The highest level of achievement for any dental practice is patient retention. If your patient retention machine is functioning properly then practice growth and market penetration are a certain commodity. It's not so much that acquisition is unimportant but a fully functioning retention machine will increase the value of your acquisition efforts.
Patient acquisition is a far more impersonal proposition than that of patient retention. Acquisition is all about broadcasting, branding, messaging, targeting, motivating, measuring, and manipulating. It's all about the distinctions we define for ourselves that, hopefully, connect on some level with that somebody or someone within our targeted broadcast area. It's not that acquisition efforts are necessarily hyped or misleading but, certainly, we must understand that all acquisition efforts are, in fact, faceless and incomplete. We must also understand that our acquisition ventures can be much more valuable when all elements of our retention machine are fully functional and in proper alignment.
Let's start at the beginning. Let's examine our retention efforts and the pulse behind keeping and growing an active patient base. It is, after all, the first consideration in our never ending pursuit of exponential growth. To do this properly we must first inspect the three main elements of patient retention. Are you ready? Ok then ... let's look at the big three! The three most relevant considerations for unparalleled practice growth has always been, and will always be, our ability to facilitate value, convenience, and service icons into our daily office routines. These are the big three. In fact, not only are these the big three but these are also the big three for your patients by order of importance. It is your values projection that either preempts a continued relationship or, on the other hand, motivates your new contact to take a closer look. Relevant value assessments will always occur in that initial face to face meeting when first impressions are likely to bloom. It always happens on a personal level. It will always prompt first contacts to consider your convenience and then service offerings but not until your value signals are relevant and in alignment with their own personal preferences. It is always an uphill climb to win this value presentation battle because relational factors are what drive this aspect of the fight. It is, and will always be, a moving target because each and every contact relates to us from a different value position of their own. It is this moving target reality that makes this whole retention effort a much harder prospect than the acquisition game will ever be. It is this specific battle that we must win, however, if we ever hope to retain our patients and grow our practices. Patients want a personal connection that aligns with their value positions (miss this mark and they will wholly ignore your convenience and service offerings altogether).
Now let's look at the three main elements of patient acquisition (insert drum roll please!). A full throttled patient acquisition effort will always facilitate service, convenience, and value snippets into the messaging mix. These, too, are the big three but, as you may have already noted, acquisition works in the exact reverse order to that of patient retention. Relevant service messaging is what it will take to ignite the waiting attention of your local market. It will always prompt your local market to consider your convenience and then your value positions but not until your service messages are relevant and in alignment with their own immediate needs. It is far easier to project your service positions because crafting a particular message is all that is required to properly support your brand of service and the benefits it provides. It is your service message that gets them in the door but it is your value connection that ultimately holds their interest. Both are important but practice growth is always driven on the value side of this equation.
What about the convenience part of this equation you ask? Convenience is always the bridge between service and value. If the bridge is missing there is no opportunity for connection. Maintaining convenience will always insure safe transport from your service message (patient acquisition) to your value presentation (patient retention). If it is not convenient, if it is not simple, if it is not easy to cross that bridge (step into your practice for the very first time) then your value presentation has lost opportunity. A patient will never see your value presentation unless/until all barriers are removed and it is quite convenient for them to step inside your world. We must remove any/all barriers for our value presentation to gain opportunity.
The 64-million dollar question then is exactly this: What is the health of your patient retention machine? Practice growth relies on the truthful answer to this very important and all valuable question. We can evaluate the workings of our retention machine by objective measures that are common to all of us: How many patients are currently "active" in your practice and is this number rising, steady, or declining? How many patients are currently "engaged" in your practice and is this number rising, steady, or declining? What percentage of your new patients each month are the result of a direct referral from another patient in your practice? The answers to these three questions provide all the information you need to help determine the vitality of your current retention model. If you are vital in the answers to these three specific questions then an external marketing strategy intent upon new patient acquisition becomes a much more valuable prospect. Your acquisition strategy will be wholly supported or diminished based upon your retention vitality as derived from the questions above.
So, where to start? It is your retention model that ultimately drives growth and profitability. Let's not get the cart (acquisition) ahead of the horse (retention). So much of our focus these days is on our new patient numbers and/or overall production growth (as derived from our acquisition efforts). These are, yes, important considerations but let's not become distracted to the point where our focus surrenders itself to the more impersonal strategy of acquisition over the much higher mission of brand retention and engagement. In fact, acquisition will nearly take care of itself when we properly understand the working dynamics of value alignment (retention), convenience, and service messaging (acquisition). It is definitely a hierarchical relationship that demands value connection, convenient focus, and service branding. These are the big three ingredients for certain practice growth (in this order, by the way).
Wishing You The Best of 2014
Steve