For many people, visiting the dentist can be a stressful and uncomfortable experience. From rushing through traffic to get to their appointment, to being worried about any treatments they are about to have, visiting the dentist can be unpleasant for many.
Thinking of ways to improve your waiting room experience can help to reduce patient anxiety and go a long way to ensure patients enjoy visiting your practice. This improved patient journey can help keep patients coming back to your practice in the future.
To help with this, here are five simple tips to help improve your waiting room experience for all the patients at your practice:
1. Update your layout
Arrange your furniture so patients can sit where it’s most comfortable for them. Offer a variety of settings for different patient needs. For example, have a separate quiet space for professionals who wish to use their laptops and work and include a play area for children to have fun while they wait.
2. Choose comfortable seating
When someone visits the dentist the last thing they want to do is sit in a cramped and uncomfortable chair. Plastic chairs are cheap to buy, but can often be very uncomfortable.
Spending a little more on better quality seating can drastically improve comfort for patients while they wait for their appointment. Some dentist waiting rooms even have massage chairs to provide that extra bit of relaxation!
Aesthetics can also be a big factor here too. Your choice of colours and fabric can help to reinforce your brand and create a consistent visual experience.
3. Declutter your space
Removing as much clutter as possible helps to create a calmer environment for patients. Try to eliminate unnecessary posters and leaflets and get rid of old and out of date magazines which clutter tables.
Ensuring your waiting room is clean and tidy throughout the day will make patients feel more at ease and understand that you care about them. All of this helps to improve your waiting room experience.
4. Choose good lighting
Try to have a variety of light sources in your waiting room, including overhead, tabletop, and decorative. However, be careful to make sure your waiting room isn’t over lit, as this won’t feel relaxing and comfortable for waiting patients.
Using natural light where you can, with views to the outdoors, is a great way of improving the overall feel of a space and can significantly help to reduce patient anxiety.
5. Embrace technology
Free Wi-Fi is standard in most dental practices, but many practices are going beyond this with places to easily plug in devices to use while waiting to see the dentist.
Installing waiting room TV is a great way of keeping your patients up to date with your latest services and offers. The system can also be used to educate patients about the treatment they are about to receive, helping to reduce their anxiety even further.
Our Envisage Dental TV system can also be used as a patient call system, fully integrated with EXACT from Software of Excellence. This saves the average practice 2 hours consultation time every day and gives your staff more time with patients.
