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Do You Really Need New Patients to Grow?

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Do you really need new patients to grow? Yes and no. Even the best practices in the country lose about 10% of their patients a year and need new patients to at least replace the attrition. At the same time, there are some other, very intriguing (and less costly) ways to grow your dental practice.

At TNT, we are quite fortunate to work with some of the finest dental business owners in the world, and we learn a lot from them. Recently, we gathered input from them on the biggest challenges they face – along with the lowest hanging fruit for dental practice growth.

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2023 Planning – 4 Numbers to Know

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smiling people gathered around a festive dinnerThis is a cool time of the year.

We get to be thankful, joyous, merry and bright.  We get to sing along, drink eggnog, give gifts and light candles. At the same time, we are supposed to be planning for a happy and prosperous new year. What? How is that going to happen?

Those are the questions I started to ponder after recovering from my turkey coma on Black Friday.  Being in the technology business, I did not have to shop. We do that on Cyber Monday.  As a result, I had time to think and nap.  Both served me well as I actually came up with 2 answers to those questions.

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5 Things To Consider Before Selling Your Dental Practice

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By Kyle Francis, President and Founder Professional Transition Strategies

To many, the dental practice transition process seems daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. This is mainly because practice owners often don’t know where to start or how the practice’s value is determined, among other essential factors.

Whether you’re ready to begin planning your transition strategy or you want to learn more about your options, it’s important to understand what impacts the sale of your dental practice. Here are the top five things to consider before you sell your dental practice.

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WSJ Reports: The Smartest Ways to Use Online Reviews When Shopping

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In our last blog article, we looked at the Wall Street Journal’s analysis of how consumers really use online reviews, and how what you thought you knew about reviews might not necessarily be true. In this follow-up post, we’re looking at the WSJ’s “The Smartest Ways to Use Online Reviews When Shopping” article (Note: not linked here as the full article is only available to WSJ subscribers). We’ll use insights from this piece to focus on the ways patients might perceive and even misconstrue some of the reviews out there, and what you can do to make the most out of your practice’s online reviews.

Reviews That Stand Out Aren’t Always Bad

Many people will follow the pack – same thing is true for reviews. If there are a lot of good reviews, most readers will gravitate towards those. But if you have reviews that stray from the pack, don’t fret – it’s good for your readers to see an alternative. Obviously no one should relish a completely negative review, but a thoughtful, substantive review, even if it’s not 100% positive, can create a sense of credibility and legitimacy in the mind of prospective new patients as they evaluate your practice’s online review presence. It’s human nature to be a tad dubious of nothing but 5/5 reviews.

Embrace the Mistake Makers

Have any of your reviewers visited another dentist and had a bad experience only to come to your office to get it fixed? These are some of the best reviews to signal boost in your marketing materials or in a “Testimonials” section of your website. According to a recent piece in the Journal of Marketing, people perceive those who admit their past purchasing mistakes as more trustworthy in their reviews. People tend to appreciate when someone prevents them from making the same costly mistakes they did.

Details Matter

Focus on the specifics within your reviews. If you elevate the reviews that outline concrete, objective statements about quality in your practice, you’ll provide readers with a more balanced, factual look at the feedback you’re receiving. Anyone can toss out vague sentiments light on specifics, but that doesn’t tell a compelling story – only the facts can do that.

In our last article, we talked about how everyone loves emotional storytelling in their reviews, but it’s important to not get swept up in that. If you can amplify the reviews that tell a story and also provide helpful information to your readers, then you’ve done your job. Balance is key in all areas, and your reviews are no different. Highlight reviews in your marketing materials that are heavy on specific details and light on fluff as much as possible.


Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff … and One-Star Reviews

Just because a one-star review creeps up under your practice, don’t lose all hope! While sometimes reviewers have good reason to dish out low ratings, oftentimes they’re just getting something off their chest. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review, found that about a quarter of negative online reviews are unfair — the reviewer was complaining about something outside the company’s control. So, just remember from our last blog on this subject — resist the impulse to try and hide or delete negative reviews. Instead, do your utmost to respond in a kind, reasonable fashion, and take the categorically unreasonable reviews that may trickle in on rare occasions with a grain of salt.


