Drive Patient Growth in your Practice
A successful business requires several steps, but the primary requirement is having people come into your establishment seeking to exchange money for services or goods. This necessity is no different in dentistry. You can have the education, tools and an excellent staff, but you will still need your dental practice to be seen and visited by new dental patients and existing patients. Our team at WEO Media can help.
Taking steps to bring prospective patients and practice growth to your dental clinic should be a primary goal, but it can be time consuming. Your dental team will want to weigh options and decide where to put your focus. There are steps you can take to attract patients and increase your patient list.
Balancing Dentistry and a Business
Dentists are required to wear multiple hats and that can be challenging. Being a dentist requires extensive knowledge in dentistry, including continuing education and knowledge in dental software and tools. It also requires the management of a business, managing staff, and building community relations to seek new dental patients. The amount of work involved in dental practices is considerable. Outsourcing some of these responsibilities will save you time, stress and can even save you money.
We recommend turning over your digital marketing strategy and dental marketing campaigns, as well as social media presence to a team that knows what to do. At WEO Media, we can provide the building blocks and online tools to present your business with a dental marketing plan and new dental marketing ideas, helping your potential dental patients find your dental practice.
Tips to Grow Your Dental Practice
There are steps you can take to help your dental practice be seen. Some of these steps are easy to incorporate, and some take more effort. You may want to remove the responsibility from your tasks and allow an outside source to take over. All avenues should be explored.
Some tips to help grow your business include:
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Who You Know: Making contacts and creating positive relationships both in dentistry and in your community and local area will help bring in more patients. One of the biggest influencers in choosing a dentist is recommendations, which are usually done by word of mouth. Having a satisfied patient pass along your name and why they should choose you helps a lot. Though be cautious, engaging in damaging relationships can impact your dental practice negatively.
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Engage Your Staff: You want more than good staff, you want happy staff. The energy of happy staff will not only increase the mood of your office, but their contentness will be apparent to everyone they engage with both in the office and out. A positive work environment can bring in more patients because they will feel the engergy of your staff everywhere they go. This may include celebrations, such as monthly birthday acknowledgements, staff activities including a spirit week, celebrating sports teams or more. Show your staff that you care about them and even encourage patient engagement. This positive environment will spread through your dental office and can encourage patients to your dental practice.
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Be Unique: You want to find a balance between having all of the standard dental services that would be expected with your dental practice while also being unique. Highlight strengths that are unique to your team. This may include specialized tools, technology, or treatment options. Maybe you have specific training working with children, older adults, or dental patients with disabilities? Maybe your office building is unique in that it has easy parking access, or a central location? Figure out what makes your office special and highlight it frequently.
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Educate: Dentistry is about more than restoration, it’s also about dental education. How can you incorporate tips, tools, and education into your business? You want your existing patients, prospective patients, and new patients to feel that you care. Do you have resources such as children’s book recommendations, or cartoons that promote brushing habits? Do you have pamphlets or fliers that discuss prevention through hygiene? Any way that you can show that you care will help a patient leave your office feeling like they matter to you and that will translate to more recommendations.
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Be the Patient: Consider your dental practice through the eyes of your patients. Sometimes changing your perspective can change a lot. Are the wait times in the waiting room too long? Do your dental patients have access to a drink of water, a clean bathroom, and wifi? Are you considering their schedules when having a busy day? We understand that you have work to do, but remember that they may have taken time off of work, have a carpool to pickup, or many other things on their to-do list. A frustrated patient may not tell you that their time is valuable, they just won’t come back.
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Be Active in your Community: Dentist offices are different than other businesses, they are part of a neighborhood. You can create relationships and find new patients through being an active member of your community. This may include supporting local businesses, a local baseball team, attending high school football games, or even running a toothbrush training table at a school fair or other community events or local events. Show your neighborhood that you are one of them, and that you want to support them. It’s a great way to spread your information and build confidence about your work in community members. It can also generate a positive review!
