Boost Your New Patient Flow

new clients

I was at an event with Charles last night and was speaking with a woman who has been running her independent travel agency for 24 years. I asked the question I ask many people I come across: How do you attract most of your new business?

The answer I received was the same as many others, regardless of industry and business size: word of mouth referrals.

Dental practices are always looking for new and innovative ways of attracting new patients. I suggest continue this search, but instead turn to new and innovative ways to encourage your existing patients to refer their friends and family.

A couple of ideas:

  1. Hold a promotion for a month where every new patient referred, the referring patient gets a valuable gift. Make it bigger than your usual thank-you gift. It could be a double pass to Gold Class, a meal to an upmarket restaurant or a gift certificate for a massage. If you prefer the incentive to be practice-based, then a voucher for whitening. The key is to not scrimp on this incentive. The purpose is to to make the offer so attractive that your patients will actively seek out people to refer to you. To give it the best chance of success, promote as widely and as often as you can in the build up to the ‘Referral Month’.
  2. Offer something in your practice that’s unique and unexpected. People talk about things that they find wonderfully surprising. For example, when any of your patients refer someone or gives a positive review about the practice, thank them in a special way. There are companies that have great ideas to delight. Such as LaQuar, who have ‘You are worth your weight in gold’ gifts that are a box with a gold-wrapped brownie in side.

weight in gold2

Your most valuable asset is your patient base. When your patients start to actively refer to you, their value grows enormously.

“The purpose of a business is to create customers who create customers.” Shiv Singh

Get your customers to create customers and enjoy your boosted new patient flow!