Obtaining Practice Growth Through Nurturing Relationships With Your Existing Patients

Attracting patients to your practice is only the beginning. You need to understand how to build on relationships with your existing patients by using effective marketing tools and techniques to turn them into long-term patients.

Many practices make the mistake of focusing only on gaining new patients. They fail to effectively address the need to retain those they already have. Did you know that the most valuable asset that a practice has is its existing patient base?

Every practice wants and needs new patients, but your surest and most predictable source of new revenue is right under your nose. It comes from the loyal patients who already know your practice.

It’s also far easier to sell to existing patients than to new prospects. Acquiring new patients is expensive (five to ten times the cost of retaining an existing one), but the average spend of a repeat patient is a huge 67% more. It has been shown that it can take between six to eleven times for patients to see or hear a message before they act on it. Do you know how many ways and how many times you are communicating with your patients?

‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ goes the old saying. When it comes to marketing your practice, there is no silver bullet. It is important that you see your practice marketing as a collation of strategies. Creating effective marketing with different patient touch points is key to your success. Your potential patients and existing patients need to experience a number of touch points all reinforcing your brand message before making the decision to come to you.

Course topics

• ? Understand why patients leave
• ? How to develop internal marketing strategies
• ? Why use email newsletters
• ? When to use printed newsletters
• ? Using social media
• ? Holding dental open house events
• ? On-hold messaging
• ? Maximising recalls