask them. As a coach, I know that won’t work, at least not for very long. Scripting, recipes, and “fool-proof” schemes and methods have limited (and sometimes undesirable) results, and usually don’t fully allow for spontaneity, exploration, discovery, understanding, and dozens of other possibilities that excellent questioning will evoke. Further, just giving you my answers won’t do much good the next time you’re stuck, you don’t know what to do, or you have a question. Instead, I want you to explore what excellent questioning will do for you and your practice, and what you need to do to become an excellent questioner…a laser questioner!
What an Excellent Question Will Do: Know This!
When I ask a patient what’s important to them about their dental health, almost 100% of the time I get the same response: 1) I want my teeth to look good, 2) I want to keep my teeth/avoid dentures, and 3) I want to avoid pain. OK, so where does that get you? Not far, if you stop there.
Developing the skill of asking well-constructed, thoughtful questions to follow up a simple opening question like that one will reap major benefits in your ability to connect, understand, and care for your patients.
What will an excellent question to your patient do? The patient will:
- Feel empowered.
- Feel they have enough information and are competent enough to have their own answers to their own challenges, problems, and concerns.
- Slow down, allowing time for a thoughtful response rather than a quick reaction.
- Have a raised awareness level, and they’ll be able to consider other options they may have never considered.
- Be required to clarify, examine, or illuminate a concern, problem, or issue.
- Take action on what’s really true, not what they perceive to be true.
- Be challenged to break up their current perceptions and behavior patterns about dentistry.
Before Diving Into Laser Questioning
Asking excellent questions is a skill. It can be developed in anyone wanting to develop it. You should know that becoming an excellent questioner is affected by:
- How well you listen. If you’re not an excellent listener, you won’t be an excellent questioner.
- Your relationship with the patient. Start by developing a relationship with each of your patients. Get to know them. Let them get to know you. Develop trust, openness, honesty, and a commitment to their well-being and their interests.
- Your ability to maintain focus and direction. You CAN skillfully guide conversations to places that yield the most discoveries and prompt the greatest movement, but you have to pay attention. If the patient wants to discuss “X”, don’t change the subject to “Y”. Listen, investigate, ask questions, and “follow out” the topic as long as the patient wants to talk about it. Be patient! There’ll be time for you to investigate “Y”.
- Your ability to let there be space for the patient to respond. Most of us can’t stand silence in conversations. But it’s in that silence – that space – which the patient can respond. Don’t fill up the silence after your question with babble, clarifications, and more questions; let them respond!
- Your ability to direct the flow of the interaction. True, getting to know your patients – and vice versa – takes some time that isn’t all talk about dentistry. Know when to redirect towards why they’re in your office is a skill you must develop.
Introducing Laser Questioning
What do I mean by laser questioning? All puns aside, laser questioning is not interrogating. Laser questioning is excellent questioning that is:
- Succinct. It is clear, direct, and easily understood.
- Transparent. There are NO hidden agendas. If you have a hidden agenda, stop it; you’ll breed mistrust.
- Non-judgmental. You make no attempt to put the patient down, make them feel stupid, or criticize them.
- Intentional. Your patient’s best interest is in mind, not your best interest.
- Directive. You want your patient to think and respond, not react.
- Grounding. You support your patient to fulfill their intention of receiving the dental care they want and need.
Examples of Laser Questions
By now you get that I am not big on scripts or on putting words in your mouth. I would rather you understand the concepts and variables, be able to assess your current skill levels, and decide what you should work on next. However, to get you going, review these examples of laser questions. Do they incorporate the elements of a laser question? How would asking your patients these types of questions affect your relationship with them? Your practice? For creating value for your dentistry?
I encourage you to work with them, rewrite them in your own words, and practice them. Find the ones that feel most natural and easiest to work with now, and come up with your own that accurately reflect your philosophy of practice.
Give these a try:
What’s the best and most helpful thing I can do for you as a patient in my office?
Other than providing dentistry for you, what are three other things I can do to support you in being as dentally healthy as you want to be?
What should I do, or not do, if you are getting behind on completing necessary treatment?
How will you know that you’re getting your money’s worth for the dentistry I will provide?
What changes will you need to make in order for you to make the most of the dentistry I can provide for you?
What’s the biggest change you’d like to make in your dental health?
What’s the first thing you’d like to see us address about your dental health?
What are the biggest challenges you face in keeping dentally healthy?
How would you define treatment success for your current dental situation?
What I Want For You
Laser questioning can help create tremendous value for your dentistry. Being an excellent questioner requires you to be an excellent listener, first and foremost. With focus, intention, practice – and making a few blunders – you’ll be on the road to developing long-lasting, solid relationships with your patients, who will receive, support, appreciate, and value the care they want and deserve. Using this coach-approach, you’ll begin to your master the skill of questioning.
Best of all, you’ll reap the benefits – both tangible and intangible – that being an excellent communicator will bring.