How to know your patient

In previous articles in this management series I have described how to deliver the best service possible in your practice – by asking open questions and understanding body language, by treating your patients as people and using the power of telling stories. All of these techniques still stand, but there is a risk of taking rather a one-size-fits-all approach.

We are all individuals who have different preferences about how we like to be treated when we enter a retail/clinical environment. Consider how you like to be treated. Would you like to be served straight away? Do you walk up to a member of staff and look at them inquisitively until they give you assistance? Or would you rather be left alone to browse? If so for how long would you like to be left? These are great questions to discuss with your team – you will find that each of you likes to be dealt with in a slightly different way. So why don’t we teach our teams about the different types of patients we face and how to adapt our behaviour accordingly?