Research and Development

As a small business, sometimes there comes a struggle between working in your business and working on your business.

One of these so-called struggles is research and development. How do you know what your patients want? How do you know how much they’ll pay? And of course, how do you market it?

It’s actually a simple problem to have. There are many companies that deal with Oral Health products in the real world. Companies like Crest, Colgate, etc…

These companies spend millions if not billions doing market research, focus groups, surveys, test markets, and demographic evaluations.

All you need to do is take what they do and apply it to your practice.

Take the product at right for example. Crest has done their research and taken a simple Crest Whitestrips kit and made it into the “AGE DEFYING STRIPS.” That promises to “Remove up to 20 years of stains off your smile.”

Crest has, no doubt, spent hundreds of thousands in research to make this product what it is. The focus groups, the surveys, the visual comparisons, and the simple design of the box. Most likely, even focus group testing side-by-side products where the only difference is color.

Doing this research for you is as easy as walking down the oral care aisle in any grocery/department store you may be in and taking mental notes.

In the Crest Whitestrips case, they’ve taken a teeth-whitening product and made it into an Aging reversal product. Their millions of dollars translates into a free lesson for you.
Until next week…

Your Circle Of Influence

In pursuing our yearly goals as well as our marketing goals, sometimes we try to effect things that we have no control over.

Each person has a “Circle Of Influence” that measures who and what s/he can control. The further from the center you get, the less control you have.


The Circle Of Influence Let’s take your practice for instance. I have put together a figure to the right that shows your “Circle of Influence.”

You are the center. You can sway your staff very easily because you sign their paychecks, and they work for you.

Your patients aren’t quite as easy to persuade as your staff because they do have other options when it comes to dental care. They do have a relationship with you, however, and this keeps them quite receptive. If this relationship is developed correctly (newsletter), the receptiveness grows.

On the outside of the circle you have the public. They are very difficult to convince and motivate by you. They have no relationship with you, and know of 50 other people in the community just like you, one of which they may already have a relationship with.

What does this have to do with marketing? It definitely shows us where to focus energy. If the center of the circle (you) is not solid, there can be waves throughout. If your staff is not solid it can affect your patients. If your patients don’t feel connected they can affect the public.

Also notice what’s not in your circle…other practices. You do not have hardly any influence at all over them, nor should they have any influence over you.

Make sure you focus on your circle of influence and keep it round.

Have a profitable week!

Dental Press Releases

Incredible news!!!

We distributed Dr. Busby's press release to 152 contacts in the Madison area.

This morning, he got a call from the LARGEST NEWSPAPER in his market (170,000+ distribution on Sundays.) and they are coming to his office on Tuesday to do a story on his massaging dental chairs.

What would he pay to have an ad in that paper...probably thousands.

Now he will get a thrid party endorsement as well as (most likely) a picture and a feel good story about his practice in the LARGEST paper in his market.

Making It Important

Remember those goals you set for yourself and wrote down a week or so ago...

Go to Kmart, buy a frame and hang them in your office.

This will draw attention to them, make them look important, give them additional value, and make the staff take notice. It will also make that flimsy piece of paper you wrote your goals on last for the whole year.

Out of Sight...

In the dental marketing world, goals are helpful...if communicated properly...

We are now one week into 2007, and hopefully you have already taken steps toward fulfilling your goal of having the best year ever for your practice.

What are your goals for your practice? Does everyone on your staff know them, and could they relay them to me if I asked?

As you know, one of the keys to a successful practice (just like a successful sports team) is the team aspect. The way they work together to bring the practice to realize their goal is important. You need to do everything you can to keep everyone headed in the right direction.

It amazes me how many dentists we work with that do not relay their goals for the practice to their staff members. Then, the dentist works toward a practice goal basically by his/herself while being frustrated because they feel they have no help.

Just as in football, with you being the quarterback, if the play is to run to the right side, you need to make sure the whole team knows that so they can block for you. If you are passing, you need to tell the team that so they can block and/or get open for a pass.

In your practice, as in any business, it is necessary to have specific WRITTEN goals. Your first order of business if you haven’t done so already is to write down your goals and post them where you see them daily. This is your roadmap for your practice for the next year.

