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Yesterday was my birthday.
Yep, Valentine’s Day. The Day of Love. And when I opened my phone, I saw these were just a few of the messages. One from a specialist, my general dentist, Delta, and a vendor. And I’m here to tell you, these messages don’t work. I know you’ve been told that it’s essential to load patient birthdays into the computer and “enable” the birthday texts and emails. I just wanted to ask you to turn them off. Why?
Because they are impersonal, generic, dispassionate, and, most importantly, not in the least bit effective.
Would you continue to use a composite material that didn’t last more than a few weeks? Would you keep an intraoral camera in the office if it was unrepairable?
Dentistry is a people business. All this technology we’ve added has, in some cases, made the patient experience better. In this case, it makes it worse. It makes me feel like a number.
If you want me to smile when I think of you, send friends to see you, and say yes to your recommendations, you should take 30 seconds to write a text that says, “Happy Birthday, Kristie! We hope you got on a great Peloton ride this morning and ate a delicious dessert you didn’t bake. We’re celebrating you today! Thanks for being our patient!”
If it’s not personal, it’s invisible.
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