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Five Steps for Creating Loyal Patients

1.Be Generous. Have your team develop a loyalty program for frequent buyers. It can be as simple as offering a special offer that you give them a complimentary product or services. I knew of a practice that had a great system in place. They decided that if a patient of theirs referred a friend or family member to them that they would take them out to dinner. The doctor understood the value of creating long term relationships.

Another dental office had a page in their records donated only to recording patients interests. They called it the PASSAGE PAGE and made it a priority to select ten patients each month to send things of interest to them. The entire team rallied behind this system and would email the patients articles, or often times mail them books on the topic of interest.

2.Be Thoughtful. Send a handwritten note to every patient at least once every six months. If you see their name in the press, send a note. If you see an article about their industry, send it along with a note. Let them know you are thinking of them, and be sure to include your business card.

Many offices are surprised at how many patients have been inactive for several years. A great question to ask is, if we had been more thoughtful in the past would we have lost this relationship?

3.Be Loyal. Be a good customer to your patients by using their services and products when possible. And be a good friend by referring others to your patients. You will probably see more referrals coming your way as well. As you interact with your patients update their information to reflect job status, hobbies or special interests they have.

4. Be Consistent. Send a newsletter or an email on a regular basis. I can not tell you how many dental offices still are NOT asking for their patients email addresses.

A majority of the patients spend their day in front of a computer screen. An electronic newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with your current patients as well as attract new ones. Stay current with the times and consider using an electronic newsletter. Each issue of our monthly e-newsletter generates calls and emails from our students and graduates. Bottom line it is inexpensive and it gets results.

One of the funniest conversations I overheard was a dentist who complained about being slow, but in the next sentence said, "I can not put out an e-newsletter because it takes too much time". Okay help me to understand this, did he not just say he had a lot of openings in his schedule? And, he is not making any money, but he does not have the time to market his practice! Ah my head hurts. Interesting choice of words!

Our philosophy is to keep investing in your team. Team turnover can be devastating to a small business. By investing in their education and development you will be able to send out a consistent message to your patients. Practices that have high team turn over ALWAYS have retention problems.

5. Be a Good Communicator. I am amazed at how often existing patients do not know about new services that are offered. Most businesses continue to evolve but sometime they forget to let existing patients know how their growth translates to new solutions and benefits for them. Your patients can not buy from you if they do not know what you are selling.

Make it a priority to do a chart audit as it will reveal a great deal of information to you. The process of reactivating records can be time consuming but the rewards to you as a business owner can be significant. One of the most heartbreaking things we have heard too many dentists express is "I have 2000 physical charts but only about a third of them are participating in my practice".

Keep in mind the following saying is relative to relationships. First people drop out of your relationship intellectually, second they leave emotionally and thirdly they leave you physically

Good luck relationship building it is the foundation of your practice!

Seed Newsvine

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