The second order of business is to post the goals where everyone else in the office can see them. Then, they are reminded what the destination is, and can offer help and assistance for the journey.

If you don’t tell anyone what the destination is, how are they supposed to help you on the journey. Communicate the practice goals to everyone in your practice, and remind them of those goals often.

Have a productive and profitable week!

P.S. There are many other people you can let know about your goals. Your family, friends, and your suppliers can all be helpful when you need support and help in acheiving goals.

A Fresh Start

The first business day of the New Year. We’ve celebrated the coming and going of 2006, and now we have a fresh start, a blank canvas, an empty box that we call 2007.

Maybe you have a vision of what 2007 looks like both personally and for your practice. Maybe you even have some of those goals written down and put in a place you see them daily (if you don’t, do it now).

Once you have decided on your goals, the key is to, as NIKE would say “Just Do It!” Take swift, ferocious action toward attaining them.

There is no other way to achieve them.

2 things to remember about your goals.

#1: Don’t try to eat an elephant in one bite:
Break your large goals into some very bite-size chunks that are easy to attain. If your goal is to lose weight for example, maybe a sub-goal would be to get a gym membership. This makes it easier to see progress and will help to keep you on track toward your final goal.

#2: Every day is a new beginning:
You don’t have to wait until January 1st to start a new goal. Start one tomorrow, February 1st, August 27th…it doesn’t matter. Lay out your goals, and take swift and ferocious action to attaining them.

And, as NIKE would say, “JUST DO IT!”

What Demographics Should I Mail To?

In the case of Dental Marketing, there always seems to be a strugle over what demographics to choose for a mailing program.

If you are looking for an answer like "you should focus on 25-50 year old women who have an annual income of $40,000, live in a house valued over $200,000, and like to golf and travel," you won't get it here.

In the case of dental care, instead of demographics, you should first consider psychographics, in other words, what makes a patient decide to go to YOUR practice? For a dental practice, it has been proven that a vast majority of dental patients choose their practice mainly because of its convenient location. It's a sad but true reality that comes from a lack of public education about what constitutes great dental care.

Also, when creating a mailing list, you need to ask yourself what your practice needs. Many times that doesn't come down to 25-50 year old women who like to golf; it comes down to patients with money to afford your services.

In both of these cases, the data points to a simple geographic list. There are many things you can get in a simple geographic based list. You can eliminate "unfavorable" neighborhoods, eliminate transient apartment dwellers (not to be confused with condo owners), and not waste money mailing to those who live far out of your area.

If I were to set one demographic parameter, it would be household income. If they make above average income in the area (usually $50K and above), and live within 5-10 miles of my practice depending on population concentration, they would be on my list.

By creating a demographic selection of list by age and personal interest, you not only are limiting your target audience, but also you are going to pay more money per name and receive less targets. In turn, you will also receive fewer responses. In this case too, we are not figuring in design and copywriting costs for a targeted marketing piece. (If you specifically target your market, you need to take the same care to target your message, and your media as well.)

You also mentioned that you are in an insurance heavy market. Do you take their insurance? If not, do you offer programs as viable insurance substitutes? Many practices I deal with are in a location that does not support who the dentist wants to target. Some are fee for service practices in an insurance market like yours, and get beat to death by the "Do you take my insurance?" question.

In a case of demographics, keep it simple. If all you want in your practice is 33-year-old men who own BMW's, you can have all of them and still have a very small practice. But what you really want is patients in your chairs who have the means to afford the best care you can possibly offer for them. My suggestion would be to go with a radius around your office and an income qualifier.

Third Party Endorsements

Many times in marketing, we get caught talking about ourselves. Promoting yourself is a great way to get the message out about what you do, and whom you help. As Donald Trump says, “Brag about yourself and your accomplishments because no one else will.

I disagree with Mr. Trump. Although promoting yourself and your practice is important, there are plenty of people out there who will talk about you, your practice, and how you have helped them. In this case, I follow the Dan Kennedy creed: “What others say about you and your service is at least 1000% more convincing than what you say, even if you are 1000% more eloquent. The following are three of these 3rd parties:

Current Patients: You have hundreds, if not thousands of people you help each year. Every one of them should have something good to say about you and your services. Collect testimonials from every patient at every visit. It’s just as simple as having your front office person give them a form and ask them to fill it out regarding their experience that day. Get their ok, and use these to promote your office.

