Episode 819: Marketing For Your New AND Established Patients

Marketing is a hot-ticket item in dental practices, and Tiff and Dana are here to discuss how to sell your dentistry to not only new patients — but the ones you already have. They give ideas on retention and referral, the power of organic conversations, and keeping your established patients just as happy as your new ones.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:08.154)

Hello dental A team listeners, I am back today. I love taking over the podcast. I love doing this in tandem with Kira. She puts out so much content and it's just so much fun for me to come on and drag the consulting team with me. And today I've dragged Dana back on. She's one of my faves. You guys know that, you know, I always pick her brain for workouts and

protein and all sorts of things health related. I don't have any like burning desire questions today, but I wonder how many people, Dana, are out there that are like, oh, Dana's on, what protein bar can I buy today? Because that's how my life is every Tuesday, for Tip Tuesday, when I know you're going to come and clutch with something. So Dana, thank you for being here. I do love and adore our relationship and that we get to do this again in tandem with care. I think it's super fun. So Dana, how are you today?

doing pretty good. Thanks for dragging me back here. I won't say it's anything you have to make that I'm not kicking and screaming on the way because I'm excited to be here. So glad to be back. Good. I love it. Thank you. And you're always honestly like, you guys I don't know if Kara has ever mentioned this or if I've ever mentioned this, but Dana is our go to like, yeah, she'll make it work. She doesn't kick and scream about anything that we asked. She is the person that's like, Yep, we'll find a way we're gonna do it. I'm the person that's like,

We'll see. That's a little bit more timid. But Dana, honestly, truly, you're like always, I know, and without a shadow of a doubt, if we can make it work in your schedule, you will hop on here with me. And we just find that happy medium spot. So thank you for always being that person in our company. We truly value it. We are on a marketing kick, which I think is actually kind of fun because I think you and I were just discussing it. And I think both of us have had a lot of marketing things come up in our consulting worlds when we're working with our clients and also,

within our group consulting, right? And our doctor forums that we have going on, our doctor collaboration, tech threads, things that I'm seeing behind the scenes, there's a lot of marketing, which is interesting to me, and typically the marketing comes up towards like August, when we've got, you know, September on the horizon and things like that. But I think running into this new year, people have really picked up on this marketing trend and are really, really looking for

The Dental A Team (02:27.566)

different ways to put themselves out there and to gain attention. So I it's really cool. I think you and I have both been on that train with a lot of our clients, like I said, and some of the things I want to talk about today, we've talked about a lot of things with marketing and a couple of consultant podcasts that we've taken over, but I really felt like it would be good to do a broad overview and kind of review some of those hot point items, those hot ticket items and really dive into a couple.

of them. I know Dana, I'm going to pick your brain on internal referrals because I think you do that really well in asking for new patients, asking for Google reviews, all of those pieces and that internal marketing. And then really focusing still on the internal, really looking at something that's come up for me, I think in my personal life, in my professional life, with the team, with my clients, with my kids, like with everybody in my world, something that's been really prominent in the last six months.

is really a factor of control and looking at a situation and saying, this is the result that I want to get. This is where I want to be. Now, what are the control factors? How do I have a sense of control in getting us there? So I think with the marketing, really external marketing, I think marketing companies will admit, I've had a few of them admit that they don't even have a lot of control over the results.

They've got theories and they've got ideas and they've got hopes, dreams and wishes just like the rest of us do, but they can't control if a person turns their computer on today or hops on their cell phone and goes to a website. So there's a lot in there that we don't have control over. So I think Dana really looking and focusing on those pieces that we do have control over is super important because the marketing world is scary. Most of my clients are like, I have no idea what to do and

they're afraid of the outcomes. So looking for those control pieces and I think internal referrals, asking for them, Google reviews, but then also marketing to our current patient base, just with good like policies, procedures, systems, making sure things are in line. And Dana, first and foremost, let's pick your brain a little bit on the internal referral ask, like asking for those new patients.

