The dentist-patient relationship can be… complicated. On one hand, everyone knows it’s important to keep their teeth well-maintained. On the other hand, sitting in a chair while someone puts their fingers and other equipment in your mouth can be a bit uncomfortable! To build trust and ensure high levels of care, patient satisfaction, and good dental health outcomes, dental surveys can be very useful for any practice.
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7 Benefits of Dental Surveys
Surveys help dentists’ offices collect feedback from patients. This information can be used to improve services, enhance patient satisfaction, and address any concerns or issues. Here are some reasons why dental offices should consider using surveys:
- Patient Satisfaction: Surveys can help gauge how satisfied patients are with the overall level of care they receive. Surveys can then drill down from there, looking at staff performance, concerns, and so on.
- Quality Improvement: Feedback from surveys can reveal specific areas where the dental practice might need to make changes, such as appointment scheduling, wait times, communication, or the comfort of the office environment.
- Patient Retention: A dental questionnaire for patients provides valuable feedback and can lead to the practice making necessary adjustments to increase patient loyalty and retention, leading to long-term relationships and a stronger patient base.
- Staff Performance: Surveys can provide insights into how patients perceive the professionalism, friendliness, and competence of the dental office staff, including the dentist, hygienists, and administrative personnel.
- Service Development: Patient feedback can help dental offices determine services that patients would like to see offered, allowing the practice to grow or refine their offerings to better meet patient needs.
- Reputation Management: Positive feedback can be used in marketing efforts (real patient testimonials, once they’ve signed a release, are especially helpful for bringing in new patients). Of course, constructive criticism is also helpful. This allows the practice to address issues before they lead to negative reviews or word-of-mouth.
- Compliance and Accreditation: Some accreditation bodies or insurance companies may require dental practices to conduct patient satisfaction surveys as part of their quality assurance processes.
When using a dental survey form, it’s important to ensure they are user-friendly. They should also be anonymous and concise to encourage honest and complete responses.
NPS: The Most Important Question on a Dental Survey
Dental surveys should ask a variety of questions. However there is one question that should be included on each patient survey: the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This is a widely used metric that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking a simple question:
On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our dental practice to a friend or colleague?
Based on responses, patients are categorized into three groups:
- Promoters (9-10), who are enthusiastic and likely to recommend the office or dentist.
- Passives (7-8), who are satisfied but not overly enthusiastic.
- Detractors (0-6), who are unhappy and may discourage others from using the practice or dentist.
The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. This results in a score that can range from -100 to +100. A high NPS indicates a strong base of loyal patients who are likely to drive positive word-of-mouth and contribute to the practice’s success. Conversely, a low NPS suggests that there are issues with patient satisfaction that need to be addressed.
With -100 being the lowest possible score, and 100 being the highest, you wouldn’t be wrong to assume that the benchmark for a “good” score is around 50. However, in a real-world setting, it is not so black and white. The average NPS for the health industry is 27, and the dental industry it is even lower at an average of 1. Now, while that may seem very poor, remember, it is still positive. Anything above zero shows that the practice has more promoters than detractors. Of course, it’s important to always try to increase your NPS. This can be done by listening to what patients say and making improvements. Also, focus on doing better with passives. They could easily become promoters,. On the other hand, detractors are most likely a lost cause.
Check out all of our NPS articles here for more.
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Types of Dental Surveys
Here’s a look at some of the most common types of dental patient surveys used by dental offices.
1. Kiosk Survey
These surveys are conducted on a computer screen or tablet at the dental office. They are designed to be user-friendly and often feature simple, touch-screen interfaces with straightforward questions. Kiosk surveys are great for those in the medical field as they provide immediate feedback following an experience like a dental procedure or an interaction with the dentist and staff.
Because the surveys are conducted on-site, they often result in higher response rates and more accurate data since they collect responses while the experience or interaction is still fresh in the respondent’s mind, which makes their judgment more trustworthy. Read how to create your own kiosk survey here.
2. Email Surveys
Email surveys are another great way to collect patient feedback, although the responses won’t be as immediate as with a kiosk survey (however, patients may be willing to get more in depth with their answers since they will be taking these surveys at a later time, often from the comfort of their own home).
Another good thing about email surveys is you can easily see who did or did not open the survey and make improvements to it for a future send to increase response rates. You can also A/B test subject lines, imagery, and so on to see which is more effective. SurveyLegend offers dozens of different types of online survey questions, which we explore in our blog 12 Different Types of Survey Questions and When to Use Them (with Examples).
3. QR Codes
The QR Code has made a big comeback since the pandemic. Now, they are used to immediately bring information to any user’s phone simply by scanning it. This is a great option for offices that don’t want to invest in a kiosk: They can simply create a QR Code that, when scanned, will pull up the survey on a patient’s phone. Read more about the benefits of QR code surveys.
4. SMS Text Surveys
Many people rarely use their phone to talk anymore, and ignore calls from unknown numbers! This makes SMS (Short Messaging Service) texting a great way to conduct dental patient surveys. SMS surveys are delivered via text to patients who have opted in to receive notifications from the sender. This means that there is usually some level of engagement, improving response rates.
The one downside is that questions typically need to be short, and answers are generally 1-2 words or simply numbers (this is why many NPS surveys, gauging customer satisfaction, are often conducted via SMS text). Be careful not to send too many text surveys, as a patient can opt-out just as easily, usually by texting STOP.
5. Mobile App Surveys
Last but not least, many dental practices use mobile app surveys. Of course, they must have an app of their own, but many do for scheduling, prescriptions, messaging, and so on. Mobile app surveys can be an ideal way to conduct surveys as people have to willingly download your app; this means, they already have a level of engagement with your practice making them more likely to respond to your surveys.
Dental Survey Example
Here is a simple example of a dental survey questionnaire you can create with SurveyLegend. Our surveys allow you to use a variety of types of questions (starting with the all-important NPS). You can add branding, choose background imagery and font, and so much more. Our surveys can be delivered via email, used on kiosks, attached to mobile apps, text messages, or QR codes, and more. They’re secure, fun to create, and user-friendly for your patients!
Conclusion
Using surveys, dental practices can gain valuable insights into patient satisfaction, identify areas for improvement, and enhance the overall patient experience. Surveys also help in identifying trends and potential issues early. This allows the practice to make data-driven decisions that improve care quality and operational efficiency. SurveyLegend can help! Our surveys are easy to create, and easy for participants to take. Get started today for free!
Does your dental practice use patient surveys? What types of dental health survey questions do you ask? Could SurveyLegend benefit your practice? Let us know in the comments!
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Frequently Asked Questions
The frequency of surveying patients in a dental practice will vary, especially based on the survey method (e.g., kiosks can allow people to participate every time they visit). However, most practices that conduct surveys do them after each visit, after staff changes, or after specific procedures.
A dental fear survey assesses a patient’s level of anxiety or fear related to dental visits and procedures. These surveys are designed to identify specific sources of fear, which could stem from bad or painful experiences in the past, embarrassment over poor dental hygiene/worry about being judged, concerns over sedation, anxiety over restraint or tools, etc.. Dentists may be able to use the responses to assure patients that they are gentle, sedation is safe, the practice is a judgment free zone, and so on.