In an insurance office I recently visited, there were 2, 4” thick binders full of testimonial sheets. With some quick math, I figured there were over 2000 in all. I wouldn’t have to read all of them, but it was a great way to display these testimonials for customers to read. For a sample testimonial sheet to use in your practice, just fax a request to 503-371-1299.

Celebrities: When people think of celebrities, sometimes they get caught up in A-list names like Brad Pitt, or Jennifer Aniston. These people would be great to endorse your services, but they aren’t needed. Think of local people who have some recognition in the community. Find someone like a local news anchor, musician, or maybe the mayor or a state representative. These people are a bit easier to find than Tom Cruise, and sometimes they will be willing to promote your services on the cheap.

News Media: This is the one endorsement you can control. By creating publicity through the local news media, you create an endorsement from them. This is news from your practice produced by you, but rewritten and printed for thousands of people to read. It does not look as if you wrote it yourself, so it appears as a third party endorsement. This is a great deal because this endorsement is delivered to thousands of people daily.

Let these third parties tell your story, and they will have a big impact in your practice.

Have a profitable week!

Online Publicity

Google has become a household name over the last 5 years. If you were to say “Google it” to someone in the early 90’s, they would have looked at you like you were crazy. Now, Google.com has become THE online gateway for online information.

How do you get listed on Google? Well, you can go through their adwords program where you actually bid to have your name at the top, OR, you can take advantage of the little known free ways to be listed on Google.

First, lets see how Google works. Every day and night Google has “bots” or “spiders” that crawl around all of the code on the internet picking up on certain things that rate a website. These things can range from key words to links, to mentions in a blog article. These go into the google computer and out comes a score for a website based on how many links it has from other sites, and how many relevant key words it has on the site itself.

This is the short version of how Google gets its information.

Now that we know how it works, we can look at how to get listed without paying big for a listing.

One of the easiest ways is through Google News. In order to be the top Internet news service in the bunch, the Googlebots crawl through news websites daily in looking for relevant content.

The easy way to get listed on these searches is through your local paper. These newspaper articles, if written correctly, will not only appear on the Google news page, but can also appear as top ranked content on the main Google search page. This is an easy, FREE way to get your practice mentioned and attract new patients through the Internet.

Of course, this is not the only way to promote your practice on the internet, There are still many options out there that are very passive and can lead to great new patient acquisition strategies.

ACTION TO TAKE: Browse the Internet and especially Google. Check local bulletin boards (www.craigslist.org), Local city sites (www.citysearch.com), and especially your local media sites and see what it takes to get listed.

The more you are mentioned on the Internet, the more you are likely to be found.

Have a profitable week!

Give A Gift Of Publicity

Being the Holiday season, it is a time for giving.

Many of you in your practices create some sort of giving program. Maybe it is a giving tree, or perhaps you have a barrel where patients can drop food or toys for less fortunate families or children.

This is a great idea, a great program and shows your heart and the true meaning of serving others. But have you taken every possible step you can to ensure that your barrel gets filled?

What if you could promote your charity collection for free? What if there was a way to collect more food from the public to fill your barrel? And, what if there was a side benefit of possibly drawing some new people into your practice…and maybe they become patients?

Well, never fear, there is a simple way to do this.

ACTION TO TAKE: Create a press release promoting your food/toy/whatever collection and send it to the local media. Make sure you include details like where the goods go once they are collected, how long you are taking donations, and how much you are hoping to collect.

News outlets (especially newspapers) love these feel good stories. If anything, you will get a mention in the calendar of events section. It will hopefully draw new people into your office to drop off food, and they may turn into patients of your practice.

Don’t feel bad asking for these donations and possibly getting a patient or two out of it. Many charity organizations have ready-made programs designed for this purpose. These are free to anyone willing to collect donations, and often include everything you need including a fill in the blanks press release.

When Bill Gates makes a $1 Billion donation to the World Aids Awareness Association, he knows that the media will eat it up. He’ll make sure to create publicity not only for the charity, but also himself. The charity doesn’t mind his promotion because they get $1 Billion as well as the publicity.

