As a dentist, how do you define success?
No matter how you define it, we can help you formulate ways to achieve your own success. The truth is that the success of your business depends almost solely on the experience of your patients.
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After giving a presentation to a dental office a couple years ago, I passed around a survey. I told them, “Please tell me what you thought of this presentation. I am not going to cry about it if you have anything negative to say. In fact, I will thank you for the feedback.”
I was overwhelmed by the gratitude and kindness of the feedback. I had very little if any negative criticisms. The team was really starting to come together. They were also learning NEW tricks about communication that has contributed to their practice growth.
One of the reviews read: “Grace is small, yet mighty.” She then went into how I held my own. She explained how I gave them steps to take towards improvement. She really liked a new way to track patients without appointments and how to follow up with them. The booking system was complete with direction, scripts and my phone number for when questions came up. They took the book and made some changes to it, tweaking it to fit their office needs. Now, it has been a part of their daily routine for 2 years!
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Grace explains the following dental marketing ideas:
Call us today! Get a free marketing evaluation and roadmap for your practice.
Almost every dentist I work with has been burned in the past by an over priced program that has under delivered. Price and results do not always directly correlate.
This ideal is unrealistic and a ploy to get you to buy into that HUGE marketing and consulting plan being pitched at that seminar. With a well-trained and positive manager, you can focus more on dentistry. This doesn’t mean that you should ever completely let go of your business decisions including marketing and hiring.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Marketing for dentists and other medical fields is not only accepted, it’s well received. Patients tend to trust a well branded practice. Patients rely on dental marketing to help encourage them to get the regular professional dental care.
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Grace explains how trust is important when choosing a dental marketing consultant.
It’s okay to start small.
With the dawn of the social media age, the buying process has been flipped upside down. Now, instead of making a decision based on just what has been presented in ads and websites, consumers are also making buying decisions based on what their friends recommend.
Unfortunately, when consumers don’t have access to their friends’ opinions, they are often relying on the opinions of complete strangers that are posted on dental review sites and social media platforms. As you may know, most people won’t go out of their way to post a great review about your practice, even if he or she has been a patient for 20 years. However, the angry patient can destroy your reputation with just a few lines of text and the click of a mouse. They can even post a review from an app on their phone in seconds!
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10. Greet your new patients with a handshake and kind introduction.
9. Offer water bottles, coffee and tea in your waiting area.
8. Let your patients know that as a courtesy you will submit to their insurance company.
7. Take at least 10 minutes talking with the patient and asking specific questions. When seeing a doctor of any kind, patients want time with the doctor himself/herself.
6. Present treatment at a desk at a private office, not in the dental chair.
5. LISTEN. If the patient mentions to the front desk that she left her last doctor because he did treatment before she was completely numb, front desk should make a note of this. Doctor should address this and assure the patient that he will check and verify she is completely numb prior to beginning any kind of treatment.
4. Provide information from a third party. If you are diagnosing gum disease, provide information about the disease. Help the patient understand what he/she can do to prevent further deterioration. Send the information home so that the patient has time to understand and research your diagnosis. Always share the good news: “It’s a good thing we caught it now and can prevent…”
3. Make it easy for patients to make payments, schedule appointments and get in to see you.
2. Treat your staff with respect. Patients can sense disrespect and office turmoil.
1. Don’t rush. Patients hate feeling like they are just a “butt in a chair”. Connect, respect, and provide excellent dental care.
As you may know, one bad review may prevent a new patient from calling your practice. Did you know that you are on these review sites whether you like it or not? It’s true! Just Google search your name or practice name and watch as you come up on sites like Healthgrades, Yelp, Doctoroogle, Google+, Yahoo Reviews, YellowPages, Angieslist, InsiderPages and more!
Maybe you don’t have any bad reviews now, and that’s just great! However, referred new patients will often search your name on Google to see what others have to say about you. Upon finding your name with no reviews, they may also see a competing practice has 20 excellent reviews. Before you know it, those patients find themselves skimming through your competition’s website for more information about dental veneers.
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Take a moment to examine your current logo.
What do you take away from its design? Your logo is not your brand. It is a part of brand identity, but it is not your brand. People are meant to identify your logo and instantly connect it with your brand and its overall message, without any further explanation. If your logo is giving off the wrong message, maybe it’s time to consider some change.
A good logo should be simple enough to be easily reproduced in multiple mediums and sizes. Your logo should look as good on a billboard as it does on your business cards. If a change in size alters the looks, then you probably need to redesign it. Logos are meant to serve as identification and if your logo looks slightly different in various sizes, people will identify them different. Fonts are very likely to do this if they are not properly designed. Imagine if McDonald’s logo looked like just a bunch of squiggly yellow lines when printed on a smaller scale. That’s why simplicity and versatility are the most important aspects of a successful logo.
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