Coutts Woman

Dentistry with a difference

A dentist winning a business award?  Not exactly conventional?  But, as the everywoman ‘Hera’ award winner Wendy Sandeman explains, ‘conventional’ was never something she aspired to.

Sitting in her niche dentistry practice, Wendy Sandeman Ltd, Sandeman is the winner of two recent awards, the ‘Hera’ last month, which recognises outstanding entrepreneurial success in women aged 50 and over, and the national award for best practice in the environment at the Dental Awards 2006.  But she can’t help feeling a pang of regret.

“If I’d had more confidence, I could have done this earlier,” sighs Sandeman.  “I regret that I didn’t meet the right people earlier that could have encouraged me.”

Qualifying as a dentist in 1975, Sandeman always had her own vision for practising dentistry.  And even tried to pursue her ambition early on.  After working part-time in a general practice while her children were young, she attempted to set up her own practice in the 1980s. 

“I wanted to set up somewhere that there weren’t any dentists.  But the banks in the early 80s were not keen on lending money to women,” insists Sandeman.  Instead, she bought into the partnership she was working in.

“Dentists don’t think of themselves as business people, they see themselves as caring professionals and tend to focus on the clinical stuff rather than the business.  I got the confidence to do that side through my coaching”

It was a decision she regretted for years. “Not because it wasn’t a nice practice or the people weren’t nice, but because I couldn’t really do what I wanted to do.  My partners didn’t really have the same vision about dentistry.  And it became difficult to treat patients the way I wanted, when it wasn’t the same for the whole practice.”

Sandeman’s vision was a practice where patients came and where everything centred on them from the moment of contact to the end of their treatment.  “I wanted them to have a really good patient journey, so that they were listened to rather than being told what they needed,” she explains. 

“I wanted a team of people all committed to the patients because, in some practices, people forget that patients pay their wages, and they are the important people.  Even for routine examinations, somebody may have been sitting up all night worrying about it.  It may be routine for us but it’s not for the person coming in.”

In 2000, she came across a man doing business coaching with dentists.  “It sounded like the kind of thing I wanted to do, where I could learn about creating a business that delivered care and customer service.” The coaching helped Sandeman develop a vision for her business and create a patient 'journey' which had the 'wow' factors for her clients. 

“Dentists don’t think of themselves as business people, they see themselves as caring professionals and tend to focus on the clinical stuff rather than the business.  I got the confidence to do that side through my coaching,” explains Sandeman. 

By 2003, Sandeman, then 51, decided to take a leap of faith branch out on her own.  Armed with a spreadsheet, she and her husband scrutinised the figures.  “We wanted to see if we sold our house and bought a house that had a building nearby, whether the figures might work,” she says. 

Based on those calculations, they sold their house within a week and began renting until she found her current premises – a house surrounded by land and a rundown industrial workshop for her practice. 

With a lot of investment, Sandeman turned the Cinderella space into her award winning practice. “I wanted it to be really good, right from the word go.  So I invested money in the fit out, my logo and stationary, everything was high quality.  It demonstrated to people what my service was all about, and then people could make the decision on whether high quality was what they wanted.”

Her ever-increasing patient numbers confirm its popularity.  And she now has a broad range of clients.  Many are people working in the public eye, where a good smile is considered a necessity.  Another large source of clients is retired people.  “They come with friends and get upset when I see them too quickly because they haven’t had time for their coffee together!  It’s a bit of a social thing for them.  My receptionist usually books them a lunch appointment in town afterward,” she laughs.

For all these clients, there are little added luxuries which set Sandeman’s practice apart – warm hand massages, wireless internet connection for those working, an invitation to walk and enjoy the land surrounding the practice.

To maintain these luxuries and the top-level dentistry service, the practice is run very much as a business.  “We have key performance indicators and daily patient and business monitoring.  We always know what we’re up to.  That’s why we’re so successful, I think.  It’s all seamless on top because we’re paddling madly underneath.  It’s a business, but a very caring business,” she insists.

Despite its winning formula, Sandeman is unsure about expanding. “I’m good at listening to people and have quite a good reputation for treating people who are nervous about treatment.  So I’m conscious that some people come to the practice to see me.”

On the other hand, she’s tempted to take another leap of faith – given her initial instinct to set up a practice took so long.  “I had this thing about dentistry being a business for a long time and the Hera award validated that for me.  It’s definitely encouraged me to think about moving forward.”

Further Information

For more information on Wendy Sandeman and her niche dentistry practice in Dorset, call 01308 867431

Coutts & Co proudly sponsored the 'Hera' award at the 2006 NatWest everywoman awards