If you do run a charity giving program in your office, it is to the charity’s and to your best interest to promote it to everyone you can. This includes press releases as well as announcing it in your newsletter to your current patients. This will draw in more gifts to the charity, and possibly create some patients for you too.

Email Rules Of Engagement

The following story has been posted by many if not all of the major news companies around the world including Yahoo, AP, Reuters, BBC, and many websites (including this one) have also reprinted the story.

For those of you that haven't seen it yet, here is the run down:

Lawyer Paula Brosnahan, 33, and her fiance Steve Hausman, 36, who will marry in April next year, sought a quote from The Great Marquee Company for their Whangaparaoa cliff-top wedding. They viewed photos on the company's website and arranged an appointment to inspect a marquee in Devonport.

But when the Mt Albert couple decided the marquee would not be suitable and sent a polite email to the company saying they would look elsewhere, they were shocked to receive a reply from the firm saying their wedding wasn't posh enough for its tents.

The couple, who met 17 years ago, had written a polite letter saying: "Paula and I went and viewed your marquee setup at Devonport ... unfortunately we did not like it ... thanks for your assistance and we are sorry that it turned out this way."

Two hours later the firm's office manager, Katrina Jorgensen, replied to the couple: "Your wedding sounded cheap, nasty and tacky anyway, so we only ever considered you time wasters. Our marquees are for upper class clients which unfortunately you are not. Why don't you stay within your class levels and buy something from Payless Plastics instead."

The email response from the office manager has now been sent the world over by email forward and has been printed both online and in paper by many of the major newsgroups. AP, Yahoo, BBC, and Reuters to name a few. It's surely been read by tens if not hundreds of thousands of people.

The response has destroyed the company, and the owner has since fired the office manager (which happens to be his wife).

What to learn: TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY! With the invention of the internet it allows anyone to communicate anything to any number of people INSTANTLY.

What was supposed to be a "private" email has now been spread worldwide, and has destroyed a business, all because an employee got a little snappy with a customer and documented it in an email. Just imagine if this was your employee and your business.

If you say "My office staff would never do that." Reread the above example, and remember...the office manager was THE OWNERS WIFE!

ACTION TO TAKE: If you don't have office rules of engagement for email communications, do it now. ANY employee you have on the internet has the immediate power to create a problem just like the above one.

Also, realize that email is solid documentation, if you aren't willing to have it broadcast to the world, don't put it in an email. That [forward] button is to close to the send button to risk putting anything out there that could compromise your business.

Even though there is no standard set for email and it is still considered "informal," make sure you and your staff communicate in a professional manner at all times through email, or otherwise, because you never know who is going to see, read, or hear your message.

Here Comes the Holidays

It’s been a generally accepted myth that the holidays (Thanksgiving to New Years) is a bad time to do any marketing. All types of businesses find their marketing doesn’t work, and because of that, December is their slowest month of the year.

In Jerry’s SofTouch managed practice, we have found the opposite to be true. The practice opened to a full schedule the week of thanksgiving, The Christmas postcard pulled in patients, the letter to the current patients for a the chance to buy Whitening certificates for their friends and family also pulled well.

See, the holidays are not a bad time to market, however, they are a bad time to market badly. Here are some simple rules for your holiday marketing:

1: Go with who you know. Your patient base is loyal, and has a relationship with you. What can you offer to them to make their lives less stressful during the holiday season (think Christmas gifts for friends)?

2: Don’t try and compete with “big business.” Doing a newspaper ad or insert during the holidays is almost marketing suicide unless it is huge and colorful and offers a great deal. The newspaper is so full of Target, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Sears it is ridiculous. Sure the newspaper people will tell you the paper has the largest readership during the holidays, but many of those “readers” just look at the advertisements.

3: Make sure to be in the office. Many offices send a postcard or mailing only to have shortened office hours or vacation weeks when they are out of the office. If you plan to be out the week before Christmas, don’t send out a mailing that gets delivered that week. You’ll get calls, but nobody will be there to answer them.

4: Allow time for your mail. Allow a couple of extra days for your mailings to get delivered. Local mailings should not take much longer, but plan for a delay.

5: WHAT TO DO: Take advantage of opportunities. Be a bell ringer, have a canned food drive, adopt a family, have a “giving tree” in the office. Make sure to promote these to your patients and the local media (if you need help, call us).