The Dental A Team (04:47.406)

to come because I think a lot of team members get stuck there. They feel just weird about it. So what are your thoughts on that and how do you train teams to do it? Yeah, I think one thing that I always dig into is like, what are you looking for as far as when I hear, oh, you know, like, we need new patients, we need to be asking for referrals, we need to look at marketing. And it's always like, okay, well, there's two sides of marketing always feel like, are you looking to broaden your patient base?

or are you looking to change your patient base, right? And get to like a more ideal patient base. And honestly with referrals, I think you can do both, right? So I think it's really easy to just go in, simply ask a patient, hey, you have any friends or family just like you, right? That's gonna be your ideal patient targeting. So asking those patients who you know, love, like are super excited to see on your schedule, are always on time, are always like doing the treatment that you recommend.

Those are your ideal patients and are great people to ask referrals from just like new patients in general, right? They're great patients to just broaden your patient base because you're new to them, you're exciting to them and they wanna share. So I think it is one, letting your team know like what you wanna do, like how do you wanna expand your patient base so that they can even do some targeting marketing inside the practice with who they ask to.

So I think we always take a look at that kind of walk through that with the team. And then it is just making it part of organic conversation. Team members will always put a barrier to asking for referrals if they feel like it's salesy or they feel like it's pitchy or they feel like they're actually asking a patient to do something super hard. And so I think it's one, this is something really easy. This can be just a genuine conversation in the grocery store with someone that they overhear is looking for a dentist and they're like,

hey, I've got a great one, right? But we've made it important for them to know that we want them to send people our way. So just looking for avenues to ask. And I actually had a hygienist do this in an office recently that I loved. I was almost like hygiene mic drop, right? And that's just active listening to our patients.

The Dental A Team (07:02.606)

and then looking for the opportunity. So she was discussing with the patient, patient said something about their husband, you know, they were doing something that weekend and she's like, Oh my gosh, what's your husband's name? And they said, and she's like, Oh, I don't recognize that. Do we see him? And you know, patient was like, Oh, no, actually, she's like, well, if he doesn't have a dentist, he loves send them our way, we'd love to take care of it. Right? That was so part of the conversation, but she listened to the patient and she clued into the fact that

We don't see this patient's family and we don't see this patient's husband. And so I loved that. So I always look for easy ways. So when a patient compliments you, when you can ask them how their visit was and they say it was really great. If it is just a patient that you know and love and you always enjoy having them in your chair and you can compliment them on that, those are really easy. And then I love just saying, hey, look, we're always looking to make a bigger impact on the community. So if you know anyone, we'd love it if you let them know we're here.

Yeah, I love that. I love the organic conversation because that's so easy. So many of us get in conversation with our patients all the time. I get in conversations with patients when I'm in practices consulting. So I can't even imagine if I were there all day seeing, you know, six to eight patients a day, how many organic conversations that would come about. I love that. And then you mentioned like grocery store conversations. I actually have a practice in North Carolina. One of my favorite practices and they're TC, they're treatment coordinator.

She, I've never seen someone get so many referrals from people she doesn't know in their community. She carries her card around and she literally will leave it with baristas, with hostesses, with anybody at the grocery store that will talk to her. She literally brings it up nonchalant because she is so set on their success, on the practice of success and on the fact that they are the best.

dentist in town. She believes that with every piece and every ounce of her soul that everyone should be coming to their practice and that no one around them is nearly as good. So she's like saving these people's dental health and just throwing cards around. So I love that you said that. It's so sweet. She does so well. Every time I come in, she's like, I have five more patients. I'm like, this is insane.

The Dental A Team (09:21.422)

I've never seen anything like it, but it's really cool. I think those were fantastic ideas. And those are all spaces that like we have the control over. We're controlling the conversations. We're controlling our conversations when we're out and about. We're controlling whether or not we have cards, whether or not we're wearing, you know, logos. And I know my that same practice she does, she does really well with it because she does organic conversation easily. But she also, they have the most amazing shirts. They'll say funny things about dentistry or whatever, but they always have.

their logo on there and their practice name. So she gets asked all the time about her shirt. People are like, what is this? Like, that's so funny. Where did you get this? Where can I get one of those? She's like, oh, I'll tell you my dental practice. You'll get one for your first visit. Just tell them I sent you. And they come in for the t -shirts. I'm like, that's ridiculous. The swag, right, is working. So these are all things that are within our control within that dental practice setting. And I think on top of that, so now we've got,

a team who can ask for referrals, who that's, you know, looking for these organic opportunities in and out of the practice, but then also a team who is still focused to on the patients we have. And, and Dana, you're my hygiene for the day here. I think one of my biggest statements that I ever hear from hygiene teams when we're talking about new patients is what about the patients I've been seeing constantly? I get this statement like that's great. And I love new patients.