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Latest Technology: Stay current on your technology and brag about it. Let the world know what you have through your social media page. If you can mill your own prosthotodontics, tell us about it! If you have the software to create Invisalign or other aligners, tell us about it! Don’t just tell us once, but multiple times over. Use your social media to tell us what tools and software you have and why your office is amazing. This can help attract new dental patients.
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Use Social Media: Social Media provides a great avenue of free advertising. Use it! Create a Facebook, Instagram, and whatever other social media site you find that your dental patients use. You can create interest by including occasional coupons such as a small percent off teeth whitening or dental bonding, or a free consultation - some kind of patient special. Social media is low, or no cost, to you and a great way to let people know you’re there. Join community pages and local listings and show off your incredible office.
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Create a Google Presence: The most used utility in searching dental practices today is through a Google search. Potential patients are going to use their devices for online searches of a dental office near them and search for local business listings. The office they choose will meet patient demand and have a complete Google listing, with phone number, practice website, pictures, and hours clearly visible. They are going to choose the office that they have an immediate connection with, so make your listing complete.
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Make it Easy: Do the work for your potential patients. Don’t make them hunt for your phone number, your address, or how to get to your office. Don’t make them wonder if they have to go upstairs, or if the office will be easy to see from where they park. Make it easy. If you have an online PDF for new patient paperwork, make sure they get that link before they come. Do the work for them.
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Vary your Hours: Increasingly, dental patients are looking for offices with varying hours. Consider being open at least one Saturday a month, consider being open later or very early one day a week. You will have prospective patients who are looking for evening, morning, or weekend hours. Do your best to meet the needs of your target audience.
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Respond to Criticism Appropriately: Take some time to look over patient reviews. Ideally, you want only positive reviews and a good patient experience. If you find negative reviews and comments, this is your opportunity to turn it around to your favor. It is important to attract new patients with good online reviews. A disgruntled patient can negatively impact you, unless you respond in a positive and appropriate way. Respond with an apology, letting them know that you hear them, then ask for a opportunity to correct it. Be willing to answer patient questions. This does not mean that you need to provide anything for free, like a free cleaning, just a chance to fix any perceived error. The original patient, and others, like current patients and local patients, are watching. You can turn a negative into an incredible positive. |
How Can WEO Media Bring in Patients?
In addition to steps you can take to bring in more patients, there are steps that you can release to an outside source like our team at WEO Media. Hiring a dental marketing firm to handle areas outside your skillset will save you time, frustration and money. Let us handle your dental marketing strategy. Some dental offices, especially new dental practices, will try to recruit or hire within their office to complete the tasks that we offer, but in many cases, we can do it cheaper and with more expertise.
At WEO Media, we can bring in new clientele with:
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Creating and Updating your Dental Website: Your website can say a lot about you and the professionalism of your office. What many dental professionals don’t realize is that a website also takes a lot of work. They have to be built to be useful to both the viewer and the Google bot, taking into account current seo strategies. Additionally, they have to be maintained. We know what your website and web presence needs to be successful, including its ongoing maintenance.
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Blogs: Blogs are a great way to show expertise, discuss treatment options, display dental technology, and present information in your field. In addition to your website, we use blogs to keep your name current online while also showing informative dental based leadership. We can provide you with ongoing, unique, and relevant blogs to elevate your expertise online and help your office maintain a high ranking on Google search results.We can also do a practice blog with you to help you get started.
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Social Media: Social Media marketing is a highly important tool that is both free and time consuming. A social media presence is important to remind people you’re there and can even help you get personalized recommendations from individual’s comments. We can take the burden of maintaining your social media and make posts for you.
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Mailers: Mailers can come in a variety of forms and marketing materials from simple paper fliers, to postcards or even heavy duty trifold detailed information. We can target an audience to attract new dental patients and have mailers sent to advertise your office. We target audiences with data collected through mailing systems. This means we can target a location, or even an age bracket.
