I am always looking for ways to grow my practice. A while ago I had a practice consultant tell me that internal marketing is always the most effective way to get new patients. Internal marketing has many facets, but is primarily based on treating the patients you have so well that they can't help but talk about you to their friends and family.
Thus, we do our best to treat our patients the way we would want to be treated. In my office, that means scheduling individual appointment times for each patient so that patients are never made to wait. I diagnosis based on the patient's wants and I assist the patient in making informed decisions on their proposed treatments. I have surrounded myself with friendly staff that have a similar mindset and go out of their way to assist our patients with everything from pain management to financing options.
To reward our patients that do refer their friends and family we have started a program called "Care to Share." Each month we have a drawing for two $50 gift baskets. For the month of April we are giving away Dodger tickets. Both the person that referred the new patient and the new patient are entered into the drawing. It is our way of saying thanks for thinking of us. Also, we give every referral source two mann movie tickets, each time they refer a new patient.
We implemented the Care to Share program this past November and so far so good. We have seen an increase in our word of mouth referrals from our patients.
Kari Ann Hong, DDS
1000 Newbury Road, Suite 190
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
www.dentist4smiles.com
2 comments:
A friend of mine referred me to her dentist a few years go. He was great. I was totally impressed that she got a letter thanking her for the referral, and I got one thanking me for joining the practice; I found that personal touch really thoughtful. . . I had some work done. I referred some friends to him.
And then his office started stalking me. Once I hit the six month mark, I got bi-monthly phone calls and e-mail reminders incessantly. I explained repeatedly that I no longer had health insurance and was holding off until I had a new job. But the calling and e-mailing continued. I finally had to call and talk to the office manager to get it all to stop.
Now I tell people not to go to him.
In the dental field we try to do our best to help patients maintain their dental health with bi-yearly check-ups. It sounds like the dentist that you were seeing was very aggressive with the follow up.
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