They are the only department, I think, in my opinion, they are the only department that focuses so heavily on the patients they've already been seeing with so much care and love and admiration that it's to the point of like, I refuse to see new patients sometimes. Like my schedule is too full. What about the patients I've been seeing? So when your schedule is not too full, like we still need to see patients. You want your schedule full, we need to find the space for those new patients. But Heidi and Dana, do you feel that you were in that same boat when you were

in practice? Yeah, I do. And I think it's that like, we have to have the face to face conversation, right? restorative appointments, they happen as things get diagnosed. hygiene appointments, right? Or preventive appointments should be done routinely. So when I don't have room, or I have to push a routine interval out farther, because I don't have the space in my schedule. And I have to say that to a patient who I've seen routinely for years, right? It's hard. And I want to make sure that I get to continue to care for them. I think.

The Dental A Team (11:47.533)

Most hygienists is like, yeah, well, of course see new patients, but at the detriment of our current patients, it's like a real heart hurt. I think for hygiene. No, that makes sense. That makes sense. And I get that. So I think one thing that we forget to focus on when we're thinking about marketing, we're thinking about new patient acquisition because new patients, right? From the standpoint of the dental, you know, dental dentist side of the practice is that's where all the treatment is diagnosed from, right? Our routine patients, our re -care patients, we're like, yeah,

they're clean, they should be clean by this point. So our big diagnosis is coming from new patients. So to grow, we need new patients. But I do think in the dental world, we tend to focus so heavily on the new patients that we forget to focus, or think about the marketing that we're doing for our current patients. So the established patients, we're still marketing to them. And I often ask doctors when they come into dental eSIMA clients, they're like, gosh, I want my new patient experience to be

the best of the best, like focusing on a new patient experience, that's what I want you teaching my team. And I say, okay, fantastic, but like, let's talk about a patient experience. Why is the new patient experience different than our patient experience? Why is the new patient getting so much love and attention, but then our established patients, like we don't have an experience for them. So it's a full, it's just a patient experience. And I think I relate this to my dentist, like your lab tech.

Right? You try a new lab because you hear they're fantastic and you get that lab tech that is for the new clients and everything is perfect. So this crown just drops right in. No adjustments. It's beautiful. You can see it. You're like, gosh, I'm going to, I'm going to save 15 minutes per appointment without all these adjustments. This lab is amazing. Six months down the road, you're like, oh, that's weird. This one needed an adjustment. Six months down the road, you're like, I'm done with this lab. I'm moving on because you got switched lab tech.

You no longer have the lab tech that's there to make sure that you've stayed, make sure that they got your business. Now you've got the newer lab techs that are learning because you are an established client of theirs. So I think I like to relate it back to that when we're talking new patient experience as our only experience in that practice, because you're marketing to everyone. We're also marketing to our established patients for retention and referral.

The Dental A Team (14:11.887)

Right? If they're getting a different experience and, and I'm not saying our new patient experience is like, Hey, this is fantastic. And our established is like, yeah, go, go kick rocks. Like we don't care about you. I'm saying just make sure we're putting enough focus and attention on both and that the communication we're having the conversations is always that like, Hey, you still want to come here. You always want to be here type of establishment. I was speaking with a client just before we got on this call.

