Managing Marketing: Guidelines for Practice Success. American Dental Association

plan a success.

       Don’t Forget! Be sure to review the Legal and Ethical Aspects of Marketing section of this book for specific information on Advertising, Patient Privacy/Social Media, and Online Reviews/Social Media.

       Also remember to: Keep in mind that even the best marketing campaign can fail if your practice’s internal systems can’t support it. Take a close and objective review of all of the systems in place in your practice — including your financial plans, systems, staffing and staff training — to ensure that they’re effective and able to support the additional phone calls and patients your campaign will bring into the office.

Inquiries from Prospective Patients

      Every practice loses prospective patients through unsatisfactory management of incoming calls. While it takes many forms, it usually happens when the caller hangs up because the phone wasn’t answered fast enough, when the caller hangs up instead of waiting on hold, or when the caller doesn’t feel a personal connection with the team member answering their questions about the practice.

      Practices that have trained staff to effectively manage telephone communications and build rapport with patients have an easier time retaining them. On the other hand, practices that haven’t invested in properly training staff members on the best ways to connect with prospective patients can lose the opportunity to convert those callers into active patients.

      Any team member who answers the phone should be able to interest callers in coming into the practice. Calculate your practice’s rate of lost calls from prospective patients by having the administrative staff track the number of new patient calls received each week for one month. Compare that number to the number of new callers scheduled for an office visit. Some practices lose as many as 30-50% of their initial contacts. A loss of more than 20% could indicate that your staff and your practice would benefit from some additional training on managing calls.

      Any team member who answers the phone should be able to interest callers in coming into the practice.

      It’s not uncommon for dentists managing practices with high rates of lost calls from prospective patients to infer that marketing isn’t effective because they aren’t seeing strong results. While marketing drives the prospective patient to call your practice, it’s up to you to make sure your team has the training and communication skills needed to make the caller want to come in for treatment.

      Schedule your team for a course, program or webinar on effective communication skills if they haven’t had that type of training recently. Courses may be available through your state or local dental association, other professional associations and other sources.

      Training your staff in effective communication is a worthwhile investment that pays other dividends and can convert prospective patients to active patient status.

      Training your staff in effective communication is a worthwhile investment that pays other dividends and can convert prospective patients to active patient status. Include your entire staff in communications training; patients often ask questions of any staff member and this could also lead to increased treatment acceptance rates.

      You can assess your team’s communication skills by role-playing some of the most common telephone calls you receive from prospective patients. Another option is to record actual calls and listen to them during a team meeting; this approach allows you to coach staff on what cues should receive which response and will help them interact with first time callers more effectively. Many jurisdictions have laws requiring permission from employees and/or callers before they can be recorded. Make sure you investigate whether your jurisdiction has any such laws and always comply scrupulously with them.

      Technology can also help your practice connect with prospective patients who contact the practice from a mobile device; consider sending “missed call” text messages to any individual whose call was missed. This lets them know you’re aware that the call was not answered and that you care enough to follow-up. Call them as soon as possible to find out how your practice can be of service. Calls that originate from landlines cannot be messaged this way.

      Consider sending “missed call” text messages to any individual whose call was missed.

Internal Marketing

      Internal marketing is about building relationships with current patients. Practices that successfully connect with patients have the best marketing vehicle available — positive word of mouth that current patients share with families, friends, coworkers and others. After all, you’re in more than a dental practice; your business is all about building and maintaining relationships.

      A recent survey by the American Dental Association reported that nearly two-thirds (63.7%) of the new patients in general dentistry practices are referred by existing patients.

      A recent survey by the American Dental Association reported that nearly two-thirds (63.7%) of the new patients in general dentistry practices are referred by existing patients. Consumers overwhelmingly report that they prefer to choose dentists based on word of mouth from someone they know and trust.

      To be successful, internal marketing should involve everyone on the team. You, as the leader of the dental team, are responsible for making sure that each member of the dental team knows what internal marketing means and their role in its success.

      If your internal marketing efforts aren’t defined and embraced by everyone on staff, it will be more challenging for your external marketing efforts to be successful.

       Communicating your internal marketing expectations and practices can be as easy as:

      

Letting staff know that each patient deserves impeccable customer service.

      - Every interaction with every patient is an opportunity to build patient satisfaction and referrals.

      

Educating your staff about how to communicate and promote the practice in an ethical way.

      

Talking about internal marketing at team meetings and explaining how it can benefit the practice — and them!

       Positive internal marketing behaviors can include:

      

Greeting patients with a smile and addressing them by name as soon as they enter the practice.

      

Answering the phone cheerfully and on the first ring.

      

Seeing patients on time or letting them know promptly of any delays.

      

Intentionally and tactfully letting the patient know you appreciate them as a patient, would like more patients like them, and would be happy to welcome into the practice any family members, friends, etc., they’d like to refer.

      Internal marketing courses