Establishing rapport: Say their name
According to the Association for Psychological Science, creating emotional connections is critical to long-term social relationships, whether it is between teachers and students or an organization and its patrons. Findings indicate that knowledge and competency only go so far. Establishing rapport is absolutely necessary in building trust.
One simple way to do this is to address your patients or clients by their names—as soon as possible. Does your receptionist recognize many of your clients? If not, upon requesting the patient’s name for check-in purposes there is still an opportunity to personalize the visit by repeating the patient’s name once or twice with a friendly tone while making eye contact. When done naturally and sincerely, this little act of recognition is often enough to influence a visitor’s perception of the overall experience offered to them by your organization.
Moral of the story: Treat visitors like friends and you’ll build rapport which can result in longer-term relationships (and repeat visits). Oh, and treat your receptionists like royalty because these people are the face of your organization and set the tone for any visit.
