Relationship-Focused Dental Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘dental patient relations’

Why do some marketing programs work for one practice and not others?  If your practice has better technology, nicer referral cards and the best website … How can another practice that has none of those be more successful?  The answer lies not in the marketing tools, strategies and tactics, but in the people who use them.

The dental team, armed with exceptional people skills and genuine interest, can out-relate—and outperform any marketing secret.  Whether it be Facebook, a referral card or a personal follow-up call … the way in which the socializing, relating and interacting is done is key.

When a team member inherently enjoys what they do in your practice, the benefits are immeasurable. They interact with patients, genuinely, because they like to.

Customer service (patient relations) and marketing are one.  If patients feel a disconnect between what brought them to your practice and the experiences they have once there, it is a make or break point.  You and your team have the power to fuel Facebook activity, word of mouth and referrals—or not.

If your practice Facebook account is stale, referrals are flat and phone calls are unreturned, it may be time to review the motivation and energy behind the effort.  Remember, people don’t interact with Facebook, they interact with other people.  Likewise, patients don’t refer to a “practice”, they refer to people.

Good marketing plans are important; however the people that act upon the plans day-to-day are most important.

The first thing to consider before investing in marketing is, “How well are you doing with the patients you already have?”  If you cannot answer this question, then you may be making a mistake by marketing.

For example, let‘s say you have a case acceptance rate of 35%.  Wait. Before you criticize this percentage, can you say exactly what your acceptance rate is?  Many practices have no idea how to begin to track and determine this crucial marker.  Instead they look externally for solutions that will “Bring new patients in the door and solve everything”.

When practices pull in new patients, without fully treating the patients they already have, the result is wasted marketing dollars.  In contrast, it’s a win-win when patients accept treatment … Patients get healthy and dental practices flourish.

So what happens in situations with low case acceptance and continuous numbers of new patients?  The practice stays busy, yet many times is unsuccessful.

Remember, “The fortune is in your follow-up!” Don’t wait for down-time to do your recall.  Call patients, and continue to follow up with them over many months. In today’s economy, follow up needs to be extensive.

-          Follow up with the patients you already have in your practice.

-          Track your case acceptance and learn your conversion.

-          Make sure you are fully optimizing the practice you already have before launching external marketing of any kind.

The only way to determine if you are a good candidate to proceed with marketing is to currently know:   1)  How many of your patients accept treatment?  2)  For patients that didn’t accept treatment, where are they with their decision?  3)  When was the last time you followed up with patients?

Where does your case acceptance stand today?  Are you a candidate for dental marketing?