Misty Absher Clark is Vice President of Creative Services for Jameson Management, an international dental management, marketing, and hygiene coaching firm. Incorporating her expertise in branding, marketing strategy, social media, and customer service, Misty brings energy and information to dental practices nationwide. For more information on Misty, her webinars or Jameson services, log on to www.jamesonmanagement.com or call (877) 369-5558.

Misty Absher Clark

Are you a private practice owner who is tired of competing with corporate dentistry? Read on ...

Dentistry is a changing world. More and more dentists are joining the ranks of corporate dentistry. This ever-expanding market is most likely coming to a corner near you and soon. With the opening of a new corporate dental clinic comes mass marketing to your potential patient base as well as your existing patients. You must protect your turf starting with your existing patients and continue to reach out to new patients. The knee jerk reaction to this may be to market extensively and reduce your fees to match your new competitor, but those strategies don’t work. The reason is that the corporate dental practice’s buying power can’t match yours (not to mention their pockets are much deeper), so going head to head will cause a negative return. You can never be as cheap or market as expansively. Don’t be discouraged. Dentistry is not the first industry to experience this.

You may remember that little known company, Wal-Mart, who changed the discount retail industry. It drove Gibson’s, small businesses, and K-Marts to the brink of no return. However, one company that DID NOT become extinct and actually took the new marketplace as a challenge not a death sentence was Target, which reinvented itself. Target didn’t compete on price. At the time, it couldn’t compete in marketing either. So what it did was a reinvention of what it could do well and Wal-Mart couldn’t.

What can YOU do in this new market place? Here are 5 strategies to help you stand out from the rest.

Never underestimate outstanding customer service. People like to be treated well. This was a strategy for the Ritz Carlton during the 1920s and it served it well. No one wants to feel like just a number. This is where YOU have the advantage. You see fewer patients. Your team can remain constant with less turnover. YOU truly know your patients and have for years. Sit down with your team at your next team meeting and brainstorm ways you can improve the patient experience to up the level of customer service. Even if you are doing remarkably well, the practice that continues to take it to the next level and not be satisfied with the status quo will continue to thrive. Be your very best.

Dentistry is and always will be about relationships and trust. Build on your relationships with existing patients. Remember, this isn’t a mill where you yield the highest returns on quantity. You yield the best returns on getting to know your patients. Ask them questions. Listen. Respond. Continue to nurture these relationships with thoughtful internal marketing, social media, and strong communication. Reintroduce hand-written notes and the personal phone call after a long appointment.

Yes, greet patients by name when they come into the office, even if this is their first visit. This may seem impossible, but the practices that do this reap the benefits. There is great comfort going to a practice where you are known and remembered. If an existing patient does try out the new corporate dental practice, you want the experience there to not even compare to what he or she would experience at your office. Remember, you are not only trying to get new patients, you must focus on keeping the ones you have as well.

Time is a precious commodity with patients. Be respectful of their time by honoring appointments. This means not only seating them on time, but releasing them on time. Patients have wised up to the “seat the patient” so it appears we are on time, but he or she still won’t be seen until much later. If you are not able to do this, seek professional assistance to help you streamline your systems and communication.

Engaging in external marketing is a benefit when done effectively. Choose frequency over reach. People must see, feel, hear, and experience a message five to seven times before acting on it. Select a small area where you have a lot of patients already, it is close to your office, the demographics match your target audience, and you can afford to blanket the area. Then market to it by sponsoring runs or neighborhood events, advertise in the neighborhood newsletter, send a direct mailer, participate in mixers, ask your patients for referrals, and place your name in anything relevant for that specific area. You should also optimize your website for searches in that area and even use Facebook ads to increase brand awareness of your name. Make sure your ads are friendly, warm, and build the value of your practice. Create a consistent image with a powerful message that builds on your strengths. Your marketing should make a compelling case as to why people should choose you as their dentist.

These are just a few ways you can retain and expand your patient base. Take these five base core ideas to your next team meeting. See what each of you can do to take it a notch higher. If everyone gives even the smallest amount of effort to improve each item, then you will be worlds ahead and quickly on a path to protecting your turf! Accept the rise of corporate dentistry as a challenge to improve patient care and the patient experience. It is in YOUR power to have the practice you want.

So sound off! What do you think are assets that private practices have over corporate practices? What are areas you can compete with that others can’t? Your dental community would love to hear your ideas and strategies!

Articles

5 tried and true marketing tips for the private dental practice owner

Follow these newsletter goals and you will be on your way to positively communicating with your patients, and better yet ... increasing your bottom line.