6: WHAT TO DO PART 2: Hit the ground running on New Years. A little thing called a “TAB ON” ad netted almost 40 patients on New Years day of 2005 for the SofTouch office. The phone began ringing off the hook at 6 AM on January 1st. That is a good start to a year for any practice.
Christmas mailers, and New Years celebration offers to current patients and neighborhoods have both been great producers for the SofTouch practice here in Salem.

"I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients..."

First of all, don't skip this article thinking you have heard this before. Yes, you do know the patient truly pays your bills, but I still, time and time again catch examples of mixed messages going out. Are you trying to draw new patients, or draw the glorious attention of your peers.

I don't know how you practice, but I have yet to see a dentist get a check from their competition with a note saying "Great ad, here's $500."

Now, down to business, In browsing through a marketing trade journal I caught eye of an ad for an internet printer.

I have not posted the ad online due to copyright and internet-sharing rules, but the picture shows an upscale beautiful building surrounded by palm trees with the granite company sign out front for a company called Modern marketing. The headline reads “You Come First.”

So, what’s wrong with this ad?

Well, at first sight it is an attention grabbing ad. Beautiful building, bold headline, pretty colors, etc.

But supposedly at this company, I COME FIRST. If I come first, why do they need an office on the beach with palm trees and a big granite logo? Their supposed concern is about my business, and me, right? If they were that concerned, they should buy me a building. (Keep in mind, this is an internet printer, not a retail store. No customers actually go in the building.)

All to many times I see dental offices make the same mistake. They claim to be about the patient through and through, but their office, marketing, and sometimes attitudes reflect the best interest of the doctor and staff, rather than the best interest of the patient.

Take one simple example, the dental chair… this is built with the comfort of the doctor in mind, all tools within reach, stainless handles, 400 different adjustments, etc… What about the patient? They get an “ergonomic” vinyl banana seat to lay in. (A friend of mine had a root canal recently, and her only complaint was back pain from laying in the chair. No root canal pain, just pain from the chair. She complains about it to this day.)

Action to take: Look at your practice, take every aspect and ask yourself, what am I doing to run my practice for best interest of the patient? Then take your marketing and ask, “What am I doing to convey my patient benefits? Remember, the patient ultimately signs your check.

"No Thanks, I'm just looking"

Business owners in general hate “tire kickers.” Those people that call, or even come in just to check out prices and see what special deals they can get.

The main problem with “tire kickers” is how you deal with them. Once they ask for a price or are tagged as a price shopper or tire kicker they are written off as a lost cause. You think to yourself “they are just shopping, they won’t buy,” and before you know it, you have treated them so badly they don’t buy, and then you just say, “I knew it, they never buy.” The perfect self-fulfilling prophesy.

The next time a tire kicker calls and asks for a price, don’t shut them out. Tell them the price and treat them well. Give them details and benefits and explanations of why your prices are what they are. Something like “We treat our patients with the highest quality materials and care, and we wouldn’t want to have low cost prevent us from giving you the best possible treatment.

Pour it on, the more details and benefits you give, and the nicer you are will make the practice stand out to these shoppers. Present the practice and price with pride, but also build value in it.

If a person calls and asks for the price of an exam, tell them, but also tell them the 17 different exams you do…oral cancer, pocket depth, etc. This will show them that you go the extra mile. Now they pay $120 for several exams, rather than $120 for just a regular, plain old exam.

Our society is based on competition. For that reason, there will always be “tire kickers.” Treat these tire kickers in a way they have never been treated before. Take them through the steps you take with your best patients, and watch how many of these “tire kickers” actually purchase based on the value of your practice rather than the price.

November 10, 1775

Today was the birthday of The Marine Corps.

I say this for two reasons:

#1: I am a former Marine myself,

#2: Every year, Marines everywhere celebrate this birthday of one of the greatest military forces in the world.

When I was on active duty, the biggest event of the year was the Marine Corps ball/birthday party. A huge celebration, usually within your 3500 person unit that involved everyone from the newest Marine and his girlfriend, to the most Senior Officer and his long time wife. We celebrated, talked war stories (some had more than others), and danced the night away to show our love for the Marine Corps.

