Thanking Patients for Referring

Dental offices often spend tens of thousands of dollars a month in marketing efforts. While I am a big fan of external marketing for new patients, I am even a bigger fan of marketing for new patients INTERNALLY.

Nothing says more about the health of your practice than your office receiving patients from happy current patients!

Happy patients referring new patients should be the life blood of your business building efforts. I would spend lots of time and money in encouraging internal referrals and thanking patients who help build your dental business.

In my office we gave out Starbucks cards to our patients as a thank you for referring new patients. My patients loved them and my staff enjoyed sending them out. Very often my patients would bring me a coffee when they came for their visit and said they used the gift card we gave them.

Be creative. Find ways to thank your referring patients. Send thank you cards, gift cards, movie tickets, just do something!

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Know Their Kid’s Names!

The easiest and cheapest business building strategy you can ever employ is to build strong relationships with your patients. Not only do patients who like you tend to stay in your practice but they also tend to be your best sources of referrals.

I have never met a patient who did not LOVE to talk about their children (I love to talk about mine). I know that we are all busy, running behind schedule and going a million directions at a time during the day but nothing will help develop rapport with your patients than to ask them how their children are doing.

Better yet – ask them about their children by name and know a little bit about each one. Like, “How is Michael doing in soccer this year?” or “Did Mary take her SAT yet – I know this is her junior year.” Have a place on your chart that you can easily see that lists our all the family members names, ages and important aspects of their lives. Review this area before seeing the patient each visit.

Your patients will appreciate that you have taken the time to get to know a little bit about them and you will feel more connected to your patients. If you are not doing this now – start today.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Retention is the KEY!

Most dentists, when pressed, can tell you how many new patients their practices attract each month. In fact, many dentists judge the success of their marketing efforts by this number.

While it is terrific to attract new families to our offices, the success of your practice is even more dependent on the number of patients you retain each month. Most offices do not keep track of the number of patients they lose each month. It is more fun to watch the inflow than to score the outflow.

I know offices that spend a great deal of money on marketing for new patients and spend no time or money on retaining the patients they already have. I have found that a lot of practices that attract a large number of new patients are actually operating at a net monthly loss of patients – they lose more than they attract. In fact – they are paying good money to have fewer patients each month.

The most effective, fun and natural form of practice marketing is patient retention. Quality patient follow up and appreciation can not only help you retain the patients you have but your current patients are your best and least expensive source for getting new patients. YES – the best way to get new patients is to keep your current patients happy.

In future posts we will discuss effective patient follow up and appreciation strategies that your practice can incorporate into your regular operating procedures. Good patient retention is an entire staff process that does not happen by accident – it is a carefully executed plan. Your entire staff should understand your patient retention plan and know their responsibilities in this critical business activity.

If you want to improve the number of patients your office sees each year, start with closing your back door first. Patient retention is the least expensive and simplest form of practice building you can do.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Sit in your dental chair and look up

When waste last time you sat in one of your dental chairs and looked up?

Do you know what your patients are seeing when they sit in your chair? Are they seeing dirty looking lights? A they seeing discolored ceiling tiles? Are they looking at a blank wall or crooked cabinet?

I was recently in a dental chair and spent an hour looking at a light fixture that looked dirty. The fixture was not dirty - the light was just streaky from the disinfectant sprayed on it and then quickly wiped down. From my angle it looked filthy. I knew better - your patients won't.

If your cabinets are old and need repair - get them fixed, painted, etc. it the ceiling tiles don't match or are dirty - get them replaced. These are quick and inexpensive fixes that will really pay dividends.

Think if you went into a restaurant and the table appeared dirty, the ceiling looked rain damaged and the tables wobbled - you would never go back. People are nervous about going to the dental office already, don't give them a reason to question your office.

