We recently had a situation with one of our new clients that just begged for a more in-depth discussion. Results in the practice had been particularly weak and a number of metrics had deteriorated noticeably. Fewer new patients were making appointments, fewer showing up and a smaller percentage of those that did show up were signing contracts.
While discussing the issues with the doctor, he said something along the lines of “the problem is clearly Person x (Note, this person’s real name is not person x. The name has been changed to protect his/her identity). He is in charge of marketing.”
And it is this quote that gives me pause because everyone in a dental or orthodontic practice needs to be involved in marketing in one way or the other. Yes, you may have one person or an agency assigned to help you develop ideas and make sure those ideas move forward and become reality. But that doesn’t mean that everyone can sit back and wait for new patients to roll in the door. Rather, that marketing person is merely one part of the process. Everyone can and has to participate meaningfully in the process.
Specifically, keep the following in mind:
Everyone can submit ideas
Some ideas may be better than others and some may not be economically feasible. But everyone has thoughts and everyone is capable of making suggestions and how to make those suggestions work. Your marketing person has to assess the ideas and help bring them to reality if it makes sense to do so.
Everyone can participate in approaching potential referrers
Let’s start with the easiest way to get in front of people: social media. 1.3 billion people have a Facebook account. Chances are that more than one person in your practice has a Facebook account (or Instagram or Pinterest or Google+ or whatever). How easy is it to post a picture of a happy patient or a selfie of you happily providing customer service? Or get together and put together a short, marketing-type YouTube video. It may not be this piece of awesomeness, but it doesn’t have to be. Just get the word out about your practice.
Beyond that, people can go out to visit local businesses with a box of doughnuts (or pizza or healthier option). And yes, going out to market to strangers makes some people uncomfortable, but keep 3 things in mind. First, this isn’t a straight cold call. You are from a professional organization approaching another member of a professional organization to establish a synergistic relationship. Big difference between that and cold calling. Second, if you are friendly (i.e. smiling), people tend to be more receptive. Third, and most importantly, almost no one will be ugly to someone bringing free food.
Everyone participates in creating the practice image
If you want to be the fun, high energy practice complete with music turned up and video games turned up to high volume, that person sitting in the corner barely moving is not helping things. By the same token, if you want your practice’s image to be of the relaxed with a peaceful, private environment for all of your patients, the frenetic, fourth-cup-of-coffee front desk person probably isn’t helping. Everyone contributes to the image.
Moreover, no matter the environment, you obviously want your patients to be happy and to know about whatever promotions your practice offers. So, if you are offering a discount on implants, it is not just the job of the marketing person to make sure the world knows about it. When a person comes in for treatment, anyone from the person in charge of filing or the assistant working on the patient can mention that promotion. Obviously, don’t inundate the person with repeats of the offer. That will just drive them insane. Rather, make sure everyone knows about the deal and a few subtle reminders of the offer during an appointment cannot possibly hurt. This works especially well with a referral program because you will be spending a lot of time in front of existing patients.
Leadership trickles down
In the “duh” statement of this post, if those in a position of authority --like the owner doctor, manager, clinical supervisor and financial coordinator—are pushing certain marketing initiatives, others will want to get on board or realize that they have to get on board.
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