Top 3 Marketing Mistakes Dentists Make
Date: October 30, 2018Category: Author: Sarah Skidd
They teach you a lot in dental school but not a lot about marketing. Here are a few marketing mistakes dentists tend to make as they work on growing their practice.
1. Dentists Act Desperate
Free x-ray with $29.99 new patient cleaning!!!
Resist the temptation. Focus on attracting quality patients. The type of people attracted to rock-bottom deals are not the ones who become patients for life, refer their friends and leave you a great review.
Patients are inherently mistrustful. They are already fearful about getting gouged by their dentist. If you’re leading with talking about money instead of concern for their case, it makes quality patients uneasy.
Encourage your patients to trust you. Instead of running low-cost specials, ask each patient who comes in to tell their network about you. Tell it like it is – explain to your patients that you’re looking to expand your practice and you’d love their help.
2. Dentists Don’t Train Their Front Office Staff
The person answering your phone isn’t a receptionist. She’s a salesperson.
Train your dental staff to engage with patients. Get a call recording system and listen to the calls to make sure the training is working. Unless you listen, you may not even be aware of the missed opportunities coming to you over the phone lines.
If you’re not a dentist who knows how to train your front office to listen, be compassionate, and close the deal, there are plenty of practice consultants who can help.
3. Dentists Forget About First Impressions
How are your patients formulating their opinion of you? Personal referral? Insurance website? Social media? Where do they go next to confirm that you are right for them?
Patients go to your website.
Your website is the first impression of your dental practice. How does your website greet them? What does your website say about you?
Looks matter. Your website design matters. Give yourself an online presence that appeals to your ideal patient. Subconsciously pull them in with a beautiful website that immediately makes them breathe more easily. Encourage trust by telling them about your practice, your credentials and what patients say about you. Make yourself approachable – mention the charitable work you do, your new puppy, and how you love to camp with your kids.
When you have an outdated website, it can send a signal to your potential patient that your expertise is out of date too. They wonder if you’re even still in business.
If you are targeting cosmetic patients, build a convincing smile gallery with examples of how you changed the lives of patients just like them.
Don’t waste your time with low-quality patients and don’t let untrained staff stifle your business. Pay close attention to the subconscious vibes around your online presence and you’ll be well on your way to growing your practice.
I would add that one symptom of poor telephone skills of the front desk staff is an elevated level of missed or canceled appointments for new patient exams. I had a period of time in my own practice when this was going on and I didn’t realize it until I decided to call back the missed appointments. I discovered that my appointment secretary was rude to them on the phone, which I hadn’t realized.