Many practices have found the use of a regularly distributed patient electronic or physically newsletters to be one of their single most effective marketing tools. No matter how you decide to distribute your newsletter, be sure to accomplish these goals for a productive and successful newsletter.

With a newsletter, you have the opportunity to be in the home of each patient family on a regular basis in a positive way. When correspondence arrives at the patient’s home, it is usually in the form of a statement. This is not the most positive manner for your patients to hear from you. The newsletter, arriving on a regular basis can be a fruitful way to be in contact with your patient families.

 Use the newsletter to educate and inform your patients about the varied and numerous aspects of health care.

		Discuss the most recent advances in dentistry that are being developed to increase the quality of care.

		Deal with any potential anxieties and questions upfront.

		Answer predetermined questions about techniques of new procedures and existing procedures, as well as questions about how the procedures will improve the quality of life for the patient family.

 Another useful newsletter tactic is letting the patient family know what the practice is doing to keep abreast of new advances. Discuss conventions and continuing education courses that the dental team has attended. It is beneficial for the patient family to know that your practice is staying ahead of the curve when it comes to dentistry.

 Your newsletter is also a great place to let your patients know how much you appreciate their confidence in your practice. Positive reinforcement will always encourage repeat performance. This is the same when dealing with your patients. A sincere expression of thank you and appreciation will do more to encourage patient loyalty than most anything else a practice can do. 

 And lastly, be sure to encourage your patients to tell their friends and family members of their positive experience with your practice. Asking for referrals will only help your practice grow. 

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How do you increase new patient numbers without cashing in the bank to do it? This is a question that all private practice owners face both big and small. Advertising and marketing can be quite the investment.

As a matter of fact, it is likely more than the ½-1% that you have had budgeted for the history of the practice. While it is true that you need to invest in marketing, you do not have to start right out of the gate investing large sums of cash. So where are the best places to invest and the best strategies to get your message out? Here are seven ways to do that.

 When funds are limited, your best bet is to avoid the shotgun approach and focus on repetition with the same audience. New, emerging companies every year save their pennies (or millions) to launch ONE 30-second commercial during the most watched TV event of the year the Super Bowl.

They think that they will catapult their business by blasting everyone with ONE commercial. These companies, like the many before them, find out that all they did was waste their money. People need to see, feel, hear, and experience your message five to seven times 

 before they will act on it. One commercial that is vapor will do nothing to sell the product or service.

2. Instead, decide to reach a much smaller crowd and be repetitious in getting your message in front of them. Are you a member of a country club? If so, attend networking events. Carry your business cards with you and hand them out to people you meet. Advertise in the country club newsletter. Sponsor country club events. Host a lecture or event of your own there at the club. Purchase a mail list and send a targeted mailing (and/or email) to this group.

Exhaust ALL marketing channels to this group. You’ll find that you invest a lot less and will get much more than by placing a full-page ad one time in a local magazine.

. When it comes to basic searches for a dentist in your area, can you be found? Is your website reflective of your practice TODAY? More and more, this is where people will go BEFORE they call you for an initial appointment. No matter how they heard about you, they are most likely headed straight to the Internet to check you out.

Do you measure up? Do you appear credible? Do you appear up-to-date with the latest technology? Is this a place where they feel comfortable having dental work done? You want the answer to be YES! ABSOLUTELY! Support all of your marketing efforts by having a site that is an online extension of your practice. That sets the stage for what they will experience at your office. Not only will this help to lead patients to make the call, but it will also prepare them for the visit leading to higher case acceptance and referring YOU to their friends and family.

4. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.

 In other words ask for the referral. This is a simple yet VERY EFFECTIVE strategy. Sounds simple, right? Heard it a hundred times? Know it by heart? It’s the first thing you learned about running a dental practice, right?

Yet, day in and day out, the busy-ness of the day often leads practices to forgetting this one detail. If you do not ask, you will not receive. When was the last time you were given something without asking? Help your team by promoting the program. Use emails, letters, signs, social media, your website, and handouts touting your referral program. This leads patients to ask questions. But don’t stop there. Decide in your morning huddle who is going to speak to which patients, then follow up in the next morning huddle with the result. Mutually holding each other accountable and celebrating small victories helps to ensure future success.

This isn’t just for general practitioners. The same is true for specialists.

Many specialists will take GPs to lunch in hopes of establishing or nurturing a referral relationship. Lunches are great because you get to know each other better. Remember to find out more about your referral source and how you can help. At the end of the lunch, remember to ask for the referrals of his or her patients.