Do yourself a favor, sit in all your dental chairs, recline the unit and look at what you see. Fix everything that your patients might perceive to be dirty, tacky, broken or problematic. These fixes are not expensive and will give your patients more confidence in your office.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Closing the Back Door…

Most dental offices are very aware of how many new patients they acquire each month BUT most dental offices do not know how many patients they LOSE each month. When doing consulting for many dental offices I often found that offices with good new patient acquisition numbers often had a NET NEGATIVE patient flow!

Can you imagine paying large number of dollars in marketing to acquire new patients only to be losing patient base size each month? It happens all the time and the offices are blissfully unaware basking in the high number of new patient data – not realizing that they are actually shrinking in size.

The least expensive patient to acquire is the ones you already have. Let me say that another way – the most important part of the growth plan for your practice must be to keep your current patient base satisfied and STAYING with you.

Keeping patients happy is inexpensive and the easiest to accomplish practice growth thing you can do for your office. I know offices that spend over $10,000 a month on new patient marketing and don’t spend $1 or one minute on maintaining their current patients – a bad strategy and bad math.

A focus on current customer satisfaction is the key and most important step in growing and maintaining your practice size. Read other articles on this and other websites about customer satisfaction ideas and start implementing right away.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems

www.aces4ce.com

Spark Plug Employees

Every once in a while I interview a person for a dental job and that person has a BIG personality. They are happy, smile, make jokes and generally are vibrating at a higher rate than the typical person. I almost always hire this kind of person on the spot.

I love to have employees that are simply fired up and give off positive energy – that smile and laugh and make the entire office more fun – more fun for the staff and more fun for the patients. I can teach an RDA to become better at some of the technical aspects of their job but rarely can I teach a highly skilled person to have a bigger personality.

I look back upon my many decade career and can point to the years where I had spark plug employees as some of the most fun and highly productive segments of my career. I know some offices that try to shy away from hiring employees with big personalities and tend to hire more vanilla/quite types. I say – GO BIG! Hire people that have personalities and like to chat with the patients. Yes – the person has to be mature and know the bounds of professional conversation – just set ground rules

I have been blessed with having a good number of spark plug employees over the years. I want to surround myself with employees that are fired up, alive and happy. I want that energy permeating my practice.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Handling After Hour Patient Calls

What do you do what a patient calls in the evening or weekend with a problem or question?

Nothing can be more maddening for a patient (or worse - mother of a patient) than to have a challenge and have no one to talk to about it. What happens to your patients when your office closes?

Many patients will have concerns and call the dental office but not feel their situation is an 'emergency' worth of disturbing you. What does your voicemail instruct patients to do with challenges that are not emergencies?

I suggest you look at having a voicemail box that sends you a text message and email. Our patients can be told on the office voicemail that if they have an after hour challenge that they can leave you a voice mail and you will receive a text of their issue.

You receive the text and can decide if you want to call the patient back or wait until the morning to deal with the situation. If you are in the movie or a kid's school performance you can choose to wait to deal with the situation.

A call back on a patient question can go a long way into build a strong relationship with your patient. Just knowing that you are available to your patients will help set their mind at ease.

Get a new voicemail system that will allow you to set up an afterhours mailbox. The patients can leave regular messages on the normal voicemail but can also select the alert the dentist voicemail option. This option I'll send you a text and email.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Professional does not mean No Personality

I agree that all dental professionals should 'act professionally' but some dentists confuse that with acting in a sterile or cold manner. Our patients are more comfortable in our offices when we act like ourselves and show our personality.

This does not mean you run around acting like you would on a weekend away in Las Vegas but it means you should let your humor and caring nature come alive in your practice. You do not need to act cold and dead panned for your patients to take you seriously as a dental professional.

A survey of patients showed that one of the top reasons patients chose their dentist was their connection to them. They stated that they liked their dentist's personality and that of the staff. The survey also said that the lighter the mood of the office the less phobia patients experienced.

You and your patients will be happier when you relax, be yourself and let your personality come out in your practice.

Dr. Corey Gold

President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Themed Offices – Yes or No?

You may be surprised but I am going to give a big thumbs UP to themed office – with the proviso that the theme you choose is something you are passionate about.

