Can Facebook Help You Get New Patients
An exciting thought, isn't it?
You are working tremendously hard to build your dental practice, but you can't help wonder if you are doing everything possible to make sure patients find your practice in the ocean of competitors.
What makes you any different from the hundreds of other dental practices in your city battling for the same attention?
Generally speaking, you are all doing pretty much the same stuff. Good dentistry, good service, colorful newsletters, personable flyers, social media posts on facebook, instagram and basically every other social media platform — you know, the usual.
Your potential patients are overwhelmed! They have way too much information and most of them have literally seen it all before. You are not offering anything new, so why should they notice you?
Great question. And the problem is, you don't really have an answer.
Most dentists I speak with about this issue of market saturation, usually say the same thing; they are stumbling around in the dark looking for a light switch. They cannot tell what is working and more importantly what is not. It feels like a big guessing game.
Maybe you came here to find some answers. Maybe you are hoping I will be able to tell you what to do.
But I won't.
Not because I don't want to, but because sometimes you cannot understand what to do until you first understand what NOT to do. So, let's start there.
Here is a list of ways to be a mediocre dentist. How many are you guilty of?
1. Think your dentistry is the best dentistry around
People have egos.
Dentists have really BIG egos. I Know!
When you think that your patients have no alternative for their dentistry besides you, you will lose. Patients go to the dentist they like and it has very little to do with your dentistry. Most of it has to do with your staff, your front desk and your hygienists. You are likable because of these people and patients trust the dentist when they trust the staff.
So how do you and your staff gain trust from a patient?
LISTEN. Shhhh! Listen to what the patient is telling you.
OBSERVE. Watch the patient's facial expression and their body language. Watch for signs of tension, relief, anxiety, anger and nervousness.
INTERPRET. Pause. Take a minute to let what they are trying to tell you sink in.
RESPOND. Now respond accordingly. Move the conversation forward. You don't have to give them a treatment plan. Instead, you can ask a question for clarification.
Once you have done this exercise several times, practice with your staff. Have a session where you practice on each other playing out different patient situations.
2. Your dental practice is "like your family"
Of course your dental practice is your home away from home. You all work together to help your patients and you hang out all day, chat, laugh, gossip and fight. It is easy to confuse these relationships into thinking you are a family.
WRONG
Your dental colleagues, front desk, assistants and other staff are a TEAM not a FAMILY.
By design, a family forgives, forgets and always sticks together. On the other hand, a Dental Team is only effective when each player on the team contributes value by doing their job and bringing positive energy all around while working with other team members of the practice. Therefore, you may have to let go of members who are not a good fit for the practice. Two very different concepts. You can read more about this idea by Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix https://hbr.org/2014/06/your-company-is-not-a-family.
Build a Dental Team by hiring "right" in the first place. Never hire to plug a hole or fill a missing position. Hire with intent of adding value to your team.
Start by making the hiring process collaborative with your Dental Team as your existing staff will give you valuable insight into the candidates and how they might fit into the culture of your practice. Moreover, by involving your Dental Team in the process they will understand the need to pick up extra responsibilities during the hiring process until the right candidate is found. This will give you breathing room to make the right decision instead of rushing to fill a position.
3. You post on Facebook, Twitter, etc. about your dentistry every day
You are a dentist and you do incredible dentistry, every day. Someone once told you that social marketing is very important to reach potential patients. So you post your dentistry on Facebook, Twitter, etc. to generate buzz and get a million likes in order to drive patients to your dental practice where they can line up to be worked on by you.
But hold on a moment, if you got over 3000 likes on your post last time then why isn't your practice buzzing with at least a 100 new patients every day?
Sorry to tell you but most people reading your posts and liking your images are your friends and family or followers spread across the globe. Is this really your target patient pool (a.k.a. The people in the vicinity of your dental practice)? Most likely not. So use these platforms as an adjunct to your primary marketing strategies which should still be
- Word of mouth
- Word of mouth
- Targeted Newsletters/Flyers
Word of mouth appearing twice on the list is not a mistake. Every single patient in your practice knows other people and if they like your work, you should be 100% asking for referrals. Don't be obnoxious but, definitely remind them to refer friends and family and provide incentive for referrals. It goes a long way to build a strong referral program to incentivize your patients who help spread the word.
4. Your marketing budget is 30-40% of your gross revenue
You are focusing too much on marketing outwards.
Seriously, are you sure what you are spending your hard earned money on (flyers, newsletters, google ads, etc) are getting the results you are looking for?
A better approach is to consolidate your marketing strategies and simplify your message. Have one shared mission statement for your practice and make sure that every team member believes in this message. Then market only this message and make sure that every team member is preaching this exact same message to all patients. This approach single-handedly has yielded incredible results for many dental practices. Here are some examples of simplified marketing strategies.
If you want to help patients, provide a free clinic day, once a month for the members of your community (no strings attached) and let everyone on your team and even your suppliers get on-board. Spread this message and your practice will get so busy not just on the free clinic day but other days as well.
If you want to do more implants then have the best implant deal in your entire city. Do research, crunch your numbers and offer a deal that is simply WOW. Now focus on just marketing this offer as a team and I promise, you will be doing a hell of a lot of implants within 3 months.
5. You are stagnant, not trying new things
Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, believes in having relentless focus on customer service. Your patients will tell other people about the incredible things you are doing and they will definitely tell others about the things you are NOT doing.
Just for a minute forget about the competitors and all the other dental offices around yours. Do you get excited in your office? Are you solving problems your patients have? Are you investing in the future?
These are the biggest patient problems I hear about.
I want to spend less time in the chair. Fewer visits. Quicker/Instant delivery for lab work such as crowns.
I want to have IV Sedation/Sleep dentistry.
If you are not growing as a dentist and tackling patient challenges then no matter how much you market yourself socially on Facebook and Instagram or physically with flyers and newsletters you will fail. Stagnant companies die and a dental practice is no different.
You need to be exciting. Always practice sound and safe dentistry but there are so many things that are new and exciting that you really have to close both eyes to not notice. Your patients hear about new dentistry, so should you!
6. Give Up
After reading through all this light, you might feel like, "Well, damn. I'm just a screw-up. I might as well quit."
But you shouldn't. Here's why. We are all screw-ups.
I have made every mistake on this list in my various projects and teams. But the important thing is I learned from each failure. I got advice from smart people and I am consistently working to master the skills needed to build and improve my dental team and myself.
Listen to other dentists, and you will here similar stories. It is not a coincidence. That's how success happens.
You really can do this.
There's nothing wrong with you.
Keep going.
