Risky Business: Your Satisfaction Score with your Dental Clients
Risky Business: Your Satisfaction Score with your Dental Clients
According to a recent study of customer satisfaction by The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), customer satisfaction scores for the airlines have taken off. Those of us who fly frequently can confirm the accuracy of this study which can be found at www.theacsi.org/index.php. It seems, however, that this increase in customer satisfaction has arisen from the fact that there have been fewer airline travelers. In this downturn, airlines have improved their performance.
How is your customer satisfaction being affected by this downturn? The fact that you may be receiving less work from your dental clients could be resulting in a better quality of work and perhaps you’re even providing more personalized service to your dental clients. What happens when the economy recovers and you get busier – will you still be able to provide the same level of customer satisfaction? The airlines have the same issue – as more people start flying again will they be able to provide the same level of customer satisfaction.
The financial meltdown has certainly left its mark on dentistry with dentists and owners of dental laboratories using this opportunity as a good reason to exit the industry. Well, that may be the only route for some, but the majority of dentists and dental laboratory owners are holding tight and using this opportunity to take a really good look at how they’re doing business.
Here’s my advice to you hold tighters – use this time to be proactive and create better bottom-line results through improvement projects such as quality and lean. However, when business improves be prepared to maintain the same high level of customer satisfaction that you’ll be creating during this downturn. Below are some ways that lean manufacturing principles and quality system elements can help get you through this downturn.
Lean Principles and 5S
The principles of lean manufacturing can also provide a vehicle for projects that will begin to return bottom-line results quickly – often before the project is even completed. Deming taught that improving quality typically reduces cost. In a financial crisis, business owners need to find quick cost reductions. Look for processes which are the big sources of wasted effort that increase costs and decrease capacity.
Consider using the principles of 5S to organize your workplace, which focuses on effective workplace organization and standardized procedures to improve safety, quality, productivity and employee attitudes.
Whip Mix Corp., has been providing seminars throughout the country on these principles and is working with many dental labs to help them improve the efficiency of their operations. Perhaps this is the best time to get on board with lean. Look for a quick win, otherwise known as low-hanging fruit. Improvements that are easy to implement can have a big impact.
Quality System
An effective quality system, such as DAMAS, can produce positive results not only to your bottom-line but to your customer satisfaction rating. If you have been implementing a quality system by using the components that have been discussed in Risky Business in 2008 and 2009, you should already be bringing a positive return to your bottom-line but there’s always room for improvement.
One of the most important components of a quality system is the corrective action process. This is the discovery procedure that you should have developed for investigation of root cause for nonconforming product (remakes and internal reworks). Take a good look at how you are tracking the root cause of remakes and internal reworks so that you’re taking the type of corrective action that will produce positive results. Remember the investigation for root cause includes worker competency, materials and equipment.
Another component of the quality system that can produce positive results is the equipment management system. In the most recent issue of Quality Progress, there’s an article titled Take a Bite Out of Inefficiency and it tells about a dental office in Pennsylvania that used ISO 9001:2000 to construct a comprehensive equipment management system. Apparently this dental office had considerable down time due to poorly maintained equipment By implementing some of the practices of ISO 9001:2000, they began tracking the installation, maintenance and repair of critical equipment. This process reduced repair visits dramatically and avoided unnecessary downtime.
This is exactly what you should be doing in the dental laboratory to ensure that all equipment is available when you need it and that it is operating efficiently. An equipment management system includes:
- Availability of the manufacturer’s operating instructions.
- Development of preventive maintenance schedules.
- Performance of all preventive maintenance.
- Tracking of all equipment maintenance and repairs.
- Scheduled reviews of the above information so good decisions for retirement of assets can be determined.
- Properly maintained equipment can help eliminate having to call a dental client to reschedule the return of a case due to equipment failure.
If you have already implemented an effective quality system and lean principles, then perhaps you can use this slower time to revisit those processes to keep the initiatives fresh and focused. Take advantage of this time to reduce costs yet continue to provide the best customer satisfaction possible. And remember when the busy days return, you need to be prepared to continue the same level of customer satisfaction that you’re establishing with your dental clients today.
