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The biggest reason that your patients will stay loyal to your practice is…

3-sales-strategies-to-build-trust-09-20-2011

The biggest reason for your patients to remain loyal to you is trust.

Patients have trust in your abilities as a health provider and that you place their health interests above your own business interests. Indeed the very foundation of a successful patient-doctor relationship is trust.

During my 10 years of business ownership, I saw trust as such an important element to the practice success that I made sure I was building and deepening this trust at every opportunity. It was a part of every communication I had with patients. It was also a part of the practice processes and systems. Patients place more trust in you when the level of service and care you provide to them is consistent.

As an example, one of my successful processes was to offer First Visit Certificates to children who were in visiting the dentist for the first time. The certificate was personalised and included a photo of the child in the chair. Both children and parents loved this, and would refer friends with little children to come along for the same experience.

I was aware that if these referred children came along for their first visit, and we did not award them with a certificate, the parent would lose a little faith in us. Not only that, but they may then tell the referring friend how they did not have as positive experience as the friend had promised. Then that referring friend is disappointed in us as well.

To ensure this marketing effort generated positive responses from our patients, I established a system to follow that made the process an easy one for staff to execute.

It is important for you to see that great customer service is only great if it is consistent.

While attracting new patients to your practice depends upon effective marketing strategies, it is your skill at converting these people in to loyal patients that will see you achieve long-term success.