If you are a huge Dodger fan, or a golf nut, or a photography expert, or a lover of modern art – it is super to decorate your office around your passion. Your office should be an extension of you. It is fun to let your personality show through at your office.

A themed office opens the door for lots of questions and makes you feel at home in your daily environment. People will like the office as long as your theme is not wacky.

I do not advise creating a themed office around something you are not passionate about. I know a dentist who opened a deep sea fishing themed office and he doesn’t fish. When patients ask questions about fishing he looks bored. The theme does not work because it is not his passion.

I’m a tennis nut – I should have opened a tennis themed office – old rackets on the walls, pictures of past champions, put tennis nets across the walls. It would have been fun and when anyone asked me if I liked tennis – I would light up like a Christmas tree. I love talking tennis. It would have been an authentic theme and would have worked.

Themed offices only work when the theme fits you.

 

Dr. Corey Gold
President – advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Would You Choose Your Office For Dental Treatment For Yourself?

One of the hardest and most revealing questions I often pose to owners of dental offices is, “would you choose your office for dental treatment” if you were just a regular person shopping for the best office in town? In other words, “are you the best office” in your area? If you can take the emotions out of the question, the answer to the question is quite revealing about what steps you need to take to improve your office.

When people are looking for a new dental office they want to choose the best possible office for their family’s needs. What constitutes ‘best’ is often subjective. We can look at the quality of the dental work, pricing, office facility, staff quality, friendliness of the office, ability to offer financing, location of the office, hours of operation, services offered…. the list of qualities to measure is quite extensive and subjective.

But ask yourself… how do you measure up to your competition in some of these metrics? Is my staff as welcoming as they could be? Are my hours of availability patient friendly? Does my office look clean, modern and what a patient would expect to see in a quality dental office? Does my staff make navigating insurance and financing easy? Are we offering the most up-to-date treatment care? Be honest in your evaluation!

A while back a friend of mine asked me to honestly evaluate his office. I came in as a pretend patient and went through a cleaning procedure. I took mental notes and wrote a ‘to do’ list for my friend afterwards. The list had a lot of action items… many of these items he agreed with and he fixed immediately. Other items he did not think needed adjustment and he made no changes. He said over the next six months he saw a 50% increase in new patient traffic without any additional marketing. The improvements that he made gave his current patients the confidence they needed to refer their friends to his office.

I suggest, at minimum, you take a personal survey of your practice from soup to nuts. Better yet, I suggest you have a dental friend make a list for you of areas they think you could improve. Then put your ego down, evaluate the suggestions, and make improvements to your office. The benefits will be staggering!

Dr. Corey Gold

President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems

www.aces4ce.com

Spark Plug Employees

Every once in a while I interview a person for a dental job and that person has a BIG personality. They are happy, smile, make jokes and generally are vibrating at a higher rate than the typical person. I almost always hire this kind of person on the spot.

I love to have employees that are simply fired up and give off positive energy – that smile and laugh and make the entire office more fun – more fun for the staff and more fun for the patients. I can teach an RDA to become better at some of the technical aspects of their job but rarely can I teach a highly skilled person to have a bigger personality.

I look back upon my many decade career and can point to the years where I had spark plug employees as some of the most fun and highly productive segments of my career. I know some offices that try to shy away from hiring employees with big personalities and tend to hire more vanilla/quite types. I say – GO BIG! Hire people that have personalities and like to chat with the patients. Yes – the person has to be mature and know the bounds of professional conversation – just set ground rules

I have been blessed with having a good number of spark plug employees over the years. I want to surround myself with employees that are fired up, alive and happy. I want that energy permeating my practice.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Are You Negative?

I have been asked to observe many offices and make recommendations on ways that the office could be more productive and to increase the flow of new patients into the office. I would assume that the dentist inviting me into their practice would be on their best behavior when I was observing. Maybe they were?
What I have observed all too often are dentists who are very negative. They are unhappy and seem to be on edge. As the leader of the practice, the dentist sets the tone for the entire office, if the dentist is negative and down – the staff will follow. No one wants to go to a dental office that is down and no one wants to recommend that office as well.

