January 28, 2019
If you were to ask most of your fellow dentists if they know the number of new patients coming in each month, you can bet that the majority can rattle off that number with no problem. But, what if I were to ask you to tell me how many of your existing patients come back per month? Would that be as easy? I’d bet not. You see, most dentists spend so much time focusing on getting new patients that they forget you have to always keep recruiting and enticing your existing patients to come back to you.
As you can imagine, knowing the number of return patients over a six-month period is critical to building your practice. It also helps you to assess whether or not you’re wasting your money on new patient marketing. If you’re spending money on patients who are one-and-done, then you’re just throwing your money out the window. Instead, you need to be focusing on marketing efforts that will turn your existing patients into good, long-term patients.
You love your dedicated dental patients. You can always count on them showing up to their appointments, paying in a timely manner and referring you to their friends and family. If you could only clone those patients and get more of them in your door, you’d be set! But, all hope is not lost; you may not be able to fast forward to the future and replicate them, but rest assured, you’ll attract high-value patients to your practice by following some simple recommendations.
If you discovered you could grow your dental practice $1 million next year by making one change… you’d do it, right? Of course you would. Or, so you think. One of the biggest missed opportunities for dental practices is not capitalizing on undone dentistry. If you could make one promise to yourself as we approach 2019, take the steps to getting your dental patients scheduled for their treatment, and watch your practice grow!
Your practice is moving in the right direction. You’ve got your dedicated patients who’ve steadfastly been with you since Day One, and you’re putting the right pieces in place to attract new patients. But you always want to look ahead, right? A good practice doesn’t stay on top of its game if it becomes stagnant.
Your patients have a hectic life. Between work, family, and everything else they’ve got going on, they then have to fit in appointments, and that goes for scheduling time to come into your dental practice. I mean, put yourself in their shoes. With all that you do, you have to think: when is the best time to make time for things like the dentist office?
You’ve got a lot on your plate – you run a successful dental practice, taking care of not only your patients, but your team members each day. Between pulling Ms. Jones’ tooth and making sure all the bills are paid, you don’t have a lot of downtime to focus on other services, such as marketing your business. You decide to take the step and find a dental marketing firm that can take that load off your plate. What they are selling sounds good, and just as you’re about to commit to them, they pull out this caveat – you need to sign a long-term contract for their services. This begs the question, you want good marketing help, but at what price?
You have a steady stream of patients, and you love those loyal customers. They are the ones who will always be there. They never miss an appointment. They tell other people about your practice. They pay on time. If every patient was like them, life would be easy! But, are you measuring your success by those loyalists?
You’ve taken your practice into the 21st century; your website is up-to-date and ready to convert visitors into patients, but you’re still struggling with getting new patients in the door. You can use the latest tactics to draw in potential patients, but you can’t forget one thing – the importance of the phone call! That’s right – that mobile phone people use for surfing the Internet and texting still provides its initial function: calling.