If you don’t ask and assume that they will naturally send patients to you, then you may find yourself running your referral reports wondering why Dr. Smith hasn’t sent you any patients.

 The fun myth about social media is that it isn’t free. It actually requires a lot of time (and sometimes money) to make it work. There are multiple venues in the social media world from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Pinterest. Just because they are “free” doesn’t mean you have to be on all of them from the start.

Focus on what the one that will reach more of your patients and potential patients. That program is Facebook for most practices. Dedicate one hour each month for brainstorming at team meetings and 15-20 minutes a day to get a head start. You can also boost your stories and your page through very modest advertising efforts ($5-$30 to make a post more visible).

The second thing to remember about social media is that it is ONE method of your marketing strategy. It supports everything you do. If you are asking for referrals in the office or attending a country club event, support it by mentioning it on Facebook.

 The best way to get a new patient is by treating your existing patients like royalty. Do you want #3 of this article to work the best?

Give them something to shout from the rooftops (or social media sites) about. There is only one thing that people like to discuss on Facebook more than cats, babies, and bad customer service experiences and that is GREAT customer service experiences.

People love to share the good and help out their friends. I see it all the time. If someone’s expectations are exceeded, it is shared on Facebook. I see it on my newsfeed or hear about it from a friend, I then go to the website and check it out. Many times if I need the product or service and had been high-centered for a while that is the tipping point. The positive customer service review will encourage me to take action.

. The best win-win scenario I can think of is a charitable cause. Meet with your team and, as a team, choose a charitable cause that means something to the practice. Support it and promote it. Use all your media channels including your website, email, enewsletters, handouts, signs, verbal skills, and social media to get the word out. Donate $5 for every new like or follow to your social media.

Host a party and donate money for every person who attends. For each new patient in the practice from a referral, donate to the cause. Send out press releases to the community. Everyone wins the charity, your patients, and you. Even if you don’t receive a direct new patient from this, you will have received lots of goodwill that plants the seeds for new patients. Most of all, the charity will win!

 You and your entire team should have business cards. Not only should you have them, they should be a permanent fixture in your wallet or purse. Keep them on you at all times. The conversation about what you do will come up. When it does, hand the person your card (even if it is not asked for).

ASK the person to come see you. Let him know that you “would love to have a patient like him” in your practice. Write down the name of your business administrator on the card and say, “Call us to schedule your appointment and be sure to tell Pat that I told you to call. We’ll include take-home whitening with your first comprehensive new patient evaluation.”

Make the person feel special because he is. Treat him like a king and he will leave telling everyone to go see you!

Whatever you decide to do, remember to stay consistent and true to who you are. Be smart in what you do, focusing on consistent repetition of your message. If you do this, whether it is a small activity or a large venture, you will get the most of that marketing effort.

Seven ways to create an effective marketing strategy for your dental practice without going broke

Telephone skills are critical to establishing and maintaining excellent relationships with patients. But sometimes that's not easy! From time to time an angry, or irate, patient calls testing all of your telephone skills, your people skills, and your patience.

How do you effectively deal with an irate person when they call you on the phone? Here are seven tips.

 Don't interrupt with questions, or comebacks or defensive responses. Passively listen. That means, encourage them to "go on," to "spill their guts,” to "get it all out.”

The single most effective skill you can use to defuse anger and is to listen to them. Encourage a person to tell you about their concern. Reflect back to the person what you think you hear them saying. This will give you the opportunity to clarify and let them know you are trying to understand.

 This will only add fuel to the fire. Your defensiveness will add to their defensiveness. The emotionality of the conversation will become so intense that the possibility of moving into a solution may be nullified.

 A person can't stay angry with you if you remain calm. Your calmness will let them know that you respect them, that you re concerned about their problem, and that you want to hear all about the problem so you can do something about it.

5. Ask the caller to repeat their concerns

 so that you can write them down. For example "Mr. Johnson, would you please repeat your concerns for me. I am going to write these down so that I can see if I can help you and so that I can make sure I accurately inform the dentist of your concerns."

6. Once you have recorded the necessary information, repeat it 

to him to determine your correct interpretation.

 their concerns and that you will do your best to find appropriate answers. Tell them you will get back to them and then do so.

A side benefit to this process is that you will not be so stressed out. If you become angry, your blood pressure will rise, your pulse will increase - stress will negatively affect your day and your performance. However, if you choose to be the one in control, you will encourage a calmer patient and you will control your own stress.

Don't miss these other tips to get your team talking ...

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