Although marketing is an important part of running a successful practice, one of the most efficient ways of increasing your patient numbers is through word of mouth. Here, Regional Support Manager, Amy Hansford, suggests ways to get the most out of your existing patients.
The best way to get your patients to recommend you to their friends and family is by providing them with a truly remarkable experience when they have contact with your practice. You need to ‘knock their socks off’ as Dental Business Coach, Barry Oulton, calls it.
How do you do that? By ensuring that when they walk through your door, each small part of their patient journey has been well thought through. Whether that’s what they see, smell, hear or the warmth of the welcome they receive. Everything should be the best you can make it.
Part of achieving that will entail making sure you have all the right people in the practice. Your team needs to buy into the practice’s vision. You want them to create an atmosphere so that from the moment the patient walks in they experience a buzz and feel welcome and valued. To achieve this the team should understand exactly what’s expected of them and what protocols are in place for them to follow. Your aim is to ensure the patient leaves not only satisfied, but with a story to tell in terms of a positive experience.
Are there any small changes you could make to your patient journey so that it’s not only exceptional, but remarkable? You want to turn your patients into raving fans who will tell everyone they know how great the service is at your practice. If you can do that, the referrals will come on their own.
Ask for referrals
Even though happy patients will tell their friends and family about their great experience, it’s always good to let them know that you would like them to refer people to you. Make it part of your business as usual to ask your patients for referrals. You could do this by including some wording or referral cards in your ‘thank you for choosing us’ cards, or your post treatment packs. You may also want to try sending letters or e-mails to your patients to let them know you are welcoming patients just like them and asking them to refer your practice to their friends and family.
Displays
If you do decide to produce some referral cards, make sure they’re on display around the practice for patients to pick up and take away with them. You could also put up posters and have slides on your TV to say you’re welcoming new patients.
Don’t neglect the outside of your building either. Have signage outside that confirms you are accepting new patients. At the same time, you may want to cast a critical eye over the rest of your signage. Does it make clear exactly what you do? You may like to consider creating signage that lists all the main services you offer and that ensures people can see where you are from all directions. Sometimes, a small change, can make a big difference.
Reward referrals
You could consider offering an incentive to boost your referrals. As a thank you to those loyal patients referring in you could offer a credit on their account, or a voucher. It might be worth having a chat to your patients to find out what would appeal to them.
When a referred friend or family member comes in, make sure your patient receives a timely response from you. Send them a warm thank you confirming the credit has been applied to their account, or that the voucher is on its way.
Use social media
Don’t forget to use your social media channels to let people know you’re taking on new patients and to tell your patients’ stories. Some patients’ experiences have been life changing, so ask if you can share them. Also, follow practices you aspire to be like, to get ideas and hints that you could put to good use in your own practice.
Who better to promote your practice than your staff. Are they all given referral cards to hand out? When I worked in practice, it was amazing how many people would talk to me about teeth! I was a raving fan of our practice and often sent referrals in. Make use of the people who know the practice inside out. Add them to your systems as a referral source, and thank them when a referral books in.
Have you tried networking in the local area? For example, giving a talk at a local group. This has the double benefit of giving something back to the local community while at the same time building relationships and an awareness of who you are and your practice culture. When I was in practice, I loved doing school visits. It was a lovely way to do something good, educate and hopefully leave your imprint for future.
Look at feedback services. I have seen Working Feedback work well in practices. It helps share reviews from patients in a timely way, moderates reviews, loads onto your website and optimises your Google reviews. John from Working Feedback says they’ve evidenced the closer to your contact with the patient that you ask for a review, the higher the success rate.
These are a few ideas to get you going, but don’t stop there. Be imaginative, create a new story! I remember a practice sending flowers to a workplace which generated a buzz from inquisitive colleagues. It was a great initiative.
However, the most important thing to remember is whoever or wherever the referrals come from, always say thank you.
About Amy
Amy Hansford is a Regional Support Manager at DPAS. She has been supporting practices for 13 years to grow and maintain a well-populated membership plan drawing on her 6 years’ experience in practice to help them run a successful practice.
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