What can a dental practice learn from this?

#1: Events like these bring together Marines everywhere. To this day, I still get emails from my Marine buddies wishing me happy birthday on November 10th. The comraderie and experience of celebrating a landmark occasion is the best team building excercise you can do.

In your practice, celebrate the practice birthday, or an employees aniversary at the practice. Even just set aside a time to gather all the practice staff together away from the office. Get to know your staff as people rather than as hygienists and assistants. These "events" will help them work together as a team, and create a better, more efficient workplace.

Don't limit yourself just to staff parties, patient events can create comraderie and a sense of community as well.

#2: An event like the Marine Corps Birthday, celebrated yearly is a newsworthy item. The Marines have been around 231 years now, and every year, the news media announces it on a national scale.

In your practice, an anniversary, or "birthday" of the practice, if celebrated right can become a very newsworthy event that can gain you notariety ain your community not to mention free publicity and new patients. Make it a point to have and promote events in your community with the purpose of celebration for the community.

Celebrate your practice. There is no doubt it is a big part of your life. You celebrate birthdays and anniversaries of your friends and family, why not your practice?

Have a profitable week!

Welcome, but Expected Surprises

There are those things in life we come to expect. Simple things like the car starting in the morning, the light turning on when we flip the switch, or our coffee to be hot when we buy it.

Then sometimes we get unexpected surprises. Events like a power outage, or finding a $20 bill on the sidewalk.

One of the above surprises is an inconvenience, but the other is great, and can make a persons day. Finding $20 of “free” money on the sidewalk…that could make anybody’s day.

Two days ago, I purchased a package of Hostess Ho Hos. Chocolate snack cakes, which come 3 to a package. I returned to my desk to hammer out some work, and opened the package to find there were 4 treats inside the package rather than 3.

I was rather excited to get 33% more snack for my dollar, and it put a smile on my face. Was I expecting it? No, but it sure put a smile on my face.

How can you apply this to your practice? Create a system to randomly reward patients for using your services. Maybe at the start of the week, you pick a number, say 14. Then, patient #14 for the week gets a $10 Starbucks card, unannounced and unadvertised. If you don’t think that makes someone’s day, try it.

The same works for staff. Show up one day with a box of muffins and look at the smiles on their faces. Don’t tell them you are doing it, or make it a regular thing, just do it randomly. They will enjoy the little surprises.

These little unexpected surprises will help to keep patients coming back, and keep your staff productive as ever.

Just imagine the word-of-mouth you will create when patient #14 goes to work and brags about how here dentist surprised her with a free Starbucks gift card.

Repackage Your Practice

There are truly many ways to innovate in your practice.

You can create a new procedure, or invent a new piece of equipment, but sometimes, the easiest way to innovate is to create “packages” of services.

These packages offer convenience for the patient, and if put together and priced right, can really help to grow a practice and lock in patient loyalty.

These packages can be either developed within your practice, or they can involve some joint ventures with other businesses.

Consider a package that offers teeth cleaning and tooth whitening. A cleaning is $129, and a “cleaning plus” option may be $199. Many people seeing a normal option and an upgrade will go for the upgrade just out of fear of being normal.

Or, take it a step further and have your “new patient beauty special.” This one takes a beauty spa, and offers not only teeth whitening at your practice, but a facial, manicure, and a tanning session at the spa. A “mini-makeover.”

Now, you have taken your practice from a simple health maintenance solution, to a true health and beauty solution. People will opt for the package because you offer all that service and value at a competitive price.

Do some research on your current patient base, and ask a few questions of them. What would they like to see you offer? If you offered _______ would they take advantage of it?

Then, put a package together. Maybe start with a limited number, and really commit to selling them. Make sure every staff member mentions the package, mention it in your patient newsletter, and place signage around the practice.

Action To Take: Look around your area and see what types of business you could team up with to create a patient beneficial package. Hint: Think Spa, Hair Salon, Tanning, Health Food, etc.

Maximize Your Mailing List

What is the most important asset in your practice?

If your answer was anything but patients, you are dead wrong.

You see, everything else in your practice, the x-ray, the chair, the staff, and yes, even that DDS or DMD degree on the wall is useless without patients.

