Report: Implementation of Dentacoin as a currency in first partner clinic
In our search of corporate partners in dentistry, we were looking for a partner who would easily understand our concept and adopt it into their daily workflow. Therefore, it had to be a clinic with affinity to innovations and willingness for a constant improvement. The first clinic to ever identify with our concept for the global dental industry was SWISS Dentaprime — an innovative Dental Implant Clinic, which strongly invests in digitization and automation in all aspects of their work.
In March 2017 they implemented Dentacoin as means of payment and as a part of a Patient Loyalty Program (rewarding patients for giving constant feedback, writing reviews, recommending the clinic to other people). We are happy to share our partner’s first results and objective feedback in regards to the implementation of Dentacoin as an integral part of their workflow.
Duration of the test phase: 3 months (March 2017 — May 2017)
“We have implemented Dentacoin as means of payment and also as a part of our Patient Loyalty program. We are convinced that every business could and should benefit from collective customer wisdom in order to improve their service quality. We were also eager to say “Thank you” to each patient for their commitment to our clinic, for their willingness to give us their honest feedback and thus — to help us grow. Dentacoin was the perfect choice to reward patients for contributing to our improvement”, comments Desislava Dimova, Manager of SWISS Dentaprime Dental Clinic.
“Our overall experience is very positive. It was easy for us to set up the usage of Dentacoin, since we got full detailed instructions, know-how and constant support from the Dentacoin Team. We worked closely for 5 days until we made sure the entire team at our clinic is familiar and knows how to present and operate with Dentacoin.
Patients were also very excited about this new opportunity. Giving a voucher/coupon/client card or a discount in euro was nowhere near the excitement of receiving Dentacoin. Dentacoin felt like some kind of magical money to them. Patients participate with great excitement and are motivated to give an objective opinion, driven by the desire to help us improve our treatment quality and service. I cannot skip the fact that it was confusing for some of them to understand what exactly is Dentacoin but together with the Dentacoin Team we created different communication approaches for different patient groups based on their knowledge on the topic. Our willingness to explain and introduce them to details in the concept of Dentacoin motivates them even further to participate and give their feedback. This creates a special bond between our clinic and the patients — all parties working together to improve the quality of dental services. Or, as you say, “win-win”.
Having adapted the Feedback System to our custom needs and the exact user experience makes it easy to understand that in addition to the dental treatment, we have so much more to offer and we care about each patient and their individual concerns. Personalization is a large part of our mission to meet our patients’ needs more effectively, by making interactions faster and easier, which will then increase customer satisfaction and likelihood to recommend us to friends and family”, summarizes Desislava Dimova, Manager of SWISS Dentaprime Dental Clinic.
Short Q&A about the Dentacoin implementation at SWISS Dentaprime Dental Clinic
Q: How many patients were introduced to Dentacoin and had the opportunity to participate in your Patient Loyalty Program?
A: 95% of all our patients for the test period were introduced to this new concept. About 90% of our patients are from Western Europe (mainly Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom) and the other 10% are Russian and Bulgarian. As I mentioned, I believe it was relatively easy to explain the concept to each patient as we presented the information differently to different people so that they could comprehend it. In the first month we started opening wallets to 30% of all the patients (60 patients per week on average) and then we gradually increased the number. Currently (19. May 2017), 308 of our patients have their wallets.
Now that we have an undoubted interest in using Dentacoins at our dental clinic, we have estimated that we can sign an average of 60 new contracts each week, which is the equivalent of new Dentacoin Wallets being created each week. On an annual basis that means around 3000 new Dentacoin Wallet for the 49 working weeks.
Q: How many of them reported a positive experience?
A: All patients were very satisfied with the chance to give us their feedback on our service and treatment quality. The fact that they participate in the program with a new currency, especially designed for Dentistry, made the experience very exciting. Dentacoin really is a custom-made token for the Dental Industry and feels like a privilege to be used by both industry and patients.
Q: It was very easy for your clinic to adopt our model for rewarding patients with Dentacoin for their feedback. This so-called Feedback System which you implemented into your Patient Loyalty Program was actually the intersection between Dentacoin’s and Swiss Dentaprime’s concepts. Please, describe your experience with the system and the benefits out of it.
A: We strongly believe that the patient comes first, so all our services are aligned with patients’ needs and feedback. Throughout the years we have used different methods to encourage our customers to give really honest feedback, which will then help us improve aspects we needed to improve. The Feedback System of Dentacoin offers just that. Our daily workflow is very specific so we were even happier when we could adjust the sections of the Feedback System to match the exact steps of the patient at our clinic. We made it detailed, with descriptions and even pictures of our specialists, in order to bring better user experience to our patients. They just love this. Every patient describes each step of their visit to our clinic, and we know which doctor feels better to them, and which process needs to be worked on, so that the visit of the patient at our clinic becomes the most exciting experience of their life. So the patient gets heard, and upon his next visit, he can already see we implemented some changes in our flow to better match their expectations and preferences. And on top of that, they get paid with Dentacoin, which they use as means of payment upon their next visit to our clinic. And on our side — we get honest feedback from each patient and we know where we need to work in order to improve. This is a never-ending process, and we know how valuable this feedback is. As an addition, we get some great ideas from our patients. We are currently working on some educational videos, which will help patients to better understand the processes.
Q: You worked on adapting the Feedback System to match the processes at your clinic, thus each doctor and each assistant gets graded for each time they meet a patient. How is this Feedback affecting them?
A: The team gets the feedback immediately after it is sent by the patient, which is a great opportunity for them to work on themselves while they still have detailed reflection of the events. This is something, which motivates them to become better with direct feedback from the patient experience.
Q: How many of the patients already used the Dentacoins they earned at your clinic?
A: Our treatment specifics require the patients to visit us twice in most of the cases. So we decided it would be best if patients can use their Dentacoins during their second visit to our clinic. Due to the short duration of this reported period, we have about 15% of our Patients coming back for a second visit and almost all of them already spent their Dentacoins. One of the patients is really interested in the currency development, though, so he decided to store it in his wallet. Now they are asking for additional ways to earn more Dentacoins, which then they can give to their family or friends who are about to visit us soon.
Q: Did you notice any additional benefits to your clinic?
A: Actually yes! As mentioned, most of the patients who came for a second visit and already spent their Dentacoins are asking for alternative ways to earn more. So we have already thought about enlarging our Patient Loyalty Program with referral options. For each patient, who refers a new patient to our clinic, we will give Dentacoins. This helps our marketing efforts and we have already discussed that this option can be developed even further to become more effective way for attracting new patients and eventually reduce some marketing costs. Also, we are preparing a catalogue with dental care products which could be bought with Dentacoin.
The options with Dentacoin are really countless. Our team is really excited to see what comes next!
Additional Note:
“We are very well aware that a visit to the dentist is never a pleasurable experience. As a clinic specialized in different methods to treat patients with anxiety, we want to show that a dental visit does no longer mean pain and fear, which delays on-time treatment, which then results in long-term dental damage. Daily dental care, regular visits to the dentist and nutritious diet are the key to maintaining long-term dental and overall health.”
Desislava Dimova, Manager of SWISS Dentaprime Dental Clinic
Originally published at Dentacoin Blog.
