The TeleDentists stepped up during the Coronavirus pandemic providing an important service during a time of critical patient need. Dental offices closed, but patients continued to get toothaches. Patients found relief by looking for solutions on the Internet or were guided to our site by two major insurance companies, Cigna and Anthem.
For most patients, this was their first experience with teledentistry, in fact it was their first experience with telehealth of any kind. We had promised our partners that we would be able to see patients in 10 minutes or less and we met that metric 99% of the time. But we also wanted to make sure our patients were satisfied with the experience. So, we asked them.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of a firm's by asking a single question. According to the June/July 2020 issue of Fortune Magazine, it is a tool which is used by 2/3 of the Fortune 1000 companies.
But it can be easily used by small companies such as ours. The question we asked,
“Would you refer a friend or family member to The TeleDentist service?”
Patients were asked to rate us from 0 (not very likely) to 10 (very likely). Results can range from -100 to +100. Our results were “off the charts” positive as we scored an 82.
Companies are usually compared to others in their field, and below is a chart of average NPS by industry with a range of 27 to 71.
This article from 2017 says that the average NPS for dental providers is “1”.
This article says that Teledoc has an average NPS of “9” and that we even beat the very highest ranked companies, Costco and Starbucks.
https://customer.guru/net-promoter-score/teladoc-inc
Many companies, when reviewing the results of their first NPS survey are in a position off asking themselves, “How can we do better?”. We, the TeleDentists are in the fortunate position of asking, “How do we keep doing what we’re doing?”. We are very conscious of the fact that the results are largely a factor of the ability of a qualified dentist to provide expert relief at the time of patient need. Delivering a service which is valued by its customers is one way that a small company becomes a larger one.