Over the life of your practice, you have developed a list of these patients that are current in your practice, and you also have a list of those that USED TO BE patients, but for some reason have not returned.

This list is your most valuable asset in the practice. Make sure you have a backup copy of it in a very safe, fire resistant place.

IF you showed up to your practice tomorrow and the whole place had gone up in flames, what would you have left? The only thing that could not be replaced easily is your patient list.

Also, true Marketers would pay hundreds of dollars to have a list of dedicated and loyal consumers of a specific service. These consumers are known to be health conscious and committed to having the best health possible.

I’m not suggesting you sell your list, in fact, it’s illegal to do so, but you do have the option to send communication to them yourself. You should be sending newsletters, postcards, appointment reminders, and Thanksgiving cards to your current list to keep them coming back.

Action To Take: This November, consider sending your patients a simple Thanksgiving card. Include a message that thanks them for being a patient. After all, without them, you have no practice.

Why Your Patients Leave

I just finished an article in the latest issue of Dental Economics regarding building trust in your patients.

The article cited a survey of 1000 consumers in which 25% of the respondents said they stopped seeing a physician due to communication problems.

You say, "But I talk to my patients all the time, my communication with them is great!"

OK, point taken, but we have to remember, (and your spouse will tell you) communication is a two way street. It doesn't mean just talking, but LISTENING.

Case in point, this morning I was at the dentist, and had just began a prophy when my worst fears came to realization...

Grape flavored prophy paste...YUCK!!!

Now, I have been at the same dental office for the last 3 years, and every time I experience this little bit of discomfort. I am not a big fan of these "flavored" pastes at all, and prefer either the regular mint, or the No Flavor paste. (Who taste tests these anyway?)

I have let the office know this every time I have been there, and yet every time I go it seems I have to tell them again. And usually I am the one left with a bad taste in my mouth.

Being in the industry, I know there are places in the practice management software, or special "alert" stickers that can be placed on a file. These are usually reserved to alert the dentist to any allergies, or special conditions. In other words, the best interest of the practice.

Now, in my case, there is no alert sticker, note in my file, or even a yellow sticky note alerting the hygienist to my request for flavorless paste.

It is almost as if my likes/needs were not documented for sake of practice efficiency.

All it takes in this instance is a little extra step from the hygienist or dentist (who also noted my flavor choice aloud) to write this in or on my patient file, or make a note in the fancy computer system, and next time I won't be surprised by the newest sensation in flavored prophy paste.

It's small things like this that make people leave the dentist. You may have done your cleaning and checkup to perfection, but when I taste grape in my mouth by surprise, that is what I will note.

So, when communicating with your patients, make sure the patient gets a chance to talk, and make sure you take the opportunity to listen.

Don't leave a bad taste in their mouth.

Have a profitable week!

Remind Your Patients What Time Of Year It Is!

Yesterday, I was browsing through the local paper looking at all the advertisements from the national retailers. These are your normal weekly ads from Lowes, Target, and Sears showcasing all of their fall special prices.

Everything was targeted at fall savings. Reminding me to buy the gutter cleaners, lawn rakes, and Halloween decorations that were all featured.

I couldn’t help but think of how nice it was for these huge stores to remind me what time of year it is, and what I should be doing with my money. I broke my lawn rake last year, my gutters do need a good cleaning, and I could use a little decoration for the season.

These guys have a smart plan to advertise what is needed, when it is needed. Do I need a swimming pool… not now, but a lawn rake? I could use two.

It’s the same way with your patient’s insurance benefits. Many of them have leftover benefits that they will forget to use because it is not on top of their list (like gutter cleaning is not on top of mine). Once December ends, many of your patients will find the benefits they could have taken advantage of have now gone, and they now have a huge deductible to overcome putting them further away from getting prescribed work done.

So it’s up to you to remind them. Not so much for your benefit (although it is beneficial to you), but as a service to your patients. You have worked hard to build a relationship with your patients, and by taking a small extra step to remind them what time of year it is, and to use their benefits; it will help them, and in turn, help you.

Action To Take: Send your patients an insurance letter soon. If you need a FREE example, Fax us at 503-371-1299.

P.S. A doctor we sent insurance letters for reported 5 scheduled appointments within one week of sending the letters, and booked all 5 for prior undone treatment!