And her daughter is a marketing major. She just graduated in May. She's fantastic. I kind of watched her go through college. It was so much fun. I've been with this practice for a couple of years now. And she just says to me, I was there last week in person with them. And she's like, I can't wait to just do marketing. And she said it again today on our call. And I said, I said, girlfriend, you are doing marketing because right now she's doing treatment coordinating. She's making a lot of forms and documents, getting their handoffs just right. She's really working in tandem with me to make sure.

these processes get done. And like you are marketing, you're just not marketing to get like you're not marketing in a way that's getting the leads quickly. So in your mind, the marketing that you learned feels different than the marketing that you're doing. But right now you're marketing to the established patient base to say, Hey, we're here. We love you. Let's keep going on this journey together. And she literally said afterwards, she's like, Oh my gosh, you're right. I am already marketing.

100%, but we forget in dentistry, that that's marketing. So I think internal referrals, right, Google reviews, and those go hand in hand, the Google reviews, you guys, we don't spend a ton of time on each because they're the same. Google reviews and internal referrals, you talk about them the same, you ask for them just the same, the same opportunities arise. It's like either or, you're either going to ask for a referral, you're going to ask for a review, you're likely not going to do both, you may, which hats off, like please do both if you

are comfortable, but they go in tandem, they're kind of the same. All the other marketing that is outside that's with a marketing company, the outsourced companies, we don't we lack some control there, they lack control, right? We lack some control there. And we're just playing a waiting game to see what happens. But we can be proactive and have so much control over it. If we focus in on our patient experience, how are we marketing to our current patient base?

The Dental A Team (16:33.679)

are we retaining patients and not losing people out the back door and asking for those referrals? So I think, Dana, that's like, I was synopsis, like really just looking at an overview of marketing is supposed to do what this was, but it's really just like, how do we control some of the marketing in our practice to control the results a little bit better? Is there anything else, Dana, that you think, because those are my ideas on like the control factor, the patients coming in.

that are getting the best experience, whether they're established or new, and then asking for new patient referrals, asking for Google reviews. Staying on top of, obviously, your outsource marketing companies is huge, but again, that's a waiting game. Is there anything else you can think of that's proactive in our control, marketing, and the practice? I think you really hit the nail on the head. It's just ensuring that the patients that we see keep coming back.

Right? It's just as important as we get new patients to the door as the patients that we currently see keep coming back in scheduling their restorative treatment, in getting their hygiene appointment scheduled, in bringing their friends and family, right? It starts and ends with the experience they have in their practice and our interaction with them and how they feel, how we make them feel, how comfortable we make them, how thorough we are in explaining things. All of that is marketing for your practice. Yeah, I totally agree.

I love them. So I would say action items, because we always leave you with action items. Dana mentioned making sure you know what you're marketing for. Like, are we getting new patients in to add to what we already have? Are we trying to change our current patient base? Do we want our patient base to look different than it is? That would go, I think, really in hand with practices that are looking to change maybe from PPO to fee -for -service or from Medicaid to PPO or kind of weed out Medicaid patients. Like,

I would say, or from PPL, I've seen practices say like, hey, nobody takes Medicaid, I'm gonna take them. So then your marketing is gonna change. So I think take a look at what your marketing is and who you're wanting to market to, what are you trying to do with the new patients? And then also go through your systems. Guys, what kind of system do you have for asking for referrals? Is it organic? Is it easy? Or are we making it too difficult? And then also,

The Dental A Team (18:49.743)

What are your systems for your patients? How are you keeping your patients retained in your practice? Are you guys keen and crisp? Are you friendly? Do you have the forms and documents ready? Like what are the things that make someone want to come back to the practice and want to refer to your practices? Go have fun with it, you guys. Find that control factor. I think as human beings, like we freak out, we worry, and we try to mitigate lack of control. When we feel like things are out of our control,

We can't see a clear path because it's not in our control. That's when fear sets in. So really take hold of where can you control the marketing because that is a space of unknown in the dental practices. But you guys have a lot of control within your practice that you and the team can hold every single day. So take a look, go do those things. I cannot wait to hear about it. Drop us a five star review below and let us know how you found your marketing within that control factor and what you were able to do. People read them, people want to know.

what this was all about and we cannot wait to hear from you guys. Thank you. Thanks, Dana. I cannot wait to do it again.