A lot of dental offices out there have no idea whatsoever about *HANG TIME* and how they can best be taking advantage of the HANG TIME that occurs throughout their dental day.

HANG TIME is a term I used to describe the time spent by each of your dental patients between when they arrive at your dental office and when they are asked to come through to the treatment room.

HANG TIME is a very, very valuable piece of time for the dental office.

The correct use of HANG TIME can frame up the whole appointment, in fact even frame up the whole treatment *plan* for the patient.

In fact, the correct use of HANG TIME is so important in the Ultimate Patient Experience Process, that it is one of only two stages that comprise the Second Major Building Block, “The Ultimate Arrival”, of the Ultimate Patient Experience.

As I said, HANG TIME is that time spent by your dental patient between when they arrive at your dental office and when they are asked to come through to the treatment room.

It is the time spent after they have been greeted by your receptionist/patient coordinator/concierge. It is the time that they are taking to relax, unwind, and make themselves at ease before they receive that call up from the dentist/hygienist/assistant to venture down to the treatment room.

The clever Dental Office will utilize and maximize the patient’s HANG TIME to create the Ultimate Environment for the Dental Patient. The not so clever Dental Office will totally ignore it. Completely.

Result? Missed opportunity. Big time!

Ideally the place where the patient spends the HANG TIME will be the Client Lounge.

Never “the Waiting Room”!!

The seats here are comfortable and clean. They are not benches. They are individual chairs. Preferably armchairs or tubs. Preferably leather or comfortable fabric.

The lounge has subdued lighting. Preferably lamps.

There is pleasant, classical music playing. Or gentle female vocal ballads. Never radio! Never rock! Never ads, or news!

A television screen may be showing an educational video, but with no sound playing.

There are comfortable, current magazines and reading material. About travel, home and lifestyle. These create an aura of excellence, and comfort.

The magazines are never old, or subjective, like the boss’s hobbies. Nor are they tabloid or gossip.

The Client Lounge is also spotlessly clean and neat and tidy. It is tidied regularly, with obsessive compulsion, throughout the day. It’s the old “Broken Windows” theory. The Lounge must be looked at from the Customers’ Point of View.

There are fresh flowers. And fruit bowls, with fresh apples.

A well-presented Client Lounge frames the appointment. The opposite is also true.

We use a digital photo frame to show travel photos. Our patients loved them. This photo frame is a great “ice-breaker” to help our clients relax.

The amount of HANG TIME for the patient can vary from day to day as well as from appointment to appointment.

Our aim is to keep the HANG TIME short, where possible, and tight.

However, with the use of a great concierge, the amount or length of HANG TIME can pass very quickly.

A great concierge can use her people skills with patients in the Client Lounge to set the stage for treatment acceptance by the patient.

A great concierge can have all patients in the Lounge at ease and relaxed while they wait for their treatment.

A great concierge can be offering refreshments in the correct way to create some “Yes momentum” in the patient’s mind. In the correct way…

A great concierge can subliminally use Cialdini’s Law of Reciprocity to frame up the patient’s next treatment visits, without the client even being aware of the process.

A great concierge will entertain the Clients in the Client Lounge. She will have them interacting with each other as well.

The aim of the Ultimate HANG TIME is to add to the Ultimate Patient Experience.

Too often than not, in most dental offices, dental patients will comment that they are always kept waiting by a Dentist who runs behind.

When HANG TIME is maximized, there are no negative comments.

Maximising your office’s Dental HANG TIME is another great way of adding “Coin” to your practice.

It is essential that your dental office is maximising the use of its HANG TIME…

The correct use of HANG TIME is just one of the  many straight forward and easy to implement  protocols and procedures that make up The Ultimate Patient Experience, a simple to build system I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb.  If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.

Email me at david@theupe.com

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