No matter how good a dentist may be, it’s necessary to get the word out in the community. Here is a brief overview of techniques that can be used to make your dental practice more publically visible.
In every business, public image can be easily translated into money and dental services are certainly not an exception. Everyone wants the best dentist they can get, but in reality they usually settle for the best regarded one they’ve heard about. Far too often, great doctors remain anonymous because they spend too much time perfecting their procedures and fail to understand what they need to do to get noticed by the masses. Fortunately, there are several simple maneuvers that could significantly raise the profile of both the ordination and the doctor. Let’s go through the list:
Providing community assistance
If the patients aren’t lining up in front of your office, the best thing you can do is to go out and find them where they are. There’s a universal demand for dental services, but not everybody’s able to afford them or has the awareness to look for them. Providing professional dental assistance to underprivileged communities could help you build a name for yourself and at the very least will put you in contact with a lot of people, some of whom might be useful later on. Not only that such an act speaks well about your civic responsibility, but you also get a chance to showcase your skills to a large audience.
For example, a dentist based at Shreveport should pay attention to ongoing community actions aimed at healthcare protection and seek a way to join such an initiative. Some of the possibilities include offering free or discounted services to selected individuals or conducting dental checks in schools and other locations. Activities shouldn’t be limited to the immediate surroundings either – it may pay off to track across town and meet as many people as possible. You never know who has a brother who lives just two blocks away!
Contributing a Dental Journal
Even if you are not physically cruising around town, you can still be close to people’s minds if you occasionally publish a blog on one of locally popular websites. This is a great way to gain publicity without having to pay for it, while addressing the target audience in a format long enough to make an impression, yet informal enough to make a real connection. The topics of blog posts must be related to dentistry in some way, but that doesn’t mean they have to be focused on technicalities and full of phrases in Latin. Publishing in other dental jounals is a chance for the dentist to uncover his medical expertise and his friendly personality, both of which can be good selling points in the dental business.
The power of the internet is immense and a good blog could be shared and re-published many times, providing further exposure for the doctor and his company. The idea is that once the name of the dentist becomes widely known, that will automatically fuel an increase of demand for his services, especially if the texts are based on real-life stories from the ordination.
Impressing with customer service
A dentist who relies only on first-time customers is probably not going to make a whole lot of money. Patients tend to stick with dental service providers they can trust and securing repeat customers is a must in this business. Still, it takes more than just a competent dental treatment to motivate a patient to come back. Polite and forthcoming personnel, exact and reliable timetables, and availability for consultations around the clock – these are only some of the aspects of top-notch service that patients have come to expect. Only those providers who are able to deliver wire-to-wire quality can hope to retain their customers and develop long-term relationships. I know a dentist in Woodland Hills, California, whose goal is to bring every single one of his patients back every single visit.
Just like with the other two propositions on this list, it doesn’t cost a lot of money to improve your customer service. All it takes is a strong focus on practical details that mean a lot to people who depend on your services. Mix-ups with scheduled appointments and recurring pain in treated teeth can happen, but great service providers are able to handle even the most stressful situations with a professional attitude and a big smile. Make no mistake, customers notice when you go that extra mile for them and will reward you with their loyalty and a good word to their friends and family members.