Sometimes the number one recommendation I make for dentist in the coaching session is simply to smile, laugh and chat with people more. Just have a good time – enjoy the staff – enjoy the patients – enjoy the work! Be an attractive force within the office. Catch people doing things right and compliment people more. Compliment your staff in front of patients and compliment your patients as well.

I have seen dentist office increase sales by over 30% in a few months by doing nothing more than actively focusing on being happy, giving compliments and taking a sincere interest in their staff and patients. Sometimes we have just been doing dentistry for so long that we just forget to enjoy each day and the people we spend our day with. Just actively working on being a positive person and giving off happy energy will improve your practice.

You patients rarely know the quality of your work but they do know the experience of being in your practice. Patients will return to your office and refer you to others when they feel that they are in a positive office and the dentist takes an active interest in them as a person. Sometimes simply being nice pays off.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Act Like YOU Normally Act

I know a lot of dentists who try to act like dentists. What I mean by that is that they believe that they need to modify their personality in the office to be more ‘doctor’ like. Instead of being themselves, they try to act in a manner that they think that people expect a dentist to act like.

I advise you to act like yourself! If you have a big personality and enjoy sharing jokes – be yourself. If you are quite and enjoy listening to music while you work – listen to music and be yourself. Over time you will attract patients who like YOU how you are.

It is no fun to try to have a personality that is not really yours. Joy comes from doing a profession you love and being yourself each day.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Thanking Patients for Referring

Dental offices often spend tens of thousands of dollars a month in marketing efforts. While I am a big fan of external marketing for new patients, I am even a bigger fan of marketing for new patients INTERNALLY.

Nothing says more about the health of your practice than your office receiving patients from happy current patients!

Happy patients referring new patients should be the life blood of your business building efforts. I would spend lots of time and money in encouraging internal referrals and thanking patients who help build your dental business.

In my office we gave out Starbucks cards to our patients as a thank you for referring new patients. My patients loved them and my staff enjoyed sending them out. Very often my patients would bring me a coffee when they came for their visit and said they used the gift card we gave them.

Be creative. Find ways to thank your referring patients. Send thank you cards, gift cards, movie tickets, just do something!

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Retention is the KEY!

Most dentists, when pressed, can tell you how many new patients their practices attract each month. In fact, many dentists judge the success of their marketing efforts by this number.

While it is terrific to attract new families to our offices, the success of your practice is even more dependent on the number of patients you retain each month. Most offices do not keep track of the number of patients they lose each month. It is more fun to watch the inflow than to score the outflow.

I know offices that spend a great deal of money on marketing for new patients and spend no time or money on retaining the patients they already have. I have found that a lot of practices that attract a large number of new patients are actually operating at a net monthly loss of patients – they lose more than they attract. In fact – they are paying good money to have fewer patients each month.

The most effective, fun and natural form of practice marketing is patient retention. Quality patient follow up and appreciation can not only help you retain the patients you have but your current patients are your best and least expensive source for getting new patients. YES – the best way to get new patients is to keep your current patients happy.

In future posts we will discuss effective patient follow up and appreciation strategies that your practice can incorporate into your regular operating procedures. Good patient retention is an entire staff process that does not happen by accident – it is a carefully executed plan. Your entire staff should understand your patient retention plan and know their responsibilities in this critical business activity.

If you want to improve the number of patients your office sees each year, start with closing your back door first. Patient retention is the least expensive and simplest form of practice building you can do.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Be Yourself

I know a lot of dentists who try to act like dentists. What I mean by that is that they believe that they need to modify their personality in the office to be more ‘doctor’ like. Instead of being themselves, they try to act in a manner that they think that people expect a dentist to act like.

I advise you to act like yourself! If you have a big personality and enjoy sharing jokes – be yourself. If you are quite and enjoy listening to music while you work – listen to music and be yourself. Over time you will attract patients who like YOU how you are.