Watch Out for Active Reviewers

You want your best patients to provide online reviews for your practice, but look out for multiple reviews from the same profiles. An analysis out of the University of Hamburg found that fake reviewers submit 12 times as many reviews as genuine customers. You can also spot fake reviews because they’re typically lengthy, but full of totally generic praise. Lastly, clicking on their profile to check out the reviewers avatar/profile picture and other publicly available info can sometimes quickly reveal whether you’re dealing with authentic feedback or spam.

In conclusion, when you’re assessing the state of your online reviews, beware of those possible fakes in the midst of the others. Google, Facebook, and others have a process by which inauthentic reviews can be flagged and reviewed for removal. This is something the TNT team can assist you with. Evidently fake reviews, even positive ones, hurt far more than they help in terms of your business’s online perception and should be dealt with accordingly. 


Between this article and our prior companion piece, we’ve now looked at everything you thought you knew about online reviews. When you ask your patients to write reviews for your practice, keep these tips in mind to ensure you’re getting the most out of your online reviews so you can bring in more patients! When you’re putting together marketing materials for your website, social media, or other acquisition channels, don’t forget these truisms and best practices.

When you’re ready to start assessing your reviews and determining how to manage the content you have on your Google My Business or Facebook pages, contact us at TNT Dental. Our team is here to help you put these tips and principles into motion and turn your review presence into a true conversion machine.

WSJ Reports: How Consumers Really Use Online Reviews

As you might remember from the “Why Your Online Reputation Matters” article, online reviews are key to converting website viewers into patients. When you can capitalize on your patients’ positive experiences with your practice and take their testimonials to tell their story (all for a minimal cost!), it resonates with new and prospective patients.

So, naturally, you’d think the icing on the cake would be a slew of five-star reviews on your Google My Business or Facebook page, right? Not so fast, according to the latest findings in the Wall Street Journal. In their “How Consumers Really Use Online Reviews” article, they discovered some surprising facts on how readers interpret reviews and disseminate what’s too good to be true.
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Do You Know Your Dental Practice’s Patient Attrition Percentage?

Most would say the key to growing your practice would be getting new dental patients, but there’s more to it than just that. We work with a lot of dentists across the country, and the keyword you need to focus on and understand is attrition. You can’t be bringing in new dental patients and then leave the backdoor open for those new patients (or even your existing patients) to leave!

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How to Get Your Dental Office to the First Page of Google

As a dental practice today, you understand the importance of making it to the first page of Google. You want to be discovered by prospective patients, and Google is part of the gateway to making that happen. If you’re working with a dental marketing company, they should be managing your SEO strategy to help drive those patients to your page. But it’s important they’re taking the right steps to make sure you’re not only getting to the first page of Google but also getting the bank for your buck!
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Going from a $0 to $1M Dental Practice with 1 Front Desk Person

If you are a startup dental practice, you have a world of possibilities ahead of you, along with potential roadblocks. Startups are the new kids on the block, offering a fresh face for dental needs in the community. On the other hand, the uphill climb that comes with that includes addressing your three biggest challenges: how to get new patients, gain “big” practice accessibility, and manage costs.

As a new practice, your goal is to be successful, be aggressive in getting new dental patients, and hire the right people to work for your office. Traditionally, you had to sacrifice one of these factors in order to achieve success, but with new technologies and advancements, going forward, you can have it all!
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Net Promoter Score: How One Number Captures Potential Future Success

If you’re looking for ways to attract new dental patients, you might be focusing on the number of patients coming in the door, but that’s not the only number you want to keep in mind.

Now, think about companies you enjoy. What do you like about them? Is their customer service top-notch?

Companies gauge feedback on these factors and more to determine customer loyalty as part of the Net Promoter Score (NPS). If you’re not monitoring this score now… add this to the list of numbers to follow!
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Building Your Dental Practice’s 2022 Marketing Plan:
How to Get More Leads

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