…Your Patients
There can be a bit of a divided opinion surrounding Dental Awards.
Some believe they are a money making exercise for the organisers or that some practices, teams and individuals that win are not perhaps as good as themselves?!
Others see them as a way of getting well deserved recognition and a way of showcasing their team, practices and services to both their peers and patients.
Whatever individual outlooks may be, the fact is they exist and are growing more and more each year. The choice is entirely yours as to whether you get involved and possibly reap the benefits or not. I suggest that if you look at it simply from a PR and marketing perspective, then you really must enter. You’ve got to be in it to win it, as the saying goes, and if you believe you are better than others then you need to walk the walk!
My own experience of awards has been one of the best learning tools over the last several years, both for my practice and team and also for me individually.
Our practice has had the honour of winning over 12 awards, Best Practice UK and Best Customer Care UK, Practice Manager of the Year (twice…I’m very special!) amongst them. We first decided to look at the awards as we felt that we were so proud of our practice and team and wanted to gain recognition, primarily for our team, which we are amazingly proud of and for our patients that we value.
For us, it was a way to demonstrate our outstanding commitment to patient care and improve our systems even more. It endorsed our specialist, reception and nursing teams and provided credit for all their hard work. We had a great response from our patients, many of which, said how proud and reassured they were to be part of our practice. As a patient, if your chosen dental practice wins awards then that validates your choice – everyone likes to be associated with a winner.
It has also helped tremendously for HR and we have a constant stream of CVs from dentists and DCPs wanting to join our team. Above all, they have helped us grow our business; we aren’t interested in being better than other practices and teams, we are interested in sticking to our practice visions; our patients and team are at the core of this, our patients need to feel cared for each and every time. The awards honours have certainly helped us achieve this.
So where now? ….in the last 2 years it has been a pleasure and an honour to be asked to be on the judging panel for The Dental Awards. The judging process is in depth, precise, thorough and measured, to ensure the worthy winners are chosen. The calibre of entries has grown massively even over the last 2 years, and I’m looking forward to judging again in 2019.