It is no fun to try to have a personality that is not really yours. Joy comes from doing a profession you love and being yourself each day.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Sit in your dental chair and look up

When waste last time you sat in one of your dental chairs and looked up?

Do you know what your patients are seeing when they sit in your chair? Are they seeing dirty looking lights? A they seeing discolored ceiling tiles? Are they looking at a blank wall or crooked cabinet?

I was recently in a dental chair and spent an hour looking at a light fixture that looked dirty. The fixture was not dirty - the light was just streaky from the disinfectant sprayed on it and then quickly wiped down. From my angle it looked filthy. I knew better - your patients won't.

If your cabinets are old and need repair - get them fixed, painted, etc. it the ceiling tiles don't match or are dirty - get them replaced. These are quick and inexpensive fixes that will really pay dividends.

Think if you went into a restaurant and the table appeared dirty, the ceiling looked rain damaged and the tables wobbled - you would never go back. People are nervous about going to the dental office already, don't give them a reason to question your office.

Do yourself a favor, sit in all your dental chairs, recline the unit and look at what you see. Fix everything that your patients might perceive to be dirty, tacky, broken or problematic. These fixes are not expensive and will give your patients more confidence in your office.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Thanking Patients for Referring

Dental offices often spend tens of thousands of dollars a month in marketing efforts. While I am a big fan of external marketing for new patients, I am even a bigger fan of marketing for new patients INTERNALLY.

Nothing says more about the health of your practice than your office receiving patients from happy current patients!

Happy patients referring new patients should be the life blood of your business building efforts. I would spend lots of time and money in encouraging internal referrals and thanking patients who help build your dental business.

In my office we gave out Starbucks cards to our patients as a thank you for referring new patients. My patients loved them and my staff enjoyed sending them out. Very often my patients would bring me a coffee when they came for their visit and said they used the gift card we gave them.

Be creative. Find ways to thank your referring patients. Send thank you cards, gift cards, movie tickets, just do something!

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Closing the Back Door…

Most dental offices are very aware of how many new patients they acquire each month BUT most dental offices do not know how many patients they LOSE each month. When doing consulting for many dental offices I often found that offices with good new patient acquisition numbers often had a NET NEGATIVE patient flow!

Can you imagine paying large number of dollars in marketing to acquire new patients only to be losing patient base size each month? It happens all the time and the offices are blissfully unaware basking in the high number of new patient data – not realizing that they are actually shrinking in size.

The least expensive patient to acquire is the ones you already have. Let me say that another way – the most important part of the growth plan for your practice must be to keep your current patient base satisfied and STAYING with you.

Keeping patients happy is inexpensive and the easiest to accomplish practice growth thing you can do for your office. I know offices that spend over $10,000 a month on new patient marketing and don’t spend $1 or one minute on maintaining their current patients – a bad strategy and bad math.

A focus on current customer satisfaction is the key and most important step in growing and maintaining your practice size. Read other articles on this and other websites about customer satisfaction ideas and start implementing right away.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems

www.aces4ce.com

Know Their Kid’s Names!

The easiest and cheapest business building strategy you can ever employ is to build strong relationships with your patients. Not only do patients who like you tend to stay in your practice but they also tend to be your best sources of referrals.

I have never met a patient who did not LOVE to talk about their children (I love to talk about mine). I know that we are all busy, running behind schedule and going a million directions at a time during the day but nothing will help develop rapport with your patients than to ask them how their children are doing.

Better yet – ask them about their children by name and know a little bit about each one. Like, “How is Michael doing in soccer this year?” or “Did Mary take her SAT yet – I know this is her junior year.” Have a place on your chart that you can easily see that lists our all the family members names, ages and important aspects of their lives. Review this area before seeing the patient each visit.

Your patients will appreciate that you have taken the time to get to know a little bit about them and you will feel more connected to your patients. If you are not doing this now – start today.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com