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Google Presence and SEO: You may be unaware of how much your Google presence and online reputation matters. We understand that people are going to look at the websites, or call the phone numbers, of only the top listings, they aren’t going to scroll. It is our goal to help your office come out on top. We want potential patients to see your name when they search any of the most used terms to find you. This means that when they search any term that applies to you, they will find you in the search engines. This is more than just searching the term "dentist," we want them to find you when they search other terms that apply to you too, like "dental implants," "crowns," "bridge," "aligners" and more. We spend time with these terms and more to help patients find you when they are seeking treatment. In addition, we want your information to be easily on hand. We want your phone number, web address, name, address, hours and visible map to your location to be easy to spot. The more accessible we make you, the more likely they are to call.
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Google Analytics and SEO: We have created a partnership with Google Analytics to track data and trends online. We are able to see how many clicks you receive, where you are receiving them from, and what terms they used to find you. We can see what web pages they looked at of yours and how long they had the page open. All of this information allows us to adjust and alter our work to benefit you.
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Pay Per Click and Facebook Ads: In addition to managing your online presence, we can increase your traffic flow through paid advertising and other cost effective ways. Pay Per Click, or PPC, is Google Advertising. Ads for your office are displayed and you pay only when the ad is clicked on. There are multiple ad campaign options that we can discuss and customize to fit your needs. Facebook ads have also been found to be a successful format for attracting clientele. We can customize your FB ad to fit your guidelines and work to your competitive advantage. |
How Do Patients Choose a Dentist?
Choosing a dentist, or a specialist in dentistry, can include multiple factors. Some will choose a name off of an insurance listing. Some will ask for recommendations from family, friends or online groups. Some will throw it into an internet search, or some will call an office that they see nearby. We want to help you be the office they think to call.
When asked what dental patients want in a dentist, people responded with information such as:
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Plain Financial Information: New patients said that they want plain, clear information about costs. This can be difficult with varying insurance information, but try to be as clear about financial obligations as possible. New patients who feel taken advantage of, or backed against a wall between their oral health and their budget, will most likely not return or feel positive vibes about your office.
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Scheduling Flexibility: There is a difficult balance between valuing your time and their time. Both are important. You have a service to provide, and they want the service, but the commitment to obtain the service can be a deal breaker. If a patient has to wait for long periods of time, they will simply not return.
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Emergency Service: Dental cleanings and exams can be booked out long in advance, but anything that is causing pain or discomfort should be handled same day. Create your schedule with blocks of time open for emergency dental services. Toothaches, cavities, broken fillings, fractures, and more require immediate services.
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Respond: A disgruntled, frustrated, or angry patient should receive a professional response. This does not mean that they need something for free, or that they can treat you or your staff disrespectfully, but be prepared with professional responses for when the time comes. You may even want to train your staff in how to deal with rude, or angry dental patients in a professional manner. A positive response or deescalation tactic may save you a valuable patient who was just having a bad day.
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Incentivize Referrals: A referral from a patient is a huge compliment! They were sharing positive information with you, and it gained you a patient! We recommend considering a way to thank the person who offered the referral with a small token of gratitude. This may include something as simple as a note of thanks, a discount off a more common treatment such as dental bonding, or a dental related product, it could even be a pen with your name on it. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just a way to say thank you. A simple referral program can attract new patients and encourage more new patients to make your their new dentist.
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Friendly Staff: Your office team is undoubtedly working hard, and being busy they can sometimes forget to display a professional level of friendliness. Encourage them to consider the time that your loyal patients are taking out of their day to come into your office, and to remember that how we make people feel matters. A friendly action from your staff can even alter a patient’s mood and help both sides be more at ease. |
At WEO Media, our team can help your team succeed. We want to help you grow your office with new patients. Finding the balance between standard care and larger treatments will help you financially support your staff and provide important dental care to your community. We invite you to learn more about the services we provide. |
