Rowan Thomas reports back from Practice Plan’s annual workshop tour – teaching practices how to upgrade the patient experience from economy to first class.
Every year, the Practice Plan Workshop Tour travels the country providing Practice Plan and Medenta members with the knowledge and skills to help their teams thrive. With stops from Manchester to Maidstone, the tour brings exclusive coaching to dental teams throughout the UK.
For 2023-24, Barry Oulton devised an engaging workshop titled ‘How to build a team of high flyers to deliver a first class patient experience’. The inspiration for his session came to Barry after he flew first class with Virgin Atlantic.
‘I was just blown away by the service I received,’ Barry said. ‘The whole experience was brilliant. So, it got me thinking about how we could apply that level of customer service to dental practices.’
Barry used the model of a first-class flight to explore how a premium experience is created. He then encouraged dental professionals to apply these concepts to their own practice. This novel approach to patient experience is not only highly engaging, it also taps into ideas of luxury and quality that are easily recognised by dental professionals and patients alike.
Best of all, Barry’s workshop explained how the first-class patient experience can be created with minimal financial investment.
The first-class experience
As both a practising dentist and an expert in psychology with 25 years of experience, Barry’s analogy takes into account the emotion behind great dentistry. Encouraging delegates to look beyond clinical skills, he said: ‘Nobody cares about your dentistry as long as it’s good enough. Patients care about how your dentistry is delivered.’
While many dentists might flinch at this message, every clinician in the workshop has had extensive clinical training. Communication and cultivating patient experience are less widely taught.
As Barry put it: ‘In five years of training, dentists get three hours on communication. This should be taught in schools – it’s that fundamental.’
The workshop tour was therefore an excellent opportunity for practitioners to develop skills outside of their existing training.
One concept which Barry highlighted was the ‘aggregation of marginal gains’. In short, the idea that many small changes can make a big difference. Barry advocated for constant and never-ending improvement, urging practices to examine their entire patient journey and identify every touchpoint that could be marginally improved.
Delegates left with a new understanding of where improvements to the patient experience could be made, and the skills to implement these improvements.
New ideas and skills
Barry also emphasised the unique and advantageous position that each of the attending practices was in. With acquisitions by corporates at a slower pace, Barry noted that it’s a great time to be an independent practice. He also discussed the benefits of the membership plan model, which unites all of the attendees as Practice Plan members.
‘The cashflow from membership plans is a godsend,’ said Barry. ‘It got a lot of practices through COVID.’
For the Practice Plan team, the workshop tour is an essential part of its offering to the practices it serves. They said: ‘Practice Plan’s Workshop Tour offers teams the opportunity to have a fun day away from the practice where they learn about new ideas and skills that they can take back with them and implement straight away.
‘We put a lot of work into organising the tour as we want to make sure that anyone attending gets real value from the day. Our practices tell us that they really look forward to it. That’s backed up by the great feedback we receive.’
‘A brilliant day’
Along with providing practical knowledge and insight, the workshop was a chance for practice staff to have some fun together and become a stronger team. From quizzes to paper plane competitions, the day was packed with hands-on activities to build teamwork and relationships within each practice. Attendees were also treated to a delicious lunch and snacks throughout the day!
Delegate Maya Chohan from Knightsfield Dental Practice explained how much she and her team had enjoyed the day. She said: ‘I always love listening to Barry. He is so inspiring and entertaining, sharing so many helpful and useful things we can put into place straight away! Thank you for a brilliant day!’
Laura Lawrenson from Bridge Dental & Implant Clinic agreed, also commenting on how easy the advice was to implement into her own practice. She said: ‘Fantastic day again Practice Plan! Excellent, fun, interesting content. I learnt a lot – lots to go back to practice with!’
The Practice Plan Workshop Tour is an exclusive benefit for Practice Plan and Medenta members. Look out for details of the next tour and how you and your team can get involved.
For more information, visit www.practiceplan.co.uk.
