Dental practices that combine technical correctness with genuine hospitality -- warmth, personalization, and attentive care -- generate patient referrals and loyalty, while those offering only accurate service without the personal touch fail to stand out from competitors.
- Service is black and white: It's the correct, functional delivery of what patients expect -- it is accurate, on time, nothing is missing or wrong.
- Hospitality is color: It's the warmth, personality, and genuine attention that makes patients feel valued as individuals, not just processed.
- Correctness is necessary but not sufficient: Every decent dental practice can be correct, but only practices with color create memorable experiences that lead to referrals.
- Color drives word-of-mouth: Patients who experience genuine hospitality tell others, like mentioning your office at family gatherings, creating organic referral growth.
Will Guidara, a restaurateur, wrote a book called Unreasonable Hospitality, about turning a midtier New York restaurant into the best in the world. One of his best lines in the book, in my opinion, is “Service is black and white, hospitality is color.”
Guidara draws a line between service and hospitality, and he draws it in color. Service, he says, is black and white. It's the correct, functional delivery of what you're owed -- it is accurate, on time, nothing has been missed, and nothing is wrong.
Dr. Ann Miller.
Hospitality is color. It's everything that gets layered on top of that: warmth, personality, the sense that a specific human being is paying attention to you, not just processing you.
Picture two versions of the same appointment -- the same hygienist, same thoroughness, same accurate cleaning.
In the black-and-white version, patients are called back on time, treated competently, handed a card for the next visit, and they are then out the door. Every fact is correct. Nothing wrong happened.
In the color version of that same visit, there is similar competence, the same accuracy, but someone noticed on the chart that it is the patient's first visit since she moved here from out of state. Someone asked how the move went. Someone remembered, because it was written down, that she mentioned being nervous about the sound of the drill, and quietly had headphones ready before she had to ask.
Clinically, those two appointments are identical -- the same skill, same correctness, same amount of time, probably. But only one of them has color in it, and only one of those patients tells her sister about your office. That sister then makes an appointment with your office.
I'd guess most of you have felt the black-and-white version of service yourselves, outside of dentistry, at a hotel, a restaurant, or a mechanic. The company did everything it was supposed to do. Nothing went wrong. Nothing was late. Nothing was incorrect. And you walked away feeling nothing at all. That's black and white. It's not a failure. It's just not color, and color is what gets remembered.
Correctness is necessary -- I want to be clear about that, because it's easy to read an article such as this one and think hospitality is the whole job. It isn't. No amount of color fixes a missed cavity or a wrong appointment time. But correctness on its own does not set your practice apart from another practice; every decent practice in your town can be correct. A patient who was treated correctly has no particular reason to choose you over the next practice that's also correct.
A dental office that provides color will have a patient who remembers. A patient who received color isn't comparison-shopping anymore. She's already decided and will stay.
Dr. Ann D. Miller is a general dentist with a passion to help other dentists navigate their journey in dentistry. She is a dental coach and founder of Dental Wayfinder, working with dentists in all stages of their dental career. You can reach her at www.dentalwayfinder.com or [email protected].
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
